The Ultra Prism GX Review

Hello everyone and welcome to another article. This time I want to take an in depth look at the six new GXs we are getting in the next set, Ultra Prism. There’s’ a couple of really good ones and in general I think they will shake up the format pretty significantly so I’m looking forward to seeing how people play around with these cards!

Leafeon-GX (4*)

Leafeon-GX has the standard 200HP for these Eeveelution-GXs and of course has the fantastic previous Evolution of Eevee that can evolve on turn one through its Ability, Energy Evolution. This immediately gives value to the fact this would usually be a Stage One as we have access to this Pokémon from the first turn of the game. This is really important when evaluating the card and is even more important for Leafeon. Fire Weakness is never great whilst we have Volcanion till in format but that may only be for a few more months anyway.

The talking point of the card is definitely the GX attack, Grand Bloom GX. For a single Grass energy, you may search your deck for an evolution of each of your Basic Pokémon on your Bench. This is a brilliant attack for beginning to set up your benched Stage Ones and Twos and isn’t restricted to type either. This means that Leafeon can technically be acceleration for any deck that can afford to run Grass energy. Being able to build up a huge board from turn one/two by cheating out your evolutions can be really game changing and Leafeon is definitely a strong addition to these Stage One and Two decks.  Some immediate obvious partners are Decidueye-GX, Golisopod-GX, Lurantis (both the promo and GX), but there is also room for experimentation for Leafeon in Vikabulu decks. The deck already runs Grass energy and often only really needs a Vikavolt to begin taking prizes as the acceleration of Vikavolt’s Ability Strong Charge is from the deck meaning you don’t need to really draw many more cards at all for the rest of the game. This boost in evolutions means that perhaps a board set up can be built such that you can almost guarantee a Turn two Vikavolt which is often all the deck wants.

The card also has a fairly standard attack and ability making it not just a one trick pony. Breath of the Leaves lets you heal 50 damage from one of your Pokémon that has Energy on it if Leafeon is in the Active position. This is very strong in a format that is so reliant on two-shotting and Acerola bouncing. Two Leafeon can wipe 100 damage off of a Pokémon through the use of Guzma or retreating, meaning you have space to use fit in non-healing cards within your deck that can also help in combination with being able to tank hits. Leafeon’s attack, Solarbeam, does a flat 110 damage for a Grass and a DCE. This is a fairy average number and very similar to most of the Eeveelutions but can be boosted with the use of things like Lurantis Promo and Decidueye-GX. This turns another classic mediocre attack into one that can potentially one-shot things relatively easily and when supported by the various Pokémon Leafeon can help you “cheat” out in the early turns, it also turns out to be a fairly good attacker as well!

Glaceon-GX (4*)

Glaceon is a 200HP Water type, with the same prevolution as each of the other Eeveelutions meaning we have access to this from potentially turn one. A Weakness to Metal is arguably the worst part of the card as Metal seems to be a gaining a lot of support from this set meaning it will almost certainly see play and that alone could limit the success of Glaceon-GX.

Glaceon has access to all of the same bonuses Leafeon has but also potentially is even more impactful due to its ability Freezing Gaze. This ability states that whilst Glaceon is in the active position, no player can use the abilities of any other EX/GX Pokémon (other than Freezing Gaze itself). This means if you are going first and have started with Eevee, all you need is a Water energy to initiate Energy Evolution and evolve into Glaceon-GX, activating Freezing Gaze. This is a hugely impactful ability as the format relies heavily on Tapu Lele’s Wonder Tag ability in the early turns of the game to help players set up and get going. Whilst there are get arounds to this Ability (such as Guzma if the Opponent has another Pokémon on the Bench that isn’t a Glaceon) this is still a very powerful Ability and it seems that Glaceon may be the new go-to Pokémon for disruption in the early turns of the game for Water types.

Glaceon’s attack for Water DCE is identical to Shadow Bullet from Umbreon-GX, which is relatively underwhelming under normal circumstances. However, when the Opponent cannot get set up due to being under some form of Ability lock, this attack is definitely not anything to sniff at. With a Choice Band, Frost Bullet is two-Shotting everything in the format (pretty much) whilst also dealing snipe damage on anything the Opponent is trying to set up on the Bench. This extra damage also synergises well with the GX attack, Polar Spear GX, that deals 50 damage times the number of damage counters on the Opponents active Pokémon. This means that with one Frost Bullet, the GX attack will deal 150 damage, taking the number up to 180 (and 210 with a Choice Band) which is a brilliant number to be hitting. Glaceon looks not only to be a great disruption Pokémon that had the potential to shape the meta but also a strong attacker at the same time which could create a very oppressive top tier deck.

Dawn Wings Necrozma-GX (2*)

The first of the two new Necrozma forms, Dawn Wings Necrozma-GX (DWN) is definitely the weaker of the two. 180 HP Psychic type is all good, especially in a format with a lot of Buzzwole-GX. However unfortunately Dark Weakness is a huge downside right now. Zoroark-GX is one of the strongest cards ever printed and is seen in a huge amount of decks right now either as a main or backup attacker. Because of this it is likely that against any deck running Zoroark will be able to Guzma KO DWN almost as soon as you put it down with not much board set up of their own. This in general limits the potential of Dawn Wings unfortunately. However, in Buzzwole decks specifically this card is a likely auto-include as Buzzwole can deal with the Zoroarks well enough itself and the Ability provided by DWN is useful in general for Buzz.

This Ability is Invasion, and is a reprint of Rush in from Keldeo-EX and Stand in from BKT Zoroark. This is obviously a great Ability to have but was much more powerful when first printed on Keldeo as Guzma didn’t exist and Pokémon Catcher hadn’t yet been nerfed to a coin flip. This meant stalling was much more viable and therefore Keldeo was a big answer to that. There was also Hypnotoxic Laser in format which could Poison and Sleep the Active Pokémon, and Keldeo was a huge answer to that also. Invasion is still a good Ability in general and as mentioned in Buzzwole decks this is even better as this means Knuckle Impact can be used turn after turn by using Invasion each turn to ‘reset’ this attack. Dark Flash required three Psychic energy and deals 120 damage, ignoring Resistance. Unfortunately, half of the Pokémon that have Psychic Resistance are Dark types and therefore DWN still won’t be winning any prize trades there. We also don’t have all that much Psychic acceleration other than Max Elixir meaning this attack is pretty hard to get off in the first place. Finally, for the same cost and provided you are behind on Prizes, Moon’s Eclipse GX deals 180 damage and prevents all effects of attack, including damage, done to DWN during your Opponent’s next turn. With a Choice Band this hits 210 which would usually be a great number but the Resistance of Zoroark means it survives with 20 HP which is of course a huge problem. Yes, you are protected for one turn but they have the time to the Trade and further set up their board and still have access to the bench anyway. Unfortunately, all of this combined means that I think Dawn Wings wont quite see the limelight other than in the aforementioned Buzzwole decks.

Dusk Mane Necrozma-GX (5*)

Dusk Mane Necrozma (DMN) is a powerhouse! 190HP is a fantastic start and whilst Fire Weakness is a bit of an issue, we will soon see that DMN can hold its own against pretty much anything. Psychic resistance is never anything to be sad about with Garbodor still in the format and whilst Zoroark decks seem to have pushed Garb away from the top tiers for now, there is always the chance it can make its way back into decks at any point pretty much due to how strong Trashalanche is as an attack.

DMN has three attacks, the first Claw Slash for three Colourless does a flat 60 damage. This isn’t an overly exciting attack, but at least does make Dusk Mane somewhat splashable into decks that would normally perhaps struggle against anything with a Metal. However, for three Metal energy and a Colourless, Meteor Tempest deals a huge 220 damage and discards three energy from DMN. With a Choice Band this is taking a OHKO on anything in the format. This is a hugely powerful attack and whilst discarding the three energy is a bit of a downside, there are definitely ways to reload in a single turn without too much issue. Magnezone with a Deluge style ability is also being released in the set, along with Mt. Coronet (a Stadium that lets you put two Metal energy from your discard pile into your hand once per turn) which definitely helps the constant pressure that DMN can provide from potentially turn two. We also have Registeel from CRI and Max Elixirs for another form of energy acceleration that can help power up these beatsticks turn after turn. And if that wasn’t enough, Sun’s Eclipse GX deals a huge 250 damage for just three Metal energy provided you are behind on Prizes. This is a really big attack for not much downside at all, especially in builds that aim to use Registeel as the main form of acceleration for DMN. If the first few turns of the game are spent using Turbo Arm on Registeel to build up multiple Dusk Mane’s, then the opponent will more than likely eventually take a prize on the Registeel, thus activating Sun’s Eclipse. This means you then get to deal two OHKOs with a single DMN provided it doesn’t get KO’d itself in between your turns. In the Magnezone deck however, you may want to be using a different GX attack some of the time instead.

Dialga-GX (4*)

The Lord of time returns to the TCG this set with another crazy powerful card that I think whilst may not be the best card in the set, is without a doubt my favourite. Dialga boasts the standard 180 HP, Dragon typing and Weakness to Fairy. This usually would be an issue, and may still not be the best Weakness to have but as I have mentioned a couple of times, Metal seems to be getting a huge boost in power this set which could be big enough for Gardevoir and other Fairy decks to be pushed out of the meta in general. Considering Dialga also uses Metal energy to attack, it is likely that he will be in a Metal deck anyway making this Weakness almost irrelevant.

Dialga’s attacks start off great, with Clock UP only needing a single Metal energy to be used. Clock Up lets you draw until you have six cards in hand. This in general seems pretty mediocre but in the early turns of the game when you want to be using Brigette instead of a draw Supporter it’s good to have a form of in built draw to help increase your consistency. For a Metal and two Colourless, Dialga can use Shred, dealing 80 damage and going through all effects on the Opponent’s Pokémon. This means it goes through ‘Safeguarding’ effects, as well as the effects of various Attacks and Abilities the Defending Pokémon may have on it. This is never anything to sniff at and whilst 80 damage isn’t overwhelming it is still good to have a Shred style attack, especially as the cardpool increases further and further. Finally, however, for three Metal energy and two Colourless energy, Dialga can use Timeless GX. Timeless GX deals 150 damage and then lets you take another turn! This effect is incredible. First off, 150 damage is pushed to 180 with a Choice Band, meaning you can KO a Tapu Lele, take Two prizes and then take another turn. The only thing your Opponent can do is promote a new Active Pokémon meaning they cannot use cards like N or Guzma in an attempt to try and stop you from winning the next turn which is a commonly used strategy. However, this attack really shines when paired with Dusk Mane Necrozma and Magnezone. With the acceleration of Magnezone, Timeless GX can allow you to take a KO on a Lele, and then take a KO on another GX with Dusk mane Necrozma the next turn. This is a huge 4 prize swing that can turn a game completely on its head, if not win the game overall. When taking a KO, the attack essentially also draws three cards which gives you access to even more resources to try and pull off this combo with the two GXs, but even if this isn’t able to happen, you then can use Shred to take another KO on the 1 Prize Pokémon your opponent is likely to promote. This is still a three prize swing which is huge and lets you get back into games that may normally be a lost cause. Even just being able to have access to another turn to set up can be the difference between winning a game and losing it, and the fact your Opponent has no interaction during this time is the icing on the cake!

Palkia-GX (1*)

Palkia is also back with this set but is far inferior to his timey-wimey counterpart (which is hugely upsetting as Palkia is the Sinnoh Legendary Pokémon I prefer out of the two and always seems to be in Dialga’s shadow L). Palkia has the same stats as Dialga, 180 HP and a weakness to Fairy. However, this Weakness is slightly more relevant on Palkia as he naturally doesn’t fit into a Metal deck meaning in general you won’t always have a Fairy counter within the deck to deal with the pesky pinkums.

Palkia’s first attack, Spatial Control lets you move any number of energy from the bench to Palkia for a single Water energy. This in general is much weaker than Dialga’s set up style attack but does at least mean you can use Aqua Patch and then move the energy to the active, effectively Aqua Patching to the Active position instead letting you have some acceleration at least. However, you are then open to being KO’d and essentially losing a large chunk of your energy which is far from ideal. Three Colourless energy gives you access to Hydro Pressure, that deals 60 damage plus 20 more for each Water energy attached to Palkia. Assuming all of the energy attached to Palkia are Water, this does a base of 120 which is pretty average. However, this damage being able to scale is useful and with a fourth Water and a Choice Band this does at least OHKO a Tapu Lele which is always a bonus. Finally, for three Water and a two Colourless energy, Zero Vanish GX will deal 150 damage and forces your opponent to shuffle all of their energy on the board into their deck. This effect is obviously pretty strong against certain decks like Volcanion, Xerneas and Raichu. However, against some of the Zoroark decks that are currently around, there aren’t ever more than one or two energy on the board sometimes so in general this effect can definitely be very underwhelming. If you manage to take a KO with the attack you may also want the energy to go to the discard but unfortunately that is not the case either. This can be beneficial in some respect but also can be pretty annoying if you want to be trying to run your opponent out of resources as the energy they would usually lose they get to reuse later on in the game. This effect will have some practical applications but I can’t see Palkia making much of an impact on the format overall as it is just too slow to justify the five energy needed for the GX attack.

Thanks for reading, hopefully this has given a bit of an insight into the new GXs in the upcoming set and you’ll have some ideas about which ones you want to pick up in the first few weeks of release! Make sure you check out Omnipoke on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter for all the latest updates, lists and thoughts about new cards, the format and everything PTCG!