Hey everyone! Today I’ll be reviewing Luxray from Arceus. Luxray AR is one of those decks that’s always kinda been around (since its release, it’s not a ghost), but never really accomplished too many major wins. Can that change this format? Let’s find out.
First off, Luxray is a Stage 2 Pokemon, meaning you’ll need to pack Rare Candy and/or Broken Time-Space in your deck to give it a chance at keeping up with SP. It’s Lightning-type, which is an excellent type to be right now, hitting Gyarados and the rare Blastioise PL for weakness. Luxray (it feels so weird not to say “GL” after it) has 120 HP, which is pretty much standard for much Stage 2s who see play nowadays. It also packs a nasty Fighting weakness; thankfully, it’s only +30. Luxray is also armed with a handy -20 Metal resistance, which should help it against Scizor, Steelix, and Dialga G LV.X a bit. The free retreat cost is very nice, like always.
Luxray’s first attack, “Flash”, does 30 damage for L and has one of those “50% chance of stopping the defending Pokemon from attacking” attacks, which can be nice; however, most of the time it isn’t because many decks, especially SP, excell at being able to either retreat, Poke Turn, or Warp Energy/Point away the attacker, then either bring up a new one or the same one again. So, while there may be a use once in a while, it’s not that great.
Luxray’s second attack (that makes the card good) is called “Gadget Bolt”, which for LCC does 60 damage. However, if it has a Pokemon Tool attached to it, you may discard it, and, if you do, “Gadget Bolt” does 100 damage instead. There are two cards in the format that go perfectly with “Gadget Bolt”. The first is Double Colorless Energy, allowing you to power up it’s attack in only 2 turns. The second is Expert Belt. The reason why it combos so well is because you have 2 choices: you can either do 80 and leave Expert Belt on or you can do 120 and discard it, making it so your opponent does not get the extra prize when Luxray is KO’d.
Luxray is a card that I was always hoping would do better than it has, but sadly it doesn’t. It’s a pretty fast card with a lot of possibilities, so I encourage you all to at least try it out. I understand it’s not the next LuxChomp, but you must admit it has some potential.
Rating 3.5/5 (A good card that I believe hasn’t recieved the attention it deserves.)
