Latios Prism Star – Celestial Storm Pokemon Review

Otaku

Today we’re looking at Latios {*} (SM – Celestial Storm 108/168).  All Prism Star cards have the {*} icon at the end of their name, and if it would go to your discard pile for any reason, instead it is sent o the Lost Zone.  You can have multiple Prism Star cards in your deck but each specific one is restricted to one copy.  Prism Star cards can be Pokémon, Trainer, or Energy, but the Pokémon are always Basics based on Legendary Pokémon, even if that Pokémon would normally be represented by an evolution.  Prism Star cards tend to have better stats (usually in the form of HP) and more rewarding attacks than their baseline counterparts.

Latios {*} is a [N] Pokémon; not very useful for exploiting Weakness, but they have some nice type-based support… but little of what is Standard-legal has proven worthwhile.  It is a Basic, so it is easy to slip into a deck and requires no waiting to evolve.  140 HP is more likely to be OHKO’d than not, but you have a good chance of surviving against incomplete setups or more technical attackers.  You have a worse chance of surviving against Fairy types, due to its [Y] Weakness.  No Resistance is the worst but the most common.  A Retreat Cost of [C] is good and low.

Latios {*} has a single attack, “Dragon Fleet”.  It costs [CC] to do 50 damage for each of your Evolution [N} Pokémon in play.  This means you can cover the Energy cost easily with a Double Colorless Energy or Twin Energy.  The setup requirements are far less easy; at least it only states “Evolution” and not “evolved”; if you use a shortcut to play an Evolution Pokémon that is an [N] type directly to the field, it’ll still count.

As for related cards,  Lisia is a Trainer-Supporter that lets you search your deck for two Prism Star cards.  Wobbuffet (SM – Lost Thunder 93/214) has an Ability that only works while it is Benched; Prism Stars have no Abilities and can’t attack while it is in effect.  Several Pokémon have the attack “Lost March”, which does 20 damage per Pokémon in your Lost Zone excluding Prism Stars.  Honestly, these shouldn’t impact you too much when it comes to Latios {*}.  What I expected to matter when this card was new were Lance {*} and Dragonite-GX (Dragon Majesty 37/70, 67/70; SM – Black Star Promos SM156).  Simply put, each has an effect that can directly Bench multiple [N] type Pokémon from your discard pile: two from your deck when using Lance {*} and three from your discard pile when using Dragonite-GX’s GX-attack.

It never worked well enough.  If it had, we’d have a quick, fast setup that might go down a Prize, but which could back Latios {*} with even more [N] support.  You’d need other attackers as well, as they would be the true stars, but this combo was supposed to buy you time; hitting for 50 to 250 damage for [CC], while you prepped something else.  I don’t really expect it to work in the Expanded Format.  In the Limited Format, you need to pull at least one Dragon evolution you can actually field in your deck, but if you do Latios {*} is a good pull.  If you manage at least two Evolution [N] Pokémon on your Bench, it’s great!

Ratings

• Standard: 2/5
• Expanded: 2/5
• Limited: 3/5

I’m probably being a little to generous; Latios {*} offers good damage for a good price… in terms of Energy.  In terms of filling your Bench with Dragon Evolutions, it is a bit steep.  It hasn’t proven good, but I think it still has some potential.

Vince

Another Prism Star Card of the week, and this time, it’s Latios Prism Star from SM Celestial Storm. A Basic Dragon Type with 140 HP, Fairy weakness, and a retreat cost of one, it has only one attack. Dragon Fleet costs CC and does 50 damage times the number of Evolved Dragon Pokemon in play.

Already, you can see how hard it is to pull that attack off, and even then, the damage is still unsatisfactory. This makes you devote deck space to merely get your 4-4 line or even a 4-X-4 line just to improve Dragon Fleet’s damage output. Even if you have 5 Evolved Dragon Pokemon in your Bench, it only does 250 damage, which isn’t even close to OHKOing V-Max or Tag Team Pokemon, though it can OHKO most Pokemon like Basic-V or any GX that isn’t a Tag Team.

Perhaps the most efficient Pokémon to use to optimize Dragon Fleet is Altaria with its Fight Song ability. Each ability grants 20 extra damage for Dragon Pokemon, so if you have all four Altaria in play, then Dragon Fleet does a total of 280 damage. And a random Evolved Dragon Pokemon that’s not Altaria will add to become 330 damage, on top of Vitality Band, can OHKO any Pokemon in the game!

But even then, that’s way too much work to accomplish OHKOs. You need a full Bench of Evolved Dragon Pokemon, and as a Prism Star Pokemon, you got only one chance to use Latios because it goes to the Lost Zone if it’s KOed or discarded. The game is so fast paced that the opponent won’t give you opportunities to get your entire setup going, and I guess that’s what holding Latios back. Again, Latios can theoretically achieve OHKOs, but the amount of investment it needs to do is too much.

Ratings:

Standard: 1.5/5

Expanded: 1.5/5

Limited: 2/5