Gengar ex (Genetic Apex 277)
Date Reviewed: March 17, 2025
Ratings Summary:
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale. 1 is horrible. 3 is average. 5 is great.
Reviews Below:
Otaku
Gengar ex (A1 123, 261, 277) is a Psychic Type, Stage 2 Pokémon ex. It has 170 HP, (D) Weakness, a Retreat Cost of (C)(C), the Ability “Shadowy Spellbind”, and the attack “Spooky Shot”. Shadowy Spellbind prevents your opponent from using any Supporters from their hand, while this Pokémon is your Active. Spooky Shot requires (P)(P)(P) to use, and let’s Gengar ex do 100 damage to your opponent’s Active Pokémon. Gengar ex is available as one ♦♦♦♦ rare or two ★★ rares.
The Psychic Type enjoys two pieces of Type-specific support. Gardevoir (A1 132) has an Ability that provides (P) Energy acceleration to Psychic Types, but is unlikely to work well with fellow Stage 2 Gengar ex. Mythical Slab (A1a 065) shows you the top card of your deck, dding it to your hand if it is a (P) Pokémon, bottom decking it otherwise…
…that space might be better spent on Pokémon Communication (A2 146), assuming you can’t make room for both. The Psychic Type is not useful when it comes to exploiting Weakness. Only around a third of (F) Pokémon are (P) Weak, and the ones that see consistent, competitive play have 100 HP (or less). “Enjoy” may have been too strong a word, it seems.
As a Stage 2 Pokémon, you’ll need to run and field, in the correct order, a Gastly and a Haunter. If your opponent can field an Aerodactyl ex (A1a 046, 078, 084), it can make this even more difficult. As a Pokémon ex, Gengar ex is worth an extra point when KO’d, and takes extra damage from the attacks of Sudowoodo (A2a 036, 079) and Tauros (A1a 060). Repetitive, but that is why I stress them; they’re easy to take for granted, and then forget (or underestimate) at a critical moment.
Gengar ex’s 170 HP is good! It isn’t abnormal for a Stage 2 Pokémon ex, but it’s enough to tank even an extra heavy attack. The (D) Weakness has been awful since Darkrai ex (A2 110, 187, 202; P-A 042) joined the metagame. It’s not the only (D)-based threat to Gengar ex, nor is it scoring an easy OHKO, but it is a serious threat whether attacking or supporting other Darkness Type Pokémon. The Retreat Cost of (C)(C) is neither low enough to be particularly good, nor high enough to be especially bad.
Shadowy Spellbind is a potent Ability. Pocket usually isn’t like the full TCG, where you’re deck usually hinges upon having the right Supporter to play during each of your turns. Instead, our cardpool is – compared to what I’m used to – Supporter heavy. Even when we consider competitive play, it seems like there are more “gotta run” Supporters than Items or Tools. With that said, I have to be careful I don’t overstate its efficacy. Literally. I am all but certain I’ve mistakenly stated it works while Gengar ex is in play (at all), as opposed to while it is Active.
Spooky Shot is not bad, but I don’t know if it is good, either. 100 damage for three of the same non-Colorless Energy Type might be low if all Gengar ex had was its attack. Since it has a good Ability, this isn’t a bad deal. The issue is, to utilize Shadowy Spellbind, Gengar ex has to be your Active. So it’s Spooky Shot or nothing! If you went second and used every manual Energy attachment on Gengar ex (or its lower Stages), great, you can attack ASAP…
…but when you can’t, you really feel it. Either you’re giving up an attack by promoting Gengar ex early, or its not locking down your opponent’s Supporters a.k.a. doing the thing you’re running it for! It makes me wish it had a less expensive attack, though that will bring up a different issue. An issue it is a bit early for, however.
Let’s look at the rest of this card family. We have Gastly (A1 120) and Gastly (A2a 031), plus Haunter (A1 121), Haunter (P-A 020) and Haunter (A2a 031). There’s also two alternate options to Gengar ex, Gengar (A1 122) and Gengar (A2a 033). All of these are Psychic Pokémon with (D) Weakness, and a single attack. All but one Gengar have a (C) Retreat Cost, as well.
Both Gastly are Basic Pokémon. Gastly (A1 120) has 60 HP, and for (P) it can use “Suffocating Gas” to do 20 damage. Meanwhile, Gastly (A2a 031) has 50 HP and can “Astonish” for (C). The attack has you flip a coin; “tails” means the attack does nothing, while “heads” force your opponent to reveal a random card from their hand before shuffling that random card back into their deck. While I prefer Astonish, go for Gastly (A1 120) due to the HP.
All three are Haunter Stage 1. Haunter (A1 121) has 80 HP, and can use “Will-O-Wisp” for (P) to do 30 damage. Haunter (P-A 020) has only 70 HP, but for (P) can use “Surprise Attack”, which does 50 damage but only if you get “heads” on a coin toss; “tails” does nothing. Haunter (A2a 031) is another with 80 HP; for (P)(P) it can use “Mumble” to do 40 damage to the opposing Active. I recommend Haunter (A1 121) for 80 HP but a better desperation attack.
Now for our Gengar. Gengar (A1 122) has 130 HP and is the oddball with the Retreat Cost of (C)(C). For (P), it can use “Bother” to do 50 damage and prevent the opposing Active from using a Supporter during their next turn. Gengar (A2a 033) has 140 HP, and the attack “Hypnoblast”. For (P)(P), Hypnoblast allows this Gengar to do 70 damage, while leaving the opposing Active Asleep. I wouldn’t worry about using Gengar (A2a 033).
You might include Gengar (A122) alongside Gengar ex, as your backup plan. If you don’t have a Haunter with three (P) Energy ready today, you might want to evolve into Gengar (A122) instead. While lacking in HP, this way you can still do 50 damage while locking your opponent out of Supporters, and while being free to attach Energy to something else. Like your second Haunter, waiting to Evolve into Gengar ex.
That could be personal bias, however, as that’s how I tried running Gengar ex myself. At first, because I only had a single Gengar ex, but later, because I wanted the option. Pokémon Zone (sort of) agrees with me, based on their list. The other thing we had in common was using Psyduck (A1 057) as an opener. It’s “Headache” attack costs (C) and does 10 damage, but also prevents your opponent from using a Supporter during their next turn.
Their list includes more alternate attackers, but when I tried Gengar ex, I actually ran a 1-1 Hypno (A1 125) line instead. Partially because I only had one Hypno, though I don’t know if I could have made space for two, and he was not a good attacker, so I still needed room for Psyduck. Hypno’s Ability lets you flip a coin, and if “heads”, the opposing Active is Asleep. I included this to further slow down my opponent, even if they otherwise had a fully setup deck!
Gengar ex decks are another “Low Tier” deck for Pokémon Zone, which means they’re an “Honorable Mention” to me. Meaning, they’re a deck that has never proven competitively viable, though people have been trying it. Yes, even post-Triumphant Light; you can find examples of it being attempted here, over at LimitlessTCG. Even some more Gengar ex/Hypno decks. That 50% chance of the opponent’s Active waking up during Pokémon Checkup is rough.
Rating: 2.5/5
I want Gengar ex to be good, which makes me something of a hypocrite because I can’t say I like facing control decks. What I can say is that Gengar ex is not competitive, at least, not yet. Getting it up front and attacking, in a fast and reliable manner, just isn’t something the deck can do right now. Plus, by the time you do get Gengar ex ready, your opponent may not need to use that many Supporter cards. It’s good that Gengar ex won’t have to fear a late game Cyrus (A2 150, 190), Misty (220, 267), etc. but that wasn’t enough even before the (D) Weakness was so dangerous.
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