Shaymin – Space-Time Smackdown
Date Reviewed: March 1, 2025
Ratings Summary:
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale. 1 is horrible. 3 is average. 5 is great.
Reviews Below:
Otaku
Shaymin (A2 022, 159) is the last review before our next countdown! Shaymin is a Basic Grass Pokémon with 60 HP, (R) Weakness, (C) Retreat Cost, the Ability “Fragrant Flower Garden”, and the attack “Flop”. Fragrant Flower Garden lets you heal 10 damage from each of your Pokémon when used. Flop costs (G)(C) and does 30 damage to your opponent’s Active. Shaymin is available as both a ♦♦♦ rare and ★ rare.
Being a Basic Pokémon is the best! Shaymin doesn’t require you run any other cards to put it into play, nor do you have to wait to evolve into it. Basics have Stage-specific support like Poké Ball (P-A 005)1, but do have to deal with anti-Basic effects2. Grass Types enjoy several pieces of type-specific support3 but most of it doesn’t suit Shaymin. Erika is still nice for healing, though. As for exploiting Weakness… you’re only attacking with Shaymin if you’re desperate.
Shaymin only has 60 HP; it’s not as fragile as something like Magikarp (A1a 017), but it’s vulnerable to more than just a lucky Misty (A1 220, 267) enabled donk. Again even a half decent setup, it’s a probable OHKO. (R) Weakness means a Charmander (A1 033, 230; P-A 032) or Heatmor (A1 048) can score a Turn 2 donk if boosted by Giovanni (A1 223, 270). The Retreat Cost of (C) is good and low.
Flop lives up to its name, so let’s get it out of the way. 30 for two Energy is poor. There’s even a (G) Energy in the cost, making it so an off-Type Shaymin can’t even make a desperation attack. As for why Shaymin would be run in a non-(G) deck, that’s because of the Ability. Fragrant Flower Garden isn’t massive healing, but it’s small, widespread, consistent healing.
While Fragrant Flower Garden says you can only use it once during your turn, that is per instance of it. If you have two copies of Shaymin (A2 022, 159) in play, each can use their Fragrant Flower Garden once, during your turn, before you attack or end your turn. That’s a lot of Bench space, but it is also a “free” Potion (P-A 001) per turn for all your Pokémon!
Shaymin is not a deck staple. It is not a loose staple. It is showing up in a few decks that are at least somewhat competitive. Not just because of the usual benefits of healing, but because we’re seeing a decent amount of spread damage or smaller Bench hits. Big Bench hits may have to work a little harder as well, but small ones risk getting erased before the opponent can combo into them.
The best example is Spiritomb (A2 104, 172). This card has seen some success, and besides setting up for more deck specific strategies, it also sets up for Cyrus (A2 150, 190). Which Shaymin prevents as Spiritomb’s attack does 10 to each of your opponent’s Pokémon. Fragrant Flower Garden just heals all that damage away! Then there’s the usual benefits of healing; Fragrant Flower Garden does not help if your stuff is OHKO’d, or is overwhelmingly 2HKO’d, but that 10 per turn can add up.
Especially with the right combos. High HP Grass Types, especially that heal themselves as part of an attack, are preferred. These kind of decks are likely to also run Erika and Potion as well. If you can’t OHKO them, odds are low you’ll build up enough damage to do so. I’m not a great player, but I can do decent with my incomplete4 Darkrai ex (A2 110, 187, 202; P-A 042) deck. It does not like it when I run into a Venusaur ex (A1 004, 251) deck. Yes, I could force up Shaymin with a Sabrina (A1 225, 272) to OHKO once Darkrai ex is ready. Darkrai ex will the get stomped into the ground by Venusaur ex, even if it isn’t a OHKO.
Rating: 3/5
While Shaymin can be great, besides general concerns about deck and Bench space, the HP makes Shaymin a little too risky for many decks. I brought up Venusaur ex, but did not mention Exeggutor ex (A1 023, 252). Why? Because as nice as the combo would be, Exeggutor ex is already doing well with just a Celebi ex (A1a 003, 075, 085) or spare Exeggutor ex on the Bench. Now that players have learned to mix Sabrina with Cyrus, you just provide an easy single point KO, instead of forcing a four point game.
1While we don’t know how competitive they will be, Basic Pokémon received two more cards of support in Triumphant Light: Celestic Town Elder (A2a 073, 088) and Shaymin (A2a 069, 081).
2Pokémon Flute (A1a 064) and Victreebel (A1 020).
3Caterpie (A1 005), Erika (A1 219, 266), Leafeon ex (A2a 010, 082, 091), Lilligant (A1 030), and Serperior (A1a 006, 070).
4At the time of writing, I only have one Darkrai ex.
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