Crobat – Triumphant Light
Date Reviewed: March 5, 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 third best card of Triumphant Light is Crobat (A2a 050)! It’s a (D) Type, Stage 2 Pokémon that evolves from Golbat. Crobat has 110 HP, (F) Weakness, and free Retreat Cost. It’s Ability, “Cunning Link”, can do 30 damage to your opponent’s Active, once per turn, if you have Arceus or Arceus ex in play. For (D), Crobat can attack with “Darkness Fang” to do 50 damage. Crobat is only available as a ♦♦♦ rare.
Crobat’s (D) Typing barely matters. There’s no Type-specific support or counters for Darkness Type Pokémon. While there are many (D) Weak Psychic Pokémon, but the only one seeing competitive success right now is Mew ex (A1a 032, 077, 083, 086); Crobat does just barely score a 2HKO against Mew ex, via Weakness… but Crobat’s Ability made it possible without Weakness.
As a Stage 2, Crobat requires Golbat and Zubat to hit the field. We’ll discuss our options for those two later. The main point here is to recognize we’ll need a minimum of two extra cards and turns for a single Crobat to hit your field. Not only do you need Zubat to hit the field a turn before Golbat, but you’ll need them to survive at least a turn so they can evolve. Mind Aerodactyl ex (A1a 046, 078, 084), as it’s Ability prevents your Active Pokémon from evolving.
110 HP is the lowest printed on any Stage 2 Pokémon. A heavy attack is enough to score the OHKO, which is a concern given the time and resources you’ll be investing into Crobat. Gardevoir (A1 132) and Serperior (A1a 006, 070) also have 110 HP, and they were very competitive when they first released. Crobat’s (F) Weakness means put it into OHKO range of some solid (F) attackers, new and old. Lucario (A2 092, 172) can further complicate the matter.1
Crobat requires zero Energy be discarded to retreat. This t allows Crobat to function as a pivot Pokémon. When your Active leaves the field2, you can promote Crobat while working out what should actually be your new Active. While you’ll usually not want Crobat Active during your opponent’s turn, its free Retreat Cost means your opponent needs to OHKO it or else you’ll retreat it to your Bench3. You may even willingly promote it if your opponent’s offense is lacking; let it soak a hit in the place of something else, then again run to the Bench where it’s harder (though far from impossible) to finish off.
Cunning Link’s requirements are a little bit of a concern. We’re only allowed three Pokémon on our Bench in pocket, so Crobat needs either your Active or another of your Benched Pokémon to be named “Arceus” or “Arceus ex”. The reward is quite potent. Giovanni (A1 223, 270) is often worth running for +10 damage to the opposing Active when you attack. Cunning Link offers triple the bonus, works even if you don’t want to or cannot actually attack for damage, and the various damage reduction effects in the game don’t apply.4
Darkness Fang is far less impressive, but not useless. It only requires a single (D) Energy. Cunning Link is good enough you might be running Crobat completely off Type, but if you are running (D) Energy, it’s a solid return. If Crobat had more HP, it might even let it function as a solid attacker. That’s because Cunning Link is still a thing. With it – and the Arceus/Arceus ex required to use the Ability – you’re faking an 80-for-one damage attack.
We have two options for Zubat and Golbat. All of them are (D) Type Pokémon with (F) Weakness, (C) Retreat Costs, and one attack that requires a single Energy. Zubat (A1 172) and Zubat (A2a 048) are both 50 HP Basics. The former can do 10 damage for (C) with “Glide”, while the latter can do 20 damage for (D) with “Bite”. Golbat (A1 173, 242) is a Stage 1 with 70 HP, and can do 40 damage with “Wing Attack” for (C). Golbat (A2a 049) has 80 HP, and can attack with “Bite” for 30.
Just like Crobat, you’re don’t really want to be attacking with any of these. You may as well retain the option, so if you’re not running Darkness Energy alongside Crobat, go with Zubat (A1 172); otherwise go with Zubat (A2a 048). You might decide between the two Golbat using the same logic, but Golbat (A2a 049) has 10 more HP. +10 HP isn’t much but neither is +10 damage, and both are on a Stage 1 we’d prefer hide on our Bench and not attack. Test and see if it makes any difference for you.
Then there’s Arceus (A2a 70) and Arceus ex (A2a 071, 086, 095. 096). You’ll need at least one of them in play for Cunning Link to work. There are also seven other Pokémon with similar “Link” Abilities: Abomasnow (A2a 021), Carnivine (A2a 009), Heatran (A2a 013), Magnezone (A2a 055), Raichu (A2a 026), Rotom (A2a 035), and Tyranitar (A2a 041). No, we are not going to run through them quick; we haven’t discussed how Crobat decks are doing in the competitive space. The main think is that having to run Arceus and or Arceus ex alongside Crobat is far less of a “cost” than having to run a Stage 2 in the first place.
Pokémon Zone already has a list (and explanation) for an Arceus ex/Crobat deck. Checking out the other usual source, LimitlessTCG, we can also find Darkrai ex (A2 110, 187, 202; P-A 042)/Crobat lists. Which still contain Arceus ex because they have to run it or baby Arceus for Cunning Link to work. Sadly, these decks aren’t doing as well as I expected. Perhaps I underestimated how difficult it is to reliably have both Arceus ex and the Stage 2 Crobat line together in play? There’s absolutely synergy with any of these deck lists, and I hope to one day take them for a spin. I still need a second Darkrai ex, and have no Arceus ex.
Rating: 3.5/5
If the score seems high, before we had results suggesting otherwise, Crobat was soaring into an easy four-out-of-five. The Ability, even needing Arceus or Arceus ex in play to work, is still easily worth such a score. Time will tell if it’s just taking a bit for players to find the right list for Crobat decks, or if it’ll be one of those intended archetypes that never really see much success. We may not have to wait long to know if I was right or wrong about this one.
1Lucario’s Ability, “Fighting Coach”, grants +20 to the damage done to the opposing Active, by the attacks of that player’s (F) Pokémon. Fighting Coach does stack with itself and other common damage bonuses. Which means, on top of generic damage boosts and combos, the (F) Type can access up to plus 60 damage: +20 (Weakness) +20 (Lucario) + 20 (2nd Lucario).
2Mostly because your opponent KO’d your Active, but pivot Pokémon are also handy when you can bounce your own Active back into your hand.
3Barring effects that can prevent you from retreating.
4All the damage reducing effects I could find specified attack damage.
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