Zoroark-GX and the Shining Mane — Weakness is a Thing of the Past

Lost Thunder is awesome! It’s the largest set of all time and may just be the best set of all time, containing some of the coolest cards and bringing many new concepts to life.

Rukan served us Alolan Ninetales-GX with Decidueye-GX, using Alolan Ninetales-GX as a main attacker. The power of Alolan Ninetales-GX isn’t solely in attacking though, as its Ability also provides an incredible consistency boost. This is one of the best cards ever printed, sitting among the likes of Shaymin-EX and Tapu Lele-GX in the modern era of the game. Taking two Items from your deck is incredibly good.

Alolan Vulpix also brings something to the table with Beacon, just more consistency piled high on top of an already insane deck. Beacon, Mysterious Guidance, and Trade all in one? The options are endless and it’s all made possible by this card. This deck ties power, recovery, resilience, and setup all into one neatly wrapped package.

But now, I am here to introduce a new partner to Zoroark-GX — Solgaleo-GX. This isn’t the Solgaleo-GX you may be familiar with. This is the “Newgaleo-GX” we finally got in a boxed product. This thing is powerful, protecting your deck from Weakness and giving you some more pop with a solid as Steel attack that helps you power up attackers. I’m absolutely infatuated with this card.

The List

Card Explanations

Four Zorua and Four Zoroark-GX

This is still a Trade-based deck. You want ways to get your Basic Energy into the discard pile so that you can accelerate them with Turbo Strike. Furthermore, Zoroark-GX is a much better off now with protection from Weakness thanks to Shining Mane. Fighting Weakness in the past was too much to overcome at times, requiring cards like Weakness Policyto be played in order to get around it. This pairing is incredibly strong and gives you great chances against formerly poor matchups like Buzzwole / Shrine of Punishment and Buzzwole-GX / Lycanroc-GX.

Three Cosmog and Two Solgaleo-GX

While this is perhaps the main attacker, it can tank a bunch of hits and strikes back for a solid 120. This means you don’t have to run a thick line because two will last a while on their own. Throw Professor Kukui, Choice Band, and the Anchor Pokemon into the mix, and you’re looking at a 250 HP juggernaut that can easily one-shot Pokemon of 180 HP or less. It powers up other attackers on your Bench — Pokemon that are well-poised to provide different type coverage and complete different tasks, like Alolan Ninetales-GX against a Rayquaza-GX deck. I really like that this deck brings Darkness, Metal, and Fairy Pokemon to the table, creating a weird combination of types for an opponent to play around. Many of the popular decks these days are weak to Dark, Metal, or Fairy: Dawn Wings Necrozma-GX in Malamar to Dark, opposing Alolan Ninetales-GX to Metal, and Rayquaza-GX to Fairy, as I said before.

Three Alolan Vulpix and Three Alolan Ninetales-GX

Beacon Alolan Vulpix just became even more broken, joining forces with its Evolution and Mysterious Guidance. The Ability is one of the best ever, pulling two Items from your deck when you Evolve, no questions asked. Snowy Wind is like a new-age Night Spear, doing a little less damage but from a different type of Pokemon. Fairy is a great type for against Rayquaza-GX decks, and it’s a type that few Pokemon have Resistance to. Its Sublimation GX attack is also broken, taking out an Ultra Beast just like that. With Blacephalon-GX being hyped, and rightfully so, it pays for a Zoroark-GX deck to add a Pokemon that can deal with it in one hit like Alolan Ninetales-GX can.

This concludes the public portion of this article.

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