aroramage |
HEY LOOK IT'S LYCANROC-GX-no but
seriously, what's with this set having so many GX
Pokemon with strangely similar attacks?
Sylveon-GX is actually an
Eeveelution and benefits from having an Eevee with
Energy Evolution - like the one that came out in Sun and
Moon! Didn't we say Eeveelution-GX were going to have a
massive boon thanks to that guy? So Sylveon-GX already
has that going for her, and we're not even talking about
her attacks yet!
Magical Ribbon is the first attack,
and it's immediately one of those attacks that's
just...I mean wow, that's so good. For 1 Fairy Energy,
Sylveon-GX will grab 3 cards from your deck and add them
straight to your hand. No questions asked, you just grab
3 CARDS IMMEDIATELY!! Don't pass Go, you've already got
$200. This attack alone makes any deck running Sylveon-GX
much more consistent, and since that's limited to
Fairies based on the restrictive cost, it's probably a
good thing that we don't see too many Sylveon-GX/Vileplume/Forest
of Giant Plants hybrids yet.
...oh no what I have suggested-
That all aside, Sylveon-GX's next
attack, Fairy Wind, is the attack I jokingly related to
Lycanroc-GX's own attack, Claw Rend. As they're both
3-for-110 vanilla hits, it's hard to see which would be
better between the two - though notably Lycanroc-GX does
have the advantage of possessing the Fighting Type to
benefit off of things like Strong Energy. Still though,
Sylveon-GX can do a lot with Magical Ribbon on her own -
remember that 2 of these attacks in a row is enough to
KO most Basic-EX, Basic-GX, and some Stage 1-GX
unboosted.
And then we get to her GX Attack:
Plea GX. Simple enough name, eh? Well for the 3 Energy
that you could use for Fairy Wind, Plea GX takes 2 of
your opponent's Benched Pokemon and puts them back into
their hand. So pretty much against any non-Grass deck,
you've pretty much got this in the bag against certain
set-ups! And while you can't finish your opponent off in
that turn, you CAN disrupt a huge set-up into certainly
Pokemon - I'm thinking things like Stage 1+ Evolutions,
including those pesky GX. Even throwing back a Pokemon
with Energy or Items could be potentially disruptive to
your opponent, as they may not be so willing to put it
back down immediately.
Of course, Plea GX is dependent on
what your opponent's actually running and put down on
the Bench to see if it'll do much, and while Sylveon-GX
can get out quickly, it'll still take her a couple of
turns to get to her stronger moves. Still, this is
definitely one of the bigger Eeveelution-GX right now,
and you're bound to run into it a lot over the course of
the format...shame bout those Metal-types, eh?
Rating
Standard: 4/5 (a solid set-up move
and a greatly disruptive GX Attack)
Expanded: 4/5 (not to mention the
extra benefits of having Eevees around)
Limited: 1/5 (...shame there's no
Eevees in this set)
Arora Notealus: I mean really, can
you imagine pulling a Sylveon-GX in Limited and then
realizing you can't play it until after the event's
over? Gotta be one of those moments of tears, man.
Still, Sylveon-GX is set to be one of the strongest
contenders in the GX arms race, and we're bound to see
her show up more and more as things pan out for the
relatively new Fairy-type.
Weekend Thought: Who do you think
will be the big cards from this week? Do they combine
well with cards from last week? Or are they already
suited to better cards already out there? Which ones
will you try out? Do you think some of these were
overhyped or not hyped enough? What's on your personal
Top 10 list?
Next Time: The start of the Top 5
gives us...our first Item card to review in the set?
Really? It took this long to find an Item? That must
mean it's really good!
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21times |
Sylveon GX
(Guardians Rising, 92/145) comes from the
Guardians Rising expansion set.
A Stage 1, 200 HP Fairy Pokemon, it has perhaps
the best combination of three attacks in the game.
Magical
Ribbon, for a single Fairy energy, allows you to
search your deck for any three cards and put them into
your hand.
Considering you can use
Energy Evolution
Eevee (Sun
& Moon, 101/149) to evolve into
Sylveon GX on
turn one, this attack boggles the mind and instantly
transforms
Sylveon GX into a very strong Pokemon.
Players use
Magical Ribbon
to decimate their opponents.
Does your opponent only have three cards in their
hand? Go
get Delinquent
(Breakpoint, 98/122)?
Is the opponent loading up on energy?
Go get
Team Flare Grunt (Generations, 73/83).
Did you opponent just evolve into a Stage 2
Pokemon with Rare
Candy (Sun & Moon, 129/149)?
Go get
Lysandre (Ancient Origins, 78/98) … and then
use Sylveon’s
GX attack Plea.
So as if Magical
Ribbon wasn’t bad enough, they had to go and give
Sylveon GX
one of the trolliest GX attacks in the game:
Plea GX, for
a Fairy and two Colorless energy, allows you to put two
of your opponent’s benched Pokemon and all cards
attached to them back into your hand.
If you’re thinking, “Wow that’s devastating to
evolution decks and Pokemon that have high energy
costs,” … you’re right.
This deck can disrupt you like no other deck in
the game today.
And players are loading it up with all of the
disruption cards available:
Team Rocket’s
Handiwork (Fates Collide, 112/124),
Team Skull Grunt
(Sun & Moon, 133/149),
Enhanced Hammer
(Guardians Rising, 124/145), and the list goes
on. Plus,
they only have to run one of’s in many cases because you
can simply use
Magical Ribbon to grab
VS Seeker (Roaring
Skies, 110/108) or
Puzzle of Time
(Breakpoint, 109/122) to go get whatever cards
you want that you might have already used.
However, Sylveon
GX is not just a mill deck though.
Fairy Wind,
again for a single Fairy and two Colorless energy, does
110 damage.
With a Choice
Band (Guardians Rising, 121/145), that will
two shot any Pokemon in the game.
I went 13-3 with
Sylveon GX, and I was ready to proclaim it the best
deck ever … and then I hit a brick wall and lost six
straight.
Here’s my analysis for what went wrong and how you can
beat this extremely disruptive deck:
ˇ
In five of the nine losses, I did not have Fairy Energy
on turn 1.
ˇ
N
(Fates Collide, 105/124) is your best asset
against Magical
Ribbon.
Every time your opponent plays
Magical Ribbon,
you need to play
N and disrupt the disrupter.
ˇ
Be patient.
It’s a curse and a blessing that you can get any three
cards with
Magical Ribbon.
If your opponent doesn’t take the correct three
cards, that can be a huge advantage to you.
ˇ
Make sure you have a way to retrieve energy.
ˇ
If you run hammers, make sure you knock off that Fairy
energy. Losing
Fairy energy paralyzes
Sylveon GX.
ˇ
Certain decks will give
Sylveon GX a
very hard time (Greninja
Break (Breakpoint, 41/122) being especially
troublesome).
My thanks to FayId for his contributions and insights to
this analysis.
Rating
Standard: 4 out of 5
Conclusion
After playing more than twenty matches with
Sylveon GX, I
would say that it is a good deck.
It will win you more games than you lose.
It can be especially good on the ladder – I’m
sure a number of wins were simply because I annoyed my
opponent so much by shrinking his hand size or removed
multiple energies in a single turn.
However, good players will tweak their decks and
learn the proper strategy to defeat
Sylveon GX in
tournament play.
I would definitely say, though, that
Sylveon GX is
about one more disruption card away from being top tier,
and it is very good right now.
There are a number of decks that will have a LOT
of trouble with it (I went 3-0 against
Lapras GX (Sun
& Moon, 139/149) and beat
Alolan Ninetales
GX (Guardians Rising, 132/145) twice) right
now, and I’m betting that we’ll get another disruption
card in the near future that will put it right up at the
top of the meta… it’s just not quite there right now.
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