aroramage |
Hope you guys didn't get tricked
too badly on April Fool's! And certainly I hope your
pranks were all in good fun! Because now we've got
something to prank your opponent's with - a Stage 2
switcheroo! That's right, we bring the review now to
Solgaleo-GX!
He's in a very similar position to
Lunaala-GX, given that he also evolves as a Stage 2 from
Cosmog/Cosmoem. The main difference is in his Ability,
his attack, and of course his GX move! First off is his
attack - the incredibly potent Sunsteel Strike! The move
hits for a whopping 3-for-230 damage, giving Solgaleo-GX
access to the strongest move currently in rotation! But
like all great damaging moves, it does come back with a
huge drawback - in this case, it's discarding all the
Energy on him. There aren't too many things that
accelerate Energy here in Standard, but Bronzong (PHF)
does seem like a natural partner for Solgaleo-GX decks
in Expanded.
Especially combined with his
Ability, Ultra Road! We've seen this kind of Ability
before, but Solgaleo-GX's differs ever so slightly. It
allows the rotation of your Active with any Benched
Pokemon, which again is similar to Abilities like Keldeo-EX
(BCR) and Zoroark (BKT), but UNLIKE these Abilities,
Solgaleo-GX doesn't have to be on the Bench to use it.
In fact, the Ability doesn't even require you to put
Solgaleo-GX out front - he's a free Switch every turn
for whoever's out front! You can swap him out after a
Sunsteel Strike to let Bronzong load him up with Energy
before next turn putting him out again to OHKO stuff!
And then there's his GX attack,
which is probably the quickest means of getting to
Sunsteel Strike: Sol Burst GX. For 1 Energy, you can
search your deck for any 5 Energy cards - and yes, that
includes Special Energy - and then attach them to your
Pokemon in any way you'd like. Now of course the obvious
answer is, "Oh just put them onto Solgaleo-GX to power
up his attack!" But the problem with that is that he'll
just discard the Energy again, and that'll be two turns
wasting on at least 3 Energy - never mind if you put
more of it on top of him. So why not equip your other
Pokemon with the Energy instead for a quick boost?
Suddenly you'll have a Sunsteel
Strike, a free Switch, and a powerful new attacker in
the span of a single turn! And you've planned out your
next few turns at that point! It may be a bit tell-tale
if your opponent sees what you're up to, but they'll
never see that Lysandre coming when you put it down, am
I right? Just keep an eye out for Garbodor while he's
around.
Rating
Standard: 3.5/5 (Ultra Road's a
solid Ability, and Sol Burst GX can be great when used
right)
Expanded: 4/5 (and Sunsteel Strike
has potential in its own right...just not without good
acceleration)
Limited: 3.5/5 (being a Stage 2
does hurt him a little too, but hopefully not so much
here in the near future)
Arora Notealus: Man, not only are
the mascot legendaries really cool this generation, but
they're also evolving legendaries too? And Stage 2s no
less! Is it any wonder why I love this generation so
much? Ahhhh, Gen 7, you'll never change~ ...well not
until Gen 8 or whatever.
Next Time: Sticky stuff to put on
your 'mon, don't touch the tip~
|
Otaku |
This week, we begin
with Leo Convoy Leo Prime Voltron
Solgaleo-GX (Sun & Moon 89/149, 143/149,
155/149; SM: Black Star Promos SM16). It’s
a Metal Type, so it will enjoy attacking into Weakness
against Fairy Types and some Water Types, but XY- and
SM-era Lightning Types are Metal Resistant; the former
is much more significant than the latter, but exactly
how much either ultimately proves will vary with the
metagame. The Metal Type has some solid (pun
intended) tricks, mostly defensive and spread out among
Pokémon Type based, Energy Type based, and sometimes
“other” based (specific attacks, Abilities, etc.).
There are some good offensive attackers that don’t have
an eye on defense as well. Putting it all
together, there are definitely rewards to being a Metal
Type, just not enough for me to think of it as one of
the best Types (perhaps one of the “better”, though).
As a Stage 2, it will take multiple cards and multiple
turns to hit the field; using the fundamental Evolution
mechanics of the game, you’ll need to Bench a Cosmog,
Evolve into Cosmoem the next turn, and
one more turn later, Evolve into Solgaleo-GX.
Rare Candy can replace Cosmoem while
saving you a turn, but now you need two cards in hand at
the same time, when our
primary
draw
cards
don’t lend themselves to such a thing, and relying upon
an Item means dealing
with
Item
lock.
Wally searches out the Evolution you need and
(with the right timing) saves you a turn but at the cost
of your Supporter for the turn (and another card’s
investment). This doesn’t mean Solgaleo-GX
has no chance of being competitive, but it stacks the
odds against it and will be the lens through which we
view the rest of the card.
Being a Pokémon-GX
also affects how we’ll evaluate the rest of the
card. No matter what else, being a Pokémon-GX
guarantees giving up an extra Prize when KO’d while
having three effects on the card, one of which will be
the once-per-game GX attack. Peeking ahead, we see
that Solgaleo-GX has an Ability, regular attack,
and GX attack. We don’t have them yet, but it
appears we’ll be getting cards that can punish or reward
a player for using a Pokémon-GX, probably in our next
full expansion. Being a Pokémon-GX has also meant
higher than is typical HP; we don’t have any other
versions of Solgaleo yet, but 250 HP is the
maximum we’ve seen on anything printed, so it is safe to
assume Solgaleo-GX got a nice boost. Since
Japan does have a regular Solgaleo
already, we don’t have to settle for that guess; looks
like the baseline version will clock in with 160 HP.
This is all relevant because even 160 HP isn’t overly
likely to survive a hit in the current metagame, but 250
not only is likely to do just that but may even manage
to survive two hits. That Fire Weakness is
dangerous for it, though; not only are we back to
fearing a OHKO, but Volcanion-EX decks mean it
might come from a low Energy Basic Fire Type attacker as
well. While Resistance isn’t as powerful as
Weakness - not a bad thing, as Weakness seems to be a
broken mechanic in the TCG - with HP and the metagame,
that Psychic Resistance is a nice little bonus.
The chunky Retreat Cost of [CCC] could be a concern; it
allows Solgaleo-GX to use Heavy Ball
and/or Heavy Boots, but it is pricey
enough it may be stranded up front. As we’ll see,
Solgaleo-GX has an effect that mitigates most of
this risk… but which also would have made a [C]
or free Retreat Cost amazing. That is a bit of
“glass half empty” thinking, however.
That would be
because the first effect is the Ability “Ultra Road”.
This is similar to the “Rush In” Ability of Keldeo-EX
or the “Stand In” Ability of Zoroark (XY:
BREAKpoint 91/162). The big difference is an
important one: Ultra Road is better!
Its effect allows you to Bench your Active and replace
it with any of your Benched Pokémon, as opposed
to only Solgaleo-GX itself. This means that
completely on its own, it is a free Switch
each turn; no harm in adding a pivot Pokémon or Float
Stone to the mix, though. Up next is “Sunsteel
Strike” for [MMC], which isn’t super-easy to meet, but
is fairly plausible with some Energy acceleration (wait
for it…). Its effect forces you to discard all
Energy attached to this Pokémon, which means it is going
to need to hit for at least close to enough to
OHKO most things in the game and it actually does!
230 damage is an impressive return; less “insanely
generous” than “I totally expected a nerfed filler
attacker”, but in the end, it is still good. Again,
you’ll want some form of Energy acceleration, but it
doesn’t even have to be too much if you can avoid
wasting it on single Prize targets. Which brings
us to “Sol Burst GX”; for [M] you can search your deck
for five Energy cards to attach to your Pokémon
as you wish. Your opponent will have a turn to try
and counter this (dropping it all on a single target is
usually a bad idea), but even just looking at how
Solgaleo-GX might combo with itself, this
might give us a deck. Use this attack to attach
two Energy cards that each provide [M ontwo Benched
Cosmog, Cosmoem, and/or Solgaleo-GX,
plus one on your Active that just attacked. If
your opponent can’t discard some of that Energy or KO
one of them (remember that HP), your manual Energy
attachment on subsequent turns just needs three targets
with less than 230 HP (and no unusual protection) worth
two Prizes to power through over the next three turns.
Cosmog
(Sun & Moon 64/149) and Cosmoem (Sun &
Moon 65/149) are your only options for a Basic and
Stage 1 in this line, and while there are no other
versions of Solgaleo-GX (or regular Solgaleo),
this is a split Evolution line, with Lunala-GX
representing the other option. We reviewed
Lunala-GX
here,
and it is a viable option to run with Solgaleo-GX.
Thanks to Sol Burst-GX, you can attach any five Energy,
and they can be basic Psychic Energy, or Special
Energy cards like Rainbow Energy that can meet
the needs of a variety of Pokémon but still be moved
around with the “Psychic Transfer” Ability found on
Lunala-GX. This, in turn, allows you the
option of powering a variety of attackers, and the
inverse of the trick is also plausible; running
Solgaleo-GX to help Lunala-GX, something I
was uncertain of when we actually looked at Lunala-GX.
Do I think this is the best deck to run using the
two? Well, it might be the best trick for both if
the focus is on Lunala-GX/another attacker, as
multiple copies of Lunala-GX are redundant;
unless you want a spare fully Evolved and sitting on
your Bench in case of a surprise OHKO, a spare Cosmog
(and Cosmoem if Rare Candy isn’t handy)
will serve you better Evolving into Solgaleo-GX
for Ultra Road. If we are focusing more on
Solgaleo-GX, then I have seen three other decks I
prefer, at least as a concept (since I don’t have their
actual lists).
As stated, you can
attempt a Quad Solgaleo-GX build (or at least
something approaching it); just use Sol Burst-GX to
facilitate your setup, then keep up on your manual
Energy attachments and shoot for OHKO’s the next three
turns. This is probably a bad idea, as quite a bit
can go wrong; a surprise OHKO is usually unlikely, but
not a TecH Crushing Hammer, Enhanced Hammer,
etc. The next approach is for Expanded only and is
the one I would really like to test: backing Solgaleo-GX
with Bronzong (XY: Black Star Promos XY21;
XY: Phantom Forces 61/119). Its “Metal
Links” Ability allows you to replenish the Energy
discarded by Sunsteel Strike, and the Trainers available
here mean you should be able to OHKO just about
everything and have options for dealing with
Ability denial like Garbodor (XY: BREAKpoint
57/122), or rather cards like Startling Megaphone,
Tool Scrapper, and Xerosic to discard the
Tool required for “Garbotoxin” to do its thing.
Conveniently, this also handles stuff like Fighting
Fury Belt and Focus Sash. Not sure how
to hand the Fire Weakness, however; I mean you should
be able to work in a Water Type, but I’m uncertain what
really works well with mostly Metal Energy.
The final deck idea
is to use Solgaleo-GX to accelerate Energy for
Darkrai-EX (XY: BREAKpoint 74/122, 118/122).
Specifically, one uses it to snag up to four
Double Dragon Energy cards from the deck and
attach them to a Benched Dragon Type or two, like
Giratina-GX (XY: Ancient Origins 57/98,
93/98) to fuel the damage bonus for “Dark Pulse”.
You’ll usually power up Dark Pulse at the same time;
besides the one leftover Energy with an optimal
Double Dragon Energy yield, I expect one Double
Dragon Energy will be Prized, in hand, and/or in the
discard already (maybe more). When this deck
works, it can be pretty devastating, as (like all
successful decks built around this Darkrai-EX),
Darkrai-EX is swinging for OHKO’s or 2HKO’s, but
even if you OHKO it back, your opponent probably already
has the next Darkrai-EX ready and
didn’t lose enough Energy to significantly diminish the
damage output of Dark Pulse. You only get one
shot with Sol Burst-GX, however. If this deck
ever became big, Skarmory (Sun & Moon
88/149) is a game winning counter, because there isn’t
room for Solgaleo-GX, a source of [M] Energy for
it, and all the usual tricks decks built around
this Darkrai-EX utilize. Some of the
tricks, sure, and you can attach basic Darkness
Energy in addition to or instead of the Special
Energy cards. You want multiple recipients when
you do hit it big with Double Dragon Energy,
plenty of attackers like Yveltal-EX hit harder
the more Energy is attached to the opponent’s (or both)
Active Pokémon, and again you don’t get a second
chance with Sol Burst-GX, even if you include Special
Charge or the like to reclaim the lost Double
Dragon Energy. Finally, even if you don’t
really need multiple Solgaleo-GX the whole game,
you need to Bench multiple Cosmog ASAP so an
opponent doesn’t keep picking them off.
I think Solgaleo-GX
has solid prospects in both Standard and Expanded play,
but probably in different decks. That Fire
Weakness could ruin things for it because
Volcanion-EX decks don’t seem to be going anywhere.
In Limited play, that Ability is fantastic even
if you don’t include any Metal Energy to use the
card’s attacks, but those are pretty great here as well.
It will be harder to run, but it seems like everything
about Solgaleo-GX becomes better.
Ratings
Standard:
3.25/5
Expanded:
3.5/5
Limited:
4.5/5
Summary
Solgaleo-GX
is really quite impressive but so far I don’t
believe it has delivered in competitive play. I
am, however, behind on the results from the most recent
events, so maybe it has and I am just unaware. I
suspect the Fire Weakness and pacing issues are
what keep it from really having a presence, though.
Plus, while its Ability is great, a Stage 2 line is
not an easy inclusion for most decks, so I expect
Keldeo-EX and Zoroark to remain the pseudo-Switch
trick.
Solgaleo-GX
earned two voting points, so if we extend our Top 10 out
far enough, it clocks in at 18th place. It was my
11th place pick for the set, at least at the time we
submitted our personal top 10 lists, which gave it a
tiebreaker it didn’t need because Skarmory and
Lillie tied with three voting points while our 19th
place finisher managed only a single voting point.
|
21times |
Solgaleo GX
(Sun & Moon, 89/149) really wowed me when I first
saw him.
I remember thinking that this would be the best
card coming out of the set.
I thought that
Tauros GX (Sun
& Moon, 144/149) would play similarly to
Machamp EX (Ancient
Origins, 90/98) and that
Decidueye GX (Sun & Moon, 12/149) wouldn’t have nearly the
impact everyone had hyped him up to.
Hmm, maybe a reviewer shouldn’t
start the review by pointing out several mistakes he
made in rubbing the crystal ball and guessing which
Pokemon would stand out from this latest expansion.
At any rate,
Solgaleo GX has not had any success at any of the major tournaments
since SUM’s release at the beginning of February.
I have seen it featured in a number of videos,
paired with such Pokemon as
Lurantis GX (Sun
& Moon, 138/149),
Lunala GX (Sun
& Moon, 141/149),
Mega Scizor EX
(Breakpoint, 120/122), and
Darkrai EX (Breakpoint,
118/122).
I’ve had the most success with
Lurantis GX
and Solgaleo, but I’ve only gone 11-9 with it.
Solgaleo GX
does appear to have everything you would want in a
feature, top tier Pokemon.
With 250 HP, most decks will have to three shot
it (I’m doing a study right now on average amount of
damage done to an active Pokemon, and the average hovers
around 100).
Furthermore, with the unprecedented ability of
Ultra Road,
you can move your Pokemon freely in and out of the
active position.
Also, if you have more than one
Solgaleo GX on
the bench, you can move your Pokemon as many times as
you have Solgaleo
GX’s on the bench.
If you have two
Solgaleo GX on
the bench and your opponent’s last attack placed an
effect on your active Pokemon, then you can retreat the
active Pokemon to the bench – the effect will fall off –
and then return it back up to the active position.
Like the other GX Pokemon that
have an ability,
Solgaleo GX only has two attacks.
Solgaleo GX’s only attack that does damage is
Sunsteel Strike, which does an almost unbelievable 230 damage – for
only three energy!
Granted you have to discard all three energy
after attacking, but by using
Ultra Road and a Pokemon like
Lurantis GX, you will have very little trouble
putting that energy back on your
Solgaleo GX.
Obviously, considering
Solgaleo GX will also not have any energy on it, this presents
itself as the perfect opportunity to play
Max Potion (Breakpoint,
103/122) to heal all of the damage that
Solgaleo GX
might have taken.
Finally,
Solgaleo GX’s most important attack,
Sol Burst GX, allows you for only one metal energy to place up to
five energy of any type (including special energy) onto
your Pokemon as you see fit.
You can easily power up two
Solgaleo GX’s
this way and potentially hit for 230 damage on
successive turns.
Combining all of these features together, the 250
HP, Ultra Road,
Sunsteel Strike, and Sol Burst
GX, you can see why it perplexes me a little that
this card hasn’t seen a top eight finish yet.
It might have to wait until the next rotation,
though, when Forest of Giant Plants (Ancient Origins, 74/98) has left the
meta.
Rating
Standard: 3.5 out of 5
Summary
Pokemon has definitely marketed
Solgaleo GX as
one of the two premier Pokemon coming out of the most
recent Sun & Moon expansion.
It certainly seems to deserve top tier status,
but time will tell if it can achieve success at the
highest level of the game.
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