Hello, welcome to a new card in the form of Luxray GL!
This card has a Lv.X version, and we have already
reviewed it, so what can be said about this normal form
then? Well, first of all, the basics of the card, and it
has an average 80 HP for an SP, which is alright, so it
should survive a hit, but don't always expect it. x2
Weakness to Fighting is obvious and very annoying, since
Machamp (SF) is still popular, and even if Take Out is
nullified by Unown G (GE), Hurricane Punch will only
need 2 heads to OHKO Luxray GL. -20 Metal Resistance is
alright, but is only really going to useful again Dialga
G (PL). Still, better than no Resistance. 1 Retreat Cost
is average, so not exactly bad, but not great either.
Obviously, this card is an SP as well, so it gets to
abuse the likes of Energy Gain, Power Spray, and all the
rest of it. Obviously, this is a good thing.
Abilities now, and really, it's attacks aren't all too
spectacular. Bite, first off, is your standard bland
attack. CC (or C with Energy Gain) for 30 is nothing
spectacular. It'll do until you can get the Lv.X or this
cards second attack powered up, but it'll never be worth
using after then.
Trash Bolt isn't that great either if I'm honest. LCC
(or LC and Energy Gain) for 70 does sound very nice.
However, you have to discard an Energy from your hand in
order to use the attack. It may only be one Energy, but
for those of you who have played Raichu Lv.X (SF), you
know how hard it can be to keep energies in your hand
for continued use of attacks like Trash Bolt. Bronzong
(SF) may sound like a good idea, but you'll eventually
start to run out of energies, and end up with a nasty
choice: attach energies to your Pokémon for in case your
active Luxray GL gets KOed, or discard energies to
attack and hope Luxray GL doesn't get KOed.
Combos, and I suppose if you want to base a deck on this
card alone, and use the Lv.X as a tech, then Bronzong
(SF) will do nicely for getting energies from your deck
into your hand. Also, since Luxray GL doesn't say it has
to be a Lightning energy, you could try adding a few
Waters and using Starmie (RR), who will constantly get
the Waters back into your hand for more Trash Bolts. Not
a bad idea, but may be slightly slow and tight on bench
space.
Counters, and the obvious one comes to mind: Machamp
(SF). It'll either Take Out Luxray GL for a OHKO, like
against most SP Pokémon, or just try a Hurrican Punch,
and hope that the likely event of getting at least 2
heads in 4 flips happens. I suppose also the Luxray GL
is it's own counter as well. Trash Bolt will just run
yourself out of energies, unless you have a way of
getting them back every turn like with Starmie (RR), but
as soon as you run out of energies, this card becomes
next to useless.
Ratings:
Modified: Without the Lv.X, this card isn't that great.
Trash Bolt will just run yourself out of energies, and
thus fuel for the attack, and Bite is just and alright
back up attack, and not likely to be something that
you'll want to use unless you have to (or will get a KO
without wasting a Trash Bolt). However, it's probably
best as just something to Level Up, at which point this
card has a use. It's not bad by any means, it's just not
good enough to cut it on it's own, thus the Lv.X should
be used as your attacker. 2.5/5
Limited: I'm not sure if it gets better or worse here.
Bite becomes more expensive without Energy Gain, and is
still not that useful, though again, is good if it'll KO
something without using a Trash Bolt. Speaking of, Trash
Bolt becomes worse here. You won't have as many energies
of every type you need here, so discarding any is likely
to cause trouble to you down the line. Still, there was
ways of getting energies back here, but they'll only be
helpful if you actually pull any of them. 2.75/5
Baby Mario Top 4 UK Nats
Luxray GL
We reviewed the LV X a couple of weeks ago, and found it
to be a very good card.
While you’re waiting for your Luxray GL LV X (which
shouldn’t take too long!), you can make god use of its
pretty powerful non LV X form.
Luxray’s first attack, Bite, does 30 for [C][C], not
bad, but nothing special. Its second attack, though,
Trash Bolt, is very nice indeed: discard an Energy from
the hand to do 70 damage for [L][C][C]. That’s good
enough to OHKO a Palkia G and with Lake Boundary or
Lucario GL in play it will knock out a Kingdra in one
hit. Being an SP Pokémon means you can bring down the
attack costs with Energy Gain, Poke Turn it when
damaged, and search it out with SP Radar.
The Metal Resistance is nice, as Dialga G will still be
played. The Fighting Weakness is not so good, but you
could always run Sunnyshore Gym to remove it. A Retreat
Cost of one is reasonable, and the LV X is a free
retreater anyway, so it shouldn’t be too much of a
problem.
The only real drawback with Luxray GL is having to
discard to use its attack. Most SP decks run with very
minimal amounts of Energy, so it isn’t always available
to discard. Running a couple of Night Maintenance and/or
Aaron’s collection would be a good idea if you were
playing Luxray GL.
Rating
Modified: 3.25 (A strong Basic with a very good LV X)
Limited: 3.75 (a fairly big-hitter here)
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