Hello, welcome to the middle of the week filled with
Rising Rivals cards, because we haven't had anymore
Supreme Victors cards revealed yet, which is annoying.
Anyway, todays card, and it's one that was hyped up alot
before it's release, yes, as you may have already
guessed, it's Flygon Lv.X! The basics of the card first,
and it has 140 HP, which for a Stage 2 Lv.X, is alright,
possibly just below average. x2 Colorless Weakness is to
be expected, and is annoying, but only really when
against other Flygon (RR) decks. -20 Lightning
Resistance is nice against all the Luxray GL Lv.X (RR)
that are running around at the moment. No Retreat Cost
is perfect, there is nothing better, and nothing else
that can be said about it really.
Abilities now, and these are the reasons why it has been
hyped. First off, it has a Poké-Body, Wind Erosion,
which a simple Poké-Body. Inbetween turns, whilst it's
your active Pokémon, you get to discard the top card of
your opponents turn. It's brilliant, mill always is,
since discarding the top card of your opponents deck
might be able to get rid of something important from
your opponents deck. It's great. However, the only thing
is mill is a rather unsupported ability in Pokémon,
which is a shame. There are other mill cards in the
format, but the main one is Rhyperior (DP) and Earth
Fissure, which discards the top 3 cards of your
opponents deck when you evolve it. The others all use
attacks, so Rhyperior is probably the best of the bunch.
Next, we have it's attack, and it's rather pleasingly
called Extreme Attack. It costs CCC, but it's worth it,
since you get to choose any of your opponents Lv.X's in
play and deal 150 damage to it. If your opponent has a
bench sitting Lv.X, then you can get rid of the annoying
Pokémon in one hit thanks to Extreme Attack (unless it
happens to be called Torterra Lv.X (DP), or has some HP
increasing effect in play), and ditto for if they have
an annoying and heavy hitter Lv.X active. It's very
nice, but not every deck will be running Lv.X's, so it's
not always going to be useful. Mind you, it doesn't
always have to be.
Combos now, and first of all, you'll probably want to be
using the RR Flygon with this card, due to it's Rainbow
Float Poké-Body, which will help when you want to put
this Lv.X active when you've had a tech or back-up
attacker active, or something similar. For this card
specifically, you'll want to abuse the milling effect of
Wind Erosion, mainly because it's hard to combo anything
like Extreme Attack when it depends upon your opponent's
deck. Anyway, if you want to discard more cards your
opponents deck, your best combo is with Rhyperior (DP),
since you'll be able to discard 3 cards for each
Rhyperior you evolve during the game, and 1 inbetween
each turn thanks to Flygon Lv.X. For even more
discarding, Super Scoop Up can be used to bring already
used Rhyperiors back into your hand, and then use Broken
Time-Space to evolve it again to discard 3 more. It's
obvious really. I've tried this combo out. It may have
been how I played it, but it didn't seem to work that
well, was a bit slow, and couldn't really do much
against anything faster that it, which is everything
really.
However, I do have a really nice combo for this card,
that I've used several times to great effect. First, you
really need to hope your opponent has used up all of
their Switches and Warp Points for this to work, and
your opponent to have gone through their deck very
quickly. While you may not know about the former, the
latter is very likely however, since Claydol (GE) and
Uxie (LA) will mean your opponent will probably be
drawing alot of cards. Anyway, for the combo, you need
your Flygon Lv.X to be levelled up from a Flygon (RR)
that's evolved from Trapinch (SW) and to use Memory
Berry. Thanks to Memory Berry, you can use Trapinch's
Inviting Trap to bring up one of your opponents Pokémon
with a high Retreat Cost and not a good attacker, like
Claydol (GE), and then start using Sand Tomb (Memory
Berry again) to deal 10 damage and stop them from
Retreating. Their Claydol can't Retreat, and you get to
discard the top card of their inbetween each turn, which
could lead to your opponent decking out very quickly.
Unown K (SW) can be used to stop their Claydol from
being KOed, thus continuing the lock for as long as
needed. It's great fun, though not sure if it can really
have a deck made round this combo by itself, but can be
incorporated into your normal Flygon deck.
Counters, and the main one that most people may think
about saying is then easily countered again by this
card. That is Dialga G Lv.X (PL), since it will stop
Rainbow Float (from Flygon RR) and Wind Erosion in one
card. However, Extreme Attack will then counter Dialga G
Lv.X by OHKOing it. It's rather obvious that Dialga G
Lv.X isn't going to stop this card that quickly. Night
Maintenance and Pokémon whose attacks or Poké-Powers or
whatever that need anything in the Discard Pile to deal
damage, or can get them back are good counters, since
then even if something is discarded, they'll be able to
deal more damage, or get it back or whatever. Really, if
you can OHKO it, then you should be fine, since then,
you won't be effected that greatly by Wind Erosion.
Ratings:
Modified: Wind Erosion is a brilliant Poké-Body. The
mill effect is just nasty, and really give your opponent
alot of problems, depending on what's discarded, and
late game, could give your opponent a fright when they
realise that most of their deck is gone. Extreme Attack
is situational, but against most decks, very useful.
However, it's still easy to counter, since OHKOing will
do to reduce the effects of Wind Erosion. 3.5/5
Limited: Extreme Attack will generally be pointless
since, well, who's going to be using a Lv.X here? Wind
Erosion is nice due to the reduce deck sizes you have to
play with here, thus making decking out a viable
strategy. However, the main problem is getting Flygon,
Vibrava and Trapinch here, and then getting them all
evolved and active and everything to get Flygon Lv.X
out. If you can do that even once, you deserve the
tournament win. However, I don't see it being likely.
2.75/5
Meganium45
OK, this is one of the “Hype” Cards from this set.
Take ANY other stage 1 or stage 2 card. Add a Flygon
Level X. Boom, you have a deck variant!
This is, and has been a deck building strategy for the
last several months.
We have seen Hippo/Flygon, Gengar/Flygon, Blissy/Flygon,
Weavile/Something/Flygon.
Cool combos for a really cool card.
140 HP weak to colorless. Without crystal shard,
colorless is NOT a really popular type.
Free retreat. Excellent.
3 energy attack for 150 to any other Level X. Can’t be
stopped with Unown G…Easy assassin for those using Level
Xs as support (Heatran, Magmortar, Dialga), or saving
them on the bench for later!
The underling Flygon is powerful onto itself.
The power, of discarding a card between every turn while
Flygon Level X is active can be gamebreaking!
The ultra-fast SP decks kept this card down, but just
barely.
Ratings.
One of the better Level Xs…Modified 4.5/5 If it wasn’t a
“Stage 3” it would be a perfect 5
Limited 2/5. You will draft it. You will like it. You
just will NEVER get to be able to play it. Too much to
get it out.
Vince
Baby Mario Top 4 UK Nats
Flygon LV X
Now this was the REAL money card in Rising Rivals (or at
least it was until Infernape 4 and Luxray GL won US
Nationals).
It’s not hard to see why either. Just take a look at
Extreme Attack. For [C][C][C] it does 150 damage to one
of your opponent’s LV X, regardless of where they are on
the field. There’s no hiding on the bench and, because
it is damage (not damage counters) Unown G won’t save
you either. 150 damage is huge and will easily KO any LV
X short of Regigigas. Suddenly those SP LV Xs don’t look
so formidable any more, with Dialga G, Palkia G, and
Alakazam G all becoming easy targets for the big
dragonfly.
Don’t overlook the PokeBody either. Wind Erosion can be
extremely annoying, discarding a card from the top of
the opponent’s deck every turn it is active. Watch and
laugh as your opponent looks on helplessly as the Night
Maintenance, Rare Candy, or PokeTurn they were counting
on hits the discard pile.
Flygon LV X has impressive stats too. 140 HP puts it at
the top end, Resistance to Lightning is great against
Luxray GL decks, and Free Retreat is always good. There
are some downsides to the card, though. An X2 Weakness
to Colourless makes mirror matches interesting, and it
can be vulnerable to techs such as Ninetales MT, Ditto,
and Fan Rotom. The relatively high attack cost means
that Flygon isn’t the fastest deck out there either, and
being a LV X means that it can’t use Upper Energy. It is
also significantly weaker against decks that don’t rely
on LV X Pokémon such as Gengar or Kingdra.
The Colourless Energy requirement does give it a lot of
advantages, though, making it easy to pair up with a
whole range of other Pokémon. It is especially
devastating when combined with Mewtwo LV X against SP
decks. Mewtwo’s PokeBody means that it can’t be
attacked by Basic Pokémon, and if they bring out Dialga
G LV X to shut it down . . . well, just snipe it with
Flygon for an easy prize and sweep with Mewtwo.
Flygon had a relatively disappointing showing at US
Nationals, but it won a couple of Nationals in Europe
and, if the deck gets set up, it can be extremely
difficult to stop. The hype around Flygon might have
died down, but you write the deck off at your peril.
Rating
Modified: 4 (slow-ish but absolutely deadly when set up)
Limited: 2.5 (are you going to get this out? Really? Why
not just put it safely in your binder for now?)
Steel_Winger
Welcome back to the Pokemon COTD!
Today, we'll be looking at one of the best cards in
Rising Rivals: Flygon LV. X!
The basics: 140 HP on a Stage 2 LV. X is standard. A x2
Weakness to Colorless Pokemon means other Flygons
(especially other LV. Xs) and any other Colorless
Pokemon with a decent attack will put a hurting on it. A
-20 Resistance means Luxray GL (LV. X) and Raichu GL
will have trouble taking it down. And there's a Retreat
Cost of... well, nothing, which is great!
Flygon LV. X has plenty of things going for it, one
being it's Poke-Body, Wind Erosion. Your opponent
discards the top card of his/her deck between turns.
Even though it's only one card out of a 60-card deck, it
can add up, especially with all of the searching and
draw power this game has. And there's a good chance your
opponent will discard something that may be useful, like
a Rare Candy. It's like dropping actual candy in a trash
bin... chances are that you want it back, but you'll
have to live with the fact that you probably won't get
it back. This guy could force an early Night
Maintenance, I believe.
Flygon's Poke-Body really messes with your opponent's
deck, but there's one thing that everyone should know by
now: it despises other Pokemon LV. X. All you have to do
to confirm this fact is to look at it's attack: Extreme
Attack. For 3 energies of choice, Flygon LV. X does an
extreme (lol!) 150 damage to an opposing LV. X. That...
is... AWESOME! There is only one LV. X that can survive
this attack unaided, and that's Rhyperior LV. X. If you
like overkill, hit an active Regigigas or Garchomp LV. X
with this. 300 DAMAGE! And the best part about this
attack is, it even hits Benched Pokemon.
This card makes AMU tremble. That's capital
T-R-E-M-B-L-E.
This card talks smack and gives a big smack to Dialga G
LV. X.
This card can wreck havoc among InferRay (or Luxnape,
whatever you want to call it).
This card can destroy the recurrence of Fire energy from
Houndoom, Blaziken, and others like them by hitting
Heatran LV. X.
This card... can OHKO opposing copies of itself. That's
funny!
An excellent tech because it's Colorless, both in actual
type and energy for it's attack. You will be seeing this
card a LOT in the future, if the high demand and high
price ($40-70 on some sites!) is any indication.
Ratings:
Modified: 5/5 What else can I say besides what I've
outlined? This card is a subtle and aggressive force all
by itself at the same tme.
Limited: 5/5 No person in their right mind would pass up
a chance to run Flygon LV. X if they had the means to
play it. Pull this guy, and with the already excellent
Stage 2, your chances of winning should go nowhere but
up.
