170 Tapu Lele – Celestial Guardians
Date Reviewed: May 28, 2025
Ratings Summary:
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale. 1 is horrible. 3 is average. 5 is great.
Reviews Below:
Otaku
Tapu Lele (A3 084, 170) is a Psychic-Type, Basic Pokémon. It has 90 HP, (M) Weakness, (C) Retreat Cost, and the attack “Energy Arrow”. For (P), this attack lets Tapu Lele select one of your opponent’s Pokémon, then do 20 damage per Energy attached to the target. Tapu Lele is available as a ♦♦♦ and ★ rare.
The Psychic-Type has some support1, but they haven’t been doing all that well lately. Glancing through the better performing, Psychic-focused decks, none of the lists I saw bother with Mythical Slab anymore. I didn’t see Comfey either, but it’s possible some of that is it still being new. We’ll come back to this as we discuss the actual decks using Tapu Lele. As for exploiting Weakness, sometimes it’ll matter but usually not… Tapu Lele’s capacity to attack the Bench is a major part of it’s utility.
Being a Basic2,3 is a big boon for Tapu Lele; even if it had just been a Stage 1, it likely would have been too niche to justify the line. Yes, earlier in Pocket’s lifespan, Pokémon like Zebstrika (A1 106) – a Stage 1 run for its low cost snipe – were competitive, but that was several sets ago. Arguably, had this role been given to an Evolution instead of Tapu Lele, it could also have had better stats and/or effects to make it worth while, but a lot of what makes Tapu Lele work is being a self-contained Basic.
90 HP is – say it with me now – “decent”. It’s not especially vulnerable to being donked, but it’s not going to last long barring additional factors going your way. (M) Weakness is a minor concern. At least for now, any (M) attackers either already score the OHKO, or they remain 2HKOs even after Weakness. Tapu Lele has a good Retreat Cost of (C). This is low, often easy to pay, and if you’re running Retreat Cost lowering effects, drops to “free”.
Energy Arrow is a good attack, though I didn’t think so at first. Indeed, I thought it was “bait”; something that looks good at a glance or on paper, but doesn’t perform that way in practice. I was wrong. My concern was that just 20 damage per Energy wouldn’t be enough to matter… but I forgot about Giratina ex (A2b 035, 83, 096). It’s still a major part of the metagame, is typically built up over several turns using its Ability, while hiding on the player’s Bench.
Boom.
It’s not alone, just the highest profile case. Energy Arrow is also useful for taking out injured Benched Pokémon if those Pokémon have Energy attached; at times, it has been easier or more challenging than I expected. The only other thing to mention is that Energy Arrow does require (P) Energy, so you cannot easily splash Tapu Lele into most decks. Where it already would work, though, it’s probably there.
I’m not seeing it in the highest performing Darkrai ex (A2 110, 187, 202; P-A 042)/Giratina ex decks, but I am seeing it in some Giratina ex/Greninja (A1 089; P-A 019) builds. Giratina ex/Magnezone (A2 053) lists seem to be including Tapu Lele as well. It was surprised only one of the five Lunala ex/Giratina ex lists I looked at contained Tapu Lele. Gengar (A2a 033), Togekiss (A2 065) decks, and Banette (A3 075) decks also all include Tapu Lele.
Rating: 3/5
At this point, if a deck runs on Psychic Energy, it probably runs Tapu Lele. Which almost sounds like it deserves a higher score. Almost. If it was in every deck, absolutely. If it was in more than just the Psychic decks, probable. It might help to know that, outside of the Giratina ex decks, the “best” of those Psychic decks is Lunala ex/Giratina ex. It has a 109 Count, which means a 0.79% Share, with a 43.47% Win Rate. While Tapu Lele is a close to “must run” status for (P) decks, most of those decks are a minor presence in the metagame. At least they are present!
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.
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!
