Xerneas – Crimson Invasion- Pokemon Review

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PokeDeck
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Xerneas (CIN 73) gracefully made its Sun & Moon debut back in the Crimson Invasion expansion set.  I’ve used this card quite a bit in my Xerneas Break decks – I actually haven’t used the old Geomancy Xerneas from Steam Siege.  Xerneas’ first attack Lead, for a single Colorless attachment, allows you to search your deck for any Supporter card and put it into your hand.

I had planned to write about my version of MarquisEXB’s Silvally GX Xerneas decklist – since February I’m 18 W 8 L with it, I don’t understand why I don’t play it more it’s very successful.  Anyways, I want to spend most of this review on a different topic.  I want to focus on Lead … and other potential starting Pokemon post rotation.  I know for some of these I’m jumping ahead, but it’s hard not to do at this time of the year.  Especially after next weekend, I’ll be really close to turning the page and starting to live in the 2018-2019 Standard meta.

And I think Xerneas CIN with Lead could be an excellent card to use in next year’s format.  Lead will let you put Cynthia or Guzma or whatever other Supporter you want for your next turn in your hand.  You can use it early to get set up or late to close out the game.  Being able to grab the Supporter you need for your next turn could win you the game at the last moment, and it will always keep you from being stuck with a dead hand early in the game.

So I sat down for an hour or so last weekend and took a good look at the other options we might have available after September 1^st for Pokemon with good starting attacks:

• Drampa GX Big Wheel – I’ve tested this and found it to be a very good pure draw support engine. Paired with Cynthia and Hala, you’ll be getting six or seven cards every time you play a draw Supporter.
• Luvdisc from Celestial Storm – couldn’t hardly believe it when I saw this card. If the translation holds up, you can potentially put five Basic Pokemon on your bench turn one.  Brigette who?
• Plusle from Celestial Storm – maybe even better is Plusle who allows you to shuffle your hand back into your deck and then draw a number of cards equal to the total number of benched Pokemon… both yours and your opponent’s. It’s like a Big Wheel that you can potentially use multiple times per game.
• Dunsparce from Celestial Storm – this is a reprint of Strike and Run that we reviewed not too long ago – you can plop down three Basic Pokemon onto your bench and then (my favorite a card that does TWO things!) switch one of those new Pokemon into the active.

All of these are single attachment Colorless energy attacks, so we’ll have some really good options for how we want to start the game, at least from a Pokemon attack perspective.  Supporters and Items, yeah we’re still lacking.  At least we get Acro Bike back in August – I’d have preferred Trainer’s Mail but beggars can’t be choosers.  And we’re definitely beggars when it comes to Trainer cards post rotation… and Celestial Storm doesn’t do much to add to the lackluster pool of Trainer cards we have available to us.

Rating

Standard: 2.5 out of 5

Conclusion

I think Xerneas will be outclassed by some of the other options available to us post rotation, but it’s definitely worth considering as a tech in many decks to help get the Supporter you need when you need it.

Vince

Sorry for the late review; I wasn’t sure what to think of about Xerneas (CIN 73/111) when I looked at it. It is a Basic Fairy Type with 130 HP, weak to Metal, resists Dark, and a retreat cost of two. It has two attacks: Lead costs C and searches your deck for a Supporter card and put it onto your hand. Bright Horns costs YYY for 130 damage with the clause that you can’t use Bright Horns on your next turn. Xerneas could potentially be one of the best Pokémon to start with on the beginning of the game when you need only one card to jump start your setup. At the same time, it badly telegraphs your opponent about what you’re going to do on your next turn. Even though your hand may be shuffled due to N or Judge early game, at this point you would still have a higher yield of fresh cards.

At least it has another attack to work with. Bright Horn does enough to land 2HKOs and the clause can be reset by switching maneveurs such as the Float Stone/Dawn Wings Necrozma-GX, which brings Xerneas to the Bench (removing effects on that Pokémon) and Dawn Wings Necrozma-GX to the Active via Invasion ability and then manually retreat for free. It’s probably the best attack on a Xerneas card if you cannot capitalize on Xerneas BREAK’s Life Stream attack. Overall, I can see this Xerneas being used as a starter and/or being part of a Xerneas BREAK deck when you can’t get enough energies in play.

Standard: 2.5/5

Expanded: 2.5/5

Limited: 3/5