Help Tapu Lele & Shaymin Help

Kangdaddy

Kangdaddy

Aspiring Trainer
Member
Hello all,

I have only been playing casually for a few months and decided to step it up with the new guardians rising series and bought my first booster box.

I was lucky enough to pull a Tapu Lele Full art and after reading up i understand it is the "new" Shaymin which will be a must have going forward.

Now is where the rookie questions come in, i understand its the ability which makes both Tapu Lele & Shaymin top notch cards, with both these abilities being activated when played from the hand to the bench what are the supporters/items/tips that are used to get the pokemon back in the hand and therefore use the ability multiple times per match?

obviously shaymin has the attack which does this but more targeting the Tapu Lele, how do i maximize this ability and get the most out of this card?

Also with the Shaymin going out of standard in Aus in October is it worth forking out the $50+ bucks to buy one for my deck or should i just plan for the future and buy another Tapu Lele? note i will note be playing competitively for atleast a few months till i can afford to build a decent deck

Thanks heaps in advance
 
Most of the time you only use them once, as their purpose is to help you set up faster. Once you are all set up you don't need them. You almost never want to attack with Shaymin to bounce it back. Tapu Lele makes a good secondary attacker so after you play it out start powering it up once you get your main attacker set up. In some decks people will run Ninja Boy or Parallel City to get Shaymin/Hoopa off the bench.

Whether it's worth getting the Shaymin now or not is entirely up to you. If you aren't getting serious till close to rotation in the fall it may not be worth it, but if you do play in any event over the summer then you'll want 1-2 normally. Also, Expanded is still a thing so depending how competitive you want to get you'll need to be able to play that, and Shaymin won't be leaving Expanded for a very very long time. Buying another Tapu Lele would not be bad so if you are unsure I might lean towards picking up a second Lele in the short term then get the Shaymin if you end up needing it.
 
Kangdaddy said:
... Now is where the rookie questions come in, i understand its the ability which makes both Tapu Lele & Shaymin top notch cards, with both these abilities being activated when played from the hand to the bench what are the supporters/items/tips that are used to get the pokemon back in the hand and therefore use the ability multiple times per match?
Click to expand...
In regards to Standard format play, I usually run a Parallel City Stadium in order to reduce my bench size (or my opponent's if need be) in order to discard unwanted or unneeded Pokémon. This tactic is quite useful when I have either wounded or "low" HP Pokémon that become an Lysandre-1HKO target liability (e.g., Shaymin EX). If need be, I can then recover and/or recycle the discarded Pokémon with Brock's Grit, Rescue Stretcher, Sacred Ash and/or Super Rod.
Kangdaddy said:
obviously shaymin has the attack which does this but more targeting the Tapu Lele, how do i maximize this ability and get the most out of this card?
Click to expand...
Tapu Lele GX's appeal to me, over Shaymin EX, is that Tapu Lele GX:
  • Has an Ability that allows you to get any Supporter from your deck and possibly play it (should you not have already played a supporter that turn) - that can by critical at times throughout all stages of a games (e.g., consider needing a Lysandre to KO an opponent's benched Pokémon),
  • Has no Weakness and significantly more HP, and
  • Can potentially inflict significantly more damage when used as an attacker.
One "small" advantage Shaymin EX may have is that it can be searched with a Winona Supporter; but, that may be more deck dependent.
Kangdaddy said:
Also with the Shaymin going out of standard in Aus in October is it worth forking out the $50+ bucks to buy one for my deck or should i just plan for the future and buy another Tapu Lele? note i will note be playing competitively for atleast a few months till i can afford to build a decent deck
Click to expand...
I currently only have played 1 Shaymin EX in most of my decks anyways and this has worked well for me 95%+ of the time. From this point on, I plan to only invest in Tapu Lele GXs. If I happen to want to run multiple Shaymin EXs in my deck, I can just borrow 1. Further, I plan to start testing my decks running no Shaymin EX(s), but Tapu Lele GX instead.

I hope you find these comments helpful.

 
First of all a huge thanks, I love how everyone is out to help others on these forums, it makes the deck building side of things so much more enjoyable!
I think I will stay away from the shaymin as I plan to play only standard going fwd.
Also with plans to run water deck (pulled 2 ninetails GX and a Lapras GX in my last few boosters) I have seen online that octillery is a option some people run for draw power.
Does anyone have experience with this? And I'm having trouble finding what will be coming out of standard later this year as dive ball & rough seas are both breakpoints I would like to know before buying 3 of each.
Basically funds are pretty tight and would like to buy cards to go towards a deck I can play for allot of time to come.
Thanks again guys!
 
No one knows exact rotation until it gets announced closer to Worlds in August so it's hard to say if Dive Ball and Rough Seas will stay or go, they are right on the edge of either. There's still four months of the current rotation so that's a third of a year. On these boards lots of people seem to be over speculating, which I feel may scare or at least be off putting for new players. Shaymin is super expensive, don't get that if you are worried. VS Seeker, DB, and RS are all $5 or less each and will most likely hold that value in expanded play. Pick up a playset of these three if you're going water, then trade them away if they happen to rotate. Playing all summer without them when others are using them will be discouraging as you will 100% be outclassed by decks running them. Water does have Octillary which can be a good Shaymin substitute.

Though if you look at the Keldio/Rayquaza Battle Arena deck you get a few DB, RS, and VS, along with two decent Expanded Skeleton decks and some (currently) staple standard trainers like N and Sycamore. They typically run for roughly $30, and are 100% worth it at that price, even if you are only going to be playing with them till rotation in September. At that point trade away what goes to expanded, it's not like everyone stops playing expanded just cause something changes in standard! (VS Seeker for sure, with the possibility of DB/RS)

If you are still unsure about Dive Ball, get Nest Ball. It's a no cost search that grabs any basic Pokémon and puts it on the bench. Not quite as good as Dive since you can't grab evolutions. You'd still need an Ultra Ball to find the Ninetails, but you should already have been running that to find the Tapu Lele anyway.
 
Thanks heaps mate your a legend!
I'm of to do some more research n more importantly start building my deck and battle!!!
Cheers,
 
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