'Alter Genesis,' 'High Class Pack 2019' Sets Announced for Japan!

KK-Swizzle

Aspiring Trainer
Advanced Member
Member
  • Solgaleo - as a tanking card, its fine. Being a stage 2? Its pretty awkward. The main atk KOs Dedenne and most basic GXs but the atk costs sucks. How do we accelerate M energy to it?

Lunala I’m same set attaches 2 energy from deck- clunky but powerful. I think speed would be its biggest issue, not fire. With multiple stage 2 s and a frying pan, you can actually tank a flare strike, with a single prizer... problem is you’re probably already down 3 prizes at that point
 

PlatinumDude

Aspiring Trainer
Member
  • Solgaleo - as a tanking card, its fine. Being a stage 2? Its pretty awkward. The main atk KOs Dedenne and most basic GXs but the atk costs sucks. How do we accelerate M energy to it? Plus, the prevalence of Welder makes M decks see less play because Welder makes Fire decks nuts in any way. Well, Metal types do have things like Metal Core Barrier and Metal Goggles for tanking. But then again, prevalence of Fire decks hinders them. 2-3 Geodudes
  • Sylveon - its fine. 3-4 Geodudes
This Solgaleo is meant to be comboed with the Lunala that was revealed, as the latter can accelerate energy from the deck.
 

Flygonite

Meta/budget player
Member
If the Cosmoem/Cosmog revealed for this set don't include a way to evolve on their own a la Duskull/Caterpie/Metapod then they simply won't work. Way too much investment just to get rekt by a single Welder next turn.
 

Duo

RIP Nessa 2023
Member
Interesting cards, but I think moving forwards non-GX decks (and well, non V/V-Max decks since we're on that horizon already) are kind of not really going to work until we get something like Ultra Ball for searching and Rescue Stretcher to recover. 1 Prize Pokemon are falling faster and faster because the damage output of Tag Teams/GXs have gone up a lot.

Pokemon Communication is a thing, sure, but it requires you to have 2 cards in hand (A Pokemon and the item) and you trade 1 for 1 Pokemon instead of search and thin the deck.

Solgaleo + Lunala combo is strong in concept but likely really clunky in application. Getting 2 stage 2s in play is always a bit strange, but I won't deny that a 220 HP Solgaleo and 210 HP Lunala that only lose 1 prize while swinging for 180/130 (Lunala can get OHKOs on Psychic Tag Teams that aren't Trevenant & Dusknoir with the help of Shrine of Punishment and Spell Tag).

The most difficult thing with split Stage 2s on the same line is ratios. I'd say ideally you want 3 of each in the deck and run 4 Cosmog + 1 Ditto Prism since I think you would need at least 2 of each in play to finish up a game. You might even be spicy and throw in one Solgaleo GX Promo to remove fire & psychic weaknesses, reaccelerate the energy that Solgaleo discards, and have a GX attack that can fully heal your field. It's a real heavy top end which means you're going to brick a lot early on (7 Stage 2s, 4 rare candies, 11 cards that you need but can't play on Turn 1), and playing Dedenne GX to accelerate your set up is probably going to just end up hurting you since you're most likely going to have to ditch a Rare Candy or one of your Stage 2s in the process.

There just isn't enough working in the favor of Stage 2s, particularly non-GX, right now.

Sylveon has potential to be amazing as a 1 prize attacker that can OHKO all Dragon Tag Team GXs, but the only Tag Team supporter you would even consider running with it is Cynthia & Caitlin. Can't play Red & Blue since, again, non-GXs getting the shaft here.
 

Lanstar

The Cutest of Ladies
Member
Every time I see all these interesting stage 2 attackers, I keep thinking: They all pretty much auto-lose to the Tag Team decks right now, as all the trainer cards needed to set them up are still non-existent in standard right now.
 

crystal_pidgeot

Bird Trainer *Vaporeon on PokeGym*
Member
I always wanted a Oricorio-GX so I'm glad to have one now. just seems odd that its getting one though. It doesn't feel like an Oricorio though.
 

Flygonite

Meta/budget player
Member
Oricorio should have been a colorless tag team, the first one with 4 mons and also 3 attacks, the first one confusion + burn (for Oricorio Salsa), the second one a buff +high damage (for Pom-Pom, and the last one a high damage spread for Oricorio Sensu + Pa'u.

It seems to me they wasted the Tag Team mechanic on nonsensical or meme-tier pairings (like Alolan Muk x2) instead of something worth it.
 

Grass-Type Farm Owner

Aspiring Trainer
Member
Oricorio was the last Gen 7 mon (along with Minior) I expected to ever get a GX because of the different forms (obviously Lycanroc and Necrozma are important enough to get a GX for each form). Slightly disappointed it wasn't a Colorless card featuring all of them, but Sensu Style is my favorite of the 4 by a mile.

RIP Comfey there's no room between Sylveon and the Drag Teams. The Mantyke/Bonsley of the future.
 
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