The Gouging Fire Ex Entei V deck is a Fire-type deck that has multiple damage dealers to present constant pressure on your opponent. The list has cards that accelerate Energy attachment, allowing you to attack earlier than expected and knock out your opponent’s Pokemon before they get much value.
This isn’t a popular choice in Pokemon TCG, but the Gouging Fire Ex deck can catch opponents off-guard and it’s a fun archetype to pick and try out! It also recently had a great performance in Merida Regionals, finishing second place!
Gouging Fire EX Entei V
Pokémon: 12
3 Gouging Fire ex TEF 38
2 Entei V BRS 22
2 Munkidori TWM 95
1 Delphox V LOR 27
1 Squawkabilly ex PAL 169
1 Fezandipiti ex SFA 38
1 Radiant Greninja ASR 46
1 Flutter Mane TEF 78
Trainer: 36
4 Professor Sada's Vitality PAR 170
3 Boss's Orders PAL 172
1 Roxanne ASR 150
4 Nest Ball SVI 181
4 Trekking Shoes ASR 156
3 Ultra Ball SVI 196
3 Earthen Vessel PAR 163
3 Energy Switch SVI 173
1 Switch Cart ASR 154
1 Pal Pad SVI 182
1 Lost Vacuum LOR 162
1 Secret Box TWM 163
2 Bravery Charm PAL 173
1 Forest Seal Stone SIT 156
4 Magma Basin BRS 144
Energy: 12
6 Fire Energy SVE 10
4 Jet Energy PAL 190
2 Darkness Energy SVE 15How to Play
Fire Attackers
Gouging Fire Ex is a 230 HP Ancient Fire Pokemon, having two attacks in its arsenal. Being an Ancient Pokemon will play into your strategy since you’re able to use Professor Sada’s Vitality to attach more Energy to it.
Gouging Fire Ex‘s first attack is Heat Blast, requiring 1 Fire and 1 Colorless Energy card to deal 60 damage to the opponent’s Active Pokemon. Its second attack is where we start dealing real damage! Blaze Blitz requires 2 Fire Energy and 1 Colorless Energy to deal 260 damage to the opponent’s Active Pokemon, capable of knocking out most targets in our way, especially with a little help from our other Pokemon.
However, activating Blaze Blitz means you can’t activate it on the upcoming turn unless Gouging Fire Ex leaves the Active spot. So we usually will retreat it and then move it back to the Active spot with the help of cards like Switch Cart and Jet Energy.
We have two other Fire-type Pokemon that can deal a good amount of damage and back us up when we don’t have Gouging Fire Ex available.
Entei V‘s ability, Fleet-Footed, can draw us a card one per turn, only if Entei V is in the Active spot. This gives us more resources, allowing us to find the cards we need to set up our strategy. Entei V‘s Burning Rondo only needs 1 Fire and 1 Colorless Energy cards to activate, dealing 20 damage for each Benched Pokemon (both yours and your opponent’s). So it’s important to fill up our Bench to maximize its damage output.
As for Delphox V, we can activate Eerie Glow for 1 Fire Energy, burning and confusing the opponent’s Active Pokemon. This can slow your opponent down, buying you enough time to get your attacks online and start knocking out the opponent’s Pokemon. The burn will deal a bit of damage to the opponent’s Active Pokemon, making it easier for you to knock it out later in the game.
Delphox V‘s Magical Fire needs 2 Fire and 1 Colorless Energy cards to activate, dealing 120 damage to the opponent’s Active and another 120 damage to one of the opponent’s Benched Pokemon. You will though have to put 2 Energy attached to Delphox V in the Lost Zone, but getting to snipe a Pokemon on the Bench, is worth it.
Energy Cards
Fire Energy is a must-have in this deck to activate our Fire-type Pokemon’s attacks. Since the Fire-type Pokemon require Colorless Energy as well, we can run other types of Energy cards like Jet Energy and Darkness Energy.
We can attach Jet Energy to a Benched Pokemon and activate its ability, allowing us to move that Benched Pokemon to the Active spot. This is perfect for getting a Benched Pokemon to the Active spot without burning resources. It also synergizes with our strategy since we’ll need to remove Gouging Fire Ex from the Active spot after we’ve attacked with Blaze Blitz and then move it back there.
As for the Darkness Energy, it works to fill the Colorless type Energy spot, but we’re mostly running it for Munkidori.
Supporting Damage
Munkidori is a valuable card on the bench, capable of moving 3 damage counters from one of your Pokemon to one of your opponent’s Pokemon. You need to attach Darkness Energy to activate Adrena-Brain, helping you get a knockout on one of the opponent’s Pokemon and even putting your own Pokemon out of range from the opponent’s upcoming attack.
We rarely will activate Mind Bend, but it remains an option to deal 60 damage to the opponent’s Active Pokemon and confuse it.
Stall Pokemon
Flutter Mane can slow down your opponent early in the game, shutting them down their Active Pokemon’s Abilities through Midnight Fluttering. It can attack with Hex Hurl if there’s a Pokemon like Mimikyu that our main attackers can’t deal damage to.
Since Flutter Mane is an Ancient Pokemon, it synergizes with Professor Sada’s Vitality to attach Energy to it, and we can later move that Energy through Energy Switch.
Draw Pokemon
Squawkabilly’s Squawk and Seize is great for the early game, discarding our hand and draws 6 cards. So we usually will play everything possible before going for the Squawk and Seize ability.
Radiant Greninja‘s Concealed Cards lets you discard an Energy card to draw 2 cards. This plays into the deck’s game plan, getting more Energy cards into your Discard Pile, and then getting them back in play through Professor Sada’s Vitality and Magma Basin. Radiant Greninja wants to stay on the Bench and continuously activate Concealed Cards.
Lastly, Fezandipti ex can sit on the bench and watch over your Active Pokemon, ready to use its Flip the Script ability when one of your Pokemon is knocked out, allowing you to draw three cards. Fezandipti ex doesn’t need to be on the bench when the knockout happens—you can play it from your hand afterward and still activate Flip the Script to draw cards.
Energy Acceleration
Professor Sada’s Vitality lets you choose 2 of your Ancient Pokemon (Gouging Fire Ex and Flutter Mane) and attach a Basic Energy card from your discard pile to each of them. Then you get to draw 3 cards, getting more resources in your hand.
Magma Basin Stadium can be used by both players, but if they don’t have a Fire-type Pokemon, they won’t get much use from it. Once during your turn, you can activate Magma Basin to attach a Fire Energy from your discard pile to 1 of your Benched Fire Pokemon. Attaching a Fire Energy through Magma Basin will put 2 damage counters on that Pokemon. The damage counters can be moved through Munkidori if none of your Pokemon are damaged.
Since we have two cards that pull Energy from the discard pile, we want to put Energy in our discard pile without having to wait until our Pokemon is knocked out. So cards like Radiant Greninja, Earthen Vessel, and Lucky Box work perfectly in this list to get our game plan rolling.
Energy Switch lets you move a Basic Energy from one of your Pokemon to another of your Pokemon. So if you have Energy on Flutter Mane through Professor Sada’s Vitality, or you don’t plan on attacking with a specific Pokemon, you can move an Energy from it to make sure you can attack with another Pokemon.
Key Draw Cards
Earthen Vessel draws 2 Basic Energy Cards from the deck, but you’ll have to Discard a card to activate it.
Forest Steal Stone‘s Star Alchemy ability lets you search your deck for any card you want and add it to your hand. This is a VSTAR Power, so it can only be used when attached to a Pokemon V (Entei V and Delphox V), even if it is on the Bench, and can only be used once.
Secret Box lets you discard 3 cards from your hand to search your deck for an Item card, a Pokemon tool card, a Supporter card, and a Stadium card and put them into your hand.
Battle Cards
You can use Boss’s Order to move a low-HP Pokemon to the Active spot, making it easier for you to get a knockout over a high-HP Pokemon or a key Pokemon opponent is relying on to win the game. It can also be used to move a 2 Prize Point Pokemon to the Active spot and knock it out for the win.
Since we want to move our Pokemon in and out of the Active spot, Switch Cart can help us out here, letting us switch an Active Basic Pokemon with 1 of your Benched Pokemon. It also heals 30 damage from the Pokemon you moved to the Bench, potentially putting it out of harm’s way.
