#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)
