Get ready to see some hidden diamonds in the shadows!
The shadows are burning under the sun. There is no escape from the blazing heat. The shadows may look tempting but expect to see some powerful foes hidden within them. We have plenty of powerful cards from Burning Shadows. Some of them fit the name perfectly. They are either dark figures or burning spirits! Though we have some whimsy in the new set. Apparently wearing pink is something that can be done outside of Wednesday. That is where we are going to be focusing today. The twist is that it won’t be about one of the most talked about cards Today we are going to be looking for some diamonds in the rough with Diancie!
Diancie is a Basic Fairy type Pokemon from Burning Shadows. It has 90 HP with two attacks. The first attack is called Sparkling Wish which cost a single Fairy energy. This attack allows you to search your deck for a Pokemon that evolves from one of your benched Pokemon. You can then evolve that Pokemon. Diancie’s second attack cost a Fairy and another energy. This attack is called Diamond Story and does 30 damage. It also allows you to heal 30 HP from all your Fairy Pokemon. Diancie has a weakness to Metal, resist Darkness by 20 and a single energy retreat.
The Pros
The biggest reason and plus for using Diancie is to evolve your Pokemon with Sparkling Wish. You can simply start your match with a Diancie in the active and attach an energy. Once you have done that then you can start evolving your Pokemon on the bench. You can even evolve Pokemon that you have placed on your bench in the same turn. Don’t you love breaking the evolution rule?
The best part is that any Pokemon can be evolved using this method. We will talk about that later in the article but if you are willing to put in a Rainbow Energy in your deck then you can start evolving. Though you may want to just focus on putting Diancie in Fairy decks.
If you want to push Sparkling Wish to the extreme then use it to Mega Evolve one of your Pokemon. That is right! You can use Diancie to get Mega Pokemon on the field. Sparkling Wish says to search your deck for a Pokemon that evolves from one of your Pokemon. Guess what. M Gardevoir EX can evolve from Gardevoir EX. That mean you can put down a Gardevoir EX during your turn and then use Diancie’s Sparkling Wish attack to evolve it into M Gardevoir EX. Best part? Your attack phase ends your turn so the Mega Evolution Rule doesn’t apply.
Also, you can use it to BREAK Evolve your Pokemon into their BREAK Evolutions. It isn’t as impressive as using Sparkling Wish to Mega Evolve but worth mentioning.
Another plus for Diancie is the 90 HP. That may not sound good but compare that to the other Pokemon that you can start with. Once you do that then it is great. Some of the Pokemon that you can start with in other decks includes Alolan Vulpix, Beldum, Wimpod and Ralts. All of those Pokemon have 60 HP. If they get hit by Espeon GX’s Psybeam attack and you flip tails when you attack then they are gone. Your opponent takes a prize while you cry. Diancie has 90 HP which means that it can live a bit longer. So your opponent needs to try a little harder if they want to take a knockout on your active Diancie. That means you get a few more turns to evolve your Pokemon.
The Cons
Now lets talk about Diancie’s negatives which is usefulness. Outside of evolving your Pokemon, Diancie doesn’t do much. Diamond Storm does too little damage to be taken seriously. It is nice to heal 30 damage from all your Pokemon but it isn’t that impressive. Especially when you will most likely have heavy hitters on your bench that can do more with two energy.
To continue on from the previous point. If you want to ensure that you start with Diancie during your first turn then you may need more then one Diancie. Either you play two or four. Though if you play four then you have three useless Diancie who could be used for Ultra Ball. It also takes up space that could be used for other Pokemon.
Either way, Diancie overstays it welcome after the first few turns. You will want to use it as much as you want and then dump the others as soon as you can.
How Would You Play It
You would play Diancie in any Fairy deck that has Evolved Pokemon. Which one? Well, it will be the most hyped deck from Burning Shadows, Gardevoir GX!
Everybody is talking about Gardevoir GX but Diancie is a key part to the deck. The Jewel Pokemon allows you to set up Gardevoir GX quickly thanks to Sparkling Wish. You will start with Diancie in the active and then evolve your Ralts into Kirlia. During your next turn you can turn that Kirlia into a Gardevoir GX with a quick Ultra Ball search. If you play Rare Candy then you can evolve another Ralts into Gardevoir GX that way. If not then use Diancie to set up another one.
The perfect start for Gardevoir GX that is playing Diancie is to have it in the active. You would use Brigette to get several Ralts on your bench. Once you have done that then proceed to evolve them into Kirlia with Diancie’s Sparkling Wish.
If you wish to keep up the evolution train then go ahead and use Diancie to evolve your Remoraid into Octillery. Most Gardevoir GX decks are playing a line of Octillery to draw into Energy. Your first turn Brigette could be for two Ralts and a Remoraid. Pending on your hand, you could decide to use your first Sparkling Wish to evolve your Remoraid into Octillery so you can use Abyssal Hand to draw into a new hand. Now that would be a surprise that will put your opponent into a bind.
If your opponent lets you get away with evolution fun with Diancie long enough then go ahead and go all the way! Evolve your Kirlia into Gallade so you can do cool combos with Octillery to grab what you want.
Now, lets talk about apply Diancie to Mega Evolution. It is possible to Mega Evolve a Pokemon with Diancie’s Sparkling Wish. After all, Mega Evolution does count as evolving a Pokemon. That means you do not have to play any Spirit Links on your Pokemon to Mega Evolve. Your turn will end when you use Sparkling Wish which means the Mega Evolution Rule won’t matter. Yes. Technically your turn ends upon Mega Evolving a Pokemon but that will happen because you use Sparkling Wish.
So now you have a way to Mega Evolve your Pokemon without worrying about Spirit Links and the Mega Evolution Rule. What now? Time to equip different items to your Mega Pokemon.
We are going to be using M Gardevoir EX from Primal Clash for this example. That is because Diancie and M Gardevoir EX are both Fairy which means you will be playing Fairy Energy in your deck. You can use Diancie to evolve your Gardevoir EX into M Gardevoir EX with no Spirit Link. That allows you attach a different Tool to M Gardevoir EX. Though which one?
The obvious choice will have to be Choice Band. This will allow you to hit EX and GX Pokemon for an extra 30 damage. That is practically another Fairy energy attached to your Pokemon. More damage the better.
You could attach a Weakness Policy. If you end up facing a Metal deck while playing M Gardevoir EX then you can use Weakness Policy. It will make it harder for Metal to knockout M Gardevoir.
Another option is to use EXP Share. That way your can keep your energy on the field when somebody is knocked out. Diancie will most likely get knocked out first which means one less Fairy energy on the field. If you are using EXP Share then that energy on Diancie can be put on M Gardevoir EX to help fuel Brilliant Arrow. You can also attach Wish Baton to Diancie for a similar effect.
There could be other Tools to use if you want to play a Spirit Link-less Diancie-M Gardevoir EX deck. These are a few Tools that I think would be best if you plan to go this route. Though, be careful because you may need to get several Gardevoir EX and Diancie out on the field. Your opponent may be surprised by you going this way to Mega Evolve but that will make them want to take out your Diancie even faster. Have a back up on the bench so you can at least get two M Gardevoir EX out on the field.
Diancie has the chance to see some serious play if Gardvoir GX lives up to all the talk. So do not be surprise if you see Diancie next weekend on stream during Worlds 2017! It has a wish which is to see everybody evolve and fight! So make sure to help make this wish come true with Diancie!
The post TCG Jump: Featured Card- Diancie appeared first on Pokémon Crossroads.


Read more or post a comment.