Hello everyone and welcome to the second part of my new GX review of the GXs in Forbidden Light, the 6th set of the Sun and Moon block to be released May 4th. You can find part 1 here! This time Ill be taking a look at the Aura trio, Xerneas, Yveltal and Complete Forme Zygarde!
Xerneas-GX
Xerneas sports the relatively standard 180HP for Basic GXs nowadays, Fairy typing (which is great for dealing with Ultra Necrozma-GX), and a resistance to Darkness which is pretty nice for taking hits against Zoroark-GX. The weakness to Metal is kind of awkward as Dusk Mane Necrozma-GX seems to get somewhat of a power boost with the release of Beast Ring but in general that will be 1 shotting you anyway so it isn’t overall too relevant. 2 retreat is completely fine since we still have both Fairy Garden, granting free retreat to Xerneas almost always, as well as Float Stone in a worst case scenario.
Overrun, for 1 Colourless Energy is similar to Buzzwole-GX’s Jet Punch, but instead dealing 20 to the opponent’s Active Pokemon as well as 20 to one of the opponent’s Benched Pokemon. This 20 snipe can actually be somewhat relevant as it means that a Choice Banded Aurora Horns can finish off a Tapu Lele-GX in the later stages of the game. This can put opponents in an awkward spot where they have to make a decision between healing their Tapu Lele rather than maybe a main attacker which can often lead you to a 2 Prize Knock out at some point during the game. Aurora Horns deals a mediocre 120 damage for 2 Fairy and a Colourless Energy, which is just okay. It’s not breaking any records but it’ll pretty consistently 2 shot most things in the format.
Sanctuary GX is by far Xerneas-GX’s defining feature. For the same cost as Aurora Horns, 2 Fairy and a Colourless, you move all damage counters from your Pokemon to your opponents Active Pokemon. This is very similar to Damage Change from Mewtwo-EX or Ice Path GX from Ninetales-GX. Both of these attacks were the huge for their respective decks and whilst I don’t think Xerneas-GX quite has the power level of either of these cards, the attack is still phenomenal. On one hand this is fantastic if you can just heal 2 Pokemon that have taken a hit each, as this will be healing around 200 damage more than likely whilst also taking 2 Prizes at the same time. This is a huge swing in terms of board control and can be enough to push the game back into your favour which is exactly what a GX attack should do. However this is also fantastic at countering a Buzzwole-GX deck’s early pressure applied with Jet Punch as you can heal multiple targets at once and deny their early game damage set up. I think this attack is slightly too overprice for the card to see play purely based around this but is in general a huge effect and not one to forget about at all.
Xerneas-GX is in a really weird spot in which it has a very strong GX attack but doesn’t quite have strong enough regular attacks to support it overall. I think this could potentially be the GX attacker of choice in older Fairy decks (such as Xerneas BREAK) as these decks didn’t already have a GX attack. But beyond that I don’t see much overall use for the card on immediate inspection unfortunately.
Yvetal-GX
Oh how the mighty have fallen! Yveltal-GX is unfortunately in my opinion the worst GX of Forbidden Light and I don’t think it has any immediate uses, if any at all once the format has developed. Again it sports a pretty standard 180 HP for a basic GX, however being a Dark type it immediately has to be compared to Zoroark-GX, and this is not a favourable comparison. However due to its dual typing in the game, it is worth noting that Yveltal actually resists Fighting rather than has weakness to it meaning it doesn’t get caught in the Zoroark crossfire quite as badly. It does instead have a weakness to Lightning though and that does mean anyone playing Tapu Koko Promo will more than likely be able to deal with Yveltal realtively well. Again, being a Dark type is great for use of Altar of the Moone meaning that if you are particularly concerned about Yveltal’s 2 retreat, there are ways of dealing with it.
Yveltal’s first attack, Absorb Vitality does 20 damage for a single Dark Energy and heals Yveltal for the same amount of damage dealt. This is a very sub par attack, in general this style of attack hasn’t really every seen too much success but is at least more than just a flat 20 damage. Sonic Evil for 3 Colourless Energy deals 100 damage, ignoring weakness and resitance. This is great for somewhat guaranteeing 2 shot Knock outs but at the same time this also means you’ll never be hitting for weakness and therefore never 1 shotting anything either. This places the attack in a bit of a catch 22 position and I think that currently because of the way the format is right now, a 1 shot attack would be much better placed as a lot of decks are on a 2 shot gameplan and therefore will naturally be more unfavored to these stronger attacks.
Doom Count GX only costs a single Dark Energy and lets you Knock out your opponent’s Active Pokemon provided they have exactly 4 damage counters on them. I think a poor way of looking at this would be taking a Pokemon currently seeing success, say Buzzwole-GX and saying “well this deals 150 damage for a single Energy” which whilst being mathematically true, doesn’t necessarily justify the attack in general. This is because I think in general the difficulty will be actually getting exactly 4 damage counters on your opponent’s Active Pokemon. One of the best ways of doing this would be the new Frogadier from Forbidden Light. This guy places 2 damage counters when it evolves from Froakie, so 2 of these will equal exactly 4 counters. This is free of things like a supporter use meaning you can technically take a 2 Prize Knock Out on whatever target you choose in combination with Guzma but looking at this overall, it is a large amount of resources just to take a KO. This is a big deal but I think the attack is just too awkward for it to be a viable option whilst being consistent as well.
Yveltal-GX suffers from 2 very underwhelming attacks and an awkward GX attack and I think this puts it in the binder category for now. I can’t see this card being too good in the future either but since it’s a basic and can technically Knock Out almost any Pokemon in the game, having 1 may not be a bad idea.
Zygarde-GX
The final of the Aura trio is Zygarde-GX in complete forme. This is definintely the best of the trio and I think that it will lead to a potentially successful archetype once a list has been ironed out. Zygarde has a huge 200HP which is incredible for a Basic Pokemon. Fighting typing is great right now as the type has loads of damage boosters that can turn even the simplest of attacks to threats, Strong Energy, Choice Band, Regirock-EX and even the new Diancie Prism Star card. Zygarde doesn’t even get caught in the crosswind of Buzzwole-GX as it is weak to Grass instead of Psychic. This itself does have its downsides as Golisopod-GX will be 1 shotting Zygarde with a boosted First Impression but this is no where near as bad as being weak to Psychic right now.
Cell Connector is Zygarde’s first attack, costing 2 Colourless Energy and dealing 50 damage. You may also attach 2 Fighting Energy from your discard pile to Zygarde. This is a fantastic attack as you can not only set up for your other stronger attacks, but with all of the damage modifiers I mentioned earlier you can actually be taking 2 shot Knock Outs on many Pokemon, and even 1 shots sometimes on Pokemon that are weak to Fighting. Land’s Wrath deals 130 damage for 2 Fighting Energy and 2 Colourless Energy, which works perfectly in combination with Cell Connector as you can actually power up a Zygarde-GX in a single turn if you are playing Double Colourless Energy and will have access to all of its attacks from the get go.
However where Zygarde really shines is its GX attack. Verdict GX costs the same as Land’s Wrath and deals 150 base damage. It also makes Zygarde immune to damage received from Pokemon EX and GX during your opponent’s next turn. This normally would be pretty good anyway but you can actually reuse this attack using the Supporter Bonnie from this set. Bonnie requires you to discard a Stadium in play, but then lets you use Verdict GX this turn even if you have already used your GX attack for the game. This is huge if you are able to cycle Bonnie turn after turn as you are likely able to 1 or 2 shot most of the Pokemon in the format whilst being immune to a huge percentage of the meta at the same time. This turns Zygarde into a quad Hoopa style deck which is much more intimidating when the Pokemon you want to KO with a Non EX/GX has 200 HP and is dealing at least 150 damage per turn. I think realistically you only really need to use Bonnie maybe twice during a game to go far enough ahead that you can close the game out any other way, either using Zygarde’s other regular attacks or other Pokemon you may be including.
Zygarde is by far the best of the 3 POkemon Ive talked about today, and I do really think this could be an archetype that sees success upon release. Attacking Hoopa has been somewhat successful recently and even though that is a 1 Prize Pokemon, I think Zygarde’s attacks are so much stronger than Hoopas it doesn’t matter that youll be giving up 2 Prizes upon being Knocked Out. And besides, it wont be happening all that often anyway hopefully!
Thanks for reading today, Im glad I was able to chat about all of the GXs before the sets release this time as I think they definitely may open up some doors to new archetypes coming into the format. As per, make sure you stay tuned to Omnipoke for the latest streams and videos, including Forbidden Light decklists, top 10s and all that good stuff that’s happening right now!
