Radiant Grenjnja – Astral Radiance
Date Reviewed: June 8, 2023
Ratings Summary:
Standard: 4.75
Expanded: 4.75
Limited: 5.00
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale. 1 is horrible. 3 is average. 5 is great.
Reviews Below:
Vince
Looking through my recent COTDs, I don’t recall reviewing a Radiant Pokemon before. As I saw, there is a rule box regarding Radiant Pokemon, and it states that you can’t have more than one Radiant Pokemon in your deck. In a way, it seems like a similar concept from a bygone era: ACE SPEC cards, which has a similar clause of stating that you can’t have more than one ACE SPEC card in your deck. All 13 ACE SPEC cards are Trainer-Item and some of the most powerful ACE SPEC cards include Computer Search, Dowsing Machine, Scoop Up Cyclone, and Scramble Switch, just to name a few. Radiant Pokemon might be similar in terms of how powerful they are, as some of their effects are powerful enough to warrant such restrictions. Today’s card, Radiant Greninja, is definitely one of them!
A Basic Water-type with 130 HP, Lightning weakness, and a retreat cost of C, it has an ability and an attack. Its Concealed Cards ability states that you must discard an Energy card from your hand in order to use this Ability, and you get to draw two cards. Moonlight Shuriken costs WWC and makes you discard two energies from this Pokemon in order to do 90 damage to 2 of your opponent’s Pokemon. Radiant Greninja could be used as a bench sitter for the ability and/or being a secondary attacker depending on certain decks.
Looking at Limitless decks that used Radiant Greninja, from the moment Astral Radiance was released last year, Radiant Greninja of various stripes began showing up after it became tournament legal, both rogue and meta decks. Various decks include being part of, but not limited to the following:
-Origin Forme Palkia VSTAR
-Gengar VMAX
-Frosmoth/Inteleon
-Arceus VSTAR
-Blissey-V
-Origin Forme Dialga VSTAR
-Darkrai VSTAR
-Flaaffy/Zekrom
-Ice Rider Calyrex VMAX backed with Origin Forme Palkia VSTAR
-Raichu-V backed with Arceus VSTAR
-Vikavolt-V with Galarian Moltres-V
-Lost Zone variants with different Pokemon
-Kyurem VMAX with Origin Forme Palkia VSTAR
-Stonjourner VMAX
-Hisuian Samurott VSTAR with Galarian Weezing
-Raikou-V with Galarian Moltres-V
-Regi members
-Mewtwo VUNION
-Vikavolt-V with Regieleki VMAX
-Zacian VSTAR
-Gardevoir-ex
-Miraidon-ex with Flaaffy
-Miraidon-ex with Regieleki VMAX
-Mewtwo VUNION with Gardevoir-ex
-Regidrago VSTAR
-Origin Forme Dialga VSTAR with Magnezone
-Lugia VSTAR with Archeops
With how much Radiant Greninja has appeared in various decks, I might have to do something that I haven’t done before: award near-perfect marks in Standard and Expanded. I don’t think several other Radiant Pokemon has come close to what Radiant Greninja has accomplished. Not to say that they can’t be used, but due to the restriction, one of the Radiant Pokemon is going to be used more than the other. Still, there are some Radiant Pokemon that might prove useful in a select few decks. In some situations, it might be worth dropping Radiant Greninja for something else. But in most cases, Radiant Greninja draw-based ability is what gave it over the edge.
In Limited, if you happen to pull Radiant Greninja, then it’s definitely a must run! You might be able to find a single copy of Radiant Greninja inside Origin Forme Palkia VSTAR League Battle Deck. Grab them while you can!
Ratings:
Standard: 4.75/5
Expanded: 4.75/5
Limited: 5/5
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