Paldea Evolved GLC Set Review
With the release of Paldea Evolved on June 9th, an especially powerful card called Iono is coming to shake up the standard metagame. Iono is an incredible card in GLC as well, and she doesn’t come alone. There’s several new special energy, stadiums, Pokemon, and other trainers that will become staples in GLC decks moving forward. Some of these include Cetitan, Tinkaton, Reversal Energy, Jet Energy, Luxray, Artazon Town, and more. I can say with certainty that this set is one of the most game-changing sets for GLC of all time.
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Pokemon
Skiploom and Jumpluff
Here’s a really interesting Skiploom and Jumpluff. These Pokemon both have the same ability as the Dragapult from Rebel Clash, preventing damage on a coin flip. Both Pokemon have an attack that does damage to the active and 30 to one of your opponent’s Benched Pokemon. There’s some other great Jumpluffs and Skiplooms already in GLC, but these two are definitely some of the strongest due to their abilities. Don’t underestimate how much a heads flip or two can swing a game.
Tropius
This Tropius has a great second attack - it deals 130 damage and it moves all of its energy to 1 of your Benched Pokemon. Conserving energy is always really good, and this can help you keep a lot of energy in play for a gigantic attack with a Zarude or Shining Genesect.
Lokix
Lokix has a pretty good first attack. If it evolved from Nymble that turn, it does an extra 100 damage. Not bad in a low maintenance attacking Grass deck.
Gyarados
This Gyarados is very strong. 180 HP on a stage 1 is only rivaled by Wailord and Cetitan. The first attack does 180 damage if you have more prizes than your opponent, for a Water and a Double Colorless Energy. Works perfectly with the new Reversal Energy in this set. The second attack does a huge 200 damage and 50 damage to itself. Great card, but unfortunately might be a little overshadowed by the Cetitan in this set. Don’t forget about this guy though, it’s not a bad card by any means and there’s no reason that you can’t include Gyarados alongside Cetitan and Wailord in your Water deck.
Eiscue
Eiscue has a pretty strong second attack. After you discard all Water energy from it, it takes 100 less damage from attacks the following turn. As a basic, this Pokemon can be reused pretty easily, and use tools such as the Bravery Charm released in this set to have a really gigantic Pokemon!
One of the best cards in the set by far, Cetitan has 180 HP, and can do 80 damage plus 140 more if it has a special energy attached. This Pokemon can either replace Wailord as it takes 1 fewer energy to attack, or be used alongside it in a special energy Water build to have a series of gigantic stage 1 Pokemon. Definitely keep an eye on this card, I expect to see it in several Water decks moving forward.
Veluza
Veluza has a really interesting second attack. If you have no cards in hand, you can use the attack for just a single Water energy! Try it in an item based build of Water that can decrease its hand size easily, and then draw back up to a full hand with Octillery or Rose Tower the following turn.
Baxcalibur
Expect to see this Baxcalibur in a lot of Water builds moving forward. It has the same ability as the Deluge Blastoise, but it has a little more HP and does a higher amount of damage for a lower energy cost. It also has a different weakness than most other Water types and a two retreat cost. It’s basically a strict upgrade from Blastoise. As a side note, this card is also going to be cheaper because it’s a newer card by comparison. However, that doesn’t mean Blastoise is useless now. Some builds of Water might play both Blastoise and Baxcalibur, forgoing the Frosmoth as it can only attach to Benched Pokemon. It’s always fun to experiment with different builds and come up with unique combinations.
Raichu
Here’s an amazing new Raichu that could go in your Lightning deck as a way to deal with large threats. The first attack attaches two Lightning energy to itself from the deck, and the second attack discards all attached energy to deal a huge 200 damage! Lightning has a history of struggling to hit up to 200 damage with a single attack, so try this new Raichu out in your Lightning GLC deck!
Luxray
This Luxray is broken. If you have more prizes remaining than your opponent, you can just play this Pokemon straight down from your hand to your bench! Wild Charge hitting for 180 and dealing 20 to itself is a really, really strong attack that you can use out of nowhere. Works great with Reversal Energy, as both trigger when behind on prizes. This Luxray will probably see a pretty significant amount of play going forward.
Kilowattrel
150 damage for a Triple Acceleration Energy is pretty strong. It can’t attack the following turn, but that free retreat helps it switch to the bench for another attacker. This Kilowattrel might compete a little with the aforementioned Raichu or Luxray for a spot in Lightning, but each has their own strengths and weaknesses. Try each of them out and pick your favorite—any one of these will really help the Lightning deck hit those large numbers.
Gothitelle
A new great addition in Psychic control decks, this Gothitelle has an ability that can let you look at the top two cards of your opponent’s deck, and put one on top and the other on the bottom. After locking an opponent’s hand with Reset Stamp and Delinquent, this Gothitelle can help you keep that lock going.
Palossand
This Palossand is a great card. If you have one of your stadiums in play, its second attack does 160 damage! This Palossand can easily be compared to the Golurk from Chilling Reign with a similar requirement and energy cost. In a Psychic deck that already plays Double Colorless and Twin Energy this card is amazing!
Tinkaton
Tinkaton could easily be considered the best Pokemon in the set. Its ability allows you to discard a card and draw 3 cards, which is better than most other “Trade” type abilities. Tinkaton’s attack “Special Hammer” is even better, dealing 90 plus 90 more damage if you have a special energy attached. This attack hits incredibly hard for something as simple as a Horror Psychic Energy and having Dimension Valley in play. Tinkaton could replace Dragapult in some Psychic decks, with both the Kirlia from Silver Tempest and Tinkaton in play, you can draw 5 cards per turn! That’s some serious draw power.
I think of Tinkaton in a similar way to the Gallade from Astral Radiance. It’s a support Pokemon with a great attack in the late game. You can set it up and use it to fuel a disruption engine at first, and then in the end game attack with a 1 - 2 punch of Gallade and Tinkaton, transitioning from a support role to a hard hitting attacker.
Garganacl
Garganacl is not only super awesome looking but very strong as well. Its ability heals 20 damage from each of your Pokemon during the Pokemon Checkup step in-between turns. The attack “Knock Hammer” hits for 130 and mills a card from your opponent’s deck. Pretty good in a tanky Fighting deck where the healing can really add up. The entire line is Heavy Ball searchable which is also a big plus.
Hariyama
Hariyama has an ability which makes all of your Pokemon take 10 less damage from attacks. Probably not enough damage reduction to be worth the slot in a deck, but worth noting.
Glimmora
Now here we have an incredible card. Glimmora has an ability that says “When this Pokémon is Knocked Out, flip a coin. If heads, your opponent can’t take any Prize cards for it.” Its attack poisons your opponent’s active, with a gnarly 6 damage counters per turn! This combination makes this card very strong and it will see plenty of play. What’s especially cool about this card is that if something like Guzzlord hits it and tries to take a double prize, if you flip heads they don’t get any prizes at all!
Glimmora has two great preevolutions to choose between, a 40 HP Glimmet with the Ascension attack (searches for Glimmora from the deck and evolves into it) and a 70 HP Glimmet that has a little more HP vs a spread deck.
Weavile
Weavile has a very interesting ability called “Hunt Assault”. “Once during your turn, when this Pokémon moves from your Bench to the Active Spot, you may switch in 1 of your opponent’s Benched Basic Pokémon to the Active Spot.”
The idea is that you switch into this Pokemon during your turn with an Escape Rope or Switch, and then get a free gust on a basic Pokemon. Weavile’s attack isn’t incredible, but can KO small evolving basics. You could also retreat into an alternate attacker like Guzzlord. Not sure how strong this card is compared to some other staple Weaviles we’ve seen in the past, but in the right deck this has potential.
Hydreigon
I personally think this Hydreigon is pretty bad, but I will mention it. The ability allows you to, once per turn, discard the top 3 cards of your deck and attach any energy cards there to your Pokemon in any way you like. While this card can attach special energy, it requires you to get a stage 2 Pokemon into play and then manage to get lucky enough off of 3 cards to hit several energy. Perhaps this card has potential that I’m not seeing, but even with cards like Mallow to set up a guaranteed draw, I think that Darkness is much better built as a deck meant to take advantage of the strong single-energy attackers it has like Weavile, Zoroark, and Spiritomb. In a higher energy and slower build, this is one of your best options in Darkness though.
Orthworm
If you’ve seen the most recent Tricky Gym YouTube video about an Orthworm GLC deck, you’d know how strong this card is and how fun it is to play. If Orthworm has 3 or more Metal energy attached, it has +100 HP. Its attack does 100 to the active and 30 to one of your opponent’s Benched Pokemon. Put a Fighting Fury Belt or Cape of Toughness on this guy to bring it up to 270 or 280 HP! As a Basic Pokemon that can be healed repetitively with Penny and Acerola and placed straight back down along with its energies with the Magnezone from Ultra Prism, this card is absolutely amazing. The worm is unstoppable!!!
Dudunsparce
Dudunsparce has an attack that, similar to the Deck and Cover Accelgor, paralyzes the opponent’s Active Pokemon and shuffles itself into your deck. In a deck with the Silver Tempest Archeops, you can easily re-accelerate the energies to another Pokemon the next turn. I don’t think that Colorless has the tools to capitalize on this powerful attack yet, but someday this card could see a lot of play in GLC. Whenever a card comes out that has guaranteed paralysis as an attack, it’s always something worth thinking about.
Pelipper
An interesting Pelipper for a Colorless control deck, when you evolve Wingull into it you can search for a supporter in your deck or you can return a supporter from your discard pile to your hand. The Delcatty from Celestial Storm is probably better in a pure control deck because it returns two supporters from the discard to your hand, but don’t let this card go unnoticed. You can always play both in case of bad prizing, the Pelipper is a little more flexible.
Slaking
Joining the ranks of the big sleepy Colorless Pokemon is this new Slaking. The ability “Back to Bed” is similar to the Snorlax from Lost Origin, that it flips two coins between turns while asleep, and if either is tails it stays asleep. The incredible attack “Lazy Headbutt” does 240 damage, which is likely enough to KO anything in the format, and puts itself to sleep. Colorless already has some Pokemon that put themselves to sleep, so now playing extra switching cards and tools like Sparkling Robe are even better with more targets. Slaking probably won’t see play in every Colorless deck, but it sure is a strong card to play when you want to hit over that 200 damage ceiling to deal with Torterra and Wailord.
Special Energy
Jet Energy
All 4 Special Energy in this set are pretty strong cards. Jet Energy is one of the best energies we’ve seen in a while. When you attach it to one of your Benched Pokemon, switch the Pokemon into the Active Spot. This energy is like Warp Energy but usually better because moving to the active is often better than moving to the bench. Try this in Archeops Colorless with Snorlax and the new Slaking to move them out of the active to wake them up so they can use their gigantic attacks again and again.
Luminous Energy
Probably the least useful of the 4 special energies in this set, but definitely not a bad card. This card is like a Rainbow Energy, but only works if it is the only special energy attached to that Pokemon. Could see play in Dragon, but the cost is a little steep in that deck since you often want to play several special energies.
Reversal Energy
This card is a lot like the old Scramble Energy. If Reversal Energy is attached to a non-Rule Box Evolution Pokemon, and you have more prizes remaining than your opponent, it provides every type of energy, with 3 at a time. It is an amazing comeback card in addition to Counter Energy, expect this to see a lot of play in decks that like to drop behind on prizes and then make a sweeping comeback.
Therapeutic Energy
The card that might break the Thumping Snore Snorlax, Therapeutic Energy prevents the Pokemon it is attached to from being Asleep, Paralyzed, or Confused. You can search for it with Archeops and put it straight onto a Pokemon, which will usually be Snorlax. This means that Snorlax no longer has to have switch outs or tools attached to allow it to continue swinging for 180 damage every turn, so you can attach another tool to Snorlax like Cape of Toughness to give it 200 HP. Therapeutic Energy doesn’t have much use outside of Colorless, but expect to see this card shake up the metagame.
Trainers
Artazon Town
Artazon Town is like a Brooklet Hill that every type can use. Put this into play and each player can search for and bench a Basic Pokemon from their deck once during their turn. Sure, it helps your opponent set up as well, but the idea is that you can capitalize on this setup card more than your opponent. Not necessarily an include in every deck, but for decks that need that extra consistency boost this is a great card.
Calamitous Snow Mountain
Calling all Turbo Dark players, this is probably a slightly better stadium to play instead of Gapejaw Bog or Team Magma’s Secret Base to trigger Spiritomb’s ability after fetching it with a Nest Ball. “Whenever any player attaches an Energy card from their hand to 1 of their Basic non-Water Pokémon, put 2 damage counters on that Pokémon.” It’s basically a Frozen City or Old Cemetery with some extra conditions. There’s still an argument to be made for keeping Gapejaw Bog though, as there are some situations where it is better. Flexibility is always essential.
Bravery Charm
Bravery Charm gives the Basic Pokemon it is attached to 50 extra HP. A nice addition to Cape of Toughness and Fighting Fury Belt, now you can play all 3! If you really want to.
Clavell
While I’m not personally a big fan of playing Gloria and Brigette in most decks besides Water, Grass, and Fire, Clavell is another card with a similar effect. It searches for 3 Basic Pokemon with 120 HP or less and puts them into your hand instead of straight on the bench. Some decks will like this better and others worse. Clavell adds some nice flexibility if you’re already playing Brigette and Gloria. You could play all 3, but eventually there’s diminishing returns with playing too many. These cards are rarely used past turn 2 and often clog up the deck in the late game. Finding a good balance between the amount of late game cards and early game cards is important.
Falkner
Honestly, as far as draw 2 supporters with conditional draw 4 go, this is probably one of the best. If you have a stadium in play, you can draw 4 cards. Still not worth it in most decks over a supporter like Cynthia, Falkner is definitely pretty good in decks that want to build a large hand size.
Giacomo
Giacomo is a great tech to try out in the current competitive metagame where Colorless Archeops reigns supreme. This card discards a special energy from each of your opponent’s Pokemon, which can really set the opponent back, especially if you hit two or more energy. Not a bad card against Psychic, Darkness, or Dragon either.
Super Rod
Super Rod has been printed before, but it gets an errata with the “up to” stipulation, you no longer have to shuffle in as many Pokemon/energy as you are able to. So now it’s pretty much always better than Ordinary Rod because it has the flexibility of shuffling up to 3 in any combination.
Iono
I thought it fitting to end with this card. The best supporter we’ve seen in a very, very long time. Even makes a case for one of the best supporters of all time.
“Each player shuffles their hand and puts it on the bottom of their deck. Then, each player draws a card for each of their remaining Prize cards.”
It’s basically a better N. N shuffles the cards into your deck, so you might see some of the same cards again and may not find the cards you need. Iono rewards skillful play because it puts the cards on the bottom of the deck like Marnie, which allows you to plan your game around being guaranteed to not see those cards off of the next draw. As a pure disruption card, this is also better. If you know your opponent has the game winning Guzma in hand, Iono it away and it will be on the bottom of their deck where they will very likely not be able to find it again.
How incredibly strong a comeback effect like this is cannot be overstated. Thousands upon thousands of games have been won off of an N to 1 or 2 throughout its history in Standard and GLC, and now you can play both Iono and N in the same deck! This card is going to change the landscape of GLC and how decks are built, with two disruption cards that your opponent might have at their disposal you will have to plan games more carefully and make sure that you don’t leave your board state too scarce that a timely Iono can lose you the game due to being unable to find the right combo pieces to close a game out.
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That’s about it! Make sure to like and subscribe, share with your friends, post it on your instagram story….wait this isn’t a YouTube video. ㅤ
Anyways, Paldea Evolved is definitely going to be a game changer. Counting down the days until the release date on June 9th!