GLC Update 1.3
Effective Thursday, November 10th 2022, Kyogre (SHF 021/072) will no longer be legal for play in Gym Leader Challenge format. Water type decks are able to consistently use Kyogre’s Amazing Surge attack on the second or third turn of the game, which does 80 damage to each of the opponent’s Pokémon. In a format where not every type has access to a Bench Barrier-style Ability, Amazing Kyogre severely limits the number of viable strategies, and is against the spirit of Gym Leader Challenge.
The Combo
Kyogre decks rely on Milotic’s Energy Grace Ability, which allows you to KO Milotic in order to attach up to three Basic Energy from the discard pile to one of your Pokémon in play. In this way, Kyogre’s Amazing Surge attack, which is typically difficult to power up, becomes easily accessible. This combination is able to be performed consistently and repeatedly because of the ample support Water has available to it, most notably with Drizzile and Inteleon‘s Shady Dealings Abilities, which allow Water Trainers to search their deck for the exact Trainer cards they need to set up. This combo has become even more consistent in recent months with the addition of Hisuian Basculin, Hisuian Heavy Ball and Irida to the card pool.
The Amazing Kyogre deck is usually able to win by announcing just two Amazing Surge attacks since only a few Pokémon in GLC have over 160 HP, and all of those that do evolve from Pokémon with less. If the opponent isn’t able to KO Kyogre after the first Amazing Surge, checkmate is usually achieved. But even if Kyogre is KO’d, recycling and reusing Amazing Surge is quite easy. With Splash Energy, Kyogre gets returned to the hand when it is KO’d instead of the discard pile. With Octillery in play, Water trainers have plenty of draw power to find the necessary cards to rebuild Kyogre. Even if Kyogre does have to take a turn to rebuild, Water Trainers can always hide behind Articuno to make sure that their valuable Milotic and Kyogre do not get brought into the Active Spot with Guzma or Boss’s Orders. If the Kyogre player falls behind, Counter Energy is an easy out to a quick Amazing Surge as well.
Why Not Milotic?
Some players may ask, why is Amazing Kyogre getting banned when Milotic is clearly the enabler? Good Question! Water has a lot of ways to power up Kyogre and more than one evolution line that enables its problematic attack. If Milotic gets banned and Kyogre stays, players will just move to the next way of powering up Kyogre consistently (Pokémon GO Blastoise, Counter Energy, etc). The point I came to repeatedly was this: “Does an attack that deals 80 damage to everything belong in a single prize format without universal Bench Barrier?” And that answer, I believe, is definitely not. Milotic’s Energy Grace Ability is strong, but comes at a steep cost and could be feasibly used in other creative ways. Kyogre’s Amazing Surge attack is simply oppressive in a format that revolves around single Prize Pokémon. There may come a day when Milotic’s Energy Grace Ability does not fit with the format any longer, but at this time I do not believe that the card is an issue without Kyogre to take advantage of.
