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Pojo's Pokémon Card of the Day

 

Top 10 XY Cards

#5 - Yveltal  

- XY

Date Reviewed:
February 17, 2014

Ratings & Reviews Summary

Modified: 4.25
Limited: 4.5

Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale.
1 being the worst. 
3 ... average.  
5 is the highest rating.

Back to the main COTD Page

Combos With: See Below

Baby Mario
2010 UK National
Seniors
Champion

#5 Yveltal

Hello and welcome to the second part of our top 10 countdown of the best cards from XY, here on Pojo’s CotD. We kick off the week with a look at the non-EX Yveltal. 130 HP Basic Legendaries have been the signature of the Pokémon TCG ever since the first Black and White set. Almost all of them have seen at least some play: from the early Zekrom/Pachirisu/ Shaymin decks through to Plasma Kyurem from PLF. Today’s card could just be the best of the lot. 

This is because, in addition to its great non-EX HP and more than useful Dark Typing, Yveltal boasts two very good attacks. The first, Oblivion Wing is basically a Type-specific version of Thundurus EX’s Raiden Knuckle: for a minimal cost, it does 30 damage and allows you to attach a Dark Energy from your discard pile to one of your Benched Pokémon. The cheap, fast damage is great as it can set up KOs for later, while the Energy acceleration is brilliant when paired with strong Dark attackers like Yveltal EX or Darkrai EX. It can also be used on non-Dark Pokémon that aren’t fussy about Energy Types like Mewtwo EX and Lugia EX. Darkness Blade isn’t bad either: 100 damage for three Energy, but a coin flip which may prevent you from using the attack next turn. It will two-hit any EX and the downside is easy enough to play around with switching cards, Darkrai’s Dark Cloak Ability, or Keldeo EX’s Rush In. 

Yveltal has a lot to offer Dark decks: it’s a non-EX Pokémon, so it doesn’t care about Safeguard Abilities or Silver Bangle, and doesn’t give up two Prizes. It can provide early-game acceleration and prepare the ground for later KOs. The only reason not to use it would be the fact that there are already a lot of good Dark Pokémon in competition for deck slots. While a Yveltal start is great in an aggressive Dark deck, control variants (using Garbodor, Hammers etc) will prefer to open with Sableye. Meanwhile, Absol PLF is already established as a very efficient non-EX attacking option. 

It may or may not get the play it deserves, but make no mistake: Yveltal is a fast and powerful card which should always be considered if you are playing Dark. 

Rating 

Modified: 4 (a great option for Dark decks . . . like they need it)

Limited: 4.5 (hits early and hits hard later)


HEZ
Intro to
Unlimited 150

Yveltal #78

Modified.
Darkness decks have been top tier for over a year now, with Darkrai EX and Sableye (Dark Explorers) forming the core of any quality build. Dark Patch is the deck’s form of energy acceleration and clearly it’s good but what if you were to tack this effect onto a big, aggressive Basic Pokémon? Then you get Yveltal! It seems a 70HP Basic that grabs a couple more Basic Pokémon is old news, this new breed of set-up Pokémon can now carry a very bulky 130HP, get off to a highly aggressive 30 for 1 start AND accelerate your main attacker all at the same time.
Its fairly costly 2 retreat cost shouldn’t be a problem most of the time with Darkrai EX’s Ability granting it free retreat anyway and Yveltals Fighting resistance comes in handy to check counters meant to hit Darkrai’s Fighting weakness.
Despite the way Fairy types seem to be being pushed so much in XY, Darkness decks don’t look like they’re going to be dislodged from their top spot quite yet.

Unlimited 150.
So powerful they had to change the rules! For some reason Yveltal was released as a regular rare, not a foil rare in the international version of the XY set, meaning Yveltal (and Xerneas) avoid the “ex rule” meant to balance the power level between new and old sets in U150. It was obvious the legendary pair would be too strong for the format as regular Basics and a new rule was implemented.
Even taking up its new name of Yveltal ex it is a terrifying force to be up against, especially in the first few turns. Easily destroying more popular set-up Pokémon in 2 hits whilst setting up more attackers make it quite formidable.  Its Darkness Blade attack also does a respectable 100 damage and with Darkrai LV.X backup this can easily be 130 damage, enough to KO most other big Basics and many evolved Pokémon!
Darkness decks were one type missing a big Basic attacker, the best they gained from the Black and White series was Plasma Absol, a powerful attacker, but 100HP is a little risky on an “ex” but Yveltals mere 30HP increase helps it survive so many more attacks, giving you another turn of acceleration and extra damage.
Literally any deck that plays mostly Darkness energy needs to play this card, it allows you to select starting hands that don’t have  to choose between aggression or set-up, Yveltal always asks, “why not both?”

Ratings.
Modified: 4.5
Unlimited 150: 4.5


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