Ever since Genetic Apex Gengar has been deemed a meme. Despite having such a powerful ability in denying your opponent's supporter plays, Gengar’s damage output has always held it back from meta contention. Being a stage 2 evolution has always impacted both Gengars in a negative way, due to the nature of their attacks. While Gengar EX quite simply lacked damage in order to reliably sweep your opponent, regular Gengar is a one energy attacker. Bother is indeed an excellent one energy attack that will lock your opponent out from playing Supporter cards, the issue is Gengar would require at least 3 turns in order to come on line, and at that point enough time has passed for you to develop 2 energy onto it. In the end you’d end up in a situation where you are essentially attacking below your energy curve, and the disruption Gengar would provide would be overshadowed by the lack of power behind your attacks.

Rare Candy has finally fixed this problem. Going first with Gastly can be absolutely incredible now. As you can rare candy onto Gengar to fire off a Bother on your very first attack. This opener is insane, as your attack mirrors that of a Skarmory while having 50 more HP and shutting down your opponent’s supporter plays effective immediately.

Gengar is legit now.

This is by far the best Gengar deck I’ve ever played. In a lineup aiming to apply pressure fast while denying your opponent their supporter plays. It’s not just Rare Candy that’s made Gengar great, the card pool has grown to a point where Supporter cards are the name of the game. Bench targeting, damage enhancing, pivoting, hand disruption and healing… Supporter cards are often what leads to a player winning. Gengars ability to deny your opponents from playing these cards is arguably more impactful than it's ever been. We run a full set of regular Gengar, alongside one copy of Gengar EX. Regular Gengar provides us with the speed necessary to lock our opponents out early, while Gengar EX brings in the power to make our end game worthy.

While regular Gengar is essential for the early game, we need to find Gengar EX in order to end things. Double Pokemon Communication in a deck running 7 total pokemon allows us to achieve this consistently. Tapu Lele is our third basic pokemon, providing us with a way to retaliate against heavy hitters while also targeting them as they set up in the bench. This pokemon is key for the deck, bringing in both power and range without sacrificing momentum required to build up our Gengar EX.

Gengar is a legitimate archetype now, rare candy was the final piece in the puzzle. An early game Bother will bring your opponent’s all kinds of trouble.