Silver Tempest & GLC
It feels like just last week, the Sword & Shield: Lost Origin set was released, but it’s already time for a new batch of cards to hit the Gym Leader Challenge metagame! The final “main” Sword & Shield expansion, Silver Tempest, holds plenty of goodies for GLC trainers of all types to play with. Let’s take a look at some of the highlights that you’ll want to get your hands on!
Sunflora
While Grass is one of the strongest types in GLC, it has always struggled with draw power on-board. The best draw support Pokémon that Grass currently has access to is Sawsbuck which draws exactly one (1) card per turn. With Lost Origin, we’ll be seeing Beautifly and its Elated Draw ability provide some needed support to Grass-type trainers. While it is a Stage 2 Pokemon, Grass is known for its ability to easily find Pokemon thanks to cards like Grotle, Grovyle, and Turffield Stadium which can search the deck every turn. If you’re a Grass player and hate to see a late-game N or Roxanne from your opponent, consider Beautifly to draw you out of these tough spots!
Rapidash
As is expected with Fire-type Pokémon, Rapidash from Silver Tempest utilizes Fire Energy to propel your Pokémon into a fiery blaze! Heat Boost shares its effect with the old Volcanion EX’s Steam Up ability, but now printed on a GLC-legal Pokémon. This will allow your Pokémon to go the extra mile and deal huge damage, especially alongside cards that increase damage like Muscle Band. Especially with ways to recover Fire energy from the discard like Fire Crystal and Blacksmith, Rapidash will be ensuring your Fire-type attackers can hit important KOs on big Pokémon. And most importantly, it also has a stamped promo version, providing a great option for players to bling out their Fire-type decks!
Incineroar
One of the coolest parts about GLC is that every Pokémon you select for your deck matters, even your pre-evolved forms! This Incineroar really shines a spotlight on your choice of Litten and Torracat, as its Secret Attack lets it use an attack from one of the pre-evolved Pokémon under it. We can see a natural combo with the Litten and Torracat released alongside Incineroar in Silver Tempest: you can copy Torracat’s Gritty Claws attack to keep Incineroar at a low HP if it’s attacked next turn, then hit for massive damage on the crackback with a 320-damage Reprisal! Or, skip the combo altogether and hit for 180 for a single energy with the help of Charizard PGO. With this much versatility, Incineroar certainly makes the case for itself in Fire-type Gym Leader Challenge decks!
Wailord
Trainers who’ve played even a few games of Gym Leader Challenge have probably faced Wailord VIV before: a massive behemoth with 200 HP that can do 170 damage for 4 (acceleratable) energy. But what if this Wailord got bulkier and stronger? Wailord from Silver Tempest is the “I’m you but better” of Float Whale Pokémon cards. Its Jumbo-Sized ability makes it very difficult to KO, and can compound with defensive cards like Pot Helmet or Mallow & Lana to keep shrugging off attacks for many turns at a time. And its Special Waves attack, which does enough damage to knock out the stinky old Wailord VIV, is used easily with cards like Blastoise BCR’s energy acceleration. Even moreso than before, if you see a Wailord hit your opponent’s side of the field in Gym Leader Challenge, you better knock it out immediately before it becomes a problem that you can’t overcome!
Hypno
One of the most unfortunate quirks of GLC is the difficulty some Pokémon have getting into play. If an evolution Pokémon doesn’t share a type with a printing of all of its pre-evolved forms, you’ll have to use cards like Dream Ball or Archie’s Ace in the Hole to “cheat” these Pokémon into play. But in some cases, you can use Pokémon attacks and abilities to get these misfit Pokémon into play! Silver Tempest’s Hypno can bring Stage 1 Psychic Pokémon out from your deck, getting them into play stress-free. Now your Espeon, Sylveon, Alolan Marowak, Wyrdeer, and Dottler can come out to play! GLC players are sure to explore new strategies with the use of these cards: for instance, evolving Dottler into Orbeetle BST to cheat out even more Pokémon from the deck. Oftentimes in Gym Leader Challenge, the coolest Pokémon to include in your deck are ones that you’ll never do damage with, like Hypno!
Mismagius
Something that’s great about Gym Leader Challenge is how many different ways there are to reach your deck’s win condition. Because Pokémon have lower HP relative to multi-prize Pokémon found in other formats, spread archetypes can pick up KOs fast enough to compete with more traditional aggro decks. Psychic is one of the best types at manipulating damage in this way, with cards like Blacephalon CEC, Dragapult RCL, and the new Mismagius. For one energy, the Eerie Voice attack can prime your opponent’s Pokémon to be knocked out by other spread attackers later in the game. And Mismagius’s Spiteful Magic ability is powerful as well, damaging an attacker for you to clean up later. Without big numbers printed on it, Mismagius may invite your opponents to underestimate you… to their eventual doom!
Kirlia
There are few things in the Pokémon TCG more powerful than drawing cards. Support Pokémon which can do this with the use of abilities are incredibly valuable to making decks functional and consistent. With Silver Tempest Kirlia, Psychic players will be able to make their decks speedier than ever thanks to its Refinement ability providing card advantage every turn. What’s really cool about this Kirlia is that it can evolve further – trainers have plenty of Gardevoir and Gallade to choose from (some brave Trainers may even choose to include one of each in their Psychic decks)! Some obvious choices include Gardevoir CRE to draw cards and do big damage or Gallade ASR to find Supporters and keep your energy around. While Kirlia has appeared in many Psychic GLC decks before, it now takes on its own supporting role to propel trainers to victory!
Meowstic
It seems that the Pokémon card designers have listened to the cries of Psychic trainers that are tired of playing Musharna NXD as a support Pokémon, because Silver Tempest contains not just one but two amazing Stage 1 Psychic support Pokémon. This Mewostic’s ability functions similar to Gallade’s Buddy Catch, but being printed on a Stage 1 Pokémon can give decks a huge burst of consistency in the early game. What can your deck do with a guaranteed Professor’s Research on Turn 2? Or maybe you’ll stash an Avery in your hand to undo your opponent’s setup? Maybe a Hex Maniac to slow them down while you gain the lead? Although it’s a one-time effect, don’t underestimate how impactful this Meowstic can be in GLC!
Palossand
As discussed earlier with Mismagius, spread is a really interesting archetype that’s much more viable in Gym Leader Challenge thanks to the relatively lower HP of the Pokémon in the format. Fighting-type trainers may look to build into this strategy with cards like Palossand. For just a single energy, this sandy fella brings all of your opponent’s Pokémon 30 damage closer to being knocked out. And with 140 HP, it’s not unlikely Palossand will be able to attack two or three times itself. With that much damage spread across the board, your opponents will need to be extra cautious of how low their Pokémon’s HP are as you prepare to clean up the stragglers with your other Fighting-type Pokémon!
Crobat
One of the greatest strengths of Darkness decks in GLC is the ability to take multiple prizes at once with the king Guzzlord CEC. Now, with Silver Tempest’s Crobat and its Critical Bite attack, can Darkness gym leaders lean even further into this strategy? While 30 damage is not much at all in terms of taking a knockout, the ability to target any Pokémon with this damage is really important. Skilled trainers may combo Crobat with cards that boost damage, like Dark Claw or Reverse Valley, or cards which can set up KOs anywhere on the board, like Galarian Zigzagoon SSH and Galarian Obstagoon SSH. In an especially evil combo, you can bring a weak Basic Pokémon back with Echoing Horn and knock it out again, taking all six prizes off of the same weak Pokémon! Show your opponents how devious you can be with Crobat!
Klinklang
If you had to characterize the Metal type in Gym Leader Challenge, it would be “slow and tanky.” The type is better at surviving opposing attacks than powering up with lots of energy to deal big damage out of nowhere. But the new Klingklang from Silver Tempest may be a way for Metal trainers to reach for this speed they’ve only dreamed about. Accelerating energy from the deck is a massively powerful effect in the Pokémon TCG; see Rillaboom SSH’s popularity. While only accelerating on evolution is not as good as accelerating every turn, Metal trainers may discover that three energy (or six if you utilize a Scoop Up Net!) is enough for their deck to shift into a higher gear and speed past their opponents!
Dragonite
Other than Fairy, Dragon is the type with the fewest GLC-legal Pokémon cards, so any new additions are particularly worthy of attention and experimentation. This Dragonite makes its case by offering what Dragon-type Pokémon so often need – energy acceleration. Nearly every Dragon-type Pokémon’s best attacks require multiple different types of energy to be attached, so attaching just the right energy directly from the deck, even once, might be all a Dragon deck needs to run away with the game. And 180 damage is nothing to sneeze at either. Notably, this Dragonite will have to contend with the previously ubiquitous Fast Call Dragonite TEU. Will you stay with the supportive Dragonite to keep your deck running every turn? Or fire up your strongest Dragons with a huge surge of energy?
Archeops
Trainers who follow the Standard format are surely aware of Archeops and its synergy with Lugia VSTAR which can cheat it into play and power up your multiprize Pokémon’s attacks. But don’t let the lack of Assemble Star in Gym Leader Challenge deter you from trying out the First Bird Pokémon in GLC! As we’ve discussed with Klinklang and Dragonite, attaching energy to Pokémon directly from the deck is an immensely powerful effect, making many Stage 2 Pokémon worth playing despite the risks involved. Archeops is probably the most powerful of them all, accelerating multiple Special Energy from the deck at once; Porygon-Z UNB users already know that Colorless has no shortage of incredible Special Energy like Triple Acceleration Energy and Powerful Colorless Energy to utilize. The downside to this Archeops is that its first evolution is Unidentified Fossil: an Item card which is much less searchable than a Basic Pokémon. It’ll be really exciting to see how the metagame adapts to the introduction of Archeops: will it replace Porygon-Z, or maybe be played in the same Colorless decks? Will Colorless trainers try playing Pokémon Research Lab to get Archen out of the deck, a technique previously only known to Fighting-type Gym Leaders? Don’t underestimate this wacky bird Pokémon!
Lance
As far as trainer cards go, Silver Tempest is definitely on the lighter side, mostly providing support to other formats like Standard. But there is one card that is sure to be popular among trainers, and that’s the original Dragon master himself: Lance. His effect is simple but strong, pulling multiple Dragon-type Pokémon out of the deck at once. This is an especially handy effect for a type like Dragon, which has a variety of attackers that may all be useful in different situations. This is also a great budget option for trainers who are having trouble getting their hands on Gabite DRX – Lance searches out about as many Dragons as you might expect Gabite to in a game, all at once! And with Dragonite TEU’s Fast Call ability, you’ll be able to utilize Lance at any point in the game.
That’s the set review for Silver Tempest! Almost every type gets some new Pokémon to consider, which is really exciting. Experienced Gym Leader Challenge trainers will know that even one or two new Pokémon in a list will dramatically change how it plays. So if you’re a trainer with multiple GLC decks, or who wants to analyze and defeat a certain meta, it’s time to see how these new cards from Silver Tempest will change the way you play!
