Celestial Storm Analysis: New Prisms (Latias & Latios)

The Eon Duo is back and they are packing a punch!

Pokebeach.com has given us images of several new cards for Japan's SM7; Charisma of the Wrecked Sky, and the two new Prisms revealed could be some of the most useful we've had in a while. But which will see play in the first place? Lets find out.

Return of the Eon Duo

So, Latias and Latios Prisms are a thing.

Both are Dragon types, which means they have that Fairy weakness and they themselves aren't hitting anything for weakness (Unless, like I've mentioned in the past, RayBoar becomes a thing in expanded). They're obviously both prisms, so you are limited to one copy of each in the deck. Both have a retreat cost of 1, which is relevant because Latias attacks for a single energy, and for the both of them, having a retreat of 1 means they can use Escape Board after rotation to gain free retreat (And that could be needed for Latias).

But, like every Pokemon, it's the attacks we're worried about. For Latias, it gives Rayquaza ANOTHER option to make it a great deck when Worlds rolls around:

(C): Dream Mist: Attach a basic energy card from your discard pile to each of your benched basic Dragon Pokemon

Is it safe at this point to bet on Rayquaza becoming BDIF and winning worlds this year?

Let's imagine the ideal setup for a Rayquaza deck: An Active Rayquaza, a Benched Rayquaza, a Vikavolt, a Draw engine like Oranguru, and a bench slot for Tapu Lele. Having a second vikavolt could be good, but you only need to ever use Vikavolt if you lose a Rayquaza or you need to hit a higher damage cap. So while the 5th space might be best used for Sceptile to counter Ultra Beasts, most non-ultra beast decks tend to be slower, so you could afford to use Latias Prism to help set up in those games. And if you do have 2 Rayquaza on the bench, while Vikavolt gets the same amount of energy into play, Latias can soften up larger evolutions to help Rayquaza take easier KOs. So, while it isn't better than Vikavolt for energy acceleration, it has it's place in a Rayquaza deck.

As for Latios, he acts as a great Non-GX attacker in a Dragon Evolution deck once Dragon Majesty hits in September:

(C)(C): Dragon Fleet: 50x
This attack does 50 damage times the number of Evolution Dragon Pokemon you have in play

Now, the one use I could think of for this is, as mentioned before, a Non-GX attacker in a Dragon Evolution deck, and 2 come to mind as possibilities in the future: Dragonite-Altaria, and Altaria.

Both decks have a focus on the new Dragon Majesty Altaria, which boosts the damage output of your Dragon Pokemon by 20, exactly like the Dragons Exalted Altaria from 2012.



But the main attackers of those differ in terms of damage output. One relies on the upcoming Dragonite-GX to swing for insane amounts of damage, while the other uses the upcoming Altaria-GX from Celestial Storm to deal low damage, but lock out GXs from attacking Altaria (And EXs, but they aren't relevant in Standard).



For Altaria decks, Latios could easily be a late game sweeper to take the last 2 prizes on something that Altaria can't deal with easily. And in Dragonite, with an escape board, it could act as the free retreater Dragonite needs to chain it's 200 damage attack, since Dawn Wings Necrozma won't work since Float Stone is rotating and Dawn Wings has a retreat of 2.

And even though Latios requires evolutions to charge up it's attack, the combination of Dragonite's GX attack, which allows you to put other Dragonite onto the bench without having to evolve, and the upcoming Lance Prism, which allows you to simply put 2 dragons of any stage onto the bench, (2 Altaria perhaps?) allows this to be a great attacker in these archetypes.

Dawn of the Dragons

With Latios and Latias Prism star filling in gaps in Dragon decks, we may be seeing a resurgence in Dragon types soon, with one archetype even having a shot to win worlds. I'll be posting another article soon on what Dragon types have going for them that could cause this resurgence.

Celestial Storm Sceptile Analysis and Rayquaza-GX Deckcrafting

We now have images for several new cards from Japan's SM7 set, Charisma of the Wrecked Sky, and one card in particular, the new Sceptile, may just make Rayquaza a powerhouse in the next format, which Pokemon just announced will be Sun & Moon onward. But for worlds, could Rayquaza-Sceptile-Vikavolt see play? We'll come back to that later, because we first need to look at the new Sceptile

Everyone's Favorite Tree Lizard

So, starting with the basics, it's a grass type with 140 HP, which, for a stage 2 in the Sun & Moon era, is incredibly low, considering most Stage 2s have 160 HP, but you can't have everything be good about a card (Even Gardevoir-GX or Buzzwole-GX, which both have a retreat cost of 2). Speaking of retreat cost, Sceptile has a cost of 1, which makes it much better to get it back onto the bench (Which you will want to do). Of course, being a grass type, it has a weakness to fire, but Turtonator and Ho-Oh are already getting a KO on you, and Volcanion-EX, which would hit you for 130 without weakness, is rotating about 2 weeks after this becomes legal for tournament play, so it could be worse. And, of course, it's a stage 2, and with Forest of Giant Plants being banned in expanded, no matter which format you play, you'll have to rely on Rare Candy to get this up quickly

And getting it up quickly may be incredibly important for any grass deck, as this Sceptile, wierdly enough, is a Buzzwole counter. And that's because of it's ability, which reads:

Ability: Nature Power
Each of your Pokemon with Grass energy attached takes no damage from the attacks of you're opponents Ultra Beasts

At first glance, this seems like an instant 1-of in any deck playing Grass energy. But the question that could stop that idea is if you have room in your deck or not. In a Golisopod-Zoroark deck, maybe? You're playing Zoroark, so it shouldn't be that hard to draw into you're rare candy-sceptile combo, but will you have bench space? In these decks, you generally want an active Golisopod, a benched Golisopod, 2 Zoroarks, a free retreater, and maybe a Tapu Lele if you need it. Unless we get a float stone reprint or you're willing to take up the Lele bench spot, it may not be a good idea for Golisopod-Zoroark to play this, even with just a 1-0-1 line at the minimum.

Now, is there a question that this ability isn't good? HECK NO! This is great! It shuts down Buzzwole decks from their main attacker and forces them to attack with Lycanroc, which isn't the best play sometimes. BuzzGarb should have no problem dealing with this, but Beast Box, Dusk Mane Necrozma, and Ultra Necrozma will also have problems. And while Dusk Mane & Ultra will have backup attackers, Beast Box will be completly locked out, and considering Naganadel is a great Buzzwole counter, Beast Box could very well see a ton of play. And if that's the case, this ability will be able to almost guarentee the win, assuming they don't Guzma up the Sceptile (Then again, you just attach a grass energy to Sceptile and you're ok).

Moving onto the attack, it's actually a decent attacker, with something rather similar to a Pokemon you might want to pair it with...

(G): Powerful Storm: 20x
This attack does 20 damage times the amount of energy attached to your opponent's Pokemon

Against energy heavy decks like BuzzRoc, this is great. Assuming your opponent has 8 energy in play (6 on 2 separate Buzzwoles and 2 on a Lycanroc), you're doing 160 damage, 190 with a choice band, which will get a KO on a Buzzwole or a Lycanroc, which you're hitting for weakness. So with this, you could just attach a grass energy, get you're opponent to have 5 energy on the field, Guzma up a Lycanroc, KO it for 2 prizes, and then you're opponent can't send up another Buzzwole since you have immunity due to you're ability, and then hope they get one more energy onto another Pokemon, put a choice band on Sceptile, and then you're getting a 2HKO without the fear of being return-KOed.

Rayquaza-GX Viability

So now that we know what the new Sceptile does, could it fit into a Rayquaza-GX deck for the Worlds format? Let's see what we can do

First of, we'll start with the core of a Bulu-Vikavolt deck: 3 of the Main Attacker, and a 3-1-3 line of Vikavolt. After this, we'll add a 1-1-1 line of Sceptile. We'll play the Grovyle to make sure we don't rely on Rare Candy to get it going, since we want to use those for the Vikavolt. We need to play a draw engine, and since we need room for the Sceptile, we'll use Oranguru instead of Octillery. And of course, 2 copied of Tapu Lele.

Pokemon:

• 3 Rayquaza-GX
• 3 Grubbin
• 1 Charjabug
• 3 Vikavolt
• 1 Treecko
• 1 Grovyle
• 1 Sceptile
• 1 Oranguru (SUM)
• 1 Oranguru (UPR)
• 2 Tapu Lele-GX

Total: 16

Our main strategy here is simple: We want to get 2 Rayquaza out, Strong Charge energy with Vikavolt, and then be hitting 210 every turn with Rayquaza and a Choice Band.

However, the Ultra Prism Oranguru is a bit wierd, but that's simply to recover awkward discards with Rayquaza.

The energy count is also easy to figure out:

Energy

• 8 Grass Energy
• 5 Lightning Energy

Total: 13

Simply put: We need to be playing as much Grass Energy as possible to use with Sceptile's Ability. For the Trainers, however, it gets a bit dicey as to what to use. The first answers are 4 Candy and 2 Energy Recycler, but after that it gets a bit fishy. However, here's what I think will be the best counts:

Trainers:

• 4 Cynthia
• 3 N
• 1 Lillie
• 2 Skyla
• 3 Guzma
• 3 Ultra Ball
• 2 Heavy Ball
• 4 Rare Candy
• 3 Choice Band
• 2 Energy Recycler
• 2 Super Rod
• 1 Field Blower

Total: 31

We do have some odd choices in here. First, why only 3 Ultra Ball? We play 2 Heavy Ball. After Rotation, 4 Ultra Ball will be the play, but since both Rayquaza and Vikavolt have a retreat of 3, it's handy to have just for extra search options. Lillie also seems odd, but considering you don't want to use a Brigette to grab Rayquaza, since his ability only works coming from your hand, a Turn 1 Lillie is just as effective, while being able to get other cards.

Having both Super Rod and Energy Recycler could be overkill, but since Rayquaza's ability discards cards in order to accelerate the energy, you want to make sure you're deck gets back everything it needs. And finally, 1 Field Blower to deal with Garbodor.

Rayquaza's Acension

Is this the most optimized version of the deck? Absolutely not. Will the archetype see play? Who knows? We'll just have to wait for Worlds to find out.

Rayquaza-GX Leak Confirmed and Stakataka-GX Analysis

Well, that wasn't that long of a wait. We now have images (Albeit very blurry ones, but still readable) for Rayquaza-GX and Stakataka-GX, and both could find a place in the metagame once they hit in august in Celestial Storm.

Rayquaza-GX Leak Confirmed

As previously mentioned, Rayquaza-GX was leaked, but now we have confirmation the leak was true. The card now reads as follows:

(Basic) Rayquaza-GX (180 HP) (Dragon)

Ability: Storm & Stress

When you play this card from your hand onto your bench, you may discard the top 3 cards of your deck, then attach a basic energy from your discard pile to this Pokemon

(G)(L)(C): Dragon Break: 30x

This attack does 30 Damage for each basic Lightning and Grass energy attached to all of your Pokemon

(G): Tempest GX

Discard your hand and draw 7 cards. (You can't use more than 1 GX attack in a game)

Weakness: Fairy    Resistance: N/A

Retreat: (C)(C)(C)

So, minus the ability and attack names being different, everything's the same. YAY! But now for Stakataka.

Another Brick in the Wall

So, Stakataka-GX. For starters, it's a Basic Metal Pokemon, which gives you access to Max Elixir and Fighting Fury belt for the short time that both Stakataka and those 2 cards are going to be standard legal, and you get Registeel and Magnezone to accelerate energy. However, being a metal Pokemon means you have that crippling Fire Weakness, but you have a resistance to Psychic, which could be important since Buzzwole just overthrew Zoroark as King of the Format. And finally, you have a retreat cost of 3, which does allow you to use Heavy Ball, but, like mentioned with Max Elixir and Fighting Fury Belt, only for a couple of weeks.

It also, unsuprisingly, has the "Ultra Beast" label, which gives it access to Ultra Space to search it out, as well as beast ring to accelerate energy (Albeit, maybe you don't want to do that). You can discard it to use Ultra Recon Squad, and if you play it with Naganadel, Stakataka boosts Naganadel's damage output.

As for the attacks and ability, the main attack is the least exciting. 

(M)(M)(C): Gigaton Stomp: 120

That's it. OK, it does get a 1HKO on a Gardevoir or a Sylveon, but those have really dropped off the radar since Buzzwole and Zoroark became relevant. And, not only that, but you're not able to knock out many key "Baby" Pokemon like Buzzwole and Volcanion.

So, it's an OK attacker, but nothing special. But the Ability is where it's at.

Ability: Ultra Wall

Any damage done to your Ultra Beasts is reduced by 10 (After applying Weakness and Resistance)

This is nuts. The best use I can think of for this is in a Beast Box deck. So many Pokemon like Ultra Necrozma can easily hit 210 and take a 1HKO on a Naganadel, but if you have a Stakataka on the bench, the Ultra Necrozma player will have to get another energy to get the KO. And with Buzzwole, if something like an Alolan Ninetales comes up with a Choice Band and hits you for 190, if you have Stakataka, they'll only be hitting for 180. And here's the thing: This ability stacks. So you have 2 Stakataka in play, your Buzzwole essentially have 210 HP. Let me make this clear: This ability is great. It's not crazy nuts like Zoroark, but in a Beast Box deck, this could be an instant 2-of. 

And finally we have the GX attack. Stop me if you've heard this one before:

(M)(M)(C): Assembly GX: 50+

This attack does 50 damage more damage for each Prize Card you've taken. (You can't use more than 1 GX attack in a game)

At first glance, this seems like a carbon copy of Pheromosa-GX's GX attack.

But there's one key difference: Stakataka does 50 MORE for each taken, and has a base damage of 50, where as with Pheromosa, the damage is multiplied, so if you've take no prizes, you do no damage. So, unlike Pheromosa, who's hitting minimum 0 a max 250 damage, Stakataka's hitting minimum 50 with max 300. However, the best example I could think of for why Stakataka is better, that being able to KO a Wailord-EX with a Fury Belt, isn't actually a good scenario, since Pheromosa hits Wailord for Weakness. So is the GX attack good? Yes, but not in every scenario. In a beast box deck, I'd still use Naganadel over this most of the time.

 Overall, here's what the card looks like for stats & attacks:

Ability: Ultra Wall

Any damage done to your Ultra Beasts is reduced by 10 (After applying Weakness and Resistance)

(M)(M)(C): Gigaton Stomp: 120

(M)(M)(C): Assembly GX: 50+

This attack does 50 damage more damage for each Prize Card you've taken. (You can't use more than 1 GX attack in a game)

Weakness: Fire    Resistance: Psychic

Retreat: (C)(C)(C)

Overall, Stakataka will probably see niece play in Beast Box decks, but Rayquaza/Vikavolt could be a
legit option in the meta. But we'll have to wait till Worlds weekend to see if that happens.

Rayquaza-GX Leak!

What is it with the last few Rayquaza cards being so good? We got the Dragons Exalted EX that was played with Eelektrik or Emboar a couple years ago, we got the Roarings Skies Mega EX that was the reason Sky Field was a good card, and even the non-GX from Guardians Rising saw play in Solgaleo decks until Crimson Invasion Registeel and Solgaleo Prism came around. But we may soon be able to add Rayquaza-GX to that list.

NOT CONFIRMED!!

Let me make this perfectly clear: All the information I have on Rayquaza-GX comes from a video that was just uploaded to the youtube channel PTCGRadio. And all of the information they got was not from an official Pokemon Company source (Japan or International), but their source was right on some previous leaks, so we can at least be 99% sure this leak is true. Also, big shoutout to PTCGRadio for bringing this news forward.

Starting with the basics, we know it's going to be a Dragon type, which gives it the following tricks:

Standard:

• Altaria from Dragon Storm for extra damage
• Devoured Field to add extra damage
• Mysterious Treasure to search it out
• Dragon Storm Drampa to accelerate energy

Expanded:

• You're actually hitting stuff for weakness (Assuming Rayquaza-EX or Black Kyurem get good again)
• Dragons Exalted Altaria for extra damage (Just realized that both the Dragons Exalted and Dragon Storm have the same ability, but play the Dragon Storm version. It has more HP and a better(?) attack)

In terms of other stats, it's going to have 180, which is somewhat bad due to the fact that there's a slew of Pokemon that hit for 180, but not 190, which gives stuff like Buzzwole and Ultra Necrozma an advantage in terms of survivability. It's also going to have a weakness to Fairy, which could be relevant if Gardevoir rebounds, but it's annoying because if your opponents is playing a Forbidden Light Dedenne, if they have a lightning Pokemon in play and a Choice Band, they get a 1HKO, where as they wouldn't if Rayquaza had 190. And finally, it's going to have a retreat cost of 3, which allows you to use Heavy Ball in expanded, and in standard for the 2 weeks that Rayquaza is going to begin to be legal for tournaments and Heavy Ball still being standard legal before it rotates at the start of September.

Risky Energy Acceleration

On previous Rayquaza cards, we've seen plenty of effects that get energy onto Rayquaza. The Dragons Exalted EX had an attack that discarded the top 3 cards of your deck and attached any energy out of those 3 to Rayquaza, and in EX Dragon, we got a Rayquaza ex (The 3rd gen style ex) that had an attack that allowed you to flip a coin until you got tails, and for every heads, you attached a basic energy from your discard to Rayquaza.

This new effect for the GX may be the weakest of the bunch, but it's a bit more consistent, and probably won't be used a bunch (More on that later). The ability reads as follows (Also, fake names will be used for the lols)

Ability: Atmospheric Descent: When you play this card from your hand onto your bench, you may discard the top 3 cards of your deck, then attach a basic energy from your discard pile to ???

Now, we don't know what the catch is for where you can attach energy. It's either to Rayquaza or to one of your Pokemon, but given how literally every other Rayquaza that accelerates energy accelerates to itself  (Except for the Guardians Rising version, but that's another story), it's likely the ability works only for Rayquaza-GX. And since it's a "When you play this card onto your bench" effect, you only get it once unless you use Super Scoop up or Acerola to pick it up, and you won't be able to use Brigette or Nest Ball to get the ability since those put basics from the deck onto your bench.

But let's be clear on this: The energy doesn't have to be from the cards you discarded. So if you had an energy in the discard before you use the ability, but then don't discard any energy with the ability, you can still accelerate the energy that was there already. Like I said, more consistent, but not going to be used as often due to it being a "Play it from your hand onto your bench" effect.

And even without a good attack, there are 2 uses I can think of: First, in expanded, if you hit any supporters, you can then immediately use VS Seeker to get them back, and essentially use it as a pseudo-Battle Compressor. Second, you could use this in a Turbo Darkrai deck in expanded or a Raichu-GX deck in standard as a way to get an extra energy onto the field. And with Darkrai, you could hit a Darkrai-GX and 2 energy, then Restore the Darkrai and Dark Patch the second energy onto another Pokemon. Not likely to happen all the time, but it's possible. And also, the same theory could be applied to the Delphox from Fates Collide, but that could get a bit clunky.

But wait, there's more!

But here's the thing: The Darkrai theory for using this can be applied to another Pokemon. And that Pokemon is... Rayquaza-GX? But what the heck could Rayquaza have that could make it...

(G)(L)(C): Dragon Impact: This attack does 30 Damage for each basic Lightning and Grass energy attached to all of your Pokemon

Oh. That. This is ridiculous. It's basically the aforementioned Delphox's Psystorm. And you have couple of ways to accelerate the energy.

Of course, you have the ability to use, but the big one that comes to mind is Sun & Moon Vikavolt. Just being able to grab a grass and a lightning and slap them onto the field is great, and that fact that doing so adds 60 damage is just crazy.



So, let's look at some numbers here. For starters, simply having the attack cost on your active Rayquaza is 90 damage. You have a second one on the bench, and that's 180, 210 with a Choice Band, and with said Choice Band, you get the KO on several key Pokemon in the format; Buzzwole, Ultra Necrozma, Golisopod, Zoroark, Dusk Mane Necrozma, Naganadel, etc. It's a great attack. But the fact you don't have to discard like so many previous Rayquazas makes this one way easier to set up, since you only have to do it once.

So, let's do some simulating. Let's say you're opponent is playing a BuzzRoc deck. Here's what could happen if everything played out optimally for both decks:

Rayquaza Player: Starts Rayquaza-GX with 2 Grubbin on the Bench. Goes First.
Buzzwole Player: Starts Buzzwole-GX with a Buzzwole, Remoraid & Rockruff on the Bench. Goes Second

Rayquaza Starting Hand (After playing Pokemon to set up): Rare Candy, Cynthia, N, Grass Energy
Buzzwole Starting Hand: Choice Band, Fightning Energy, Brooklet Hill

Rayquaza Turn 1: Draws an Ultra Ball, plays Cynthia to shuffle draw 6.
Buzzwole Turn 1: Draws a Strong Energy, attaches it and Choice Band to active Buzzwole. Plays Brooklet Hill and searches for Diance Prism. Jet Punches active Rayquaza for 100 damage and 30 to a benched Grubbin
Rayquaza Turn 2: Draws and plays Rayquaza-GX, discards an N, Grass Energy, and Ultra Ball. Attaches Grass to Rayquaza. Plays 2 Rare Candies to evolve into 2 Vikavolts. Strong Charges to Active Rayquaza, then to benched Rayquaza. Attaches Choice Band to Active Rayquaza and hits active Buzzwole for 210 damage, takes KO, gets 2 prizes. Buzzwole Player throws up Buzzwole.
Buzzwole Turn 2: Draws Professor Sycamore. Plays and discards a fighting energy. Plays a Buzzwole-GX, plays Beast Ring to attach 2 fighting energy to Buzzwole-GX. Attaches a Strong Energy to active Buzzwole, attaches Choice Band. Sledgehammers for KO on Rayquaza, takes 2 prizes. Rayquaza player throws up Vikavolt.
Rayquaza Turn 3: Draws Rescue Stretcher, plays it to recover Rayquaza-GX. Plays, discards Professor Sycamore, Guzma, and Lightning Energy. Attaches Lighning Energy. Plays Guzma from hand to drag up the Buzzwole-GX, and throws up Rayquaza GX with 3 energy. Strong Charges to Benched Rayquaza and Active Rayquaza. Swings for 240 and KOs Buzzwole. Takes 2 prizes. Buzzwole player concedes.

Not an accurate scenario by any means, but it's an idea of how Rayquaza could compete with Buzzwole.

Icing on the Cake

And then there's the GX attack. Compared to the other things Rayquaza has going for it, it's not as impressive, but it's still interesting

(G): Delta Refresh GX: Discard your hand and draw 10 cards.

Basically, it's a Sycamore for 10 cards. It's more of a desperate "I've got nothing, let's use this" GX attack, similar to Drampa in a way.

Descending from the Skies

To sum it up, here's what the leak says Rayquaza-GX will look like:

(Basic) Rayquaza-GX (180 HP) (Dragon)

Ability: Atmospheric Descent

When you play this card from your hand onto your bench, you may discard the top 3 cards of your deck, then attach a basic energy from your discard pile to this Pokemon

(G)(L)(C): Dragon Impact: 30x

This attack does 30 Damage for each basic Lightning and Grass energy attached to all of your Pokemon

(G): Delta Refresh GX

Discard your hand and draw 7 cards. (You can't use more than 1 GX attack in a game)

Weakness: Fairy    Resistance: N/A

Retreat: (C)(C)(C)

Will it see play? Maybe? Will people try to make this work? Absolutely. The ability to hit key numbers
simply by setting up 2 attackers is great. I honestly hope Rayquaza/Vikavolt becomes a thing cause I
want to use my promo Vikavolt more often.

Kyogre & Groudon GX Speculation

Now that the hype from Forbidden Light’s release has begun die down, the wait begins for Celestial
Storm. However, we know a good chunk of cards in the set because some of the cards will be coming
from Japan’s Champion Road miniset. But at the time of writing, we don’t know much about what will
be in Japan’s SM7 set, Charisma of the Wrecked Sky. But, let’s see if we can figure out what we could
be getting on a pair of new cards

Land & Sea Clash Once More

We know we’re getting 11 GXs out of the set, 6 of which are coming from Champion Road; Articuno,

Scizor, Salamence, Electrode, Banette, and Mr. Mime, all of which are spiritual reprints of exs from the
Ruby & Sapphire era of the game. The other 5, however, we know little to none about; Rayquaza,
Stakataka, Blaziken, and 2 others that aren’t confirmed, but are likely to be Groudon & Kyogre. The
reason behind this is that, with the exception of Regigigas and Heatran in March, every Pokemon
featured in the Legendary Pokemon promotion for 2018 has had a parralel in the TCG. For example,
February had Dialga & Palkia as the available Pokemon for download, and in Ultra Prism, the February
set, we got GXs for Dialga & Palkia. So, Groudon & Kyogre GX are likely to happen. But what are they
going to do?

For Groudon, looking at all the Groudons ever printed, a few things occur quite often. First, almost every
Groudon card has a 4 energy attack, so, the GX will probably have a 4 energy main attack. Second, a
good number of older cards, and a few newer ones, have an attack that discards something, whether it
be cards off the top of a deck, either yours or your opponent’s (i.e. Kyogre & Groudon Legend),
discarding energy (i.e. Primal Clash’s Groudon-EX), or discarding stadiums (Primal Groudon-EX). A
few also had an attack that did bench damage, and it wouldn’t be that crazy of a guess to say that an
attack like that could be a nice small attack. While not anywhere close to an educated guess, here’s
what I think a Groudon-GX could look like:

(Basic) Groudon-GX (190 HP) (Fighting)

(F)(C): Small Eruption: 30

Does 10 damage to each of your opponent’s Benched Pokemon (Don’t apply Weakness & Resistance
for Benched Pokemon)

(F)(F)(F)(C): Volcano Cannon: 160

You may discard a basic energy from this Pokemon. If you do, choose up to 3 Stadiums, Pokemon Tools,
or Basic Energy in play and discard them

(F)(F)(F)(F): Volcanic Blowout GX

Discard the top 5 cards of your opponent’s deck. Place 20 damage counters on your opponent’s
Pokemon in any way you like. (You can’t use more than 1 GX Attack in a game)

Weakness: Grass    Resistance: N/A

Retreat: (C)(C)(C)(C)

Again, not the most likely, but the basic concepts of previous Groudon cards are there, albeit, maybe in
an overpowered form. Also, I didn’t use move names from the games as I don’t know most of them.

As for Kyogre, we also see trends across all Kyogre cards printed. The big 2 are sniping attacks and
special conditions, mainly confusion and sleep, as well as some non-special condition effects like
preventing attacking. There are some that have universal bench damage attacks, but that likely won’t
happen as it could make it too similar to Groudon. So, here’s a concept for Kyogre-GX:

(Basic) Kyogre-GX (180 HP) (Water)

Ability: Ocean’s Expanse

Each Basic Water energy attached to your Pokemon (Except this Pokemon) provide 2 Water Energy
(You can’t apply more than 1 Ocean’s Expanse ability)

(W)(C)(C): Waterknot: 130

Your opponent’s Active Pokemon is now Paralyzed

(W)(W)(C): Torrential Downpour GX

This attack does 100 damage to 2 of your opponent’s Pokemon (Don’t apply weakness & resistance
for Benched Pokemon) (You can’t use more than 1 GX Attack in a game)

Weakness: Grass    Resistance: N/A

Retreat: (C)(C)(C)(C)

Not likely to actually happen, but again, the basic concepts are present, and the GX attack concept is
at least somewhat plausible.

The Clash Will Continue

Again, the ideas I've presented are basically guaranteed not to happen. But at the very least, we have an idea of what these new GXs will do.

Archetype Check for Toronto

This weekend, we have the second to last Standard regionals up in Toronto. And in the next few days, the primary objective of players will be to figure out what deck to use to try to take that glorious position of Regional Champion (Not as glorious as World Champion, but still a glorious title none the less). But here's the key point to remember going into the event: Forbidden Light is still not legal, and it won't be legal until the 18th. So no Beast Box, no Zygarde, no Zoroark-Greninja, and most importantly, no Ultra Necrozma/Malamar. So what will come out as decent?

The Kings of the Format

Two obvious answers as to what will come out on top are Zoroark and Buzzwole archetypes. Buzzwole has the advantage of hitting Zoroark for weakness, and all sorts of damage modifiers to hit numbers on key pokemon like Tapu Lele and Gardevoir (If that's still seeing any play), and Zoroark has the advantage of being able to spam things like Acerola to heal, and it gives any deck added consistency. But here's the thing: Buzzwole is simply better at the moment. The finals of the Latin America Internationals was a Buzzroc mirror, so zoroark probably won't see play as a main attacker, but rather as an possible alternative draw engine

So, we've identified that Buzzwole has the best chance to win. But which Buzzwole variant will be the better play? BuzzGarb is still a decent deck, but without Greninja-GX and Malamar being legal, you don't really need to shut off abilities. At best, you're shutting off Tapu Lele, Zoroark, Oranguru, and Octillery. And while those are great abilities to shut off, you're already beating Zoroark even if they have trade, and the other three are generally key pieces in you're opponent's deck, you can pick off Oranguru and Octillery with Jet Punch if needed, and Tapu Lele won't really do much for your opponent in terms of attacking unless they're willing to attach 2 basic energy if they aren't playing Double Colorless. And there's BuzzRoc, which is absolutely better because it gives you access to, essentially, a Lysandre, while providing a great GX attack, and a main attack that isn't the best, but comes in clutch when needed, like for instance, the Latin American Internationals finals when Dyego Rathje managed to get the needed combination of Strong Energy and Basic fighting onto a Rockruff, and then use Lycanroc's ability to drag a damaged Lele into the active and Claw Slash for the KO.

ZoroPod

Like previously mentioned, Zoroark may not see much play with Buzzwole becoming more and more popular. Even with Golisopod-GX as an attacker, it won't last long against a Buzzwole with a Strong Energy and a Choice Band. Long Story Short: Unless Tord Reklev manages to traverse ultra space and survive and onslaught of Buzzwole (Which is extremly possible), ZoroPod may not be a good play.

Bulu/Vikavolt

Here's an interesting choice. Bulu/Vikavolt is still clinging onto relevance, but just can't seem to go anywhere. But the with the dominance of Buzzwole, it's going to be a major testing point for the deck.

On the one hand, Bulu's getting an easy 1HKO on a Buzzwole and all relevant stage 1s with a choice band and discarding the energy, and Vikavolt is an OK backup in case of an attacking Hoopa deck. But here's the problem: It's slow. Vikavolt, being a stage 2, relies on Rare Candy to get it into play, and you won't always get the turn 2 Candy-Vikavolt. So while the numbers work out great, speed will determine whether it can compete with Buzzwole.

Espeon/Garbodor

This is probably the one deck that stands a chance against Buzzwole. Hitting that psychic weakness will be cruicial to keeping it in check, and this deck may be the thing to do it. Of course, you could just play Mew, Mewtwo, or Mew-EX, but having a full deck that can combat other decks while easily dealing with Buzzwole may be needed in order to assure you have the best matchup possible.

And this deck actually has a lot going for it. You have the energy evolution Eevee that allows you to get a turn one espeon, and if you go second, a turn one Psybeam, which hits a Buzzwole for 120 with a choice band, and that confusion flip can be annoying for your opponent. And with espeon, psychic against a buzzwole gets an easy 1HKO, and against any Zoroark decks running around, with a choice band, you're still getting a 2HKO, even with Zoroark's psychic resistance. And against anything that relies on large amounts of energy, like Gardevoir, it still does decently. And Divide GX can be a great mid game attack to soften up some main threats like Zoroark and Buzzwole.

And then there's Garbodor. Again, like before, there aren't too many abilities you need to shut off, but having it there in case you go into a match where abilities are important to your opponent, like Bulu/Vikavolt or Gardevoir, it's decent to have. And unlike Buzzwole, it's an easy fit into an Espeon deck. But you also get access to the Trashalanche Garbodor, which, despite seeing not too much play recently, could be ready for a resurgence if the players in Toronto become too reliant on items. And since buzzwole decks rely on things like Max Elixir to set up, plus you're hitting Buzzwole for weakness, you could bring Garbodor in during the late game to clean up one last Buzzwole

The Battle Commences

Will we see Buzzwole come out on top again? Will Zoroark be able to stay relevant? Will Espeon/Garbodor become a top tier deck once more? We'll have to wait for this weekend to roll around to find out.

Garchomp: Can Forbidden Light push it to competitive status?

When Ultra Prism cards began to come out of Japan, one of the most hyped up cards was Garchomp. While the fact that it had HP lower than the stage two average from the Sun & Moon era, the fact that it could do 200 damage simply by playing a draw supporter was enough to turn some heads. Combined with the Lucario from the same set, which allows you to get any card from your deck as long as a Garchomp is in play, and it seemed like a legit contender in the meta. But, like so many non-GX powerhouses that get hyped up before their english release, it just couldn't hold up to the hype. But now that a new version of the Ultra Prism Garchomp coming out of Forbidden Light, could we see Garchomp-Lucario become a viable deck?

The Core of the Deck

Garchomp-Lucario is one of the more strategy heavy decks in the format, and that mainly comes from the fact that you have to constantly play a specific supporter in order to hit the needed damage to compete. And without the Plasma Magnezone in standard, it makes this deck very skill intensive to play.

Now, in expanded, if you can somehow fit a Plasma Magnezone into a Garchomp deck, absolutely do it. Some may argue it goes against the idea that you should never play multiple stages 2s in the same deck unless one of them provides a draw engine, but the fact that you can play a draw supporter and something like a Guzma in the same deck, Plasma Magnezone essentially provides a draw engine. Albeit, maybe playing two stage twos and a stage one is a bit clunky, but I'm not the one to test that (Mainly because I wasn't playing during the Plasma era).

But if in standard, if you can figure out how to be able to work without heavily relying on Guzma to take key KOs and instead use stuff like Escape Rope, you might have a chance. And with Lucario having the ability to search anything, including Cynthias to boost damage, or Escape Ropes to attempt to pull up KO targets, it's a relativly consistent deck.

 Learning to Fight

With the release of Forbidden Light, we may have the card we need to push Garchomp to success. And that card is... Garchomp?

No English Scan at the time of writing. Sorry!

But here's the thing: It's now a fighting type. And unlike Zygarde-GX, it has access to all the tricks fighting pokemon gain. You get Strong Energy to add damage, Diance Prism to also add damage, and since a fighting type Gible is also in forbidden light, you can use Brooklet Hill to search out either the Riolu or Gible. But the big thing with this new Garchomp is that it hits things for weakness. With the Dragon version, unless you were playing against a RayBoar deck in expanded, you weren't hitting anything for weakness. But now you hit Zoroark for weakness. And while Zoroark may drop in play due to Buzzwole becoming the king of the format, Zoroark will likely see play as a draw engine in some decks. Which mean hitting a fighting weakness is still going to be relevant, and that's especially true if Zoroark-Greninja becomes relevant in the meta. But the one question that will decide it's relevance is if it can hit relevant numbers.

Crunching the Numbers

In the current meta, there are going to be 3 number you want to be hitting: 170, 190, & 210. 170 for stuff like Tapu Lele, 190 for Buzzwole & Ultra Necrozma, and 210 for Golisopod & Naganadel. I don't mention Zoroark because, again, you're hitting Zoroark for weakness and because of that, you simply need to attack and have any sort of damage boost (Choice Band, Strong Energy or Diance Prism) and you have a Zoroark KO.

For all of these numbers, I'll be looking at how to hit them if you don't play Cynthia. With playing Cynthia, you just need a damage boost of any sort and you get the KO. For 170, without playing Cynthia, you'll need a Strong Energy, Diance Prism and a Choice Band to hit it, which isn't the most difficult thing to hit at the moment. After this, however, it gets a bit clunky. For 190, you need to add another strong energy to hit the number, but if you do attach a second strong, you probably don't want to attach a double colorless to finish the attack cost. And for 210, you need all 3 energy to be strong energy, and have the Diance & Choice Band, which makes it incredibly vulnerable to enhanced hammer if you don't play special charge, and combined with it's grass weakness makes it not the best in a Golisopod matchup. So, not as great against pokemon with more than 190 HP unless you play Cynthia. But the ability to now be able to Guzma up a Tapu Lele and KO it because of stuff like Strong Energy will definitely help Garchomp in the long run.

Will "Sharks Spottings" go up?

Even with the fighting damage boost options, without a playing a Cynthia, Garchomp can't hit relevant numbers. But most decks that Garchomp would have a hard time against generally can attack multiple turns in a row, and therefore, those big pokemon don't have to be dragged up with a Guzma and that allows you to still play Cynthia. Even if you need to drag something up, just play Escape Rope. While it doesn't give you choice on what gets put up, it can still force your opponent into an awkward position. But all of this comes down to whether you want to play a non-GX stage two deck that's relativly slow in the early game, but can hit huge damage after it sets up. If players can find a way to set up quickly, it could be a great option. Otherwise, it may just be relegated to being a fun league deck like it has been in the months since Ultra Prism released. We'll just have to wait.

Forbidden Light Meta Predictions: New Archetypes & Buzzwole

It's that time again. The period where a new set releases and everyone rushes to get the potentially good cards out of said set, test new decks, and prepare for when the set will become legal for tournament play. While every set has it's fair share of hyped up cards, most won't ever see any real competitive play. For Forbidden light, quite a few cards may actually see play, but which ones will be able to take high-level tournaments? Let's look at some of the main new archetypes, as well as what Buzzwole will bring to the table for the next few months until Celestial Storm hits in August.

Crimson Invasion 2.0:

At this point, it's safe to assume Buzzwole is the best card in format, and BuzzRoc is the best deck in format. And those titles are only solidifed by the finals of the Latin America Internationals being a BuzzRoc mirror. But with Forbidden Light's release, 3 new tricks we're getting out of the set will guarantee Buzzwole's position for the foreseeable future.

Beast Ring:

When Buzzwole-GX was first released, and still even today, the primary way to charge up one was through Max Elixir. But while it is a great card for energy acceleration, it isn't guaranteed, and games could come down to whether you hit a key Max Elixir or not. The solution: Beast Ring. While Max Elixir will still be played with Buzzwole for early acceleration, Beast Ring is the key to getting up a Knuckle Impact as soon as possible. While the clause of needing your opponent to have three or four prizes remaining is a bit annoying, it's a very easy restriction to work with, as unless you're playing against a Greninja BREAK deck, it's extremely hard to go straight from five prizes to two. 

Diance Prism:

One of the key pieces that helped propel Buzzwole to top-tier status is the damage boosting power of Regirock-EX. However, it seems Regirock's time in the spotlight may be over as Diance Prism comes in to 1-up Regirock. The fact that Diance is essentially a double Regirock that only gives up one prize is what will likely force Regirock out. And while Diance is a one-of due to being a Prism Star, the numbers it allows Buzzwole to hit will make that trade off a small one in the long run. 

Baby Buzzwole

Let's face it: One of the main weaknesses of Buzzwole Decks was the Shining Legends Hoopa (Or the Alolan Ninetales from Burning Shadows). Even if you were playing the promo Rockruff, 20 damage means you're 3-hit-KOing a Hoopa with weakness, or if you were playing the Rockruff from Guardians Rising, the 30 damage would be enough for a 2-hit-KO with weakness, that came down to a coin flip. Those both assume you're not using Strong Energy or Diance Prism, but both are easily KOed by an attacking Hoopa. But now with the Baby/Non-GX Buzzwole, Buzzwole decks will finally have a decent Attacking Hoopa counter. While the second attack involves coin flips and is a bit overpriced, plus the first attack's damage boost sometimes will never some into play, simply putting a Strong Energy & Diance Prism on the bench will allow you to hit Hoopas for 1-hit-KOs with ease. Even if you don't have to worry about Hoopa, the ability to hit 120 for 1 energy is great. Again, it may never come into effect in some games, since going from five to three prizes is relatively easy, just having it as a backup will help even out some matchups. 

Beast Box: Naganadel/Buzzwole

Again, more Buzzwole. But let's face it, what other ultra beast would you pair with Naganadel as an attacker? While the deck does have the option to play other beasts like Kartana-GX, or in some cases Dusk Mane Necrozma-GX, if the deck sees any competitive play, it's likely going to be Naganadel/Buzzwole, and maybe a copy of Kartana-GX to deal with special energy.

Now, there has been plenty of talk about Naganadel just being a worse version of Zoroark-GX, but it has potential, and here's why: It's a Psychic Type. Because Buzzwole is the best Pokemon in format, being able to hit it's psychic weakness will be crucial to countering it. And while Mew-EX and Evolutions Mewtwo are also viable options as counters that can simply be teched into any deck, the GX attack on Naganadel could make it the best counter we have at the moment. Simply being able to screw your opponent over by giving them extra prizes when they've used a ton of resources, while accelerating your game-state by simply attaching three energy is a great option. And with Beast Ring running around, this could be a legitimate option.

Zoroark/Greninja:

This is probably the most interesting deck coming out of the new set, and it is the prime example of a hit or miss competitor. On the one hand, you get the consistency of Zoroark as well as a high damage, single attachment attack. Pair that with the new Frogadier & Greninja-GX, and Zoroark can now take KOs that previously took a couple of turns at best.  

But here's the one thing that could shoot this whole archetype down: It's relativly slow in the early game, and the main attacker is weak to Buzzwole. The success of this deck will come down to whether it can set up fast enough to deal with Buzzwoles. If that can happen, we could have a new version of the Seismitoad/Bats deck from the Boundaries Crossed & onward format. But if it can't, it may just be stuck to being a fun league deck that crops up every once and a while. 

Zygarde/Bonnie

While it could be argued this also has the chance to tank and become a fun league deck, there's quite a bit that's going for it. First off, Zygarde, being a fighting type, has access to some of the fighting damage boost tricks, mainly Diance Prism. It unfortunately can't abuse Strong Energy as it's acceleration attack accelerates fighting energy from the discard, and Strong Energy only counts as fighting energy when attacked to a fighting Pokemon. 

But, like Naganadel, what might push Zygarde to competitive success is the GX Attack. The ability to take easy KOs on things like Tapu Lele-GX is good in itself, gaining immunity to EXs & GXs is huge. Since most top-tier decks at the moment revolve around GXs, it's basically full immunity (Unless you come across an attacking Hoopa or any deck that plays a non-GX tech). And with the ability to spam it with Bonnie, and then reuse Bonnie with something like Pal Pad, it could possibly see play at the top-tier tables.

Ultra Necrozma/Malamar

And now, we have the most hyped up deck out of the set. Will it see play? Absolutely. The ability on Malamar has been proven good in the past with Dark Explorers Eelektrik and Phantom Forces Bronzong, even though those two were for lightning and metal energy respectively. 

Two questions still emerge with this archetype. 1. How will you be able to easily move Ultra Necrozma out of the active to accelerate to it with Malamar? The answer: Dawn Wings Necrozma-GX. While it's darkness weakness is painful, Zoroark will likely dip in play with Buzzwole gaining all the aforementioned new tricks, so the weakness won't be as bad. But what really will make this card great for Ultra Necrozma decks, besides the ability, is the fact that it's a psychic type that's resistant to Buzzwole. Being able to hit Buzzwole for weakness while basically negating a Diance or Strong Energy boost allows for Dawn Wings to become the final piece of the deck. But another question that has popped up every so often is why not the Necrozma-GX from Burning Shadows?



While the GX attack on Necrozma is better, as well as being able to hit 190 for 3 energy where Ultra Necrozma needs 4 energy, one of which needs to be metal, 3 things make Ultra Necrozma better. First, Light's End never comes into play in the current meta. It could down the road if Drampa sees an increase in play, but that seems unlikely with Buzzwole running rampant. Second, Ultra Necrozma has 190 HP while Necrozma has 180. As seen with Buzzwole, 190 is much better as it allows these Pokemon to survive hits from things like Drampa with a choice band, or Tapu Bulu without a choice band, and that could be key to Ultra Necrozma's viabilty. And third, Necrozma is weak to psychic. Again, any deck that techs psychic attackers to counter Buzzwole will counter Necrozma, where as Ultra Necrozma's weakness isn't as bad due to Gardevoir not being relevant at the moment, and even if it was, you're discarding the energy off of Ultra Necrozma, which weaken's Gardevoir's attack capabilities.

Reign of the Beasts

While Zygarde and Zoroark decks may still be good going into the era of Forbidden Light being legal, the best decks will likely revolve around Ultra Beasts like Buzzwole & Ultra Necrozma. Could I be wrong with this? Absolutely, but we'll just have to wait.