Hello everybody, PikaPoster here, and welcome to my first Forbidden Light post. Today I will be covering the new cards from Forbidden Light, and the deck I used at my local prerelease.
The Cards
Each player who attends a Pokémon prerelease tournament receives 6 items. One 22 card evolution pack, four standard booster packs, and as much energy as they need. I will be covering the cards in the evolution packs, as the booster packs are pulled from the standard card pool.
Vivillon
Vivillon 130HP [G]
[G] Vivid Powder 50
Your opponent’s active Pokémon is now Asleep and Poisoned.
Weakness – [L] x2
Resistance – [F] -20
Retreat Cost – [C]
This card is straight up annoying. I faced this card in my second match and I nearly ragequit. Luckily, I had a good setup and was able to pull back, but still, this card is disgusting.
Magnezone
Magnezone 150HP [L]
[ABILITY] Magnetic Circuit
As often as you like during your turn (before your attack), you may attach a [L] Energy card from your hand to 1 of your Pokémon.
[L][L][L][C] Zap Cannon 130
This Pokémon can’t use Zap Cannon during your next turn.
Weakness – [F] x2
Resistance – [M] -20
Retreat Cost – [C][C]
This is basically a worse version of the Ultra Prism metal version, as there are fewer good lightning types in the format. It’s just sort of meh.
Malamar
Malamar 90HP [P]
[ABILITY] Psychic Recharge
Once during your turn (before your attack), you may attach a [P] Energy card from your discard pile to 1 of your Benched Pokémon.
[P][P][C] Psychic Sphere 60
Weakness – [P] x2
Resistance – [NONE]
Retreat Cost – [C][C]
Alone, this card can do nothing. Combined with Necrozma or Ultra Necrozma-GX, and it becomes the Psychic acceleration of the Arceuses. I think this might well be the best new card from Forbidden Light, with a few rare exceptions. However, alone in the prerelease, it can’t really do much.
Lycanroc
Lycanroc 120HP [F]
[F][C] Dangerous Rouge 20+
This attack does 20 more damage for each of your opponent’s Benched Pokémon.
[F][F][C] Accelerock 100
Weakness – [G] x2
Resistance – [NONE]
Retreat Cost – [C][C]
It’s about time that Dusk Lycanroc got a card, but this is a bit of a letdown. It’s sort of a reverse empoleon, but worse, since it relies on you opponent to foolishly bench unnecesary ‘mons. However, it is one of the better cards for the prerelease, as it counters Magnezone well and is a stage one, which is nice. Vivillon does a number on it, but takes longer to set up. I think it is a decent card.
The Report
In my evolution pack, I pulled Magnezone as my main evolution line, and received a Xurkitree Promo, which paired nicely with my Lightning type core. I didn’t really pull anything good for my deck in my packs, but I did get a FA Ultra Recon Squad, which looks pretty sweet, in my opinion. I put together a very simple, but consistent deck, shown below.
Pokémon – 11
4 Magnemite
3 Magneton
2 Magnezone
1 Xurkitree
1 Furfrou
Trainers – 7
2 Lillie
1 Sophocles
1 Looker
1 Nest Ball
1 Timer Ball
1 Great Ball
Energy – 22
22 Lightning Energy
As you can probably already tell, this is not your typical list. It has more energy than Pokémon and Trainers combined! But this is a prerelease deck, so it’s completely normal to play a high concentration of energy in your deck. This works even better with Magnezone, because you can attach multiple energy per turn.
Match 1
1 – 0 – 0
This match I faced off against Lycanroc / Toxicroak / Psychics. It was a fairly easy match, as I got Magnezone and Xurkitree up as early as possible and took out Lycanroc without too much trouble. Even though it was an unfavorable matchup, luck was on my side.
Match 2
2 – 0 – 0
This match was a bit more tough. I was faced against my younger brother, who was playing a disgusting Vivillon list. He went second and was able to use both of his Scatterbugs’ abilities to get full Vivillon lines up by T3. I failed most of my flips, but eventually woke up for the final KO. This was my most difficult win yet.
Match 3
2 – 0 – 1
This was the match where I failed. I battled someone from my local league who also got Magnezone, but this time the match did not start well. I had no draw support or any way to get Magnemite up in the slightest. I was swept within 3 minutes of starting, and my fall was abrupt. Luckily, everyone got the same prize, so it was all good. In my prize packs, I pulled a Volcanion <>, so that was pretty nice.
Anyway, thanks for reading, and make sure to come back in a few days’ time for a look at the best new decks from Forbidden Light, as well as my new Deck Tech series. Bai!