Shaymin – Triumphant Light
Date Reviewed: March 4, 2025
Ratings Summary:
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale. 1 is horrible. 3 is average. 5 is great.
Reviews Below:
Otaku
The fourth best card of Triumphant Light is Shaymin (A2a 069, 081)! It’s a Colorless Type, Basic Pokémon with 70 HP, (L) Weakness and a Retreat Cost of (C). Shaymin has the Ability “Sky Support”, which reduces the Retreat Cost of your Active Basic Pokémon by (C), but only while this card is on your Bench. Shaymin also knows the attack “Flap”, which costs (C)(C) and does 30 damage. Shaymin is available as a ♦♦♦ rare and a ★ rare.
Being a (C) Type does nothing for Shaymin. Literally. Nothing is (C) Weak, and there’s neither (C) Type support nor counters. So far, nothing with a counter is entirely lacking in Type support, though some well supported Types have no dedicated counter-effects. None of the existing Type-specific counters have proven competitive. The only similar Type is Dragon… but they all have no Weakness. Thus, (C) Typing may1 be the worst.
Basic Pokémon require no other cards to hit the field, and there’s no waiting to evolve into them. There are four pieces of Basic support1 and two cards with anti-Basic effects2. While Evolutions do seem to have some price breaks, and/or access to effects that could be too good on a Basic, to try and balance things out, it often isn’t enough. The full TCG sometimes addressed this with Evolution support, whether Stage specific or for any Stage, but as Pocket hasn’t, being a Basic is still the best.
Shaymin’s 70 HP is decent. While it could easily be better, I believe the only risk of being donked is from the universal threats; various Basic (W) attackers fueled by a very lucky Turn 1 or 2 Misty (A1 220, 267) or and even luckier Turn 2 Eevee (A1a 061). I didn’t spot any (L) Types who could pull off the donk, either, so Shaymin’s (L) Weakness is a minor nuisance. The same goes for its Retreat Cost of (C); it isn’t too hard to pay or to zero out.
Shaymin’s Ability is its claim to fame. Sky Support provides a solid (C) discount to Retreat Costs, but with three restrictions. Only working while Shaymin is Benched means it cannot help itself, though the Sky Support on a second, Benched copy can help the first when it is Active, and vice versa. Only working on Basics is a significant restriction, but if it had to be for a single Stage, better Basics than any others.
X Speed (P-A 002) and Leaf (A1a 068, 082) have been competitive since they released, usually only left out of decks that lack the space, don’t plan on retreating much (if at all), and/or maybe decks that have such chunky Retreat Costs X Speed and/or Leaf will rarely make enough of a difference. They’re good for establishing how valuable such aid is: an Item for a discount of (C) or Supporter for a discount of (C)(C).
Giving up a Bench slot is expensive, and there’s a risk you’ll open with Shaymin, but for all Basic decks it’s like having a free X Speed each turn! Much less likely to be worth it, if you have two of this Shaymin Benched, the effect seems worded like it would stack. Which means a free Leaf per turn, without having to burn your Supporter usage.
It also means Shaymin could act as a pivot Pokémon; while Pocket lacks cards like Switch4, so you won’t be able to use it to easily shake attack effects, Special Conditions, etc. but it gives you a painless choice to promote after something else gets KO’d heading into your next turn. This gives you time to think about you actually want Active, and occasionally opens up combos involving effects that work on Benched Pokémon, but not Actives, for the thing you do want to eventually make Active.
Flap isn’t a flop, but it’s for emergency use only. Given how Shaymin’s Ability works, Shaymin should never be Active unless you must. Considering how many (C) Pokémon can do 20 or 30 for just one Energy, perhaps the designers think Shaymin’s Ability and stats are valuable enough to give it a slightly underpowered attack.
There’s another Shaymin to consider: Shaymin (A2 022, 159). It’s a (G) Type, Basic Pokémon with 60 HP, (R) Weakness, (C) Retreat Cost, the Ability “Flower Fragrance Garden”, and the attack “Flop”. Fragrant Flower Garden can be used once per turn to heal 10 damage from each of your Pokémon. Flop is a worse flap; (G)(C) to do 30 damage. Still, this Ability was good enough that it’s shown up in a few decks, leading me to finally review it earlier this week.
You can only run two cards named “Shaymin” in your deck, so these two are directly competing with each other. If you have a deck that can use both equally well, you can opt to run one of each. It’ll be less reliable than a deck that only needs one of them and runs two just to improve their odds of drawing into a copy, or hitting one with Poké Ball. It also means you can’t try for double healing or a double Retreat Cost discount.
Should you? As you may recall, I use LimitlessTCG as a reference. They identity decks with the names of (and cute little sprites of) the two main Pokémon of the deck. Shaymin (A2a 069, 081) is support, so it doesn’t show up even in the decks that use it. Surprisingly, the Shaymin (A2 022, 159) does, but in decks with poor records, perhaps proving why it shouldn’t be the only other noteworthy Pokémon in your deck. Poking around, though, I found at least one, high performing list using them both, so it’s at least possible.
Rating: 3.25/5
In general, if your deck can make room for Shaymin (A2a 069, 081) and you’ve got Basics that often need to retreat for (C) or more, consider it. Shaymin isn’t a new staple, but it has broad enough usage with a useful enough Ability, I thought it deserved a place in the countdown.
1It could be for other reasons, but I’ve noticed some (C) Type Pokémon have a better return for their (C) Energy costs than would be expected, even considering other factors like Stage and/or being a Pokémon ex.
2Celestic Town Elder (A2a 073, 088), Combee (A2 017, 157), Poké Ball (P-A 005), and Shaymin (A2a 069, 081) itself.
3Pokémon Flute (A1a 064) and Victreebel (A1 020).
4Too many printings to list! Switch is a Trainer-Item that lets you move your Active Pokémon to your Bench while moving something on your Bench up front to be the new Active. Like retreating, except it doesn’t count as a retreating.
We would love more volunteers to help us with our Card of the Day reviews. If you want to share your ideas on cards with other fans, feel free to drop us an email. We’d be happy to link back to your blog / YouTube Channel / etc. 😉 Click here to read our Pokémon Card of the Day Archive. We have reviewed nearly 5000 Pokémon cards over the last 25 + years!
