Discussion Silvally GX - Sleeping Hit or a Bad Card?

godhe

Aspiring Trainer
Member
Silvally GX (and its Memory cards in parcticular) has intrigued me since the card's release. Silvally GX is a Stage 1 Pokémon with a cool Ability (which gives your basic Pokémon free retreat), a decent OHKO GX-Attack and an Attack, which, for 3 colorless energy, deals 120 damage and allows you to attach a basic Energy card from you discard pile to one of your Benched Pokémon. But the Memory cards is where its at - they are Tools that change Silvally's type, thus granting you a hit for Weakness even against multiple different Pokémon. On paper this all sounds amazing, right?
Well, it seems that by far, nobody has really figured the deck out and since its original release hype (when it was played to some degree with Metal box to counter Gardevoir GX) Silvally has been left forgotten and mainly untouched.
The deck has several issues that needs to be worked out to make it run fluently. First and foremost - which Memory card types should it run? And how much? Then how can it deal with cards that do essentially nothing and work only in specific matchups? And the greatest one: What to pair Silvally with?
The current meta has me thinking about Silvally GX deck a lot. Both Pikarom and Zoroark (the most prominent decks at the moment) are weak to one type and others like Lost March or Zapdos/Jirachi have attackers with less than 120 HP. However, I haven't been able to create a fully working decklist that would prove itself worth.
I am still trying a few ideas as I cannot get rid of the "M Audino EX" deck thought that once somebody figures the right combination out, the deck will out of nowhere dominate and win a big tournament.
But what do you guys think? Is it worth trying something out or is Silvally GX a bad card and we shouldn't worry about it at all?
 
Silvally GX (and its Memory cards in parcticular) has intrigued me since the card's release. Silvally GX is a Stage 1 Pokémon with a cool Ability (which gives your basic Pokémon free retreat), a decent OHKO GX-Attack and an Attack, which, for 3 colorless energy, deals 120 damage and allows you to attach a basic Energy card from you discard pile to one of your Benched Pokémon. But the Memory cards is where its at - they are Tools that change Silvally's type, thus granting you a hit for Weakness even against multiple different Pokémon. On paper this all sounds amazing, right?
Well, it seems that by far, nobody has really figured the deck out and since its original release hype (when it was played to some degree with Metal box to counter Gardevoir GX) Silvally has been left forgotten and mainly untouched.
The deck has several issues that needs to be worked out to make it run fluently. First and foremost - which Memory card types should it run? And how much? Then how can it deal with cards that do essentially nothing and work only in specific matchups? And the greatest one: What to pair Silvally with?
The current meta has me thinking about Silvally GX deck a lot. Both Pikarom and Zoroark (the most prominent decks at the moment) are weak to one type and others like Lost March or Zapdos/Jirachi have attackers with less than 120 HP. However, I haven't been able to create a fully working decklist that would prove itself worth.
I am still trying a few ideas as I cannot get rid of the "M Audino EX" deck thought that once somebody figures the right combination out, the deck will out of nowhere dominate and win a big tournament.
But what do you guys think? Is it worth trying something out or is Silvally GX a bad card and we shouldn't worry about it at all?
i was honestly thinking the exact same thing earlier today, what deck lists have you been working with?
 
I think Silvally is pretty good right now. I' ve played around with it a bit utilizing fairy energy and mina which helps quiet a bit with consistently. Mina is definitely a card people are sleeping on right now.
 
i was honestly thinking the exact same thing earlier today, what deck lists have you been working with?

It usually goes like: I get super excited to try a new Silvally GX build. I get crushed several matches in a row not even getting to really play the deck. I get disappointed and leave the deck thinking Silvally GX is pointless… After a while I get excited again and everything repeats.

Currently I am going with non-GX basic Pokémon who require a few energy to attack and deal a ton of damage. At the moment I have a lot of fun with White Kyurem from Lost Thunder but still at the proces of refining the deck.
 
I think Silvally is pretty good right now. I' ve played around with it a bit utilizing fairy energy and mina which helps quiet a bit with consistently. Mina is definitely a card people are sleeping on right now.

Sounds cool. What Pokémon do you play it with?
 
Sounds cool. What Pokémon do you play it with?

Aurabomb did a video on it a couple weeks ago that got me testing around with it. Ultimately I played it with 2 jirachi, eevee snorlax, Marshadow GX, xerneas prism so we hit for weakness on dragons, a lele GX and Magerna.
 
*Maybe* with TCE. Even though Field Blower is not meta right now, Silvally is still too unreliable - you're a stage one that needs two attachments and lacks reliable energy acceleration so if you're going second, you're already at a huge disadvantage. Even with Jirachi you can still whiff the memory that you need, not to mention that running more than two types of memory is a bad idea, since you also need escape boards. Non-GX decks will also walk all over you since you can't really tech anything that would consistently help you win the prize trade. It also has a bad control MU.

Theoretically Silvally is a deck that can be adjusted to the respective meta, but in practice it's always going to lag behind top tier decks because there are too many pieces you need to get together to apply pressure and you also need to maintain your board state.
 
*Maybe* with TCE. Even though Field Blower is not meta right now, Silvally is still too unreliable - you're a stage one that needs two attachments and lacks reliable energy acceleration so if you're going second, you're already at a huge disadvantage. Even with Jirachi you can still whiff the memory that you need, not to mention that running more than two types of memory is a bad idea, since you also need escape boards. Non-GX decks will also walk all over you since you can't really tech anything that would consistently help you win the prize trade. It also has a bad control MU.

Theoretically Silvally is a deck that can be adjusted to the respective meta, but in practice it's always going to lag behind top tier decks because there are too many pieces you need to get together to apply pressure and you also need to maintain your board state.

Well yeah. Any Silvally deck I have tried loses to tempo. It becomes very powerful when it gets going but so many times you just miss a turn or two which will ultimately lose you the game no matter what. Fast non-GX decks like Lost March feed on the deck and you cannot do much about it, as you said.
As for the Memory cards, there is an Adventure Bag if you really want to be digging for some but I found out that that is usually not the point and I have always had them attached in time. Energy acceleration for the first Silvally in play to get the deck going seems to be the greatest problem in my games. And of course I don't know what "version" are you talking about, but I cannot imagine what would you use Escape Boards for; the Ability grants basics free retreat and Silvally needs DCE to retreat anyways.
I absolutely agree with you, and I said it in my post too, on paper the deck appears to be "meta crusher", but in practice not so much.
 
Aurabomb did a video on it a couple weeks ago that got me testing around with it. Ultimately I played it with 2 jirachi, eevee snorlax, Marshadow GX, xerneas prism so we hit for weakness on dragons, a lele GX and Magerna.

I feel bad for not including Jirachi in my lists - that just makes so much sense! I cannot belive I haven't thought about that; well, I still could't get my hands on one so I guess that must be the reason.
 
And of course I don't know what "version" are you talking about, but I cannot imagine what would you use Escape Boards for; the Ability grants basics free retreat and Silvally needs DCE to retreat anyways.

It's for Jirachi since it makes sense to include it in the list as it helps to get the memory you need.
 
Well as far as I can recall being Asleep doesn't prohibit the Pokémon from retreating and because Silvally's Ability grants free retreat to all basics, Escape Boards have no use.
Being asleep DOES prohibit retreating.
 
Bad card




(all the fighting in the meta)

Well, I don't judge cards just by their Weakness and though I am absolutely not comparing Silvally GX "rogue decks" to a behemoth like Pikarom, unless people play the ultimate counter version with Lucario GX, Pikarom has a favourable matchup even against Fighting decks who try so desperately to counter it (atleast from all the games I have played with it). And while loosing Pikarom IS a big deal, as it gives up 3 Prizes, that is not the case with Silvally and my back-up attackers have carried me to victory a lot of the times against Fighting decks. It feels to me like 50/50 most of the time and usually comes up to who gets a better draw or who knows the matchup better (which is always the Silvally player). If you really feel like Fighting is a big threat, you can always include psychic/grass secondary attackers and the opposing psychic/grass Memory cards but I found this much of Fighting hatred unnecessary.
 
I think Silvally is pretty good right now. I' ve played around with it a bit utilizing fairy energy and mina which helps quiet a bit with consistently. Mina is definitely a card people are sleeping on right now.

Interesting Idea which I will try out asap
Has this weekend a discussion with my son what should be the forgotten pokemon and he mentioned to try Silvally again, but I declined as the 3 energy requirement is too slow in the current meta. Maybe this should be an idea - as soon the energy attachment by attack is working the deck is running much more better
 
Interesting Idea which I will try out asap
Has this weekend a discussion with my son what should be the forgotten pokemon and he mentioned to try Silvally again, but I declined as the 3 energy requirement is too slow in the current meta. Maybe this should be an idea - as soon the energy attachment by attack is working the deck is running much more better

As @Wechselbalg said, TCE coming out in the next set might put Silvally into much better spot. I have high hopes for Silvally attacking for one attachment.
 
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