Reviewing Dream League GX's from the Future! (aka Japan)

Taking a short break from World’s/Post-Rotation content, today I am looking at the GXs and “tag team” Supporters from the newly revealed Dream League set that comes out in Japan on August 2nd!

Vileplume GX

Stage 2 Pokémon have been weaker than other evolution stages this past year or so because of how strong big basic Pokémon like Reshiram Charizard Tag Team, Pikachu Zekrom Tag Team,  and Ultra Necrozma GX are in comparison. Luckily for Vileplume GX, it is a grass type evolution line which has support from Alolan Exeggutot & Rowlet Tag Team from Unified Minds which has an awesome free attack that can quickly evolve a basic grass Pokémon into its stage 2 form. I think that Vileplume GX has an obvious partner because of Alolan Egg/Rowlet’s evolution acceleration and healing capabilities. 

My favorite attribute of Vileplume GX is probably its ability which heals 30 damage from each of your Pokémon. At 240 HP it can be a bench-sitter that is not really threatened at all because of its high HP. At a glance in Standard Format this has obvious synergy with Alolan Egg/Rowlet that has 270 HP and heals and Leavanny (Unified Minds) which reduces damage done to grass Pokémon by 40. In Expanded this could potentially be included in the Sceptile-GX/Cradily/Vileplume AOR archetype that has seen some success in the past. 

Vileplume-GX’s first attack Big Bloom costs one Grass and one Colorless energy and does 180 damage minus 10 for each damage counter on this pokemon. While I am not looking ahead to this card for it’s damage output, 180 damage for two energy is actually really solid. In expanded you could use this attack turn one with Mewtwo & Mew Tag Team GX if you discard Vileplume-GX, play Dimension Valley, and attach a grass or rainbow energy to Mewtwo & Mew Tag Team. Vileplume’s GX attack Allergy Bomb GX is not terrible for one energy but is incredibly underwhelming when compared to popular GX attacks that we currently have like Tag Bolt on Pikarom and Double Blaze on Reshizard. 

Final Thoughts: I fully expect this card to see experimental play with the cards I mentioned in standard, but Fire’s current popularity will likely hinder it from being above tier 3. It could see play in the Sceptile Vileplume deck in expanded if that deck needs healing from spread damage for any reason. 

Solgaleo & Lunala Tag Team GX (I’ll refer to this as Lugaleo)

Oh good, another huge basic Pokemon! At 270 HP, Solgaleo Lunala actually has a refreshing lower damage output than many of its Tag Team counterparts. That won’t stop it from seeing play however, as I foresee this being a very solid inclusion for Psychic Malamar decks. 

Lugaleo’s first attack costs 4 energy and does 230 damage and then cannot use this attack next turn. If we’re thinking about this in terms of a Malamar attacker, 230 for 4 energy is less than Ultra Necrozma could do for 4 energy - but Lugaleo has 80 more HP than Ultra Necrozma and doesn’t have to discard the energy as an additional cost of the attack. Switches are usually a necessity in Malamar decks so switching out to remove the attack’s restriction wouldn’t be out of the question. 

As for the GX attack, these new Tag Team GX attacks that have stipulations based on playing a specific Supporter card are interesting. Lugaleo’s GX attack does 200 damage for 3 energy which is fairly normal for a GX attack. It’s additional effect is if you played Lillie’s Best Effort this turn prevent all effects of attacks, including damage done to your Pokémon on your opponent’s next turn. Lillie’s Best Effort is a solid Supporter card that I will get to later in this article. Since this stipulation is with a draw supporter, I really don’t mind it and the effect is very good. 

Solgaleo Lunala is a very good card and will definitely see play in Standard. Its first attack is the same as Reshizard’s Flare Strike which is a very good attack currently, and its GX attack is a buffed version of Dawn Wing Necrozma GX’s Moon’s Eclipse GX attack which has been very good in the past and is used a bit at the moment. In addition to my prior points, Jirachi-GX which comes out in Unified Minds removes all psychic weakness from yours and your opponent’s Pokemon, so you can use that for your Solgaleo Lunala if you are worried about the weakness. 

Reshiram & Zekrom Tag Team GX

Next is Reshiram & Zekrom Tag Team, and it is as obnoxious as it sounds…

Thunderflame Dream is a pretty simple yet powerful attack. For one Fire and one Lightning energy, you discard up to 3 in any combination of Basic fire and Lightning energy from your benched pokemon dealing 90 damage for each energy discarded. So that is a max of 270 damage for 2 energy attached and 3 energy discarded from your benched Pokemon. It doesn’t take much critical thinking to determine that this card has immediate potential based off of this first attack and its 270 HP. 

Reshiram Zekrom’s GX attack certainly takes inspiration from Pikarom’s Tag Bolt and also pairs with a Supporter just like Solgaleo Lunala does. Cross Break GX costs two Fire and two Lightning and does 170 damage to one of your opponent’s benched Pokemon. This alone is actually very underpowered, as Naganadel-GX from Unified Minds has a similar attack that is not even a GX attack. But, if you played N’s Resolve this turn this attack does 170 to another one of your opponent’s benched Pokemon. So now with that added bonus the attack goes from below average for a GX attack to absolutely bonkers. If your opponent played down 2 Dedenne-GX you could take 4 prizes with this attack, or if your opponent has a damaged tag team and 1 Dedenne-GX on the bench you could even take 5 prizes with this GX attack. It is very powerful but certainly a bit more situational than Tag Bolt since that deals 200 to the active and 170 on the bench since your opponent’s active Pokemon will oftentimes be a strong attacker that you want to damage. I’ll cover N’s Resolve in the trainers section, but note that it synergizes well with the GX attack. 

This card will undoubtedly see play due to its Dragon typing which means Mysterious Treasure can search for it, the Fire and Lightning energy costs that can be accelerated with Welder, Tapu Koko Prism, and N’s Resolve, and its very high damage output. 

Silvally-GX

We have a new Silvally-GX and I’m rather disappointed in it because I think it is so close to being really good. Its ability Disc Reload is the main appeal of the card, as it allows you to draw until you have 5 cards in hand once a turn. This is a copy of Octillery BKT’s Abyssal Draw which saw a ton of play in Standard, but part of what made that card so good was that it was not a two-prize Pokemon. Silvally does have 210 HP but with all of the Tag Teams running around, that isn't as much as it used to be. I would have loved to see something a little more powerful on Silvally-GX, like Claydol GRE’s Cosmic Power which allowed you to put up to two cards at the bottom of your deck and then draw until you had 6 in hand. I understand that might be considerably more powerful than what this Silvally-GX can do, but good draw abilities like that are what makes the game more consistent, skill-based, and interesting. 

For Silvally’s attacks, keep in mind that in standard we still have Fire Memory, Lighting Memory, Grass Memory, and Water Memory which each change Silvally-GX’s type to the respective type of the Memory attached. I’m not really thrilled with Silvally-GX’s attacks, but I may be underselling the card due to my fondness of stronger draw abilities. 

Buddy Brave deals 50 + 70 more if you played a supporter this turn. Most decks are built to play a supporter card every turn, so it is safe to assume this will usually deal 120. If you hit into something weak to the Silvally memory you have attached then this will do 240, which is definitely a considerable amount of damage but requires the correct memory to be 1) in your deck and 2) attached at the time. Maybe something like Volkner can help set this up if you wanted to build around the memories.  

White Knight GX knocks out the defending Pokemon if it is an Ultra Beast. As ultra beasts have become a bit outdated, I’m not a huge fan of this attack. It can one shot Blacephalon-GX or Ultra Necrozma-GX which are two of the most popular ultra beast cards in Standard, but they aren’t entirely a huge deal to knock out as they are lower on the HP spectrum currently. 

Overall, I do think Silvally-GX will see play but I do not think it could ever reach levels of popularity that draw support of the past like Zoroark-GX, Octillery BKT, and Oranguru SUM had. 

Lillie’s Best Effort

The more I think about Lillie’s Best, the more I like it. Draw 4 cards is very powerful, regardless of the drawbacks that come with this card. The current draw supporter that it will compete with is Erika’s Hospitality which also has a sort of hand size requirement. Erika’s can only be played if you have 5 or less cards in hand and then the draw relies on your opponent’s bench size, whereas Lillie’s Best always draws you 4 regardless of any external factors, but then you must lower your hand size down to 2 by shuffling cards into your deck. This unique stipulation on Lillie’s Best is very cool, since you 1) get to draw the cards no matter what 2) get to play out the rest of your turn without restriction) and 3) shuffle the chosen excess cards into your deck instead of discarding them. Lillie’s Best Effort will definitely see play in any deck using Solgaleo & Lunala Tag Team because of the GX attack, and I really expect this to see play elsewhere too. 

N’s Resolve

N’s Resolve likely has a very specific place, which is in a deck built around Reshiram & Zekrom Tag Team. If you build your deck with a considerable amount of Lightning and Fire energy you could try to manage to hit 2-3 energy off of N’s Resolve each time and then use them for the damage output of Reshiram & Zekrom’s first attack. I’m not as thrilled with N’s Resolve as I am with Lillie’s Best Effort, but it definitely has its place in a new deck built around Reshiram Zekrom. 

Dream League has some powerful and open ended cards which gets me excited for release. Unfortunately, that won't be for a while, but Unified Minds releases Friday so be sure to follow my youtube channel Celio's Network and my work here on flipsidegaming.com for the latest tech from the new set and new Standard.