aroramage |
Is it weird that our top 4 is
completely filled up with these new GX? Probably not,
especially when we've got such powerhouses filling it
out! Lurantis-GX for instance may be a Stage 1 GX, but
you can bet she's going to shape new Grass decks to come
the same way Volcanion did for Fire decks!
...or at least for Volcanion decks.
Lurantis-GX starts out with just
that type of attack, Flower Supply, though it's a
1-for-40 that attaches any 2 Basic Energy onto any
Pokemon any way you like. That's good for charging her
up for her next attack as well as for charging up a
secondary attacker behind her. It's also really good for
another reason that I'll delve into again in a little
bit. Her next attack, SolarBlade, does 3-for-120 damage
and heals off 30 damage each attack. And while I haven't
been a big fan of attacks that heal off damage like this
rather than some other effect, the trade-off between the
damage getting dealt and the amount being healed isn't
too bad. After all, Lurantis-GX can 2HKO most anything
in the format outside of a few Pokemon-GX, so the 30
heal is actually more a benefit to her survivability
than anything else.
Then we come to Chloroscythe-GX,
her once per game attack. For but 1 Energy, Lurantis-GX
can deal 50 damage for every Grass Energy attached to
her. While it may not be the finest attack in the game,
having 5 Energy on Lurantis-GX can easily one-shot
anything no matter their HP, turning things around in
favor of the user easily enough. Flower Supply can
definitely help out with this, either supplying herself
with the Energy or giving it to another Lurantis-GX to
use their own Chloroscythe-GX. But ultimately this is
more of a last resort attack - it's not going to be the
sole reason to use Lurantis-GX.
No, that's what Flower Supply is
for, and with Forest of Giant Plants still around,
chances are Lurantis-GX will see a lot of play. Better
hope they pack some Water for all those Volcanion decks
still hanging around.
Rating
Standard: 4/5 (a solid choice for
Energy supply, though a little unfortunate with the
timing)
Expanded: 4.5/5 (against decks less
focused on Fire, they'll be fine, but otherwise it may
cause trouble)
Limited: 5/5 (and naturally, she's
a must-run in Limited)
Arora Notealus: Lurantis-GX is
going to play a major role for many Grass decks in the
Sun & Moon era, of that you can be sure. Flower Supply
on its own is more than enough to warrant her seat in
competitive play. Let's see how well she'll fare in the
format to come!
Next Time: Another Grass-GX? It
can't be!
|
Otaku |
At last, it is time
to countdown the top 10 cards of Sun & Moon, as
determined by the aggregate efforts of aroramage, Zach,
and myself! As usual, each reviewer submitted his
own personal top 10 list, and the results were averaged
out to produce the list we are actually using.
Reprints were not permitted for the list; we
already know a card like Ultra Ball is good (and
actually pretty hard to top)!
Third place in our
countdown goes to another new phase from Gen VII:
Lurantis-GX (Sun & Moon 15/149, 138/149,
150/149)! Not that you’d have forgotten from
yesterday, but keep in mind as we look at this card that
it is worth an extra Prize when KO’d. That doesn’t
technically make a difference for the Type, though being
a Grass Type is a good deal for Lurantis-GX.
Why? I’ll explain why later how because it can
exploit the Weakness found on many Water and Fighting
Types is going to be important. The lack of
Resistance to Grass Types is a nice bonus as well, and
more important than normal specifically due to its
damage output. Anti-Grass effects haven’t proven
worth the effort of including them in a deck, which is
almost as good as them not existing at all. Grass
Type support features one game-breaking thing: Forest
of Giant Plants. Of course, Forest of Giant
Plants speeds up the Evolution of Grass Types… which
doesn’t matter to Lurantis-GX, because it does
not Evolve. Don’t get me wrong, it is very
important to Lurantis-GX, but because Fomantis
is a Grass Type, allowing Lurantis-GX to hit the
field immediately. It also makes the Grass Type
Pokémon card pool more relevant; Vileplume (XY:
Ancient Origins 3/98) becomes amazing with it, and
running the two together becomes plausible, if not the
most obvious deck for most Grass Types.
Being a Stage 1 is important when viewed through the
Pokémon-GX lens, mostly because I think people forget
how much of the potency of early Pokémon-EX came from
them being Basic Pokémon. Still, being a Stage 1
Pokémon-GX is a lot like being an easier to run
Mega Evolution; no Mega Evolution rule, no Mega
counters, and no need for a Spirit Link.
Lurantis-GX
has 210 HP, which would be on the low end for a Mega
Evolution, but again we avoid that Stage’s baggage, so I
don’t expect as much HP. This is enough to usually
survive an attack, sometimes even two. Fire
Weakness is one of the big exceptions; Volcanion-EX
decks will make you hate this Weakness, as will certain
Stage 1 decks exploiting Flareon (XY: Ancient
Origins 13/98). Lack of Resistance is typical
and doesn’t hurt Lurantis-GX, but having it would
have been a nice, little bonus. The Retreat Cost
of [CC] is low enough you’ll usually be able to afford
it but high enough you’ll definitely notice it. It
isn’t as bad as it might have been thanks to this card’s
first attack, “Flower Supply”. For [G] it does 40
damage and also attaches two Basic Energy from your
discard pile to your Pokémon as you wish. As the
word doesn’t change its form, that is the plural, form
of Pokémon; you can split the Energy between two
recipients. You also can attach it to Lurantis-GX
and/or a target on the Bench, and while Special Energy
are off limits, you can pick any Type of basic Energy.
This is great for powering up just about any other
attacker. Lurantis-GX can use “Solar Blade” for
[GGC], doing 120 damage while healing 30 from itself.
Healing only matters if it keeps your Pokémon alive for
at least an extra turn, but with 210 HP that small
amount can make a difference. 120 is just enough to
secure 2HKO’s against most popular attacks, and together
are worth the price of admission. The GX attack, “Chloroscythe-GX”
requires only [G], but you’ll want more attached because
it does 50 per [G] Energy attached. Chloroscythe-GX
can scale its damage output, compliments both previous
attacks, and does great damage for the Energy required,
but remember it is a one-time trick per game.
Lurantis-GX
has to Evolve from Fomantis, and the only option
for it so far is Sun & Moon 14/149. It is a
Grass Type Basic Pokémon, and as stated earlier, that
allows us to abuse Forest of Giant Plants so that
Lurantis-GX can be just as fast as a Basic
Pokémon (though it will require more resources). Fomantis
has 60 HP, Fire Weakness, no Resistance, and Retreat
Cost [C]. For [C] its “Synthesis Attack” allows
you to search your deck for a [G] Energy card and attach
it to one of your Benched Pokémon; unless Fomantis
survives the turn, you won’t be any Energy ahead, but it
is better than some slightly overpriced vanilla damage
that only helps if, by some stroke of luck, you can use
it to finish off something that has already nearly been
KO’d. That would be the card’s second attack,
“Leafage”, which costs [GC] to do 20 damage.
Thankfully, you should almost never need to deal with
this thanks to Forest of Giant Plants.
There are no other Lurantis cards yet either, but
if we get some you’ll be able to run them alongside
Lurantis-GX; the names will be different so they
don’t crowd each other out of the deck, though as
they’ll be sharing a Basic they may still crowd each
other out of the field.
The new, scary deck
for Lurantis-GX is backing it with Vileplume,
as suggested earlier. With Item lock slowing down
your opponent, he or she will have a hard time dealing
with a steady stream of attacks. Lurantis-GX can
prepare another copy of itself or an alternate attacker
instead. There are many possibilities here as
well. Some people use Colorless Pokémon like
Lugia-EX or Tauros-GX; the former is good and
the latter is great. I haven’t seen it much
(yet), but you could also use off Type attackers, even
if they need some Energy Types other than [G]. I
would not recommend they have major off Type Energy
costs, but a single requirement seems manageable.
You could, for example, include something like Regice
to help cover the Fire Weakness of Lurantis-GX
while also walling against Pokémon-EX. Jolteon-EX
is an option to wall against any Basics while exploiting
Lightning Weakness. Glaceon-EX can also cover
Fire Weakness while walling against Evolutions. I
haven’t really seen this, though. What I have
seen, beyond the Colorless attackers, is the
Eeveelutions. Sometimes it is just Flareon
(XY: Ancient Origins 13/98, Jolteon (XY:
Ancient Origins 26/98), and/or Vaporeon (XY:
Ancient Origins 22/98). Yes, these three
again; Lurantis-GX is still a Stage 1 so with the
proper one of these on your Bench, you may exploit Fire,
Lightning, or Water Weakness without actually using
another attacker (or Energy Type). Some will
include Espeon-EX and Umbreon-EX as well,
but I am not convinced there is enough room to still run
Vileplume as well. I do believe that
without Vileplume, it looks like a viable
approach to 6 Corners (as decks that could hit six
different kinds of Weakness were once known).
Lurantis-GX
already has a lot of hype going for it, and I resisted
joining it for a while, but while preparing our top 10
lists and having actually encountered it on the PTCGO,
the hype is real… mostly. Give it a go in Standard
or Expanded play; I haven’t actually seen it there (been
focused on the Standard format), but even if the decks I
mentioned above wouldn’t work, I am sure there is
something you could do with it. Definitely
enjoy it if you pull it at a Limited Format event; it
won’t guarantee you the win, but if you can get it out
and powered up, it will come close.
Ratings
Standard:
4.25/5
Expanded:
4.25/5
Limited:
4/5
Summary:
Lurantis-GX seems to be the Sun & Moon
equivalent to M Manectric-EX. It doesn’t
Evolve from a potent Basic Pokémon-EX, but in every
other way, Lurantis-GX has the edge. With
the right support, it can even slap Yveltal-EX
silly.
Lurantis-GX
earned 16 voting points, four ahead of the tie we had
for fourth and fifth place, and three below the tie we
had between first and second. It was my own third
place pick a well, so I feel pretty good about its
placement on our overall list.
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