Glaceon ex – Triumphant Light
Date Reviewed: March 13, 2025
Ratings Summary:
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale. 1 is horrible. 3 is average. 5 is great.
Reviews Below:
Otaku
Note: Due to illness on my part, this review was not only late, but accidentally posted without the actual review. My apologies.
Glaceon ex (A2a 022, 083, 092) is a (W) Type, Stage 1 Pokémon ex Eeveelution. It has 140 HP, (M) Weakness, (C) Retreat Cost, the Ability “Snowy Terrain”, and the attack “Freezing Wind”. If this Pokémon is your Active during the Pokémon Checkup1, Snowy Terrain will do 10 damage to the opposing Active. Freezing Wind costs (W)(W)(C) and does 90 damage to the opponent’s Active. There are three versions of Glaceon ex available; a ♦♦♦♦ rare and two different ★★ rares.
The (W) Type may be the best supported in Pocket. Manaphy (A2 050, 162), Misty (A1 220, 267), and Vaporeon (A1a 019, 072) provide different forms of (W) Energy acceleration, while Irida (A2a 072, 087) provides healing. While Misty and Vaporeon only work for (W) Type Pokémon, Manaphy and Irida are based on (W) Energy usage. This makes it easier to splash certain non-Water Pokémon into such decks. Glaceon ex can benefit from all these things.
Glaceon ex enjoys a minor benefit from exploiting (W) Weakness, specifically against Heatran (A2a 013), where (W) Weakness enables a OHKO from Freezing Wind. Among lesser used (R) Types, there are a few OHKOs and pseudo-OHKOs enabled by the combination of Weakness, Snowy Terrain and Giovanni (A1 223, 270) or spread damage. There are anti-(W) effects2, but they don’t see much play. The many other potent (W) Types may compliment or clash with Glaceon ex usage.
As a Pokémon ex, Glaceon ex is worth an extra point when KO’d, and takes extra damage from Sudowoodo (A2a 036, 079) and Tauros (A1 060), but should have better states and or effects than a baseline Glaceon, like Glaceon (A2 046). As a Stage 1, you’ll have to run a Eevee to evolve from, eating up time and deck space. We’ll discuss Glaceon and which Eevee a little later. The other thing to remember is Aerodactyl ex (A1a 046, 078, 084) can prevent an Active Eevee from evolving.
140 HP is reasonably good for a Stage 1 Pokémon ex. It is a typical amount, but still able to soak anything less than a full force heavy attack. Some lesser played (M) attackers can score a OHKO due to it, but might need a tiny bit of help (Giovanni) in addition to exploiting Glaceon ex’s (M) Weakness. I’m more worried about it enabling a 2HKO from the likes of Skarmory (A2 111; P-A 039). Glaceon ex’s Retreat Cost of (C) is often easy to zero out or pay.
Snowy Terrain is the first card effect in Pocket that specifically mentions the Pokémon Checkup, let alone the first Ability to actually function during it. Other card effects have, of course, already done so; many Special Conditions have effects that activate during the Pokémon Checkup, or go away during it. As for Snowy Terrain’s actual effect, it’s like a built-in Giovanni with a chance of repeated use and that works even when you don’t attack. Which sounds good…
…but is it better than a stronger Freezing Wind, or having another attack? Freezing Wind does 90 damage for three Energy, which is a good amount. It’s about what you’d expect for (W)(W)(C) on a (W) Pokémon. Maybe a little better, considering the Energy acceleration available to the Type. You’ll 2HKO almost anything in the game, before other card effects, at least. Getting back to Snowy Terrain, as it only works like Glaceon ex is Active, it can function like a weaker attack or a bonus to Freezing Wind.
I will not be covering every single existing Eeveelution. I will cover the various (W) Type Eeveelutions, since they’re a bit easier to run with Glaceon ex than the others. Before that, I favor Eevee (A1a 061). If I’m attacking with Eevee, it’s either Turn 2 or I’m desperate. Though the odds are incredibly low, there’s always the chance it’s flip-until-tails attack can score a KO.
As for (W) Type Eeveelutions, we’ve got the Glaceon and Vaporeon I mentioned earlier, as well as Vaporeon (A1 080). All three are Stage 1 (W) Pokémon. Glaceon has 90 HP, (M) Weakness, Retreat Cost (C), and the attack “Ice Beam”. For (W)(W), Ice Beam does 60 damage and has you flip a coin; “heads” means the opposing Active is Paralyzed.
Both Vaporeon are (L) Weak, with Retreat Costs of (C)(C). Vaporeon (A1 080) has 130 HP, and for (W)(C)(C) can use the attack “Bubble Drain” to do 60 damage while healing 30 damage from itself. Vaporeon (A1a 019, 072) has 120 HP, the Ability “Wash Out”, and the attack “Wave Splash”. Wash Out lets you move a (W) Energy from one of your Benched (W) Pokémon to your Active (W) Pokémon, and can be used as often as you like during your turn. Wave Splash does 60 damage.
Glaceon’s main use is for comparison. Being a Pokémon ex really agreed with this Pokémon: +50 HP, a good Ability, and an improved attack. You can technically use any and all of these together, but I wouldn’t recommend it. I would recommend including a copy of Vaporeon (A1a 019, 072) in a Glaceon ex deck… because that’s what Glaceon ex decks are already doing.
Yes, there are Glaceon ex decks… but they’re not doing all that well. You can look up the results here, on LimitlessTCG. Seems like Glaceon ex is partnering with Palkia ex (A2 049, 182, 204, 206). This brings us back to how there are so many good (W) Types right now. It is possible Glaceon ex is just being overshadowed, and that’s why they’re less than 1.00% of the metagame and have less than a 45% Win Rate…
…but it is also possible that Glaceon ex is only performing this well because it’s being carried by Palkia ex. It’s a familiar, heavily used deck focus with multiple archetypes, with almost a 10% higher Win Rate! It also could be slipped into existing (W) decks already running Vaporeon (A1a 019, 072), but much like me not in any of the lists I checked.
Rating: 3/5
On paper, Glaceon ex looks amazing, but in practice, it… well… it still has a lot going for it, but it shares it with arguably the best big, Basic Pokémon ex in the game right now, Palkia ex. As well as several other proven (W) Types. Nevertheless, if you want to play it, you can still make a decent-ish deck… and future releases, a shifting metagame, or even just a better decklist might be all Glaceon ex needs to perform well.
1The phase that happens between player turns.
2Piloswine (A2 032) and Mamoswine (A2 033, 160).
3Yes, I had to burn space to explain that.
We would love more volunteers to help us with our Card of the Day reviews. If you want to share your ideas on cards with other fans, feel free to drop us an email. We’d be happy to link back to your blog / YouTube Channel / etc. 😉 Click here to read our Pokémon Card of the Day Archive. We have reviewed nearly 5000 Pokémon cards over the last 25 + years!
