Pick Up Our New 20th Anniversary Pokemon Book for your Collection!

Pokemon Home

Pokedex

Price Guide Set List

Message Board

Pokemon GO Tips

Pokemon News

Featured Articles

Trading Card Game
- Price Guide
- Price Guide
- Card of the Day
- Professional Grading
- Killer Deck Reports
- Deck Garage
- William Hung
- Jason Klaczynski
- Jeremy's Deck Garage
- Johnny Blaze's Banter
- TCG Strategies
- Rulings Help
- Apprentice & Patch
- Apprentice League
- Spoilers & Translations
- Official Rules
- Featured Event Reports
- Top of the World
- An X-Act Science
- Error Cards
- Printable Checklist
- Places to Play

Nintendo Tips
- Red/Blue
- Yellow
- Gold & Silver
- Crystal
- Ruby & Sapphire
- Fire Red & Leaf Green
- Emerald
- SNAP
- Pinball
- TCG cart
- Stadium
- PuPuzzle League
- Pinball: Ruby/Sapphire
- Pokemon Coliseum
- Pokemon Box
- Pokemon Channel

GameBoy Help
- ClownMasters Fixes
- Groudon's Den
- Pokemon of the Week

E-Card Reader FAQ's
- Expedition
- Aquapolis
- Skyridge
- Construction Action Function
- EON Ticket Manual

Deck Garage
- Pokemaster's Pit Stop
- Kyle's Garage
- Ghostly Gengar

Cartoon/Anime
- Episode Listing
- Character Bios
- Movies & Videos
- What's a Pokemon?
- Video List
- DVD List

Featured Articles

Pojo's Toy Box

Books & Videos

Downloads

Advertise With Us
- Sponsors
- Links

Chat

About Us
Contact Us

Pojo's Pokémon Card of the Day

aroramage	Diancie's a rarity of a gem! Too bad I don't watch enough Steven Universe to make a joke with that.  That said, Diancie does come with two attacks. Sparkling Wish ends up evolving a Pokemon for 1 Fairy Energy. You just grab whatever evolves from 1 of your Pokemon straight from your deck and BAM! Instant Stage 1 or Stage 2! Which in an era of GX, that's EXTREMELY valuable, even though it costs you your attack for the turn.  There's also Diancie's second attack, Diamond Storm, which does 2-for-30 so it's not a great primary attack, but it does also heal off 30 damage. A nice little bonus for a move you'd rarely use in the first place. That's about all I can say. I'm not recommending you throw a 90 HP Basic out in the Active slot to try and heal 30 damage, just use a Potion if you're that crazy.  Diancie's great at one thing, and that's where her strength lies. I'd imagine that only Fairy decks (coughcoughGARDEVOIR-GXcoughcough) will make use of this, but for those decks that can/do make use of Diancie, you might find the results to be quite pleasing.  ...though it's risky having a 90 HP Basic substitute for something like Wally or Evosoda.  Rating  Standard: 2.5/5 (more by virtue of the deck she supports, I think Diancie gets a good wrap)  Expanded: 2/5 (but otherwise, it's hard to see her in other spots)  Limited: 3/5 (still, great support for what it's worth)  Arora Notealus: Diancie's apparently got something to do with Carbink transformation, but I don't think they ever get into that? Like how exactly does Carbink become a Diancie, and why does that give it the power to Mega-Evolve? So many questions...  Weekend Thought: Lot of good cards this week, though maybe a bit niche. What do you think? Is there a build in your decks for these cards? Wanna make use of them in multiple decks, or just hang around with the one?
21times	Diancie (Burning Shadows, 94/147) got a new version in the Burning Shadows expansion set.  A 90 HP Basic Pokemon, this card is seeing quite a bit of play in Gardevoir GX (Burning Shadows, 93/147) decks because of its attack Sparkling Wish which for a single Fairy energy allows you to instantly evolve any Pokemon on your bench. Many Gardevoir GX decks are using this to be able to get a fully evolved Stage 2 Gardy on the bench by turn 2 if you go second.  It’s a pretty amazing accelerator if you can get things to line up right for you.  Many of the top tier decks in today’s game take a few turns to get fully set up, including some versions of Gardevoir GX.  There are some Gardevoir GX versions that use Alolan Vulpix (Guardians Rising, 21/145) and not Diancie, and while Vulpix can get two cards you potentially need, it’s also very likely that it will get you zero cards you need if your opponent N’s (BW100) you.  And Vulpix can’t accelerate the way Diancie does either.  Although many Gardy decks are running Vulpix or even both Vulpix and Diancie, I’ve been actually running four copies of Diancie in my builds to maximize my chances of starting with it. Diancie’s Sparkling Wish is not limited solely to Fairy Pokemon, however.  You can use it to evolve any Pokemon on your bench.  I frequently use it to evolve Octillery (Breakthrough, 33/162), and I tested it and you can even use it to directly evolve Basic EX Pokemon into their Mega evolutions as well.  The only downside of Sparkling Wish is that it requires a Fairy energy.  If it were a colorless attack, it would probably revolutionize the way we build our decks.  Even still, it is a great starter for any Fairy evolution deck, and it helps put Gardevoir GX over the top and make it the BDIF. Rating Standard: 2.5 out of 5 Conclusion Diancie can help expedite your offensive plan and allow you to bring tremendous pressure on your opponent very quickly.  At 90 HP, it’s tanky enough to usually take a hit or two early in the game and if it does get KO’d in a Gardevoir GX deck, there’s a good chance that KO will turn the match into a seven prize card game.  Like I said, if Sparkling Wish were colorless, this card would be probably 4.5 or maybe even 5 out of 5, but as it requires a Fairy energy, I think it won’t be able to find its same usefulness in non-Fairy decks.
Vince	Today’s card is Diancie from SM Burning Shadows.  She makes another appearance on the competitive scene, this time in the Sun & Moon era.  So what does she have to try and see some play?   She has two attacks.  Sparkling Wish costs Y and it allows you to search your deck for a Pokemon that evolves from one of your Pokemon in play and evolve it.  This helps speed up evolution in a different way; You would play the stage 1 from your hand to evolve and use sparkling wish to fetch the stage 2 or Break Evolution.  It may cost you an attack, but this method avoids fueling Trashalanche’s damage output (something that items fall prey to such as Rare Candy or Evosoda).   And there’s her iconic signature move, Diamond Storm.  For the cost of YC, it does 30 damage, and it heals 30 damage from your fairy Pokemon.  With 90 HP, she will get OHKOed more often than not, but she would help other fairy Pokemon survive a bit more.  This seems like the fairy equivalent of Rough Seas without the stadium.  You shouldn’t have to use this attack unless desperate measures needs to be taken.   Outside of being in a deck with Gardevoir-GX that won 2017 Pokemon World Championships, I don’t see Diancie being used somewhere else.  Her attack cost suggests fairy energy, so she’ll have to stay on one type.  In Limited, although damage output isn’t stellar, she can keep healing 30 HP, which will help her survive against most cards from the Burning Shadows set unless their own base damage eventually starts to overwhelm her healing.   Ratings:   Standard: 3/5  Expanded: 3/5  Limited: 4/5   Notes: Celebi XY Promo from Mythical Collection boxes tried to do the same, but needing a heads coin flip to be successful.  Diancie doesn’t need a coin flip; the effect’s guaranteed, but needing a specific energy type.  But even then, I would still use Diancie.
Retro	Diancie is one of those rather uncommon cases where a (very) good Pokemon in Smogon OU or the Battle Spot doesn’t necessarily translate into amazing Pokemon cards. Well, we do have Diancie-EX (XY43 Promo. XY Fates Collide) although the FCO variant is better than the promo one, and a Mega Diancie-EX (XY44 Promo) which deals good damage and gives a Safeguard effect for your next turn. However, it is outclassed by almost all Fairy types as a cleaner, a wallbreaker or even a wall, so its kind off lost here. Pokemon has realized that and decided that the best action is to make Diancie a hard support Pokemon. But has it worked?             Diancie is a Basic Fairy Pokemon with 90 HP, which is bulky enough, and you can also lead with one as a starting Pokemon. It also has the standard Metal weakness plus Dark resistance, but you know, 90 HP isn’t big. It also has a 1 Retreat cost, which is great as its main attack cost 1 Fairy energy, but Fairy Garden (XY Base Set, XY Fates Collide) is always an option. Back to the point now. Diancie can be classified as a hard support Pokemon because of one move; Sparkling Wish. For 1 Fairy energy, you get to search your deck for 1 Evolution Pokemon that has its Basic form in play and evolve it immediately. This is good for a myriad of reasons; when you evolve a Pokemon with this attack, the next turn you can evolve it again into its next evolution stage (if you have got one), and since you evolve it from your deck, not from your hand, Diancie can act as a hard counter to decks running Po Town (SM Burning Shadows) by denying the 30 damage it brings when you evolve a Pokemon from your hand. It also has an offensive move in Diamond Storm; add an extra 1 Colorless energy to Diancie and it deals 30 damage plus 30 HP heals to every Pokemon in the bench.             There are two decks which Diancie shines very well. One is the Gardevoir-GX deck, where Diancie plays a major role against Drampa/Garb decks that play Po Town to deny their Stadium from hurting Gardevoir and Gallade too much. The second is with Mega Evolution decks; I used it in testing with a Mega Gardevoir-EX (XY Steam Siege) to replace the Spirit Links which can prove problematic with Garbodor (SM Guardians Rising) running around. Then when I finished setup, I just get rid of the Diancie for an extra 10 damage in Despair Ray! Other Mega Pokemon decks that it might be useful are Mega Kangaskhan-EX/Aromatisse (Expanded only), Mega Mewtwo Y-EX,  and also decks that run Rainbow Energy in general.             Overall, Diancie is a very solid one-off support Pokemon that can act as a lead in many Fairy decks and with 2 good attacks, it might be just the setup Pokemon you might need. Rating: Standard: 3.5/5 (As evolution Pokemon-GX rule the roost here, Diancie’s evolution setup acceleration is greatly welcomed in the meta) Expanded: 3/5 (The contrary can be said in Expanded; Basic decks are everywhere, and while there are a few viable Evolution decks, they don’t necessarily need Diancie.) Limited: 2.3/5 (Although Gardevoir is potentially the best deck here, it’s rather hard to assemble a full Evolution deck here, limiting its use.)