Pick Up Our New 20th Anniversary Pokemon Book for your Collection!

Pokemon Home

Pokedex

Price Guide Set List

Message Board

Pokemon GO Tips

Pokemon News

Featured Articles

Trading Card Game
- Price Guide
- Price Guide
- Card of the Day
- Professional Grading
- Killer Deck Reports
- Deck Garage
- William Hung
- Jason Klaczynski
- Jeremy's Deck Garage
- Johnny Blaze's Banter
- TCG Strategies
- Rulings Help
- Apprentice & Patch
- Apprentice League
- Spoilers & Translations
- Official Rules
- Featured Event Reports
- Top of the World
- An X-Act Science
- Error Cards
- Printable Checklist
- Places to Play

Nintendo Tips
- Red/Blue
- Yellow
- Gold & Silver
- Crystal
- Ruby & Sapphire
- Fire Red & Leaf Green
- Emerald
- SNAP
- Pinball
- TCG cart
- Stadium
- PuPuzzle League
- Pinball: Ruby/Sapphire
- Pokemon Coliseum
- Pokemon Box
- Pokemon Channel

GameBoy Help
- ClownMasters Fixes
- Groudon's Den
- Pokemon of the Week

E-Card Reader FAQ's
- Expedition
- Aquapolis
- Skyridge
- Construction Action Function
- EON Ticket Manual

Deck Garage
- Pokemaster's Pit Stop
- Kyle's Garage
- Ghostly Gengar

Cartoon/Anime
- Episode Listing
- Character Bios
- Movies & Videos
- What's a Pokemon?
- Video List
- DVD List

Featured Articles

Pojo's Toy Box

Books & Videos

Downloads

Advertise With Us
- Sponsors
- Links

Chat

About Us
Contact Us

Pojo's Pokémon Card of the Day

aroramage	Sogaleo, the Pokemon, is super interesting!  Sogaleo, the TCG card from Guardians Rising...less so.  It's a Stage 2 Evolution card with 160 HP and two attacks. Shining Arrow costs 2 Energy and can snipe for 50 damage on any Pokemon. Not bad, but not great either. And then FANGS OF THE SUNNE is a tremendous 3-for-170 that is restricted to every other turn or so, so you can't use it every turn.  I wonder why they've never thought to have an Item or Ability that could ignore these "can't use this attack next turn" kind of effects?  Anyway, Solgaleo's nothing special to me. His snipe is pretty good, but it's not the best, and while FANGS OF THE SUNNE is powerful, its restriction really limits what he can do. Though with Choice Band, those FANGS can take on Basic-EX and GX pretty well, so that's noteworthy.  Rating  Standard: 2/5 (I'm ranking him on the lower side though just generally)  Expanded: 2/5 (he may have utility, but he is a 2-Stage evolution)  Limited: 1/5 (and that's not even including the previous two evolutions, which I'll remind you aren't in this set)  Arora Notealus: Solgaleo's cool...but not every card can be a winner.  Next Time: MACHO, MACHO MAAAAAAAAAAN
21times	Solgaleo (Guardians Rising, 87/145) comes to the meta from the Guardians Rising expansion set.  A 160 HP Stage 2 Metal Pokemon, it has two really good attacks.  Shining Arrow, for a Metal and a Colorless energy, does fifty damage to any of your opponent’s Pokemon.  Fangs of the Sunne, for just a single Metal energy, does 170 damage, but you cannot use it during the next turn. Fangs of the Sunne is a pretty impressive attack.  There aren’t many single prize Pokemon not ending in the letters -odor or -inja that can hit for 170 damage in a single turn.  That OHKOs almost every other single prize Pokemon and (with a Choice Band (Guardians Rising, 121/145)) many of the two prize Pokemon running around right now.  The downside, not being able to use Fangs of the Sunne in the next turn, is less than desirable… if there were only a Pokemon with an ability that could swap Pokemon in and out of the active to drop this effect… oh wait Solgaleo GX (Sun and Moon, 89/149) has the ability Ultra Road that can do precisely that.  And I also chose to include Tapu Koko (SM Promo 31) because of its free retreat cost.  If Big Daddy moves Baby Solgaleo down to the bench and promotes Koko, then we can just retreat Koko and bring Baby Solgaleo back up to attack again because the effect of Fangs of the Sunne drops off Solgaleo when it’s switched out of the active. And this strategy worked pretty well for me.  I went 12-8 overall, 7-2 in my last nine, including a win over a Volcanion (Steam Siege, 25/114) deck.  I went through several different iterations, but I finally settled on this list: * 1 Tapu Koko PR-SM SM31 * 4 Solgaleo GRI 87 * 2 Solgaleo-GX SUM 89 * 4 Cosmog SUM 64 * 4 Cosmoem SUM 65 * 4 Alolan Vulpix GRI 21 * 4 Professor Sycamore STS 114 * 4 Hala GRI 126 * 3 Rescue Stretcher GRI 130 * 2 Choice Band GRI 121 * 4 Ultra Ball SUM 135 * 2 Random Receiver FAC 109 * 2 Teammates PRC 141 * 3 Energy Retrieval SUM 116 * 4 Level Ball AOR 76 * 2 Rare Candy SUM 129 * 11 Metal Energy SUM 163 Rating Standard: 3.5 out of 5 Conclusion I had a lot of fun playing this deck.  It has some holes – for instance, if you prize a Cosmog or two, that makes it very difficult.  I run a lot of Item cards, but I did go 1-1 in matches against Garbodor (Guardians Rising, 51/145).  And although I went 1-1 against Fire decks, I doubt you’ll continue to break even against them.  But it’s a fun deck, switching Solgaleos in and out of the active, and 170 or 200 is a huge amount of damage to do.  I’d highly recommend trying this out, and with the impending premier of Gardevoir GX (Burning Shadows), it may become a good deck to play, as Gardevoir GX will probably see a lot of play – it has received high reviews from multiple Youtubers, with one of them going so far as to anoint it BDIF and winner of worlds if there isn’t too much Metagross GX (Guardians Rising, 85/145)… or maybe Solgaleo.
Otaku	We begin this week with Solgaleo (SM: Guardians Rising 87/145), a Metal-Type Stage 2 Pokémon with 160 HP, Fire Weakness, Psychic Resistance, Retreat Cost [CCC] and two attacks.  Metal-Type Pokémon are decent for Type-matching but not great, though that can change with the shifting metagame.  In terms of support, they’ve got some useful (but not mindblowing) tricks across the board, though it is a little richer in Expanded play.  Being a Stage 2 is a challenge, but not a guaranteed deal breaker.  160 HP is enough to often survive a hit and quite appreciated.  Fire Weakness is dangerous with cards like Turtonator-GX and Volcanion-EX running around.  Psychic Resistance could come in handy with the HP and attackers like Garbodor (SM: Guardians Rising 51/145), given that means it needs nine Items in your discard pile instead of eight for Trashalanche to score a OHKO.  The chunky Retreat Cost begs you to run some assistance for it.  The first attack is “Shining Arrow” for [MC], and it allows you to do 50 damage to the opposing Pokémon of your choice.  [MMC] pays for “Fangs of the Sunne”, which does 170 damage but has an effect that prevents the Pokémon who uses it from using it again during your next turn.  The Energy costs aren’t friendly to more generic forms of Energy acceleration, but at the same time, these attacks seem fairly good.  You might get lucky and score a OHKO against something on the Bench with Shining Arrow, and Fangs of the Sunne already hits hard enough to OHKO a Tapu Lele-GX; alternating brings most Pokémon into 2HKO range or you can build a deck to get around the drawbacks of Fangs of the Sunne, allowing you to use it over and over again (and maybe adding some damage buffs).  There aren’t a lot of options when it comes to lower Stages for Solgaleo: besides Rare Candy and card effects both obscure and ineffective, you’ve got no choice but to use Cosmog (Sun & Moon 64/149) and Cosmoem (Sun & Moon 65/149).  Both are Psychic-Type Pokémon with Psychic Weakness, no Resistance, and a single attack.  Cosmog is a Basic Pokémon with 60 HP, Retreat Cost [C], and the attack “Dust Gathering” for [C] which has you draw a card.  Cosmoem is a Stage 1 Pokémon with 90 HP, Retreat Cost [CCC], and the attack “Teleport”.  For [C], Teleport allows you to switch Cosmoem (or whatever is using Teleport) with one of your Benched Pokémon.  No, not in the cool way; they don’t swap attached cards, damage, etc. it just acts like you used Switch.  Not the worst Evolving Pokémon and the mediocre HP scores mean Level Ball can fetch both, but nothing to write home about.  There are, however, three more released cards, all of them alternate Stage 2 Pokémon for the line: Lunala (SM: Guardians Rising 61/145), Lunala-GX, and Solgaleo-GX.  All three are Stage 2 Pokémon, which means all three have to be pretty good elsewhere to compensate for the increased card and time investment when compared to most other Evolutions. Both Lunala and Lunala-GX are Psychic-Type Stage 2 Pokémon with Darkness Weakness, Fighting Resistance, and Retreat Cost [CC].  Being a Psychic-Type is not bad, and could be better than being a Metal-Type right now (sorry folks, I’m not sure).  Darkness Weakness is terrible, Fighting Resistance merely “okay” (though better than nothing), and the Retreat Cost is higher than you’ll want to pay but low enough you’ll probably be able to afford it once or twice.  Lunala has 160 HP, good enough to often survive a hit, the attacks “Shatter Shot” for [P] and “Wings of the Moone” for [PPP].  Shatter Shot is an attack with damage that scales according to how much [P] Energy is attached to Lunala itself; each [P] is good for 40 damage.  This is a good amount until you get past four Energy, but until you get into nonsensical overkill territory, it is still decent.  When Lunala (or something copying it) uses Wings of the Moone the attack does 130 damage and forces you to move all Energy from your attacker to your Benched Pokémon.  Even when they are all the same, a three Energy requirement other than [CCC] is difficult but the damage is good and the effect can go either way.  If you don’t have anything you want to attach to, it is terrible, but it sets up some solid combos like prepping your next attacker.  If Lunala survives attacking, you can use Switch plus Max Potion (or similar cards) to get it out of the way and heal.  Not something I’m in love with, but I can see some appeal.  Lunala-GX and Solgaleo-GX are both, of course, Pokémon-GX, which means higher-than-normal HP scores and three card effects (one being a GX-attack) at the cost of giving up an extra Prize when KO’d and being vulnerable to things like Choice Band.  In this case, both have 250 HP, the maximum we’ve seen printed on a Pokémon right now (even among Pokémon-GX and Pokémon-GX); it will frequently survive an attack!  Both Pokémon have the same Type, Weakness, Resistance, and Retreat Costs as their non-Pokémon-GX counterparts, and being a Pokémon-GX does nothing to change how good or bad these are, save that Weakness is a little less dangerous when you’ve got this much HP and Resistance a little more useful.  Lunala-GX has the Ability “Psychic Transfer”, which allows you to move around [P] Energy on your side of the field as much as you want (before you attack) during your turn; this can set up for some very slick combos but even on lower Stage Pokémon this kind of trick hasn’t remained competitive for long.  Solgaleo-GX has the Ability “Ultra Road” which allows you, once-per-turn-per-copy (before you attack) to change out your Active; it is like a free, Ability-based Switch.  This too resembles past Abilities found on lower Stages but unlike with Psychic Transfer, the effect is still competitive on those lower Stages and it improves upon it.  Keldeo-EX - with its “Rush In” Ability - and Zoroark (XY: BREAKthrough 91/162) - with its “Stand In” Ability - can both promote themselves into the Active slot, and are used, in conjunction with Float Stone or another effect that grants them a free Retreat cost, to provide a free pseudo-Switch each turn.  Lunala-GX can use the attack “Moongeist Beam” for [PPPP] to do 120 damage while preventing the Defending Pokémon from healing during your opponent’s next turn, or for [PPP] its “Lunar Fall-GX” can automatically KO one of your opponent’s Basic Pokémon (excluding Pokémon-GX) through its effect, but only once per game.  I’d rather Moongeist Beam did more damage for what it was asking: better to score a OHKO than make it easier to score a 2HKO.  Lunar Fall-GX should lose steam as more and more Basic Pokémon-EX leave Standard play.  Not terrible, but both are slow.  Solgaleo-GX can use “Sunstrike Steel” for [MMC] to do 230 damage, but then you must discard all its attached Energy.  As this is just a Choice Band/Muscle Band/Professor Kukui/etc. From OHKOing anything lacking defensive buff and Ultra Road allows you to get a spent Solgaleo-GX out of the way (should it survive after attacking), I’m pretty impressed with this.  For [M] Solgaleo-GX can use “Sol Burst-GX” to search your deck for up to five Energy cards and then attach them to your Pokémon as you wish.  That is pretty spiffy, seeing as it is enough to get itself and two other Solgaleo-GX a single Energy attachment away from being able to use Sunstrike Steel.  Plus it can fetch Energy of any Type and even Special Energy cards!  We reviewed Lunala-GX here, where it clocked in as our 6th best card of Sun & Moon and… it hasn’t lived up to that, but still has a decent chance of doing it in the future.  Solgaleo-GX was reviewed here, our 18th place pick for the set (or it would have been if we hadn’t called it quits at a Top 15).  I think it has done a bit better for itself than Lunala-GX, but that Fire Weakness and now having Metagross-GX as a rival don’t bode well for it.  Back to today’s Solgaleo, Metagross-GX seems like the main rival for it as well; having the same stats as Solgaleo-GX but different effects (and lower Stages).  Its “Geotech System” Ability allows you to attach a [P] or [M] Energy from the discard to your Active once-per-turn, its “Giga Hammer” attack costs [MMC] and does 150 but can’t be used again the next turn, and its “Algorithm-GX” attack costs just [C] and allows you to add five cards from your deck to your hand.  It has already seen a little bit of competitive success and was reviewed here at an (effective) 28th place.  We lowballed it bad, and while it hits for 20 less than Solgaleo, that’s still enough with some buffs and with that reusable Energy acceleration.  All isn’t lost for Solgaleo, but if it has a place, it will be to provide a non-Basic, non-Pokémon-GX attack to work with Solgaleo-GX.  This is true for Standard or Expanded play, I think; sadly I was unable to secure enough in time to test before playing, even though I two are contained in the “Steel Sun” Theme Deck.  Expanded might also consider it for a deck lacking or going light on Pokémon-GX, backed by Bronzong (XY: Black Star Promos XY21; XY: Phantom Forces 61/119), but there are a lot of attackers that can capitalize upon the Energy acceleration its “Metal Links” Ability provides.  This card is actually unusable in Limited play if you’re only using boosters from SM: Guardians Rising.  I’ll include two scores because you could have even a sanctioned event that blends Sun & Moon boosters with SM: Guardians Rising packs or one of the Evolution boosters might have them (I don’t know their current contents).  Solgaleo is so fierce here that it even facing a Fire Deck isn’t an auto-loss, though you’ll need to get Solgaleo out early.  Finally, as just stated, Solgaleo is in a Theme Deck, and when I tried it out it seemed to be very good.  Not sure if it is the best Theme Deck right now or not; if it is, that might explain why so many folks seemed to be running various Fire Theme Decks on the PTCGO when I was testing.  If it isn’t, it still seemed a bit more reliable than the average Theme Deck.  Solgaleo is quite the beast, possibly scoring alternating OHKO’s if your opponent has too many low HP Pokémon on the Bench.  Ratings  Standard: 2.75/5  Expanded: 2.5/5  Limited: N/A or 4/5 (See above)  Theme: 4.5/5  Conclusion  I want to score Solgaleo higher, but there is a clear rival that does most of what it does, only better: Metagross-GX.  Keep it in mind, though; maybe some older combo or new release will give it the edge it needs.  Other than being a Fire Weak Stage 2, and maybe being a bit Energy intensive, it has a lot going for it.  Unfortunately, those first two are trouble enough in all but the Theme Format of the PTCGO (and maybe Limited, if a source of Cosmog and Cosmoem are provided).
Vince	Hello readers! Vince here, and today we’re looking at Solgaleo from the Guardians Rising set.  This is not a GX, just a regular Stage 2.  Sometimes this may indicate that this may be inferior to the GX version.  Being a metal type gets some type support such as Steel Shelter, Metal Links Bronzong, Shield Energy, Shift Gear & Plasma Steel Klinklangs.  Being weak to Fire types is expected on a Metal Pokemon, and this is a dangerous weakness to have at the moment due to Volcanion-EX and Turtonator-GX maintaining their presence.  Resisting psychic types is a small bonus.  And a retreat of 3 is expensive, but is a legal target for Heavy Ball.  160 HP is pretty high for a Stage 2, though the highest HP for a non-GX Stage 2 now is 170 due to Incineroar in the Japanese Shining Legends set.  Even with this much HP is still vulnerable to OHKOs, but that’ll mean that the opponent would burn some resources to reach that amount.   Solgaleo has two attacks.  Shining Arrow cost MC and does 50 damage to one of your opponent’s Pokemon.  Not bad, as you can target very small Pokemon waiting for it to be evolved.  Fangs of the Sunne costs MMC and does 170 damage with the clause that this Pokemon cannot use that attack the next turn.  170 damage is enough to take care all non-GX Stage 2s, some basic EXs, some basic GXs, and some Break Evolutions.  Choice Band will make some OHKOes happen (unless backed with Fighting Fury Belt), though Wishiwashi-GX still survive with 10 left.  These attacks aren’t bad, but it seems that it doesn’t have a place in the meta at the moment.  There are other Solgaleo cards that may give this card competition, as well as Lunala cards due to the Cosmog evolutionary lines having multiple evolutions.   Solgaleo-GX sports a beefy 250 HP, while having the same attributes such as type, weakness, resistance, and retreat costs.  It has Ultra Road, which functions the same as Switch but without using that item.  Sunsteel Strike does 230 for MMC, which can take care almost anything in the card pool; a little help such as a damage boosting item can reach OHKO territory.  And Sol Burst GX is a one-time serious energy acceleration, search your deck for 5 energy cards and attach them to your Pokemon in any way you like.  This is what I would consider a feature Pokemon, having useful effects to get your deck a great start of the game.  There’s another Solgaleo card from one of the Japanese promotional cards.  It has an ability and an attack.  Full Metal Body ability states if this Pokemon has any Metal energy attached to it, this Pokemon has no weakness.  Rising Dash costs MMC and does 130 while ignoring the target’s resistance.  I guess Lightning Pokemon resists Metal, so Rising Dash will ignore that resistance and hit as hard like other types.   Cosmoem’s evolution splits, so instead of evolving into Solgaleo, you can evolve into Lunala.  There is Lunala-GX that also has 250 HP, weak to dark, resist fighting, and retreat of two.  Psychic Transfer is another of these energy transfer abilities, in this case it moves Psychic Energy.  Moongeist Beam costs PPPP and does 120 while preventing the opponent from healing.  Lunar Fall GX costs PPP and instantly KOes one of your opponent’s basic Pokemon that isn’t a GX.  Once the Basic-EXs are out of rotation (probably around September 2018), then Lunar Fall loses some of the appeal.  Lunala (Guardians Rising) has 160 HP with same attributes.  Shatter Shot is a familiar attack seen on Mewtwo-EX.  It does 40 damage for every P energy attached to this Pokemon.  1-2 is great value, 3 is mediocre, and 4 or more energy is too expensive!  Wings of the Moone costs PPP and does 130 while moving all energy attached to this Pokemon to your Benched Pokemon in any way you like.  A good effect if you know Lunala is about to be KOed on the next turn.  Another Lunala card from Japanese promos has an ability and an attack.  Shadow Shield lets you take 20 less damage if you have any P energy attached to this Pokemon.  Full Moon Ray costs PPP does 80 damage plus 20 more damage for each energy attached to the defending Pokemon.   So, after going through various Solgaleo and Lunala cards, what do I think of today’s card?  Solgaleo is a solid card, but because it deals enough damage to land KOs on certain targets.  170 for MMC is good.  I guess that there’s not enough room to fit this card into decks.  You can only have up to 4 Cosmogs, up to 4 Cosmoems,………………………………….and suddenly you can have up to 16 of those stage 2s (up to 4 Lunala, 4 Lunala GXs, 4 Solgaleo, and 4 Solgaleo GX)!  Pretty big evolutionary branch, but not as big as Eevee (as its evolution and their mechanics such as ex, GX, and regular versions, could very well be more than your 60-card deck)!  Ideally, since you can have up to 4 Cosmogs, then you could use one of today’s Solgaleo, one Lunala-GX, and two Solgaleo-GXs.  Two uses of Ultra Road will override the clause (benching a Pokemon ends the effect being placed on that Pokemon) that prevents you from using Fangs of the Sunne so that you can use that attack again.  Lunala-GX will move energies around so that you can Max Potion today’s card so that its staying power is enhanced.  So that’s about it for Standard and Expanded.  What about Limited?  It might do well here, if you have the necessary evolutionary line in 4 packs.  170 damage can OHKO non-GX Stage 2s and the rest is 2HKOed.  However, with the clause of not being able to use this attack (Fangs of the Sunne) next turn, you may have to alternate between this attack and Shining Arrow.   Ratings:   Standard: 2.5/5   Expanded: 2.5/5   Limited: 3.5/5   Notes: Solgaleo is a solid non-GX Stage 2 beatstick that is being crowded out by their evolutionary branches and other Pokemon defining the meta.  It may be too good for casual play, but probably won’t make the cut in tournaments.   Coming Up: How strong are you?!