Solgaleo ex – Celestial Guardians
Date Reviewed: May 24, 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 second best card of Celestial Guardians is Solgaleo ex (A3 122, 189, 207, 239)! It is a Metal-Type Stage 2 Pokémon ex that evolves from Cosmoem. Solgaleo ex has 180 HP, (R) Weakness, (C)(C) Retreat Cost, the Ability “Rising Road”, and an attack called “Sol Breaker”. Rising Road can be used only when this card is on your Bench; you then switch it with your Active Pokémon. Sol Breaker is priced at (M)(M), and let’s Solgaleo ex hit the opponent’s Active for 120 damage, and itself for 10. There are currently four different releases of this card: one ♦♦♦♦ rare, two ★★ rares, and one 🜲 rare.
The Metal-Type is a little better at exploiting Weakness than in the past, as we see a few Ice – (M) Weak Water – and Fairy – (M) Weak Psychic – decks. By which I mean Crabominable ex (A3 049, 183, 201) decks and Togekiss (A2 065) decks. They’re not overly competitive or heavily used, but at least they exist, and make OHKO’s possible against the former, and all but guaranteed against the latter. (M) support1 exists, but I don’t actually see Solgaleo ex decks using it. Mawile (A2a 056) has an attack that hits (M) Types harder, but doesn’t seem like it’s worth running.
Stage 2 Pokémon went from being the worst Stage 2 being on par with Stage 1 Pokémon thanks to Rare Candy (A3 144) and – to a much lesser extent – Lillie (A3 155, 197, 209). Rare Candy speeds them up, but makes them a little finickier if you don’t also run the Stage 1 it skips, or more reliable while eating up more deck space if you do run Rare Candy alongside one or two copies of the transitional Stage 1 form. With a two Energy attack cost, self-damaging attack, and 180 HP, Rare Candy and Lillie are at least a little more helpful to Solgaleo ex than to Stage 2s in general.
Pokémon ex are dealing with more counters than ever: Meowscarada (A2b 007, 073), Oricorio (A3 066, 165), Red (A2b 071, 090) Sudowoodo (A2a 036, 079), and Tauros (A1a 060). Other than Tauros, they all see anywhere from a little to a lot of play. Oricorio can completely wall against attack damage and effects via its “Safeguard” Ability. The other Pokémon have attacks that hit Pokémon ex for bonus damage. Red lets anything do +20 damage when attacking an Active, opposing Pokémon ex. Plus, don’t let it slip your mind that Pokémon ex give up an extra point when KO’d.2
Solgaleo ex has 180 HP, second only to Venusaur ex (A1 004, 251; A3 230) but without additional cards, it won’t function like it due to Sol Breaker’s recoil. It also will feel like less when you’re damaged by (R) Types, given Solgaleo ex’s (R) Weakness. Charizard ex (A2b 010, 080, 108), Incineroar ex (A3 033, 182, 200), and Infernape ex (A2 029, 181, 197) can exploit the self-damage and Weakness for OHKOs, though Infernape ex falls 10 damage shy without some help (see Red).
Solgaleo ex has a Retreat Cost of (C)(C). This is not easy to pay, but not neither is it especially difficult. I do dislike that it’s the same as the attack cost; whether it makes sense or not, I prefer having the option to retreat when I can’t afford to attack. All of this is partially mitigated by Rising Road. It won’t help an Active Solgaleo ex retreat, but a second copy can use their Rising Road to promote themselves to the Active position.
Which is just one way Rising Road is a very good Ability. Now, if Solgaleo ex’s stats or attack were even a little different, this might not hold true. With what we have, it lets you hid a Cosmog of Cosmoem on your Bench, with either a meatshield or low Energy cost attacker up front, and shift gears to Solgaleo ex as soon as it is ready. It can also help with Special Conditions or attack effects that “rest” on your Active or Defending Pokémon, especially if that Active is another Solgaleo ex.
Sol Breaker has great damage to Energy, even factoring in the 10 points of recoil. Priced at just (M)(M), it’s possible for Player 2 to attach to a Cosmog Turn 2 (Player 2’s first turn), attach a second (M) Energy Turn 4, Rare Candy to evolve directly into Solgaleo ex, Rising Lunch if that Solgaleo ex was on your Bench, and attack for 120. If that sounds clunky… it isn’t. It’s pretty quick and easy. The self-damage is an obvious, but tiny, drawback. The real concern is that 120 misses a lot of key OHKOs for the metagame. Great for 2HKO’s, but that means 20 total self-inflicted damage to score those KOs.
Solgaleo ex evolves from Cosmoem, which in turn, evolves from Cosmog. Our only options for these two are Cosmog (A3 085, 171; P-A 067) and Cosmoem (A3 086). Both are (P) Type Pokémon with (D) Weakness and one attack. Cosmog is a Basic with 60 HP, a Retreat Cost of (C), and the attack “Teleport”. Priced at (C), Teleport swaps Cosmog with one of your Benched Pokémon; retreating without it counting as “retreating”.
Cosmoem is a Stage 1 with 100 HP and a (C)(C)(C) Retreat Cost. It can use “Stiffen” for (C)(C), to reduce the damage it takes from attacks by 50 until the end of your opponent’s next turn. While not great, these are better than the filler we often see. Both have useful attacks, though with Cosmoem’s massive Retreat Cost, it may have been better off with Teleport. I wish Stiffen only cost (C), as sometimes you’ll be unable to use it in time… but it’s not a deal-breaker. Lunala ex (A3 087, 186, 204, 238) also evolves from Cosmoem, but check the review to see why you shouldn’t mix the two.
Solgaleo ex has been starring in its won decks since it debuted. The Skarmory (A2 111, P-A 039) variant uses Skarmory as a fast, relatively reliable attacker. As it needs only one Energy (and a Tool attached to itself) to do 50 damage, it’s not easily ignored by an opponent, which can give you time to quickly setup Solgaleo ex. Throw in the right Tools, and it can be a real hassle for your opponent. According to LimitlessTCG, the deck currently has a 609 Count, good enough for a 4.83% Share, and with a 47.69% Win Rate.
Snorlax (A2a 063; P-A 049) variants may still include Tools, and still prefers to manually build Solgaleo ex on your Bench, but it also packs Barry (A2a 074, 089) so Snorlax can use its “Collapse” attack to do 100 damage, but for (C)(C) instead of the usual (C)(C)(C)(C). Speaking of four Energy, Rising Road provides an answer for Snorlax’s (C)(C)(C)(C) Retreat Cost. This deck is sitting at a 69 Count, meaning a 0.55% Share. The Win Rate is 46.36%, though with the low Count, that might be misleading.
Rating: 3.5/5
When I was compiling this list, I’d have scored Solgaleo ex as a four-out-of-five. Speaking from experience, when you’re not used to the deck, it can seem overwhelming. Now that we’re used to Rare Candy Shenanigans, it’s not as potent… but it also isn’t seeing as much play. It could already be on its way out, but I think there’s enough left to at least justify the above score. I was strongly tempted to score it a quarter point higher, but the chinks in its armor have already been exposed.
1Adaman (A2a 075, 090) for direct support; Dialga ex (A2 119, 188, 205, 207) and Gholdengo (A2b 057, 077) for (M) Energy support. Remember when I thought Gholdengo was gonna be good? I was quite wrong!
2This may not happen to you, but it happens to me more than I’d like to admit.
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