Lillie’s Best Effort – Cosmic Eclipse Pokemon Review

Vince

How adorable, showing off your Z-powered form!

Anyways, Lillie’s Full Force is an interesting Supporter card because they provide you with draw power, only to give some of it back. She lets you draw 4 cards, which surpasses the Draw 3 Quads that we’ve looked at a couple days ago, but at the end of your turn, you must shuffle cards from your hand until you have 2 cards in your hand. That sounds pretty steep, as one might wonder what you can possibly do with 2 cards remaining. Well, if you choose carefully, you could be left with a random card and Professor’s Research, and you can easily refresh your hand on your next turn! Even if your opponent used Marnie, Judge or early game Reset Stamp, you could still get at least four cards, which is two more than you originally had if your opponent didn’t play that card even though they’re random.

Perhaps the worst case scenario is when you’re facing a control deck of some sort. Something like discarding a certain amount of cards from your hand, which could leave you with nothing to do other than the card you just drew. If only you have the “Destiny Draw” skill…..oh wait, wrong game! Outside of control decks, you should be fine. It also helps that you’re not taking as much damage from “Poltergeist” style attacks as the most you can take could be having 2 Trainers in your hand and nothing more.

I almost forgot that this is another one of those cards which interacts with other cards. Most specifically, Solgaleo & Lunala-GX from SM Cosmic Eclipse has a GX attack called Light of the Protector, and if you played Lillie’s Full Force from your hand during this turn, all of your Pokémon takes NO damage and is unaffected by effects…….until the end of your opponent’s turn. The only way to remove such an effect – I believe the protection effect is placed on all of your Pokémon, but not the player – is to use Pokémon Ranger, which is an Expanded legal option. Nothing in Standard can remove effects, and Channeler only removes effects from your side, but not from your opponent’s side, so they’re still protected via that GX attack.

Ratings:

Standard: 3/5
Expanded: 3/5
Limited: 5/5

Otaku

Lillie’s Full Force (SM – Cosmic Eclipse 196/236; 230/236) is a Trainer-Supporter that lets you draw four cards.  What’s the catch?  The rest of the effect triggers if you have three or more cards in your hand at the end of your turn; if so, you must discard cards from your hand until you have two left.  You can’t elect to discard extra cards, either.

Being a Supporter means competing with the likes of Cynthia, Professor’s Research, and many other potent Supporters.  While drawing four cards is nice, having to discard down at the end of your turn is generally not.  Sure, there are some decks where discarding from your hand is beneficial, but between Quick Ball, Professor’s Research, and some more deck-specific options, Lillie’s Full Force isn’t a good deal because of it.  You could also just run a deck where thinning your hand is easy, so you don’t have to discard but… that actually works well with Professor’s Research also.  Leaving your hand purposely small also makes you more vulnerable to control or disruption strategies.

There is one thing she can do that those others can’t, however: serve as a trigger for the secondary effect of “Light of the Protector-GX”.  Solgaleo & Lunala-GX is a TAG TEAM Basic Pokémon with 270 HP, [P] Typing, [P] Weakness, no Resistance, Retreat Cost [CC] and two attacks.  [PPPC] lets it use “Cosmic Burn” to do 230 damage, but the effect text states it cannot use Cosmic Burn the next turn.  Light of the Protector-GX requires [PPC] and does a flat 200 damage unless you played Lillie’s Full Force from your hand this turn, in which case it also prevents all effects of attacks – including damage – done to any and all of your Pokémon during your opponent’s next turn.

…

I didn’t see either of these cards used in any of the semi-recent decklists available over at LimitlessTCG.  I didn’t check events from before Sword & Shield became tournament legal, and even then, it is possible one or both cards are used in a deck that wasn’t recorded there.  The thing, is, only the combination of Light of the Protector-GX used the same turn you played Lillie’s Full Force from your hand is good; separately, neither is worth it.  I’m not sure if they are good enough together, even in the few decks that could otherwise easily accommodate them.

Ratings

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

I can’t call Lillie’s Full Force a good card, but it isn’t worthless, either.  Even used in conjunction with Solgaleo & Lunala-GX, it seems suboptimal… but it would, at least, be functional.  Enjoy Lillie’s Full Force if you pull it in the Limited Format, where just by being draw power – even at a price – she’s more useful.  I almost had us review her on April 12th because of Easter lilies.  Yes, really.