Snorlax – Triumphant Light
Date Reviewed: March 19, 2025
Ratings Summary:
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale. 1 is horrible. 3 is average. 5 is great.
Reviews Below:
Otaku
Snorlax is my favorite Pokémon! If you’re a longtime reader, that probably comes as no surprise, but figured I should disclose my biases before actually getting into the real review.
Snorlax (A2a 063; P-A 049) is a Basic, non-evolving Colorless-Type Pokémon with 140 HP, (F) Weakness, (C)(C)(C)(C) Retreat Cost, and the attack “Collapse”. For (C)(C)(C)(C), Collapse lets Snorlax do 100 damage, though it also leaves itself Asleep. Snorlax is available at the ♦♦ and promo rarities.
As a Basic, Snorlax requires running no other cards… though we’ll discuss a few you really should include with it, later in the review. Snorlax’s (C) Typing means it cannot exploit Weakness, and lacks any Type-based support. 140 HP is great! This is typical of a Basic Pokémon ex… but Snorlax is not a Pokémon ex. (F) Weakness enables some OHKOs/2HKOs, while making other OHKOs/2HKOs easier or more reliable.
Snorlax’s Retreat Cost of (C)(C)(C)(C) is the most we’ve seen printed in Pocket. There’s no bounce effects or switching cards to let you bypass it completely, but you can use X Speed (P-A 002) and/or Leaf (A1a 068, 082) to reduce it. I’m not sure if that’s enough to rely on. You’d have to drop a double X Speed and a Leaf to retreat for free. Without these, Snorlax is probably stuck; four Energy is a lot.
Collapse is a decent attack. It’s not overly good, but it’s also not bad. (C)(C)(C)(C) is expensive here, just like it was for a Retreat Cost. Unlike a Retreat Cost, though, you almost get an adequate return from it. On a Basic, non-evolving, non-Pokémon ex, 100 damage for four of any Energy is a decent, maybe even a good deal. That Snorlax puts itself to Sleep with Collapse is a minor drawback; you’ll have two 50% chances that Snorlax can wake up before it matters.
Let’s look at the other Snorlax quick. Snorlax (A1 211, 250) is almost the same as today’s card. The differences are 10 more HP, it’s attack is named “Rollout”, and that attack does 70 damage. Which suggests that, in exchange for having 10 less HP and putting itself to Sleep after attacking, today’s Snorlax earned +30 damage!
The older Snorlax saw some success as a non-attacking meatshield. For all I know, it still might in some decks… but things have changed since the early days of the game. We’ve got some Energy acceleration that can work with Pokémon regardless of Type, Stage, etc. Things like Manaphy (A2 050, 162; P-A 048) or Dawn (A2 154, 194). They are not why we’re hear, but I still thought they were worth mentioning.
We’re here because of Barry (A2a 074, 089). He’s a Supporter that reduces the attack cost of your Pokémon in play named “Heracross”, “Snorlax”, and “Staraptor” by (C)(C), until the end of the turn. This lets today’s Snorlax do 100 damage for just two Energy. That’s a great deal… when it happens. We have no means of searching your deck for Barry, or recycling Barry from the discard pile, after all.
I tried making a Barry deck when Triumphant Light was new new. It did not turn out well. Fortunately, others more capable than me kept at it. There are several scarcely played decks where Snorlax is proving useful again, but the one that has a decent win rate (about 45%) and over 100 instances of itself on LimitlessTCG, and got a spotlight article over on Pokémon Zone, is Magnezone (A2 053)/Snorlax.
Specifically, the variant that also includes Darkrai ex (A2 110, 187, 202; P-A 042). It’s listed under the Barry Decks, even though we’re supporting Snorlax with two of the best Pokémon in the metagame. As such, it’s important to note that Pokémon Zone considers this to be an Honorable Mention; that’s below their Mid Tier decks, but above their Low Tier.
The strategy is straightforward; you hope to open with Snorlax, who will sit up front and soak hits as best as it can. Preferably, augmented with a Rocky Helmet or Giant Cape. If your opponent’s open is similarly slow, you might be able to manually ready a Snorlax, but the goal is to get two Energy on it if you have Barry handy or no place better to attach it. Magnezone, or rather, Magneton, does its thing to prepare the way for Magnezone. Darkrai ex can receive Energy instead of Snorlax, or in addition to it, depending on which is better.
I’ve been running the deck. It’s not Top Tier or Mid Tier, but I do enjoy it, and there’s enough to it that you should at least familiarize yourself with the strategy so you’re prepared for the matchup. Besides Barry or Snorlax showing up at the wrong time, the big issue is Retreat Costs. You don’t have any Energy to spare, even for Magnemite, let alone Darkrai ex or Snorlax… but you also don’t have room for Shaymin or X Speed or even a second copy of Leaf… and Leaf means Snorlax still needs to pay two Energy.
Rating: 2.5/5
Just barely a two-point-five-out-of-five, and a solid chunk of that is from Barry. I wanted to award Snorlax a flat three-out-of-five, but realized I couldn’t even justify if anymore than what it got. Snorlax does have a lot going for it, but it’s not quite enough. The silver lining to falling just short in multiple areas is, future strategies or cards just need to overcome even one of them, to make a big difference. That, or I’m just coping.
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