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Pojo's Pokémon Card of the Day

 

Top 10 Sun & Moon

#3 - Lurantis GX
- Sun & Moon

Date Reviewed:
Feb. 15, 2017

Ratings & Reviews Summary

Standard: 4.23
Expanded: 4.38
Limited: 4.50

Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale.
1 being horrible.  3 ... average.  5 is awesome.

Back to the main COTD Page


aroramage

Is it weird that our top 4 is completely filled up with these new GX? Probably not, especially when we've got such powerhouses filling it out! Lurantis-GX for instance may be a Stage 1 GX, but you can bet she's going to shape new Grass decks to come the same way Volcanion did for Fire decks! 

...or at least for Volcanion decks. 

Lurantis-GX starts out with just that type of attack, Flower Supply, though it's a 1-for-40 that attaches any 2 Basic Energy onto any Pokemon any way you like. That's good for charging her up for her next attack as well as for charging up a secondary attacker behind her. It's also really good for another reason that I'll delve into again in a little bit. Her next attack, SolarBlade, does 3-for-120 damage and heals off 30 damage each attack. And while I haven't been a big fan of attacks that heal off damage like this rather than some other effect, the trade-off between the damage getting dealt and the amount being healed isn't too bad. After all, Lurantis-GX can 2HKO most anything in the format outside of a few Pokemon-GX, so the 30 heal is actually more a benefit to her survivability than anything else. 

Then we come to Chloroscythe-GX, her once per game attack. For but 1 Energy, Lurantis-GX can deal 50 damage for every Grass Energy attached to her. While it may not be the finest attack in the game, having 5 Energy on Lurantis-GX can easily one-shot anything no matter their HP, turning things around in favor of the user easily enough. Flower Supply can definitely help out with this, either supplying herself with the Energy or giving it to another Lurantis-GX to use their own Chloroscythe-GX. But ultimately this is more of a last resort attack - it's not going to be the sole reason to use Lurantis-GX. 

No, that's what Flower Supply is for, and with Forest of Giant Plants still around, chances are Lurantis-GX will see a lot of play. Better hope they pack some Water for all those Volcanion decks still hanging around. 

Rating 

Standard: 4/5 (a solid choice for Energy supply, though a little unfortunate with the timing) 

Expanded: 4.5/5 (against decks less focused on Fire, they'll be fine, but otherwise it may cause trouble) 

Limited: 5/5 (and naturally, she's a must-run in Limited) 

Arora Notealus: Lurantis-GX is going to play a major role for many Grass decks in the Sun & Moon era, of that you can be sure. Flower Supply on its own is more than enough to warrant her seat in competitive play. Let's see how well she'll fare in the format to come! 

Next Time: Another Grass-GX? It can't be!


Otaku

At last, it is time to countdown the top 10 cards of Sun & Moon, as determined by the aggregate efforts of aroramage, Zach, and myself!  As usual, each reviewer submitted his own personal top 10 list, and the results were averaged out to produce the list we are actually using.  Reprints were not permitted for the list; we already know a card like Ultra Ball is good (and actually pretty hard to top)! 

Third place in our countdown goes to another new phase from Gen VII: Lurantis-GX (Sun & Moon 15/149, 138/149, 150/149)!  Not that you’d have forgotten from yesterday, but keep in mind as we look at this card that it is worth an extra Prize when KO’d.  That doesn’t technically make a difference for the Type, though being a Grass Type is a good deal for Lurantis-GX.  Why?  I’ll explain why later how because it can exploit the Weakness found on many Water and Fighting Types is going to be important.  The lack of Resistance to Grass Types is a nice bonus as well, and more important than normal specifically due to its damage output.  Anti-Grass effects haven’t proven worth the effort of including them in a deck, which is almost as good as them not existing at all.  Grass Type support features one game-breaking thing: Forest of Giant Plants.  Of course, Forest of Giant Plants speeds up the Evolution of Grass Types… which doesn’t matter to Lurantis-GX, because it does not Evolve.  Don’t get me wrong, it is very important to Lurantis-GX, but because Fomantis is a Grass Type, allowing Lurantis-GX to hit the field immediately.  It also makes the Grass Type Pokémon card pool more relevant; Vileplume (XY: Ancient Origins 3/98) becomes amazing with it, and running the two together becomes plausible, if not the most obvious deck for most Grass Types.  Being a Stage 1 is important when viewed through the Pokémon-GX lens, mostly because I think people forget how much of the potency of early Pokémon-EX came from them being Basic Pokémon.  Still, being a Stage 1 Pokémon-GX is a lot like being an easier to run Mega Evolution; no Mega Evolution rule, no Mega counters, and no need for a Spirit Link. 

Lurantis-GX has 210 HP, which would be on the low end for a Mega Evolution, but again we avoid that Stage’s baggage, so I don’t expect as much HP.  This is enough to usually survive an attack, sometimes even two.  Fire Weakness is one of the big exceptions; Volcanion-EX decks will make you hate this Weakness, as will certain Stage 1 decks exploiting Flareon (XY: Ancient Origins 13/98).  Lack of Resistance is typical and doesn’t hurt Lurantis-GX, but having it would have been a nice, little bonus.  The Retreat Cost of [CC] is low enough you’ll usually be able to afford it but high enough you’ll definitely notice it.  It isn’t as bad as it might have been thanks to this card’s first attack, “Flower Supply”.  For [G] it does 40 damage and also attaches two Basic Energy from your discard pile to your Pokémon as you wish.  As the word doesn’t change its form, that is the plural, form of Pokémon; you can split the Energy between two recipients.  You also can attach it to Lurantis-GX and/or a target on the Bench, and while Special Energy are off limits, you can pick any Type of basic Energy.  This is great for powering up just about any other attacker.  Lurantis-GX can use “Solar Blade” for [GGC], doing 120 damage while healing 30 from itself.  Healing only matters if it keeps your Pokémon alive for at least an extra turn, but with 210 HP that small amount can make a difference.  120 is just enough to secure 2HKO’s against most popular attacks, and together are worth the price of admission.  The GX attack, “Chloroscythe-GX” requires only [G], but you’ll want more attached because it does 50 per [G] Energy attached.  Chloroscythe-GX can scale its damage output, compliments both previous attacks, and does great damage for the Energy required, but remember it is a one-time trick per game. 

Lurantis-GX has to Evolve from Fomantis, and the only option for it so far is Sun & Moon 14/149.  It is a Grass Type Basic Pokémon, and as stated earlier, that allows us to abuse Forest of Giant Plants so that Lurantis-GX can be just as fast as a Basic Pokémon (though it will require more resources).  Fomantis has 60 HP, Fire Weakness, no Resistance, and Retreat Cost [C].  For [C] its “Synthesis Attack” allows you to search your deck for a [G] Energy card and attach it to one of your Benched Pokémon; unless Fomantis survives the turn, you won’t be any Energy ahead, but it is better than some slightly overpriced vanilla damage that only helps if, by some stroke of luck, you can use it to finish off something that has already nearly been KO’d.  That would be the card’s second attack, “Leafage”, which costs [GC] to do 20 damage.  Thankfully, you should almost never need to deal with this thanks to Forest of Giant Plants.  There are no other Lurantis cards yet either, but if we get some you’ll be able to run them alongside Lurantis-GX; the names will be different so they don’t crowd each other out of the deck, though as they’ll be sharing a Basic they may still crowd each other out of the field. 

The new, scary deck for Lurantis-GX is backing it with Vileplume, as suggested earlier.  With Item lock slowing down your opponent, he or she will have a hard time dealing with a steady stream of attacks.  Lurantis-GX can prepare another copy of itself or an alternate attacker instead.  There are many possibilities here as well.  Some people use Colorless Pokémon like Lugia-EX or Tauros-GX; the former is good and the latter is great.  I haven’t seen it much (yet), but you could also use off Type attackers, even if they need some Energy Types other than [G].  I would not recommend they have major off Type Energy costs, but a single requirement seems manageable.  You could, for example, include something like Regice to help cover the Fire Weakness of Lurantis-GX while also walling against Pokémon-EX.  Jolteon-EX is an option to wall against any Basics while exploiting Lightning Weakness.  Glaceon-EX can also cover Fire Weakness while walling against Evolutions.  I haven’t really seen this, though.  What I have seen, beyond the Colorless attackers, is the Eeveelutions.  Sometimes it is just Flareon (XY: Ancient Origins 13/98, Jolteon (XY: Ancient Origins 26/98), and/or Vaporeon (XY: Ancient Origins 22/98).  Yes, these three again; Lurantis-GX is still a Stage 1 so with the proper one of these on your Bench, you may exploit Fire, Lightning, or Water Weakness without actually using another attacker (or Energy Type).  Some will include Espeon-EX and Umbreon-EX as well, but I am not convinced there is enough room to still run Vileplume as well.  I do believe that without Vileplume, it looks like a viable approach to 6 Corners (as decks that could hit six different kinds of Weakness were once known). 

Lurantis-GX already has a lot of hype going for it, and I resisted joining it for a while, but while preparing our top 10 lists and having actually encountered it on the PTCGO, the hype is real… mostly.  Give it a go in Standard or Expanded play; I haven’t actually seen it there (been focused on the Standard format), but even if the decks I mentioned above wouldn’t work, I am sure there is something you could do with it.  Definitely enjoy it if you pull it at a Limited Format event; it won’t guarantee you the win, but if you can get it out and powered up, it will come close. 

Ratings 

Standard: 4.25/5 

Expanded: 4.25/5 

Limited: 4/5 

Summary: Lurantis-GX seems to be the Sun & Moon equivalent to M Manectric-EX.  It doesn’t Evolve from a potent Basic Pokémon-EX, but in every other way, Lurantis-GX has the edge.  With the right support, it can even slap Yveltal-EX silly. 

Lurantis-GX earned 16 voting points, four ahead of the tie we had for fourth and fifth place, and three below the tie we had between first and second.  It was my own third place pick a well, so I feel pretty good about its placement on our overall list.


Zach Carmichael
Had this at #3 on his list


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