Oricorio – Celestial Guardians
Date Reviewed: May 30, 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: Apologies, we have another late review. Which is why I’m just going to have to accept I cannot maintain my old output. Not that I was perfect about it back in the day, either. There will be no Saturday or Sunday CotDs for the foreseeable future, unless I really need to squeeze in an extra card, or am making up for a missed review during the week.
Also, unless I say otherwise, for this CotD I’ll be discussing the post-Shining Revelry and pre-Extradimensional Crisis. Yes, there are already tournaments that have included the latest set, but the small sample size, compounded with players still trying to figure out what works, means those results aren’t very reliable.
Oricorio (A3 077) is a Psychic-Type, Basic Pokémon. It has 70 HP, (D) Weakness, (C) Retreat Cost, and the attack “Spiteful Dance”. For (P), this attack does 20 damage, but, if any of your Pokémon were Knocked Out by damage from an attack during your opponent’s last turn, it does +60 damage (80 total).
Oricorio is available as a ♦♦ rare.
The Psychic-Type has support1 but none that has seen much success. As for exploiting Weakness, there actually are a few Pokémon like Lucario (A2 092, 170) and Gallade ex (A2 095, 185, 200) where it helps with a OHKO and 2HKO, respectively. As a Basic2,3, Oricorio requires minimum deck space and time to hit the field. As I said with Tapu Lele (A3 084, 170), Oricorio’s shtick only really works with a Basic; it’s just not as handy for an Evolution to be a “revenge” attacker.
70 HP is “okay”; it’s not especially vulnerable to donked, but that’s about it. Given Oricorio’s role, there’s a chance it can survive finishing off an opponent’s current attacker, because their next attacker isn’t completely ready. (D) Weakness isn’t as likely to matter as you might think, due to the HP. As in, most (D) attackers either OHKO Oricorio before Weakness, or don’t quite manage it even with it. The Retreat Cost of (C) is very good; if Oricorio does survive attacking, retreating isn’t difficult.
Spiteful Dance is a good attack. Maybe even a very good attack. The condition to receive the full damage isn’t too strict. Just remember it only cares about your Pokémon being KO’d (kind of obvious), during your opponent’s previous turn (never yours), by damage (not effects) from the attack (not Abilities) of an opponent’s Pokémon. Just remember that, if you lead with a Pokémon ex, you’ll get all of one chance enjoy Spiteful Dance’s full damage. If the effect isn’t triggered, 20 for one isn’t awful.
Spiteful Dance does requires (P) Energy, so it isn’t something you can afford to run off-Type. Post-Shining Revelry and pre-Extradimensional Crisis, this means we’ll consider Giratina ex (A2b 035, 83, 096)/Darkrai ex (A2 110, 187, 202; P-A 042), Giratina ex/Greninja (A1 089; P-A 019) decks, Giratina ex/Magnezone (A2 053) decks, Lunala ex/Giratina ex decks, Gengar (A2a 033) decks, Togekiss (A2 065) decks, Giratina ex/Arceus ex (A2a 071, 086, 095, 096) decks, Banette (A3 075)/Mewtwo ex (A1 129, 262, 282, 286; P-A 50) and Mewtwo ex/Gardevoir (A1 132) decks.
From what I’ve seen, most Giratina ex/Darkrai ex and Giratina ex/Arceus ex decks don’t have their Energy Zone’s set to produce (P) Energy. Giratina ex/Greninja, Giratina ex/Magnezone4, and Lunala ex/Giratina ex decks run on (P) Energy, but the higher ranking lists weren’t including Oricorio. Gengar (A2a 033) decks, Togekiss (A2 065) decks, and Banette/Mewtwo ex often had an Oricorio; these decks have more single point attackers, and also, more room they can spare for a card like Oricorio. Mewtwo ex/Gardevoir (A1 132) decks skipped Oricorio, but they’re very low on space.
Rating: 3/5
If a deck runs on (P) Energy, it absolutely should consider running Oricorio. An exception would be if, for some reason, it needed to run Oricorio (A3 066, 165). It’s “Safeguard” Ability protects it almost entirely from opposing Pokémon ex, so some decks even run it entirely off-Type just to wall. And since they have the same name, it and today’s Oricorio compete directly for deck space.
However, you’ll notice I said “consider”. While Oricorio is very good at what it does – giving you a strong attack, for one Energy, on a Basic, after something of yours was KO’d – it’s not so good that it is a “must run”. Still, it is so good that I actually rate it as highly as Tapu Lele (A3 084, 170). Even though Tapu Lele is (was?) seeing more successful use, we have a lot of cards to attack something on the Bench, or force it into the Active position. Revenge killers, on the other hand, probably remain useful.
1Comfey (A3 080, 168), Gardevoir (A1 132), Lunala ex (A3 087, 186, 204, 238), and Mythical Slab (A1a 065).
2Celestic Town Elder (A2a 073, 088), Combee (A2 017, 157), Fishing Net (A3 143) Poké Ball (P-A 005; A2b 111) and Shaymin (A2a 069, 081). Poké Ball and (maybe) Shaymin are relevant to competitive play.
3Araquanid (A3 053), Pokémon Flute (A1a 064), and Victreebel (A1 020). None of these are currently relevant to competitive play.
4I’m not 100% certain that Giratina ex/Magnezone decks have their Energy Zones set to (P) or just to (P). Magneton (A1 098), like Giratina ex, can use its Ability to attach on-Type Energy, so the deck could have the Energy Zone set to either, both, or neither. The lists I glanced at didn’t specify.
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