Silvally-GX- #5 – Top 10 Crimson Invasion Cards

aroramage

Last week we talked about Gladion, the guy who has a major problem with his hand. Seriously, what is UP with his hand? Not sure what’s wrong with it, but it doesn’t stop him from tossing out Pokeballs to unleash his partner, Type: Null onto you. And today, we’re going to review its evolution who’s getting the GX treatment: Silvally-GX!

Silvally is unique in its approach in that it shares some strange commonalities with another Pokemon: Arceus. They’re both Normal-types, and they both get to change their Type based on a hold item and their respective Abilities! In Silvally’s case, this comes from his Ability, RKS System, which changes based on the Memory that Silvally is holding. Memories in the games act similarly to Silvally as Plates do for Arceus, with the exception that they don’t affect other Pokemon if you attach Memories to them – for instance, the Bug Memory only works with Silvally, but the Insect Plate can work with anyone. Pretty neat stuff! And Silvally-GX has a LOT going for it especially since he even comes out with two Tools that recreate the Type-changing aspect for his RKS System: Fighting Memory and Psychic Memory.

Before we get to those, let’s talk Silvally-GX. This guy comes in with an Ability and two attacks, one of which is his GX move – no surprises there. He’s a Stage 1 GX with 210 HP, pretty standard fare. And taking a look closer he’s got some exceptional work done on him! Gyro Unit is the Ability, and it makes it so that every Basic Pokemon you’ve got has no Retreat Cost! That’s like a free Float Stone for every Basic! And that does include the Basic-EX/GX too. Already we’re off to a REALLY good start!

His main attack is Turbo Drive, and keep in mind this is completely Colorless. It’s a 3-for-120 move that attaches Basic Energy from the discard pile to your Benched Pokemon. Yes that’s right – it’s a move that can 2HKO most things in the game, AND it turbo charges your Benched Pokemon! It’s got all the makings of a great attack, and you can even change what Type it is with the Memories! Attaching the Fighting Memory lets you hit Fighting-Weak Pokemon extra hard while Psychic Memory can tap into the vulnerable Psychic-Weak Pokemon! Between these and options like Choice Band, there’s a lot of versatility that Silvally-GX has in his arsenal!

And then there’s his GX Attack, Rebel GX. I’m guessing cause of Gladion if anything. It’s the same Energy cost as Turbo Drive, but it’ll deal 50 damage times the number of Benched Pokemon your opponent has. That’s…well, it’s not awful, it’s better against decks that are more Bench-dependent and can punish an unwise opponent for overextending themselves, but outside of that, it may not be hitting as hard as you’d like. Keep in mind that having 2 Pokemon only deals 100 damage while 3 Pokemon deals 150 damage – you’re probably better off most of the time sticking to Turbo Drive unless your opponent has a fleshed out Bench.

As a recap: Silvally-GX brings out free retreat for your Basics, can pump out Energy while trading for 2HKOs, and he’s got a potentially powerful move against an opponent with a lot of Bench-sitters. On top of that, he’s got Tools that can change his Typing to suit whatever match-up you’ll have going for you – you might slip in a Memory based on the meta you’re expecting. Fighting Memory, for instance, helps fare a lot better against Dark decks for sure, but Psychic Memory can hit against Necrozma-GX and Garbodor, who are looking to be fairly popular in the meta currently.

Silvally-GX brings a powerful adversary to the forefront, and I’m certain that a fair number of decks could use an extra ally……ohhhhhhhhh, that’s why his name’s Silvally!

Rating

Standard: 4.5/5 (his Ability and his Energy accelerating attack, as well as his generally Colorless Energy, make him valuable for any deck he’s placed in!)

Expanded: 4.5/5 (though he is still outranked by the Basic accelerators that exist, simply because they can come out faster)

Limited: 5/5 (as for the Memories, they’re useful techs, but they’re by no means necessary to using Silvally-GX to his full potential)

Arora Notealus: Fun fact! Apparently Gladion is the one who officially named Silvally in the Pokemon universe! He named it so after its color of silver and the idea of it being his “ally”. That’s actually pretty neat, all things considered. I mean how often do you get to name the species of your Pokemon?

Next Time: He who slices…dices.

21times

Silvally GX (Crimson Invasion, 90/111) saw some action this weekend at the London Intercontinental Championship.  A 210 HP Stage 1 Pokemon, it has an ability, two attacks, and then a little something else that no other Pokemon in the game has right now.

Its ability, Gyro Unit, gives your Basic Pokemon no retreat cost.  This was used frequently in a Metal Toolbox deck that lost in the finals.  The ability to be able to move your Basic Pokemon in and out of the active without having to use a switching card was extremely valuable.  I would guess that this could also benefit Lapras GX (Sun and Moon, 139/149) and maybe Solgaleo GX (Sun and Moon, 89/149) as well.

Its main attack, Turbo Drive, does 120 damage and allows you to attach a Basic energy card from your discard pile to one of your benched Pokemon.  It costs three Colorless energy, the same as its GX attack, Rebel GX, which does fifty damage times the number of Pokemon your opponent has on their bench (which in today’s meta is very likely to be five).

Silvally’s real upside, however, lies in the fact that there are two Tool cards out there that transform it from a Colorless type to either a Fighting or Psychic type, depending on which card is attached to Silvally.  This means that Silvally can hit Pokemon that are weak to Fighting or Psychic types for 240 instead of just 120 if the Memory tool is attached.  Obviously, there is much speculation that more Memory cards for Silvally might come out, and it might become the swiss army knife of the TCG, attempting to attach the Memory card that will transform it into the type of your opponent’s weakness. 

The problem is that there are twelve different types for weakness (no Pokemon is weak to Dragon or Colorless), so that could be A LOT of Tool cards, especially if you try to carry multiples.  Also, Field Blower (Guardians Rising, 125/145) discards the Memory card… although you could use the Leaf Blower on yourself to change to a different type, and we now have an Oranguru (Crimson Invasion, 48/111) that has an attack that allows you to put three Tool cards from your discard pile into your hand, so we have some mechanisms in place (Puzzle of Time (Breakpoint, 109/122) as well) that would allow you to bring back tools that had been discarded or attached to KO’d Pokemon.

Rating

Standard: 3.5 out of 5

Conclusion

It’s got a great ability and the potential to do 240 damage to a lot of different Pokemon for only three energy.  I wouldn’t be surprised if this doesn’t become a top tier Pokemon in the future, especially if we get some Tool or ability (besides Skyla (Breakpoint, 122/122)) that allows easy access to Tool cards in your deck… and if we get more Memory cards for Silvally as well.

Vince

Today, we’re looking at Silvally-GX in our number 5 card in the Sun and Moon Crimson Invasion set. This Pokémon was made with the purpose of defeating Ultra Beasts. If it does, then this Pokémon would’ve been heavily used. Sadly, with base 95 across the board while the Ultra Beasts has stats whose highest is around 150-225 on one of their stats, I don’t think Silvally is up to the task. Games aside, the TCG version of this card actually has some nice perks. So let’s see what Silvally-GX has to offer!

Silvally-GX is a colorless type, has 210 HP, weak to Fighting, and a retreat cost of 2. Colorless Pokemon won’t be able to exploit weaknesses since no Pokemon are weak to colorless, unless you mess with old cards before the Black and White series. Likewise, no Pokemon resists colorless unless you refer to old cards. In terms of type related support, there’s Aspertia City Gym which increases the Max HP by 20 for colorless Pokemon; Winona fetches three colorless Pokemon from your deck to your hand. Counters to colorless Pokemon is almost nonexistent; Haxorus (Dragon Vault) Axe Slugger does 60 plus 60 more if the Defending Pokemon is a colorless Pokemon. However, what may be frequent now is Necrozma’s End of Light Ability, which makes it take no damage from Colorless Pokemon! Being a Stage 1 means you need to wait one turn or use Wally to evolve Type:Null. Eeveelutions from XY Ancient Origins has their triple effect abilities that can add water, lightning, and fire type respectively. Training Center and Bodybuilding Dumbbells can ramp up the max HP by potentially 70!

Silvally-GX has an ability and two attacks. It’s ability, Gyro Unit, makes your Basic Pokemon retreat for free! Pretty simple effect, but one that you can make effective use of. This makes Guzma and Escape Rope much less of an liability. Or better, it encourages even more switching due to free retreat! This ability is also much less restrictive unlike Darkrai’s Dark Cloak or Manaphy’s Aqua Tube. Turbo Drive is another one of those “turbo” related attacks that retrieved energy from the discard to one of your Benched Pokemon. In this case, it retrieves one Basic energy while dealing 120 damage for CCC. Colorless friendly and a near 2HKO. Rebel GX also costs CCC and does 50 damage for each of your opponent’s Benched Pokemon. For a GX attack, this seems pretty underwhelming because there’s a lot of work to achieve high amounts of damage. You’ll need 5 Benched Pokemon to do the 250, which happens to be the most HP oriented on a card before factoring other HP modifier cards (Sky Field makes it 400 on a full bench). Your opponent may already see this card and try to minimize the effectiveness of this GX attack such as discarding their own Benched Pokemon or bouncing them.

So Silvally-GX is a good card for what it does, but there’s more to the story. There are two related cards in the SM Crimson Invasion set: Fighting Memory and Psychic Memory. In the games, Gladion gives you all 17 memory items for your Type:Null that enables you to change your type similar to Arceus with Plates. This translates well in the TCG. These tool cards can be attached to any Pokemon, but the full extent only applies to Silvally-GX. Fighting Memory will make it a Fighting type Pokemon; Psychic Memory will make it a Psychic Pokemon. This allows Silvally-GX to become that type and exploit type advantages. Psychic will hit a decent chunk of Psychic (who represent poison or psychic in the games) and Fighting Pokemon (who represent Fighting types in the games) for weakness. There may be more memory items in the future; in case of the TCG, we’d probably look forward to eight more memory cards. These memory cards can enable Silvally-GX to get past Necrozma’s End of Light ability.

While these memory cards alters the type of Silvally-GX, you are taking a Tool slot that could’ve been used for something else such as Rock Guard or Choice Band. When a memory card is removed/discarded, Silvally-GX will revert back to being colorless. Even if Turbo Drive is hitting for weakness, 240 is 10 short of the highest HP printed in the game, needing other sources of damage counter placement. These tools can supplement Silvally-GX, but are not mandatory for a deck.

I can personally think of two deck ideas regarding this Pokémon. One of them would be to have Silvally-GX and a bunch of Basic Pokemon beatsticks to overwhelm the opponent. Some Pokémon that are crippled by high retreat costs can be fixed with Silvally-GX’s Gyro Unit ability. Seismitoad-EX would have a spammable Quacking Punch with free retreat; Tauros-GX can easily meet their attack costs with DCE as well as free retreat; Tapu Bulu-GX, Landorus-EX, Buzzwole-GX and other good single energy attackers? The cost has been covered!!!

Another deck idea would be the weakness toolbox: Using Triple Effect Eeveelutions as well as fancy memory tool cards for even more type coverage. This is currently your fallback coverage until more memory tool cards are about to be released. So while you can acquire Fire, Water, Lightning, Psychic, and Fighting at the moment, you still lack Grass, Dark, Metal, Dragon, and Fairy types. Be careful about having a Pokémon with multiple types, since sometimes there may be Pokémon who has both weakness and resistance. Let’s say if you have a Pokémon that’s weak to Fire but resist Psychic; Your Silvally-GX has Psychic Memory and Flareon on the bench. You apply weakness first, then resistance. Your turbo drive will do 120 times 2, so 240, then minus 20 for resistance, lowering it to 220. Those rare scenario a can rob you from an OHKO. Other than that, this idea is flexible enough for you to handle against some popular decks.

There are probably more deck ideas than this, but I feel that those two ideas are how Silvally-GX would be used in that regard due to its card effects. Of course, you have to deal with ability denial and Safeguard related abilities, since that puts Silvally’s plan on hold. Then there’s the fighting weakness. For Standard, ingredients include Strong Energy, Choice Band, and Regirock-EX. With those three, one Strong Energy, four Regirock-EX, and Choice Band, you could do 180 more damage on Silvally-GX (40+20+30)x(2), making single energy fighting type attackers more dangerous than it seems.

With all that’s being said and done, Silvally-GX has some promise for Standard and Expanded. In Limited, if you pulled Type:Null (Mandatory), Silvally-GX (mandatory), and any of these memory tool cards (optional), then it’s a must run. Type:Null’s 110 HP won’t make it an easy OHKO with Guard Press making you endure 30 less damage so that it gets to last longer. Turbo Drive will 2HKO the entire Crimson Invasion set. Probably the Pokémon to look out for is Buzzwole-GX; this can chiefly handle Type:Null with ease!

Standard: 4/5
Expanded: 4.25/5
Limited: 4/5

Conclusion: Silvally-GX has some great utility, and will see a lot of play. However, there is one Pokemon in the next set that has even better utility, and may clash with Silvally-GX’s viability. Looks like I’ll hold off from mentioning it until several months later!

Spoilers!

Apparently there is Fire Memory and Electric Memory in Japan’s GX Battle Boost to add in more type coverage.

Retro

Finally, I’ve also heard about the relationship between these main Pokemon of certain characters, such as Guzma really helping Golisopod-GX and the main conception being that Gladion didn’t really help Silvally-GX in many ways; but I disagree. Because you’ll mostly carry a low count of Memory Cards of each type in your deck, Gladion being able to search your prizes for one is of great blessing to Silvally decks. And there’s your answer. 

Rating: 

Standard: 4.3/5 (As of now its pretty solid, but as more Memory Cards will be released, so will Silvally’s rating and popularity as a powerful deck core or supplement to hit various things for Weakness.)

Expanded: 4.3/5 (Exactly the same as Standard: its just a very solid energy cycling attacker as a whole with a good resistance to devolution tactics.)

Limited: 4.8/5 (Always good in any format, and the Limited format is no exception to Silvally’s presence.)

Next on SM Crimson Invasion:

OU THE EDGE

Otaku

Our fifth place finisher isn’t one card, but three. We break ties, so our three-for-one review is because the cards are so closely related: Silvally-GX (SM: Crimson Invasion 90/111, 108/111, 119/111; SM: Black Star Promos SM91) and its two custom Pokémon Tools, Fighting Memory (SM: Crimson Invasion 94/111) and Psychic Memory (SM: Crimson Invasion 98/111). With three cards to cover, I’m not going to go into my usual level of detail, explaining every little thing; after all, so much of it has been mentioned elsewhere in the Top 10. We’ll begin with Silvally-GX itself, a Stage 1 Pokémon; not a bad start though I still think Basic Pokémon have more than just a small edge in the Evolution field. Being a Pokémon-GX – as opposed to another specialty mechanic or a regular Pokémon – is a mixed bag; the main thing is to adjust accordingly, compensating for the drawbacks while utilizing their benefits.

Being a [C] Type Pokémon is similar, but less pronounced; the good and the bad of it aren’t as dramatic and often are about what does not apply (like Weakness). 210 HP is enough to endure a hit pretty often, with the obvious exceptions being decks known for big damage output or exploiting the card’s Weakness. In this case, Fighting Weakness could be quite dangerous; Buzzwole-GX made a strong showing at the recent European International Championship, and even if it hadn’t, Marshadow-GX is still a possible TecH option. No Resistance is typical; with the HP it would have been appreciated, but only relevant under select circumstances. The Retreat Cost of [CC] is high enough you should try to avoid paying it (or at least all of it), but low enough you can probably afford it (at least in the short term).

Silvally-GX has the Ability “Gyro Unit”, which zeros out the Retreat Cost of your Basic Pokémon. Like so much of this card, this is both better and worse than it looks. It saves your Basics needing a Float Stone or similar effect to enjoy that perfect free Retreat cost and protection against the handful of attacks that do damage based on Retreat Costs, which is good. Silvally-GX itself doesn’t get this benefit, though, so you’ll still need something else to deal with it being stuck in the Active position. Its regular attack is “Turbo Drive”, which not only does a good 120 for [CCC] but attaches a basic Energy from your discard pile to one of your Benched Pokémon. This provides a reliable 2HKO for all but the biggest HP scores or those with protective effects. It is even enough to get some solid OHKO’s with simple – but not always easy – combos like Choice Band plus Professor Kukui. On top of that, you can start prepping your next attacker. The GX-attack, “Rebel-GX”, also costs [CCC], and does 50 damage for each of your opponent’s Benched Pokémon. I find this less impressive than Turbo Drive, but it can still deliver a powerful blow against decks that can’t work with a scant Bench.

Though I’m tempted to gloss over it, we should really look at Type: Null (SM: Crimson Invasion 89/111). It is a Basic, [C] Type Pokémon with 110 HP, Fighting Weakness, no Resistance, Retreat Cost [CC], and two attacks. Its “Armor Press” costs [CC] and does 30 damage while reducing the damage it takes during your opponent’s next turn by 30 (after Weakness/Resistance). “Slash” is its second attack, needing [CCC] to do 70. For a fully Evolved Pokémon, these would be mediocre; the HP not being high enough and/or the attacks not hitting hard enough for the Energy, but not being so short that they were truly bad. For an Evolving Basic, these are good; Armor Press dings the opponent while soaking at least a little damage, and Slash is enough – especially with Choice Band – for a lot of 2HKO’s. For an Evolving Basic, this is actually fairly good. As a Holo-Rare, it might end up being a bit pricey, and you’ll be lucky to pull both it and Silvally-GX for Limited Format play (but there, you’ll be happy just with Type: Null).

Finally, we get to Fighting Memory and Psychic Memory. Both are Trainer-Item cards, specifically Pokémon Tools, making them easy to use but also easy to counter and getting in the way of other Tool usage (including each other). Technically, you can attach these to anything, but their effect texts state that they only do something to Silvally-GX, changing it to a [F] Type (Fighting Memory) or [P] Type (Psychic Memory). We’ll need a wording, but this effect seems to override the underlying Type of Silvally-GX. I’ll explain why that might be a problem when we get more to the overall usage of the card. For now, these two are pretty potent Tools for Silvally-GX; Fighting Weakness and Psychic Weakness are pretty common, so this can really boost the damage output from Silvally-GX. I’m drawing a blank on good combos for Fighting Memory, but Psychic Memory would allow you to take advantage of Dimension Valley in Expanded play so that a single Double Colorless Energy can fuel either attack of Silvally-GX.

Fighting Memory and Psychic Memory are just the first two of a series of Pokémon Tools that are being released for Sylvally-GX. In the video games, there is one “Memory” for each of the 17 Pokémon Types excluding the Normal Type, which is unneeded since that is a Sylvally’s natural Typing. For the TCG, only these two Types are currently available, but at least two more have been revealed in Japan; if all goes well, you will likely the have the option of making Silvally-GX into any Type… assuming you have the space for it in your deck. The rest of the review – and how I score these cards – won’t focus on the future, though. To begin with, as a Stage 1, you could actually use Flareon (XY: Ancient Origins 13/98), Jolteon (XY: Ancient Origins 26/98), and Vaporeon (XY: Ancient Origins 22/98) to add the [R], [L], and [W] Typing to Silvally-GX. My concern is that the wording on Fighting Memory and Psychic Memory make it sound like they would override this effect; we’ll need an official ruling to be certain. This doesn’t preclude the combo; you just have to mind the timing.

Even before factoring in the Memory cards, Silvally-GX has good stats and effects. I’m least impressed with the GX-attack because shrinking your opponent’s Bench-size is a pretty common tactic right now, and even if it wasn’t, your opponent can try to just get by with a smaller Bench if he or she is worried about Rebel-GX. No Bench means no damage, and less than three on the Bench means you’ll hit harder with Turbo Drive. There are plenty of competitive decks that need a full or mostly full Bench, though, and you’re all but guaranteed a OHKO from Rebel-GX under those circumstances. There isn’t likely any benefit from decks in Expanded running Sky Field; the extra damage just leads to overkill.  Rebel-GX is not bad, though. Turbo Drive does just outshines it; the right Memory enables probable OHKO’s, and even with 2HKO’s you can prep your next attacker. With the [C] Energy requirements, Silvally-GX won’t have to worry about Energy Types itself, and can exploit Double Colorless Energy for an easy speed boost. Even if you can’t combo it with something like Keldeo-EX, Gyro Unit ensures any of your Basic Pokémon becomes a pivot Pokémon.

You don’t just have to take my word for it; the results from the European International Championship shows a Silvally-GX deck taking second place in the Masters Division, with multiple peppering the Top 32. From the available information, I don’t know how often Rebel-GX came in handy, but the tidbits we do have indicate that Gyro Unit, Fighting Memory, and Turbo Drive are working just as intended for Standard Format play. I believe we have to wait for the Regional Championship in San Jose for the next major Expanded Format tournament, where we’ll get a better idea of how Silvally-GX fares with old-school cards. While its a crowded, competitive metagame, I’m thinking it has the chops to do about as well as it does in Standard, but probably with a different approach. If you’re fortunate enough to pull Silvally-GX with a Type: Null at a Limited Format event, you’re only skipping them if you also pull something like Buzwole-GX or Guzzlord-GX. If you’re not running a +39 deck, Silvally-GX should be amazing here.

Fighting Memory and Psychic Memory are not equals, but I suspect they might be better in different formats. Regardless, they depend on Silvally-GX, so if I’m wrong and Silvally-GX bombs in Expanded, the Memory cards will suffer as well. In the Limited Format, they’re almost useless if you fail to get Type: Null and Silvally-GX. Gourgeist (SM: Crimson Invasion 45/111) has an attack that fuels its damage by discarding your own Tools that are in play, and there’s one other Tool besides the Memory cards in this set.

Ratings (Silvally-GX)

Standard: 4/5

Expanded: 4/5

Limited: 4.75/5

Ratings (Fighting Memory)

Standard: 3.5/5

Expanded: 3.5/5

Limited: 3/5

Ratings (Psychic Memory)

Standard: 3/5

Expanded: 3.75/5

Limited: 3/5

Conclusion

Silvally-GX is the kind of card where it is hard to tell if it is your focus or your support; a useful Ability with a hard-hitting, Energy accelerating attack, all on a solid, Stage 1 frame. Fighting Memory allows Silvally-GX to exploit Fighting Weakness on Pokémon like Zoroark-GX and other Silvally-GX. Psychic Memory doesn’t seem too important in Standard right now but seems like it could be really great in Expanded with Dimension Valley, even if Field Blower is a serious issue for the combo. While the Memory cards are dependent upon Silvally-GX, shifting Type is a potent mechanic in its own right; had Silvally-GX been bad or mediocre, they’d still have improved it. With the future bringing more Memory cards, Silvally-GX is probably going to be a significant presence in the competitive scene for quite some time.

Silvally-GX finished fifth with 31 voting points garnered from five of our six individual Top 10 lists. This is five more voting points than either sixth or seventh place (which tied with 26) but falls short of fourth place by seven points and first place by 11. I only had it as my sixth place pick myself, and it seems clear now that I didn’t give Silvally-GX near enough credit. Even if I had made it my first place pick (which no longer seems preposterous to me), it wouldn’t have shifted it up; some of the reviewers saw this card’s full potential, but too many of us did not. Well, unless we are fortunate and our top actual top picks start making an amazing showing from this point onward.