Silvachu

There’s a new non-EX card that makes Starmie EX look weak, it’s name is Silvally. This card is a part of the craziest normal type package we’ve ever seen. With 110 HP, Silvally’s Brave Buddies attack will deal 50 damage initially, unless we’ve played a supporter card on that same turn, in which case we ramp that up to 100 damage for just 2 energy. This damage to cost ratio is unprecedented for a non-EX stage 1 evolution. Silvally going second is an absolute menace most opponent’s will struggle dealing with. And if you think the supporter requirement is a legitimate downside, one look at Gladion will change your view downright.

In a card game with 20 card decks, this supporter is wild. Yes, we’ve seen a card like this before. Team Galactic Grunt is also a tutor. The difference is Team Galactic Grunt only searches for the basic form of a specific evolution line, therefore making it easier to brick, Gladion pulls from a pool of 4 total cards in your deck, which is equivalent to a pokeball and most importantly… The cards we’re fishing for are actually good! The fact that Silvally is a normal type means there are seemingly endless potential decks to be built around him, so far we’ve seen players gravitate towards a combination with Rampardos, which makes sense, but is also kind of boring. I wanted to try something a little bit more interesting.

Today’s deck combines Silvally with Zeraora and Pikachu. In a list that makes Silvally absolutely terrifying, even when going first. Like most powerful 2 energy attackers, there’s a big difference between going first and second, back in the Genetic Apex days, Pikachu and Starmie EX were much scarier to face when they went second. Silvally is pretty much the same here, unless we can ramp onto it. Which is exactly what Zeraora allows us to do. If we manage to find Zeraora on our first turn, thunderclap flash will automatically generate electric energy onto it, we can then use Dawn to rally over that energy to Silvally, if we’re going first, this can allow us to attack with Silvally on our second turn. That’s not all though, generating this free energy with Zeraora also allows us to enable Pikachu EX quickly in the end game, thanks to a surprise Dawn play. On top of all that, we can quite simply resort to Dawn to enable Silvallys maxed out attack, which can also enable us to start building up energy onto Pikachu in the back.

This is but one of the many deck building possibilities Silvally grants us with. Being such a strong attacker with an exceptional tutor, there’s no doubt about this card's prevalence for the foreseeable future.