Build Guide
Chapter 6

Gusting and Prize Targeting

Choosing your knockouts instead of taking what your opponent gives you — gust effects, target selection, and controlling the prize trade.

Gusting and Prize Targeting

Your opponent doesn't want their important Pokémon knocked out. They'll hide damaged Pokémon on the bench, stall with walls in the Active spot, and avoid benching anything vulnerable until they're ready. Gusting cards let you ignore all of that and choose your own target.

What is Gusting?

Gusting means forcing one of your opponent's benched Pokémon into the Active spot so you can attack it. The term comes from the original card "Gust of Wind" — but every format has its own version of this effect.
Gusting is one of the most powerful effects in the game because it lets you control the prize trade. Instead of attacking whatever your opponent puts in front of you, you pick the knockout that advances your win condition the most.

Types of Gust Effects

Supporter-Based Gusting

The most common and reliable form. You play a Supporter that lets you choose any of your opponent's benched Pokémon and switch it to their Active spot. The tradeoff: this costs your Supporter for turn, meaning you don't draw.
This is almost always worth it when you have a knockout lined up. Drawing 7 cards is great — taking a prize card is better.

Item-Based Gusting

Some Items provide a gust effect, often with restrictions (coin flips, targeting limitations, discard costs). These are powerful because they don't cost your Supporter for turn — you can draw AND gust in the same turn.
Item-based gusting is rarer and usually harder to use, but when available, it provides an enormous tempo advantage.

Pokémon-Based Gusting

Some Pokémon have Abilities or attacks that pull opponents from the bench. These are less flexible but provide repeatable gusting that doesn't use your Supporter or Item for turn.

When to Gust

Not every turn is a gusting turn. Use your gust effects strategically:
  • To close out prize cards — If you need 2 more prizes and there's a two-prize Pokémon on their bench, that's game.
  • To eliminate setup Pokémon — Knock out their draw Ability Pokémon or energy accelerator before it provides value.
  • To finish damaged targets — Your opponent retreated something with 30HP left. Don't let them heal it.
  • To strand something Active — Drag up a Pokémon with high retreat cost and no energy. They waste a turn getting it out.
Key Concept
Save your gust effects for knockouts or game-winning plays. Using a Boss's Orders to hit something for half damage that retreats next turn is a wasted Supporter.

How Many Gust Cards?

Most competitive decks run 2-4 gust effects in some combination:
  • Aggro decks: 3-4 gust cards (you want to choose every knockout)
  • Setup decks: 2-3 gust cards (you need early turns for setting up, but need them mid-late)
  • Control decks: 2-4 gust cards (disrupting your opponent's board state is your strategy)
Running zero gust effects means your opponent controls what you attack. Against any competent player, that's unacceptable.

Repulsion: The Reverse

Some cards have the inverse effect — they push your opponent's Active Pokémon to the bench and force a different one Active. This is useful when:
  • You can't KO the current Active but could KO something on the bench
  • You want to break an Active lock or stall attempt
  • You want to force your opponent to burn switching resources
Repulsion is niche but powerful in the right situations.

Prize Targeting

Gusting enables deliberate prize targeting — planning your KO sequence across the entire game:
  • Against multi-prize decks: KO their biggest threats early to limit the damage they do
  • Against single-prize decks: target bench Pokémon that enable their strategy (draw support, energy accelerators)
  • In close games: count prizes and gust whatever gets you to 6 fastest
The best players think several turns ahead: "If I gust and KO this now, what does my opponent have left? Can they still win from that position?"

Putting It Together

Your gusting package answers:
  1. How many gust effects do I need? (Based on how aggressively you need to choose targets)
  2. Supporter or Item based? (Trade drawing power for guaranteed gust vs free gust with restrictions)
  3. When do I use them? (Save for KOs and game-deciding moments, not chip damage)