Dialga ex – Space-Time Smackdown
Date Reviewed: February 11, 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 sixth best Pokémon of Space-Time Smackdown is Dialga ex (A2 119, 188, 205, 207)! It’s a Basic, (M) Type Pokémon ex with 150 HP, (R) Weakness, (C)(C) Retreat Cost, and two attacks. The first attack is “Metallic Turbo”, priced at (M)(M). Metallic Turbo does 30 damage, while also taking two (M) Energy from your Energy Zone, and attaching them to one of your Benched Pokémon. “Heavy Impact”, the second attack, costs (M)(M)(C)(C) and does 100 damage. Dialga ex is available at the ♦♦♦♦, ★★, ★★★, and 🜲 rarities.
Nothing changed overnight: Basic Pokémon are still the best Stage; no waiting to evolve, no extra cards to play, and you can even fetch them (but not other Stages) with Poké Ball. Being a Pokémon ex means Dialga ex is worth an extra point when KO’d, and Tauros (A1a 060) do 120 damage to Dialga ex for just (C)(C)(C). It’s also the most likely reason for Dialga ex having better stats and/or effects than it likely would have enjoyed.
As a (M) Type, Dialga ex is not good at exploiting Weakness. There are only 20 unique Pokémon with (M) Weakness: 10 (P) and 10 (W) Types. None of them have proven useful competitively, though something like Frost Rotom (A2 048) isn’t likely to headline a deck. There’s no (M) Pokémon support, though Dialga ex itself is (M) Energy support. If we really stretch what it means, Meltan (A1 181) can attach extra (M) Energy to itself via attacking. Every (M) Type Pokémon needs at least one (M) Energy for its attacks.
Dialga ex has 150 HP, and that’s great! Not only does it take the high end of heavy attacks to one-shot Dialga ex, there are zero Basic Pokémon ex with more. (R) Weakness isn’t too bad: Arcanine ex (A1 041, 254)1 and Infernape ex (A2 029, 181, 197) score OHKOs they would have missed sans Weakness. Enabling 2HKOs is a bigger concern, but still not major. The Retreat Cost of (C)(C) is decent, but a lower Retreat Cost probably would have really helped Dialga ex…
…because we’re here for Metallic Turbo. Yes, it’s an Energy attaching attack that requires two Energy to use. That means it’s a bit slow for such an attack. It compensates by doing 30 damage – good since we’re here for the effect – and by attaching two (M) Energy to any one Pokémon on your Bench. Almost all other Energy attaching effects are restricted to Pokémon of a specific Type or card name. As such, even with the delay this turns Dialga ex into a powerful opener.
Heavy Impact is good, but not great. I wouldn’t want to try and run Dialga ex off-Type, since Metallic Turbo needs (M)(M), so Heavy Impact needing (M)(M)(M)(M) seems like a waste. Assuming the attack would hit harder were it priced (M)(M)(M)(C) or (M)(M)(M)(M); if it wouldn’t, then never mind. Several Pokémon hit as hard or harder for comparable printed Energy costs. A few even come with beneficial effects, but also with detrimental effects, or on Evolutions, Pokémon ex or otherwise.
Dialga ex has spawned or rejuvenated a few archetypes, though now I guess they could all be classified as Dialga ex variants. Melmetal (A1 182) deck have a safer opener than Meltan to accelerate Energy. At the time of writing, this was just barely the most used Dialga ex deck, but it isn’t the most successful. That would be Yanmega ex (A2 007, 180, 196). Yanmega ex has solid stats for a Stage 1 Pokémon ex, an attack that can run on three of any Energy, does 120 damage, but also requires discarding an Energy from itself to use.
There are also some variants that are iffy. They’ve barely been played, relative to more mainstream decks, and their Win% are below 50%. Maybe they’re dead ends, or maybe players haven’t quite worked out the best list for them. I’ll mention them anyway, if only to stress you can’t be certain what to expect when your opponent reveals Dialga ex as their opening Active: Lickilicky ex (A2 125, 189, 203), Mew ex (A1a 032, 077, 083, 086), and Pidgeot ex (A1a 059, 079). Though the specifics of these decks vary, the main focus is the same; Dialga ex takes the lead, prepping the deck’s heavy hitter.
Before we wrap this up, let’s talk about the Trainers you’ll want to at least consider for a Dialga ex deck. Besides staples and near/lose staples, Potion and Giant Cape were common, as well as Leaf. Dawn showed up as well; I’ve been on the receiving end of a “surprise” Heavy Impact enabled by Dawn the turn after Metallic Turbo. Mars even showed up, and it makes sense if Dialga ex goes down swinging. Mars is a more extreme Red Card; your opponent shuffles their hand into their deck, then draws equal to their remaining points. Imagine taking down Dialga ex, only for your hand to drop to one card as you stare down a fully prepped anything.
Rating: 3.5/5
Dialga ex is really exciting, from a deck building perspective. Pokémon with chunky Metal and/or (C) Energy requirements still are not fast, but they are no longer painfully slow. Is it doing as well as I’d hope? Nope. Still, we’re seeing adequate results to justify it being I the Top 10. There’s a lot of untapped potential here.
1Requires a Giovanni or similar combo.
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