Un150 XY Retrospect

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=======================POKEMON TCG UNLIMITED 150=======================
==================HOW DID THEY DO? AN XY RETROSPECT====================
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With XY over and done with and most of Gen 6's Pokemon out of the spotlight in favour of the new pile of nonsense they've thought up with for Gen 7, most of them will rarely get any new prints in the TCG. But while they had their chance, did they get a bunch of good cards to work with or were they repeatedly handed off to the demotivated intern assigned to uncommon filler?

This review will cover all of Gen 6's fully evolved Pokemon, 38 in total. It'll list each of that Pokemon's prints, excluding prints obviously disallowed in Unlimted 150. (aka Basics with over 150 HP) This will list the set name and number for that card but for the sake of space won't provide details, so having a website like www.pkmncards.com open for reference may be useful. As usual this is all opinion and not fact.

--- CHESNAUGHT ---

Kalos Starter Set 39
XY 14 (ex)
BREAKthrough 11 / XY Black Star Promo 68 (ex)
BREAKthrough 12 (BREAK)

To reluctantly start off on a negative note, Chesnaught definitely got very poor luck throughout XY. High retreat, high energy costs, pretty much useless outside of the Active spot. The only part of Chesnaught's identity they got right was 'slow' - probably the least redeeming trait.

--- DELPHOX ---

Kalos Starter Set 10
XY 26 (ex)
Fates Collide 13 (ex)
Fates Collide 14 (BREAK)

Delphox has enjoyed reasonable success through XY, Unlimited 150 wise. With two strong scaling attacks over the XY and Fates Collide prints and proper utility in the form of XY's Mystical Fire and the BREAK's ability, it's been able to work well with Fire's plethora of energy acceleration, serving as a high HP, high reach win condition. Initial success came from the Delphox/Muk offensive lock strategy, quickly setting up for repeated hits in excess of 130 while shutting off all Abilities to reduce chances of retaliation. Later on at Fates Collide it became a solid ability power deck, attempting to quickly powering up an entire board to overwhelm the opposition.

--- GRENINJA ---

Kalos Starter Set 14
XY 41 (ex)
XY Black Star Promo 24
BREAKpoint 40 (Banlist)
BREAKpoint 41 (BREAK) (Banlist)
(An additional, unreleased-outside-of-Japan XY Black Star Promo)

Despite the XY and XYBSP24 prints by no means being bad cards, Greninja stayed mostly dormant until BREAKpoint, where it recieved such a gigantic power spike that it effortlessly dominated the format, locking down and snowballing games at record speed. It couldn't last, and both cards were retired from the format shortly after. Unlike most of the Pokemon in XY, even the stage 1 evolution provided significant contribution in the form of BREAKpoint Frogadier. Not very good against decks using Mega Charizard though. Rizardon, Burasto Bahn!

--- DIGGERSBY ---

XY 112 (Banlist)
Phantom Forces 88
Primal Clash 90

Rabbits aren't rodents, but Diggersby for the most got treated like one anyway - with decidedly unexceptional attributes across the board. The XY printing was disallowed at release due to Pickup being able to stall out a game for great deals of time by recurring disruption cards or anything else of choice (such as Vs Seeker for Hex Maniac) although some can argue with the 'Elite Four' changes that Pickup may have lost most of its power. Oddly, Bunnelby (Primal Clash 121) is seen as the best card of its evolution line for Rototiller, getting up to 2 cards from your discard pile back into your deck.

--- TALONFLAME ---

XY 28 (ex)
Phantom Forces 10
Roaring Skies 15
Steam Siege 96
Steam Siege 21 (BREAK)

Talonflame was mostly disused with a lack of exceptional utility and/or damage until Steam Siege, where the line recieved a powerful incentive to not only choose to go first in a game where most decks preferred to play second, along with what is one of the arguably strongest turn 2 attacks going. Being able to begin with a 130 HP zero retreat non-ex who searched for two cards each attack, turning into a 170 HP who could hit for 150 damage made for a very powerful series of opening plays, with effectiveness falloff as the game went on being close to non-existant. Definitely one of the luckier Pokemon in terms of last-minute additions.

--- VIVILLON

XY 17 (ex)
BREAKthrough 15 (ex)
XY Black Star Promo 137

For the regional bug, Vivillon recieved a surprisingly small amount of cards from 11 whole sets. Sadly it just didn't do much as a whole - while Colorful Powder could theoritically have full reach, attaching 4 different basic Energy types is a tall ask, let alone more. The BREAKthrough print if left alone over the course of a game will eventually generate a decent Energy advantage, but it's yet to see anyone attempt it - the ex status doesn't help. Another limiting factor is that there are only two Scatterbugs, one with 30HP and one with 40HP, both being nearly useless. XYBSP 137's Powder is probably one of the funniest things you could send in against your typical fully powered Fire type, mind.

--- PYROAR

Flashfire 20 (ex)
Phantom Forces 12 (ex)
XY Black Star Promo 26
Steam Siege 23
Steam Siege 24 (BREAK)

Pyroar's list of options are by no means bad, but somewhat disused over the course of XY. Like Talonflame, it got a significant boost in Steam Siege, with finally a solid no-ex addition and being able to hit for repeated 180s, albeit with quite some reliance on Protection Cube (Flashfire) - with no in-line acceleration apart from Steam Siege Pyroar's Flame Charge, therefore demanding careful use of Blacksmith (Flashfire)

--- FLORGES

Flashfire 66 (ex)
BREAKthrough 103
BREAKthrough 104

While the Flashfire printing hasn't seen use, the BREAKthrough pair are commonly used in the typical Fairy deck for making even more efficient attackers, such as XYBSP 43 Diancie-EX's Luminous Swirl for 2 Energy, backed up with the heals from the Break Evolution. The pre-evolutions, especially the Flabebes are smaller than they should be, often making for a 2-2-1-1 line in Fairy decks to make sure it goes online even if one of your Flabebes is immediately KO'd.

--- GOGOAT

XY 19 (ex)
XY Black Star Promo 16
BREAKthrough 17

Oddly slower than you'd think, Gogoat has gone along with the rest of the Grass type in being close to disused in XY. It's mainly had middling damage and the only utility comes from XY Gogoat's Lead. Still should have been named Goatercycle.

--- PANGORO

Furious Fists 68
XY Black Star Promo 50
BREAKpoint 75

With triple retreat and no utility across the board, it's been a quiet generation for Pangoro. While the XYBSP printing can theoritically reach 260HP, at the end of the day it just becomes "deal 100 damage to it and then shut off its Poke-Body somehow."

--- FURFROU

XY 114 (ex)
BREAKpoint 95
Phantom Forces 90 and six other versions of the same card with 5ban Graphics 'illustration'

Designated colorless filler / starter deck 'mon with its only interesting printing being in XY, where they tried to make it reflect that one double battle after the first Gym in XY and the arguably only challenging battle in the entire game. This doggo is mainly for show.

--- MEOWSTIC

Flashfire 43, Generations 98
BREAKpoint 59
XY Black Star Promo 48

Meowstic's only real niche has ever been working as a different version of Boundaries Crossed Dusknoir's Sinister Hand Poke-Power, for when you need stage 1, single retreat non-ex who can do what's needed under Power-lock, or just if Dusknoir's triple retreat, Pokemon-ex body could be a liability. Or if you like cats.

--- AEGISLASH

XY 85
XY 86 (ex)
Primal Clash 100
BREAKpoint 62

One of the most looked-forward-to Pokemon in XY in terms of potential, Aegislash's printings had a lot of decent effects but let down by subpar numbers, along with the triple retreat and frequent ex status. Special Charge was just printed far too late when all of the cards worked very well with Double Colorless Energy, but even then you didn't always have that ready for an Aegislash to use. Lasted about a week in Smogon's Gen 7 OverUsed before being punted back to Ubers.

--- AROMATISSE

XY 93 (ex)
BREAKthrough 106
BREAKpoint 85

The XY printing has been frequently used in Fairy decks since release, being one of the only Stage 1 'Energy Trans' cards ever made - working well with Fairy's arsenal of big Basic Pokemon for a simple yet strong deck. The other two printings aren't commonly used on the grounds that they don't do very much.

--- SLURPUFF

XY 95 (ex)
Phantom Forces 69 (ex)
XY Black Star Promo 15
Generations 103

It's been a quiet gen for Slurpuff. In a meta where most decks just choose to blow things up with direct damage, XY Slurpuff hasn't ever really had a chance for its Sweet Veil Poke-Body to get consistent enough usage to justify its 90HP ex frame, and the Phantom Forces printing's Tasting compares poorly to a lot of other draw engines going.

--- MALAMAR

XY 76
XY 77
Ancient Origins 46
XY Black Star Promo 58

The very definition of 'dressed up with nowhere to go' Malamar just never found a deck to work in despite the various unique attributes it had. One energy damage and recursion in a type with many damage stackers was no means bad, neither was the Contrary effect for career fans of Super Scoop Up and Xtransciever. Strangely, it had 100 HP in XY and yet 90 HP in both printings at and around Ancient Origins.

--- BARBARACLE

Flashfire 49
Fates Collide 23

In a parallel universe where Fighting isn't the most linear of the old types in Unlimited 150, Flashfire Barbaracle is not to be underestimated if you can get upwards of six Fighting energy into hand for a gigantic Rock Rush. Over on Earth in the year 2016, it's a highly unlikely concept. While Hand Block is a unique restriction Poke-Body, it struggles to get value when many of the popular decks use barely any Special Energy cards - and sometimes none at all. At that point it's a triple retreat that doesn't really do any damage.

--- DRAGALGE

Flashfire 71, XY Black Star Promo 10
BREAKpoint 86 (ex)

Despite only having two printings, both have a strong synergy with one another - BREAKpoint printing poisons the Active for 40 per turn, and the Flashfire print stops it retreating, unless they have Switch or something of course. Sadly it was printed in Dragon when Psychic would have served it far better what with Mystery Energy and Phoebe's Stadium alongside other cards. Somewhere out there, there's a dedicated Poison deck waiting for its time in the spotlight.

--- CLAWITZER

Furious Fists 24 (ex)
Steam Siege 34, XY Black Star Promo 146
Steam Siege 35 (BREAK)

Clawitzer getting a BREAK evolution was sort of a double-edged sword - by itself it wasn't much cop, since spending a turn only to have the Lock-On effect negated by Switch, Escape Rope or even the same-set Pokemon Ranger was hardly worth the risk, but giving an extra 30 HP to the Furious Fist printing who could ramp up to full reach with the assistance of something like Blastoise or Feraligatr Prime never hurt. The Steam Siege printing's Mega Boost Poke-Power had about as few decent things to work with as you'd expect.

Fun fact: Both Dragalge and Clawitzer's flavor texts indicate a very strong disdain for tanker hulls.

--- HELIOLISK

Flashfire 37
Phantom Forces 30
XY Black Star Promo 47

The unofficial [L][C][C] 60-damage-with-a-coinflip Pokemon, Heliolisk's main draw would have been the Phantom Forces printing's Parabolic Spark, except they went and made Pikachu-EX XY84 who does the whole full reach thing a lot better. Some things they just don't make the numbers good enough.

--- TYRANTRUM

Furious Fists 62

The Kalos war must have been rather severe for there to have only been one usable Tyrunt fossil in the entire region. Rumoured to have gone extinct from its slow speed and complete lack of utility, regardless of how "invincible" it was back in ancient times. Your jaws can be as gargantuan as you like, but when you can't deal damage in any timely manner it doesn't matter.

--- AURORUS

Furious Fists 26

Scientists around the world are baffled by how a slow defensive Ice/Rock type went extinct. Still better than Tyrantrum since Ice Shield can put in decent mileage in a 'Protect the water type win condition' strategy. Of course there's only one Amaura to go along with it, but at least you can have four Mysterious Fossil and Sail Fossil works well with the popular Claydol's Cosmic Power.

--- SYLVEON

XY Black Star Promo 4, Trainer Kit 6
Furious Fists 72

How a Pokemon like Sylveon didn't get more printings is anyone's guess, especially when Espeon and Umbreon didn't get an in-set, non Pokemon-EX printing all during XY. Still, Curly Ribbon was a good way to mess with the type-exclusive Special Energy cards like Strong Energy that got printed throughout XY, and it could evolve itself first turn. That's about as far as the uses go, since Fairy has had practically zero things to hit for Weakness since most of Dragon hasn't exactly been popular, even at Roaring Skies.

--- HAWLUCHA

Furious Fists 63
Furious Fists 64 (Pokemon-EX)
Roaring Skies 39
BREAKthrough 87
Fates Collide 48
Steam Siege 97

While the Furious Fists non-EX printing's Shining Spirit Poke-Body would more often than not just stop it from hitting 120 on Fighting-weak Pokemon-ex, nothing that things like Hex Maniac or Space Center wouldn't fix, and it was a rare zero-retreat Pokemon in Fighting. The Steam Siege print was an easily searchable way to shift your opponent's current Active to something else, often repeatable if you had things like the same-set Ninja Boy or AZ, Scoop Up etc. The Hawlucha-EX has seen only very occasional use, and the other three printings aren't used on the grounds that they don't do anything.

--- PIKACHU KALOSIAN-FORME

Furious Fists 34
Phantom Forces 70
BREAKthrough 57
Generations 93 (now with completely incorrect proportions!)

Only really the Furious Fists print does anything but it's been pretty popular, working as a decent lead thanks to Entrainment (it took me until proofreading all of this to realise I'd originally typed Call for Family) , and not having much effectiveness falloff over the course of the game due to Energy Short punishing highly Energized Pokemon, occasionally being able to hit for Weakness, especially as a check for the at-the-time very popular Yveltal. Apparently evolves into something called an Alolan Raichu in Sun & Moon.

--- CARBINK

Flashfire 68
Roaring Skies 47
Fates Collide 49
Fates Collide 50
Fates Collide 51 (BREAK)

It's just a bootleg Diancie and it doesn't do anything. That's what everyone said until Fates Collide when they gave it a printing with Safeguard and then a BREAK evolution with an energy regeneration attack for Fighting, which makes it an auto-include in every Fighting deck because the type is almost exclusively triple retreat Pokemon that require 3 or more energy to do anything at all. The Flashfire printing does technically have infinite reach, but thats a lot of Energy to put on a Pokemon in a type where they have BREAKthrough Xerneas to blow everything up.

--- GOODRA

Flashfire 74 (ex)
Phantom Forces 77 (ex)
Ancient Origins 60 (also ex. thanks PCL)

As far as psuedo-legendary dragon types go what happened to Goodra was a travesty that should have had a proper revision in both design (slug turns into snail and then turns into a generic bidepal with little reference to its pre-evolutions) and TCG printings because when you're a triple retreat dragon type with a pile of wonky attributes there's not much to sell it as usable - especially when they're all holo rare prints. In all fairness the Flashfire printing worked for a bit because with Gooey Regeneration it could keep itself alive for a fair while but eventually more and more things could hit for 150+ which make the idea and strategy a lot weaker.

--- KLEFKI

Furious Fists 73
Phantom Forces 66
Roaring Skies 48
Steam Siege 80

The Phantom Forces print sees occasional use in Metal especially if you chose to go first in the game, being able to get 2 Basics on to the Bench and then Dull Light the next turn to make your opponent's attempt at something like Darkness Grace a pretty large risk. In fact when it comes to Spiritomb punishes this ranks pretty highly up there - they're item locked AND confused. The Steam Siege printing is somewhat okay if you need to stall a turn against an opposing Mega Evolution, just in case that one turn of notice you already got wasn't enough to fish out something to deplete all of that 220HP instantly. Hey, happens to all of us at times.

--- TREVENANT

XY 55 (ex) (Banlist)
XY Black Star Promo 14
BREAKpoint 65, XY Black Star Promo 94
BREAKpoint 66 (BREAK)

Hands up if you remember XY Trevenant. Oh, sorry, you were trying to forget. Being a stage 1 Item-lock Pokemon in a type with a strong attack and a largely-irrelevant Weakness, the suppression was very quickly followed by the rapid snowballing as Tree Slam eventually scored multiple KOs a turn. Multiple sets of stasis later, Trevenant recieved both a self-evolving Phantump and a +50HP BREAK evolution that could do a total of 180 damage for a single Psychic with Dimensional Valley in play, leaving you only (forest's) cursing the existence of Rough Seas and Fresh Water Set. Trevenant/Dusknoir became a solid deck again with BREAKpoint - not to be underestimated.

--- GOURGEIST

XY 57, Trainer Kit 6 (ex)
Phantom Forces 45 (ex)

Unlike Trevenant Gourgeist hasn't really seen any play over the course of XY. Many have the tale of how they used Spirit Scream and then their opponent played Crobat G next turn, after ignoring the "only use the first attack" rule of XY Gourgeist. The Phantom Forces printing had a similar issue, where your opponent would hit it for 100 or more and then just use either remove the Grass Energy or shut off the Poke-Body at their leisure. Oh well, that's what it gets for laying a curse on anyone who hears it sing.

--- AVALUGG

Flashfire 31
Steam Siege 37

Putting both printings of Avalugg in sets where the flagship Pokemon was Fire type :thinking: You could always use Mantine (ex Dragon Frontiers 20) and Delcatty (Platinum 4) to make sure you were always pitching nine cards off the top of your opponent's deck but thats about as far as you'd get and you'd probably need Avalugg to survive several turns to have a chance to mill your opponent out. Could work, you never know.

--- NOIVERN

Trainer Kit 6
Furious Fists 77 (ex)
BREAKthrough 112
BREAKthrough 113 (BREAK)

Dragon type curse and whatnot, but Noivern actually got workable things, mainly the BREAK evolution that does repeated 150s if you have ways to make sure you have the same hand size as your opponent. You can either use the Furious Fists printing for the coinflip chance of avoiding damage each turn, or just one of the others which only give one Prize when KO'd. There's also a one energy redraw attack on the BREAKthrough print if needed. Psychic/Dark is a bit of a wonky dual type to be in, but you can do things like combining Furious Fist's Boomburst with BKT Gengar to Creep Show something every turn, re-spread the damage with the in-type Flashfire Meowstic or Boundaries Crossed Dusknoir etc. Hydreigon and its Phantom Forces printing are in the same type combination and can accelerate Darkness Energy, the list goes on.

--- XERNEAS

XY 96, XYBSP 5, Steam Siege 81 (ex)
XY Black Star Promo 31
BREAKthrough 107 (ex)
Steam Siege 82 (BREAK)

No surprises that the large Basic has been popular throughout. Mono-fairy Basics had been a thing ever since XYBSP43 Diancie-EX got printed because you just ramp energy early with Geomancy Xerneas and proceed to do things. BREAKthrough's printing was on the watch list for a while because combined with Rising Rivals Kecleon Rainbow Force did 280 damage, but the ex status combined with it not always being efficient to recur kept it from being unfair. With the BREAK in Steam Siege the non-ex promo Xerneas finally had a proper use, making it so if the BREAK evolved from it, it would only yield 1 prize when KO'd.

--- YVELTAL

XY 78, XY Black Star Promo 6, Generations 99, Steam Siege 65 (ex)
XY Black Star Promo 32
BREAKthrough 94 (ex)
Steam Siege 66 (BREAK)

Consistently used since XY began due to Oblivion Wing and the 130HP, the Battle deck printing came to life with Steam Siege where the one-prize body was preferable to use with the BREAK evolution, where you could get damage on their Bench by any means necessary and then use Baleful Night until it either got KO'd or the game ended. The BREAKthrough print's mileage may vary, depending on how many squishy Pokemon-ex the opponent plays.

--- ZYGARDE

Fates Collide 52 (dog)
Fates Collide 53, XY Black Star Promo 129, 154 (snek)

List of things Zygarde never got: a BREAK evolution, its own game, a 150-legal Pokemon-ex printing to use with Power Memory (Fates Collide 108) or 2 full days in Pokebank OU before the Zygarde-Complete Forme-granting Power Construct ability was deemed too powerful. More or less Zygarde-Snek is Fighting's best non-ex Basic for dealing damage as long as you have some way to not let damage accidentally rack up on your own Bench with Geostrike, and the dog forme is just sort of there.

--- DIANCIE

XY Black Star Promo 43 (Pokemon-EX)
Phantom Forces 71, Generations 105 (ex)
Fates Collide 72 (Pokemon-EX)

You attack with it repeatedly until the game ends, thats basically what both of the Diancie-EX are for, and they're very good at it. The typical win condition of the standard Fairy deck alongside BREAKthrough Xerneas, you either hit for up to 160 with Luminous Swirl or steady 110s with Wonder Stage while having higher survivability. Stick in some support like XY Aromatisse or BREAKthrough Florges, some heals, maybe a bit of disruption, done.

--- HOOPA

XY Black Star Promo 85 (Pokemon-EX)
Steam Siege 51, XY Black Star Promo 90
XY Black Star Promo 147

Hoopa can do anything. Not exactly but it's pretty decent. XY85 makes for a decent first turn of fetching 2 Item cards if you didn't find one of your other leads, albeit with a fair bit of effectiveness falloff as the game passes. Meanwhile the Steam Siege printing either spreads damage around early on a 130HP non-ex frame or can hit for 130s without any real downside to itself if you have Switch or things around, making for one of Psychic's best large Basics in most decks.

--- VOLCANION

Steam Siege 25, XY Black Star Promo 145
XY Black Star Promo 164

And also had a dual-typed EX they liked so much they made four different arts for it, but we can't play it over here so whocare. Had the set more or less named after it, although you'd be very hard pressed to find any reference to a 'Steam Siege' or a 'Gear Castle' in the set itself. Anyway you're looking at one of Fire's best additions for ages, either damage and energy regeneration or just Blacksmith up to 100 - definitely goes in almost all Fire decks. The Mythical Collection printing can be quite funny if you attach like eight Fires and just Concentrated Fire away a Mega Evolution but that doesn't usually happen and the whole 4-retreat-with-no-utility thing lets the side down.