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Our middle-of-the-week offering is Sylveon (XY:
Furious Fists 72/111). It is a Fairy-Type, meaning
it will enjoy hitting Weakness on occasion (specifically
against XY-era Dragon-Types), no worrying about
Resistance and some Type support (mostly indirect): all
in all I consider it to be a middle of the road Type,
perhaps a bit on the lower end, but it is less a matter
of it being bad than the best few Types being so potent
right now. It is a Stage 1 which hurts it a bit; two
cards to get one Pokémon in play plus a turn of
Evolution, though as this is an Eeveelution, you
might be able to take a shortcut (more on being an
Eeveelution later on).
Sylveon
sports 90 HP meaning its a probable OHKO; you’ll get
lucky some of the time, usually when you’re opponent is
still building or rebuilding their in play resources,
but the typical competent attacker is taking it down in
one. This goes doubly for Metal-Type attackers, as
Sylveon is Metal Weak. For now its one of the safer
Weaknesses, and with the 90 HP doubling the damage is
apt to lead to overkill. The big concern is the future,
as XY: Phantom Forces contains Metal-Type support
(both direct and indirect). Any Resistance at all is a
nice bonus, and though -20 points of damage won’t make a
huge difference but every little bit helps… plus if you
do have the option of running Klefki (XY:
Furious Fists 73/111); its Secret Key Ability causes
Resistance on Fairy-Types to count as -40. On 90 HP
that won’t make a difference for big attacks (those
hitting for over 130 points of damage before Resistance)
but it fouls small to medium sized attacks. Sylveon
has a single Energy Retreat Cost, which is good; easy to
afford and pay.
Sylveon
has two attacks, so with its size it needs to be some
kind of glass cannon and/or TecH attacker, or some sort
of “trigger” for another effect to explain why something
without an Ability is a Bench-sitter. The first attack
- Curly Ribbon - requires just [Y] to use. It does 30
points of damage and if the Defending Pokémon has any
Energy attached, you move it to a Benched Pokémon. If
there are no Benched Pokémon, this effect gets ignored.
Moving Energy around can sometimes be more useful than
discarding it, but most of the time its less; Energy
about to hit the discard pile (because the Pokémon it
was attached to is being KOed) are sent to something on
the Bench. If all your opponent has are spare attackers
that can make good use of the Energy, you’re helping him
or her out. Of course 30 points of damage isn’t likely
to score many KOs, and again it can be quite useful to
load something up with Energy that just can’t use it.
Echoed Voice is a familiar attack we’ve seen multiple
times before; at a cost of [YCC] it does 50 points of
damage and places an effect on the Pokémon that used the
attack (in this case, Sylveon) so that the next
Echoed Voice does +50 points of damage. Note that this
damage boosting effect only lasts until the end of your
next turn; if for some reason you can’t attack, its lost
and it does stack with subsequent uses. If you
keep using Echoed Voice without interruption, you could
hit for 50 and then 100, 100, 100, etc. until you were
interrupted. As you’re paying enough Energy to hit for
90 and this card will be hard pressed to survive a turn
while Active… its a badly overpriced attack and even if
less expensive would be a poor fit for such a small
card.
There is some small synergy between the attacks: the
Energy costs allow a Curly Ribbon to lead into Echoed
Voice, and thanks to the Colorless requirements, you can
use compatible forms of Energy acceleration, like
Double Colorless Energy to quickly reach Echoed
Voice territory. Curly Ribbon can also sabotage an
opponent’s set-up, hopefully keeping Sylveon
alive a bit longer to Echoed Voice… except I think I’d
rather see if I can stick to Curly Ribbon and really
irritate the opponent.
Being an Eeveelution is a pretty big deal because
it leads to quite the expansive card family. Normally
I’d break down which Eevee to use but the primary
candidate was reviewed only about a month ago and I did
a pretty thorough breakdown of it and the various
Eeveelutions; though the metagame have revealed
itself a bit more, you should get the information you
need
here.
So is this a good Eevee to work into an Eeveelution
deck? Unfortunately no, it isn’t. While it can be a
bit scary to stare down if you go first and your
opponent uses Energy Evolution to get Sylveon
into play and attack Turn 2 (...that’s overall Turn 2,
the first turn anyone can attack) it can really goof up
an opponent’s opening, but there is no guarantee of that
and working in Fairy Energy or just for it is a
bit problematic.
In a Fairy Deck, it isn’t really strong enough to
justify its presence either. It can be quite good in
Limited, however; Eevee (XY:
Flashfire
80/111) is able to search it out, so you just need to
make sure you’ve got a few Fairy Energy both to
attack and trigger Energy Evolution. Lower average HP
scores and damage output means it just functions better,
as is typical of many cards. It is even in the
Enchanted Echo Theme Deck; one regular Rare and one Holo
Rare version, plus four of the Energy Evolution Eevee;
if it gets going it can be pretty great, but if your
opponent can build something on the Bench it still might
be a one-hit wonder in a Theme Deck Limited Event.
Ratings
Standard:
1.75/5 - Curly Ribbon is overall a good attack but
Echoed Voice lets the card down and Curly Ribbon can’t
justify running it in a deck, at least when there are so
many other Eeveelutions also vying for space.
Expanded:
2/5 - Level Ball means this card would function
just a bit better here.
Limited:
3.75/5 - The built in search of this set’s Eevee
is a huge boon that makes an average-to-good card
significantly above average.
Theme Deck:
4/5 - The solid foundation this deck provides for
Sylveon can make it a formidable monster; there are
games where it did me little good because I had to build
it while Active and thus barely got off one or two hits
with Echoed Voice, but there are other matches where I
was able to keep my opponent from significantly damaging
Sylveon before I was able to use Echoed Voice,
and repeated 100 point shots add up fast.
Summary:
Given the Eevee and the solid nature of Curly
Ribbon, the real let down was Echoed Voice. If the card
had a half decent Ability or second attack, this card’s
usefulness would likely spike. As is, enjoy Sylveon
in Limited.
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