Oricorio- Celestial Guardians
Date Reviewed: May 22, 2025
Ratings Summary:
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale. 1 is horrible. 3 is average. 5 is great.
Reviews Below:
Otaku
The fourth best card of Celestial Guardians is Oricorio (A3 066, 165)! It’s is a Lightning-Type Basic Pokémon. Oricorio has 70 HP, (F) Weakness, (C) Retreat Cost, the Ability “Safeguard”, and the attack “Zzzap”. Safeguard prevents damage and effects from the attacks of an opponent’s Pokémon ex from applying to this Oricorio. Zzzap costs (L)(C) to use, and lets Oricorio hit the opponent’s Active for 50 damage. This Oricorio is available as both a ♦♦♦ rare and ★ rare.
The defining aspect of Oricorio is its Safeguard Ability. Safeguard prevents all damage and effects from the attacks of your opponent’s Pokémon ex done to today’s card. It won’t protect against attacks from your own Pokémon ex, though I don’t know if any have recoil damage that hit your own Bench. It also won’t stop damage or effects from non-attack sources, like Abilities, Trainers1, etc. even if they’re connected to an opponent’s Pokémon ex.
Being a Basic Pokémon is Oricorio’s next most important trait. While Safeguard would still be perfectly functional on a Stage 1 or Stage 2 Pokémon, it’d be much harder to work into decks. Like Meowscarada (A2b 007, 073), it’d pretty much be locked into decks where it’s either the main focus, or at worst costarring with something else. This is true even before we consider Basic-specific support2 or counters3!
Arguably as important is Oricorio’s 70 HP. The obvious answer to getting around Safeguard is to just include an attack who is not a Pokémon ex. 70 HP is low, but for a non-evolving, single Prize Basic, it’s not bad. It’s just high enough to not be an easy or even somewhat easy OHKO for non-evolving Basics. There absolutely are those that can and do OHKO 70 HP, but it’ll take at least a minor combo, depends on something like coin flips, or are evolutions.
Now let’s talk about Oricorio’s Retreat Cost and not being a Pokémon ex. It’s (C) Retreat Cost is low and often easy to pay… or to zero out! As for not being a Pokémon ex, surprise, that’s relevant! In the full Pokémon TCG, there was indeed one Pokémon ex that itself had Safeguard.4 Had they gone that route, especially with a Basic, most decks would run it and use one to wall against the other… and it’d be harder for non-ex attackers to take down (assuming better HP).
Now for Typing, Weakness and attack. There’s not a lot of direct (L) Pokémon support, but what there is works with Oricorio. Likewise, exploiting (L) Weakness isn’t as game defining as some others right now, but it’s the Weakness found on the most Types, and is found on most (W) and many (C) Pokémon. Oricorio itself is (F) Weak, and the (F) Type has multiple non-ex attackers already. Zzzap is a straightforward attack, with a decent return of 50 for two Energy. If it’d run on (C)(C), even if the damage was reduced, Oricorio might be in every deck…
…but as is, it’s a real treat for (L) focused decks, while everything else has the option of still including it, just to throw up as a wall. This will force your opponent to dig for their anti-Safeguard cards, assuming those cards are still available. Oh, and I’d be remiss not to point out this Oricorio has synergy with Tapu Koko (A3 068, 166). I’ve encountered decks built around attacking with Tapu Koko, whose attack’s effect sends itself to the Bench after attacking, to then hide behind Oricorio. This deck is not a major metagame force, however.
Before I move onto what decks are using Oricorio, let me quickly address the other Oricorio cards: Oricorio (A3 034), Oricorio A3 076), and Oricorio (A3 077). I’ve only seen that last one enjoy competitive success, and even then, only as part of other decks. These cards are not (L) Types, and all have at least one non-Colorless Energy requirement, so you’re not likely to run them alongside today’s Oricorio… which is probably good, as they still share the same name and thus count against the two copy limit!
Oricorio headlines in three decks, where it partners with something else: Greninja (A1 089; P-A 019) and Magnezone (A2 053). If you head over to LimitlessTCG, you can find several other decks attempting to use Oricorio as a major part of the deck, but either their Win Rate, their Count, or both are so low they’re not worth discussing.
Greninja employs its “Water Shuriken” Ability to safely damage opposing Pokémon from your Bench, while hiding behind Oricorio or – in some builds – an alternate meatshield. The lists also include Giratina ex (A2b 035, 083, 096), which can use its Ability – that ends your turn – to build itself on your Bench when you either can’t or don’t sufficiently benefit from attacking with Oricorio. These decks often don’t run (P) Energy, but Giratina ex’s Ability covers that.
Magnezone enjoys sharing (L) resources and building on the Bench while hiding behind Orinoco, or again, an alternate meatshield. The Magnezone and the Greninja decks both have over 50% Win Rates and currently compose over 2.5% of the metagame each. Combined, they account for 7.50%! However, you also have to be wary of someone slipping a copy or two into their deck just to toss I front of your Pokémon ex, never attacking, just to stall.
Which is why decks need an answer to Safeguard. I’ve tried just relying on – for example – the Stage 1 in a Stage 2 Evolution line, but it isn’t enough. Oricorio needs 20 damage worth of help to OHKO itself, so it isn’t a great answer to itself. Even having access to a non-ex attacker isn’t always enough. Ideally, you want something that can quickly, easily, and reliably OHKO Oricorio without being useless the rest of the time. You also probably want it be durable enough to stick around for two Oricorio.
There are also some Trainers or Abilities that can help, but again, from experience they’re not enough. Your own Greninja needs four turns of using Water Shuriken to score the KO if you’re not also running (W) Energy, to allow it to attack. In fact, this is why we’re seeing more Greninja decks include (W) Energy to attack; because Water Shuriken wasn’t enough! Don’t expect Rocky Helmet (A2 148) or Poison Barb (A3 146) to be enough either. Even if your opponent doesn’t drop a Guzma (A3 151, 193, 208) to discard them, once again, it take too many turns.
What about Cyrus (A2 150, 190) and/or Sabrina (A1 225, 272)? Your opponent needs a Bench for that to work. A competent Oricorio player, unless a bad open forces them to do otherwise, won’t Bench Pokémon other than Oricorio if you don’t have a non-Pokémon ex that can threaten Oricorio. Sooner or later, an Oricorio that can attack will break through your defenses… but even if you do something like hide behind Cosmoem (A3 086), they can try to draw/pass faster than you can draw and attack, winning on time!
Rating: 4/5
Oricorio has shifted the entire metagame, forcing us to run answers to it or to take the risk of increased Oricorio losses. Most of the top decks are still using, or even built around, Pokémon ex… but sooner or later, you’ll pay if you don’t have an answer to this little yellow bird. Now that I think about it, I’m wondering why they didn’t stick this on a Pikachu to ensure it remained metagame relevant for a while. I’ll also warn you now, Oricorio has performed better since I made my list. I’m still confident in my #1 pick, but not so much my #2 and #3…
1Remember that a damage boosting effect, like that of Giovanni (A1 223, 270) doesn’t directly damage the opponent, but instead increases the damage your attacker is doing. Thus, if you use Giovanni and attack this Oricorio one of your Pokémon ex, Giovanni increases the attack’s damage by 10 but Safeguard still prevents Oricorio from actually taking any of that damage.
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.
4Dustox ex (EX – Legend Maker 086/092).
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