Arceus ex- Triumphant Light
Date Reviewed: March 8, 2025
Ratings Summary:
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale. 1 is horrible. 3 is average. 5 is great.
Reviews Below:
Otaku
The best card of Triumphant Light is Arceus ex (A2a 071, 086, 095, 096)! It’s a Colorless Type, Basic Pokémon ex. Arceus ex has 140 HP, (F) Weakness, Retreat Cost of (C)(C). Arceus ex has the Ability “Fabled Luster”, prevents Special Conditions from affecting it. For (C)(C)(C), it can use “Ultimate Force” to do 70 damage plus another 20 for each of your Benched Pokémon. Arceus ex is available at the ♦♦♦♦, ★★, ★★★, and 🜲 rarities.
Colorless Typing doesn’t do anything for Arceus ex. There’s no Type-specific support or Pokémon with (C) Weakness. Being a Basic is the best: no waiting to evolve and no other cards required to hit the field. Basics enjoy support like Poké Ball (P-A 005), while the few anti-Basic cards see little use. Being a Pokémon ex means Arceus ex gives up an extra point when KO’d, and has to worry about Tauros (A1a 060) and Sudowoodo (A2a 036, 079).
Arceus ex has 140 HP; typical for a Basic Pokémon ex. It’s a sturdy amount, so still good. (F) Weakness is risky; Lucario (A2 092, 170) means any Fighting Type attacking you can enjoy +20 to +40 from its Ability, in addition to the +20 from Weakness. Marshadow (A1a 047, 074) and Sudowoodo can score big hits for little Energy. The Retreat Cost of (C)(C) is adequate; X Speed (P-A 002) and Leaf (A1a 068, 082) are recommended, but sometimes you can afford to manually retreat.
Fabled Luster prevents Arceus ex from being affected by Special Conditions. Even though Pocket now has all five Special Conditions available (Burn, Confusion, Paralysis, Poison, and Sleep), they’re not abundant in the general cardpool, and somewhat scare in the competitive cardpool. As no card effects exist that penalize a Pokémon for having an Ability, it’s still a positive.
Ultimate Force does 70 base damage, which is a little low for three Energy, but the effect more than makes up for it… by increasing the damage being done! With a single Benched Pokémon, Ultimate Force does a solid 90 damage. Two means a somewhat good 110, and a full Bench means a good 130 damage. As the Energy requirements are all (C), you can fuel Ultimate Force with whatever Energy Type is handy for the rest of your deck.
Nothing evolves into or from Arceus ex. There are some related cards. We’ll begin with its non-ex counterpart. Arceus (A2a 070) is a Basic, Colorless Pokémon with 120 HP, (F) Weakness, (C)(C) Retreat Cost, and the attack “Power Blast”. Priced at (C)(C)(C)(C), Power Blast does 100 damage, while discarding a random Energy from Arceus itself. Seems like the ex-treatment granted +20 HP, an Ability, and a less expensive but overall better attack.
Then there are eight Pokémon with “Link” Abilities: Abomasnow (A2a 021), Carnivine (A2a 009), Crobat (A2a 050), Heatran (A2a 013), Magnezone (A2a 055), Raichu (A2a 026; P-A 044), Rotom (A2a 035), and Tyranitar (A2a 041). Each has an Ability with “Link” in their name, and the Ability states it only works while a card named “Arceus” or “Arceus ex” is in play.
Crobat already received a review, and one or two others may get one as well. If you’d like a little more of an explanation of what they are and how well they’re performing, check out yesterday’s Arceus review. For now, know that Crobat, Heatran and Rotom have seen some success, but the best Arceus ex deck… doesn’t actually use any!
Arceus ex is doing really well. It has its own deck entry over at Pokémon Zone. When we consult the current rankings over at LimitlessTCG. At the time of writing, just over 15% of decks are Dialga ex (A2 119, 188, 205, 207)/Arceus ex. With over 1800 instances of it showing up in tournaments, the fact it has 55% win rate actually means something. Again, without the gimmick mechanic created for Arceus ex and Arceus!
Rating: 4/5
Arceus ex has its own specialty mechanic with the whole Link Ability thing and… it doesn’t even need it! It’s just a good, solid Colorless attacker at a time when compatible Energy Acceleration exists. While not overly large – for a Basic Pokémon ex – it doesn’t rely on Energy discards, or a massive four Energy cost to fuel its attack. Three Energy isn’t cheap, but it can feel like it when compared to some of the other heavy hitters in this game. Filling your bench is often something you’d do anyway, even if Arceus ex didn’t need it so… yeah, great cards!
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