Exploring Greedent VMAX in Standard

Hello everyone! This is Elena from Gaia Storm, and it is great to be here once again! Perhaps just like me, you have not been precisely lucky with your Fusion Strike pulls, and as a result, you have an army of squirrels in your bench (or virtual collection) waiting for you to give them a chance. But the question you might have now is: will Greedent VMAX ever become something more than a funny card? The last time I said a card was blatantly wrong (Mega Audino EX), it ended up becoming the World Champion, so I am not going to say that Greedent is useless. In fact, with the proper support (who knows if the Double Colourless Energy will ever be reprinted), I think it is the typical card that can get your opponent frustrated and angry in disbelief trying to come up with the fact that this dumb-looking Pokemon has just been able to put up a decent fight. If you want to buy PTCGO codes, you've come to the right place! The PoTown store has the largest selection of PTCGL codes and offers instant delivery, which is fantastic! In this article, we will explore the possibilities that Greedent currently offers in the Standard format, different approaches and discuss what could happen in the future for Greedent to become a relevant menace in the meta.

Let's be clear about one thing right from the start: even if Greedent has an attack that can potentially allow you to take multiple additional prize cards, it is never going to be something as strong as Arceus Dialga Palkia Tag team was in the previous format. Greedent just does not have a consistent partner and takes too much time to be set up, not to mention that it deals very average damage at the most. So don't play it expecting to finish your games in just three turns, as it used to be the case. While technically it is possible to do something like Boss Orders into your opponent's benched Sobble twice while your Greedent is equipped with Spongy Gloves, chances are very, very slim. But hey, that is precisely why we are here for!

Greedent has two very simple attacks, "Turn a profit" and "Max Gimme Gimme" (which has to be one of my favorite attack names ever). The first one has a lot of potentials and is the one on which we will be focussing most of the time but has the downside of dealing with a very low amount of damage (30). If we want to make it work, we need to increase the numbers, and the best way of doing that is with Spongy Gloves from Fusion Strike. Gloves already provide a solid +30 against every water Pokémon, so they will allow us to reach the magic 60 HP of Sobble.

 

If we are going against other V Pokemon (which live around 210 and 230), we will need to shift the strategy slightly and attack first with Max Gimme Gimme and then use Turn a profit to finish our opponent Pokemon down. Inteleon from Chilling Reign and Powerful Energy are perfect options to reach the numbers mentioned above.

With that in mind, this is the list I've put together, my main concern being to establish something solid, but that would provide a way to exploit the special attacks from Greedent.

As mentioned above, the strategy is pretty straightforward: take advantage of Turn out a Profit and finish the game in a couple of attacks by getting multiple prizes in each turn.

Of course, we will take advantage of the Water-type support (Melonie) since it is the one generic mechanism for accelerating energies, and luckily for us, Sobble is a very common Pokemon right now. That means we can take advantage and abuse Spongy Gloves multiple times. I’ve seen other people running Justified Gloves from Chilling Reign in an attempt to take down Houndour or Zigzagoon (Sword and Shield) in just one hit. Still, darkness is not as popular as water right now, and the tool becomes a result of a dead card in most situations.

The Inteleon line is perfect for Greedent as it not only increases the global consistency of the strategy but helps deal the necessary damage anywhere on the field. Once you’ve placed enough counters, you can use Toy Catcher as an alternative to Boss Orders and bring forward something already heavily damaged.

Lastly, I have also decided to incorporate other generic attackers like a couple of Suicune V in the decklist because it is one of the V Pokémon that can perform well for a low energy cost.

And how does Greedent perform against the rest of the top-tier decks of the format, you wonder? It has a decent matchup against anything that runs Sobble if you are able to start first and get a normal hand (this category includes things like Jolteon, Suicune Ludicolo, or Dragapult), with the only exception being Rapid Strike Urshifu because it hits Greedent for weakness. Precisely talking about liability, if you are worried about Fighting, you can always try to tech Dunsparce from Fusion Strike because it prevents weakness, but you will still have a tough time against Single Strike. I don’t know if it is genuinely worth running it.

As I always say, a card is only good or bad depending on the environment that surrounds it. In the case of Greedent, two main things need to happen for it to become a card that has a more significant impact on the game:

1. There has to be a way to quickly accelerate energies and meet Greedent's three colorless requirements in two turns at the most. We can try using Melony to do so but getting basic water energies in the discard pile is not as easy as it might seem. A new watered-down (no pun intended) version of Double Colorless energy is coming up in the next set, Brilliant Stars. Still, it comes with the costs of reducing by 20 the amount of damage dealt by the Pokemon that has it attached, so it seems a bit counterproductive at least. This leads me to my second point...

2. Geeedent needs an easy way to increase the damage it deals, OR the metagame has to shift towards very low HP pokemon with decks like Mad Party becoming relevant again. 30 damage is not ideal, and, in fact, it is hardly ever going to make a difference between getting the KO or not. Right now, Gloves are the most solid option we can use, but the fact that they are only limited to one type of Pokemon hurts the overall consistency. A Muscle Band reprint, for example, will be ideal for Greedent.

We don’t have a way of actually knowing if the two conditions described above will ever be met with the new sets, but I think it will still be interesting to have your Greedent ready just in case.

Greedent might not be the most powerful Pokemon in the set, and it clearly shows by how balanced it has been designed. I still think it has potential, especially to help you climb the ladder in Pokemon Trading Card Game Online in a very fast way. After all, its capacity to take down Sobbles in the second turn and get such a ridiculous advantage will for sure give you a lot of rages quits. Give it a try and see for yourself how deadly this chubby little friend can become!

And of course, don't forget that if you are looking for PTCGO codes to get Greedent and other pokemon online decks ready in your account, the PoTown store is the best place to do so! Thanks for reading!

Elena has been playing Pokémon TCG for years and leads one of the biggest TCG-dedicated channels in the world. You can find her on Youtube & Twitch (@gaiastormtcg) as well as on other social media channels. Don’t forget to check them out!