Lucario – Space-Time Smackdown
Date Reviewed: February 7, 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 10th best Pokémon of Space-Time Smackdown is Lucario (A2 092, 170)! This Stage 1 (F) Pokémon evolves from Riolu, has 100 HP, (P) Weakness, (C)(C) Retreat Cost, the Ability “Fighting Coach”, and the attack “Submarine Blow”. Fighting Coach provides a +20 damage to attacks made by your (F) Pokémon, against your opponent’s Active. Submarine Blow costs (F)(F) and does 40 damage. Lucario is available at both the ♦♦♦ and ★ rarities.
We’re starting with the Ability. Many attacks have an effect that increases how much damage they do to the opponent’s Active Pokémon. Only four cards have an effect which does that for other cards: Blaine, Cynthia, Giovanni, and Lucario itself. Lucario’s Fighting Coach Ability provides +20 damage, but only to (F) Type Pokémon. This does include itself, and if you have multiple instances of Fighting Coach in play, they stack.
These damage boosting effects seem to increase the fewer Pokémon they boost. Cynthia provides the biggest bonus at +50, but only works for two Stage 2 Pokémon1. Blaine provides a +30 boost, but only works with a Basic and two Stage 1 Pokémon2. Giovanni provides the minimal boost, +10 damage, but works with all Pokémon3. Lucario seems to have found a great place between both extremes; a solid +20 damage to all attacks3 made against the opponent’s Active, by Pokémon of the correct Type.
Lucario is why being a (F) Type has significantly improved since the days before Space-Time Smackdown. It is the only piece of Type-based support (F) Types enjoy. Unfortunately for them, there’s also now one card with an anti-Fighting effect, Snover (A2 044). Fortunately for the (F) Type, it isn’t overly potent; unless Abomasnow (A2 045) is much better than I expect, at worst (for Fighting Types), Water decks might get a 70 HP Basic who can do 40 damage to them for just (W). 40 damage for one Energy is nice, especially on a Basic, but against all non-Fighting Pokémon, this Snover only hits for 10 damage.
The value of exploiting (F) Weakness has also changed due to Space-Time Smackdown. We’re now up to 98 unique Pokémon with (F) Weakness: 38 Colorless Pokémon, 25 Darkness, and 35 Lightning. (C) and (D) Types are about two-thirds (F) Weak, while (L) still only has Zapdos (A1 103) and Zapdos ex (A1 104, 260, 276) for non-(F) Weak options. Thanks to Fighting Coach, it’s also no longer as easy to tell how many metagame relevant Pokémon will become significantly easier to KO. Things are still adjusting to Space-Time Smackdown, but overall, the uncertainty is more likely to help Lucario than hurt.
Lucario has 100 HP; it’ll take at least two full-power light attacks, or one full-power medium attack, to KO Lucario. Its (P) Weakness doesn’t mean much; some supporting (P) or more obscure main attackers have an easier time KOing Lucario, but Mew ex (A1 032, 077, 083, 086) needs another +20 even after Weakness to OHKO Lucario, while Mewtwo ex (129, 262, 282, 286) was in overkill territory before Weakness. The Retreat Cost of (C)(C) is a bigger concern, but still minor concern. If Lucario has no Energy and is forced Active, you’ll need Leaf or your manual Energy attachment plus X Speed to retreat… or two turns of manual attachments.
Submarine Blow is a straightforward attack; 60 damage for (F)(F). 60 for two Energy is a decent return, but nothing special. With Fighting Coach’s effect, it acts as 80 for two, and that’s at least kinda good. Not something you’d use for your main attacker, but good to have on something you’re running for its Ability, in a (F) Type deck. If you have a second Lucario (with Fighting Coach) in play, 100 for two is good, though not enough to be a deck’s main attacker. I’d normally comment how having one or both Energy requirements be (C) would be an improvement, but why would you run Lucario outside of a (F) deck in the first place?
Lucario is a Stage 1 Pokémon; it might have been broken as a Basic, but it’s still the 10th best Pokémon in the set as a Stage 1. Fighting Coach is good enough it might have still been worth it had Lucario been a Stage 2… but what matters now is Riolu (A2 091). It is a Basic (F) Pokémon with 60 HP, (P) Weakness, (C) Retreat Cost, and one attack. “Jab” costs (F) and does 20 damage. It’s not a big advantage for Lucario, but it’s also not much of a disadvantage. If Lucario is already in play, your second Riolu can even deliver a decent 40-for-(F) with Jab.
Lucario is already seeing some competitive success. It won’t help every deck built around one or more (F) Pokémon, but it definitely shows promise. Looking at the results over on LimitlessTCG, seems like the new Rampardos (A2 089) is actually doing the best. Gallade ex (A2 095, 185, 200) is just a little below Rampardos in the standings. Several existing (F) decks are being tried with Lucario as well, though they move further and further away from the top of list, and thus competitive bona fides.
When contemplating Lucario’s inclusion in your (F) deck, the question to ask yourself is
“Will one or two instances of Fighting Coach significantly improve the deck’s capacity to OHKO or 2HKO metagame relevant Pokémon?”
“Improve” can mean multiple things here. Yes, it be the only reason a OHKO or 2HKO is even possible, but it could also be about making them more reliable. Fighting Coach may allow an existing combo to require fewer resources, fewer successful coin flips, or to be more easily repeated. You also need to remember the new aspects of the metagame; that +20 from a Fighting Coach may now be necessary because a former target is now sporting Giant Cape!
Rating: 3.5/5
Lucario is setting a pretty good floor for this countdown. Something to support some new decks, but that might improve some existing ones as well. All while adding Type support to a Type that was lacking any. I haven’t been able to try it out firsthand yet: I’ve pulled a Lucario, but not a single Riolu.
1Cynthia works for Pokémon named “Garchomp” and “Togekiss”.
2Blaine works for Pokémon named “Magmar”, “Ninetales”, and “Rapidash”.
3As a reminder, damage boosting effects in Pokémon only work with attacks that already do damage.
We would love more volunteers to help us with our Card of the Day reviews. If you want to share your ideas on cards with other fans, feel free to drop us an email. We’d be happy to link back to your blog / YouTube Channel / etc. 😉 Click here to read our Pokémon Card of the Day Archive. We have reviewed nearly 5000 Pokémon cards over the last 25 + years!
