TCG Jump: Featured Card- M Gardevoir EX

It is time to pull out the fairy dust and flowers! This week on TCG Jump we are going to feature a card that brings out the pretty side of Primal Clash. This Pokemon has always been a fan favorite in several ways. The design of this Pokemon is beautiful and it surely shows in the card art. It is pink and loving which is the perfect embodiment of fairies. I hope you all believe in magic because this card has plenty of that. This week we are featuring M Gardevoir EX!

M Gardevoir EX is a Mega Evolution Pokemon with 210 HP. It is a Fairy type with a weakness to the Metal type but a resistance to the Darkness type. It has a two energy retreat cost. The real magic of this card begins with it’s Brilliant Arrow attack. Brilliant Arrow is an attack that cost a Fairy energy and two other energy. It does 30 damage times the number of Fairy Energy on all of your Pokemon.

Pros
Lets first talk about the art that is used for M Gardevoir EX. Primal Clash brought the full art treatment to the Mega Pokemon who were left out when they were first introduced. M Gardevoir EX is perfect for this as it as a beautiful Pokemon. It would have been a shame to not show off it’s dress in full beauty. Full art M Gardevoir EX looks as if it is ready to dance off the card and onto the table for battle. The normal art is good as well but creepy in this writer’s opinion.

This shouldn’t be a pro but seeing that not all Mega Pokemon have Spirit Links, M Gardevoir EX has Gardevoir Spirit Link. This allows Gardevoir EX to Mega Evolve without losing your attack for a turn. This is much appreciated as Fairy types want to do some sort of attack every turn to get things moving.

The amazing part about M Gardevoir EX is how easily it fits into the current Fairy deck. This card takes advantage of all the support that Fairy types have right now which includes: rapid energy acceleration engine, energy manipulation, great HP recovery and easy retreating opportunities. We will go into this part in more depth later in the article but these are all things that the Fairy type has at their disposal and M Gardevoir EX takes advantage of it all with it’s Brilliant Arrow attack.

Fairy has the ability to flood the board with Fairy energy and then move it anywhere on the board which M Gardevoir EX enjoys. If all goes well then M Gardevoir EX can attack in two two turns for around 90 to 120 damage. If you can get even more Fairy Energy into play then you are able to hit up to 180 damage to knock out (most) EX Pokemon and 240 damage to knock out Mega Pokemon. That is some destructive power that is  possible with M Gardevoir EX and the Fairy support. You just need to make sure you spread out your Fairy energy so it won’t all go down the drain if one of your Pokemon is knocked out.

M Gardevoir EX has some staying power with it’s 210 HP. It can take a hit and keep going. Thanks to the ability to move Fairy energy, M Gardevoir EX can heal off any damage with the use of Max Potion without losing any energy or the opportunity to attack. That can be fairly annoying if you are trying to chip away with knocking out M Gardevoir EX. You either need to one-hit KO it or pray your opponent doesn’t have a Max Potion to recover away your damage.

M Kangaskhan EX use to be the Fairy type to-go Pokemon partner for a hefty Mega Pokemon and counter to Pyroar but it looks like M Gardevoir EX fills this role much better.

Cons
The first con for M Gardevoir EX is the HP. 210 HP may sound like a lot of HP but it isn’t for a Mega Pokemon. It will be coming pretty close to being knocked out from many normal EX Pokemon attacks which will leave you sweating. You may knock out their Pokemon but M Gardevoir EX will be coming close to being knock out by a simple attack if you are not careful. So it is important that you keep those Max Potions on hand if you need to heal or quickly set up a new M Gardevoir EX to attack.

The other con is M Gardevoir EX’s weakness to the Metal type. This type is slowly raising in popularity as people experiment with what is the right way to use it. It always has it’s own energy acceleration with the form of Bronzong. It even has some decent attackers in the form of Dialga EX and Aegislash EX to take advantage of M Gardevoir EX’s weakness. M Gardevoir EX could get around Dialga EX’s Chorno Wind (prevent the affected EX Pokemon from attacking next turn) by retreating for free thanks to Fairy Garden. The problem is that it will need to either knock out the current active Dialga EX with one hit or be prepare for more heavy damage next turn thanks to how fast Metal types can recover their energy.

You also want to watch out for your opponent attacking benched Pokemon with a lot of energy on them. These will be their first targets as that will weaken the damage output for Brilliant Arrow. You need to make sure your energy is spread throughout your benched Pokemon so it won’t weaken your attacking power with M Gardevoir EX if one of them is knocked out.

How to Use It
In order to take full advantage of M Gardevoir EX, you will need to use the most of the Fairy support. That means using Xerneas, Aromatisse, Fairy Garden and Max Potion.

The perfect start will be Xerneas and a Fairy energy with two other Pokemon on the bench. If those two Pokemon are Gardevoir EX and Spritzee then you are pretty well off. All you need to do is use Geomancy to get two  Fairy Energy from your deck to your bench. Do this a few times to get even more Fairy Energy on the board.

While you are putting Fairy Energy onto the board, you will want to evolve your Spritzee into Aromatisse to take advantage of it’s Fairy Transfer ability. This will be key in powering up your M Gardevoir EX to attack and healing off damage from your Pokemon with Max Potion without losing your the Fairy energy. You also want to evolve Gardevoir EX into M Gardevoir EX during this time. If you can get the Gardevoir Spirit Link Item then that would be best so you can Mega Evolve without losing your ability to attack that turn.

Once everything is all set, just use Fairy Garden to freely move Xerneas or any other active Pokemon to the bench so M Gardevoir EX can take center stage. You can use Aromatisse’s Fairy Transfer to move three Fairy energy to M Gardevoir EX to start drawing attacking power from all the Fairy energy on your side of the board. If you do this then two Geomancy is enough to knock out an EX Pokemon with one Brilliant Arrow.

Another good thing about the Fairy type is that there are plenty of Fairy Pokemon to use as backup attackers along side with M Gardevoir EX. Xerneas EX and Florges EX are excellent attackers in their own right. Xerneas EX does 140 damage for four energy and has plenty of HP. Florges EX with a low attack cost does more damage for each Fairy Pokemon on your side of the field which there would be plenty of. You may want to use Florges EX as an opener attacker while you set up M Gardevoir EX or use it as a cheap clean up attacker. The basic Fairy deck is flexible enough to allow this.

M Gardevoir EX is a force that can spread a powerful magic in the battle. It fits in perfectly with what Fairy already has for support. If you face this in battle then be prepare to some some real magic as victory could flutter away from you in a brilliant ray of arrows and dancing.