Prepare to make some noise in the TCG at Daytona Beach!
There are plenty of cards in the Pokemon TCG that can be pretty loud. Some of them start out with a lot of noise. Others just make a whimper. Though, there are some cards in the TCG that takes some time to make some noise. They start off as a soft whisper but slowly begin to build up. Eventually they make a loud roar that is impossible to ignore. That is basically the card that we are focusing on this week for TCG Jump. This card is able to create a loud boom that can make the game impossible to play. Today on TCG Jump we will focus on Noivern GX!
Noivern GX is a Stage 1 Dragon type Pokemon. It has 200 HP and three attacks. The first attack is called Distort which cost a Darkness and another energy. Distort does 50 damage and prevents your opponent from using Items during their next turn. Sonic Volume does 120 damage and cost a Darkness, Psychic and another energy. This attack prevents your opponent from playing Special Energy from their hand. Lastly, there is Noivern GX’s GX attack. Boomburst GX attack cost a Psychic, Darkness and another energy. This attack does 50 damage to each of your opponent’s Pokemon. Noivern GX has a weakness to Fairy Pokemon and no retreat cost.
The Good
The good thing about Noivern GX is that it takes two good cards and put them into one. You may even find that Noivern GX’s attacks to be familiar to things from the past.
The first attack, Distort, is a spiritual successor to Seismitoad EX’s Quaking Punch. This attack prevents Items from being used just like how the old frog’s attack use to do. The best part is that it does more damage compare to Quaking Punch. You can attach a Choice Band and now Distort is doing 80 damage to your opponent’s Pokemon and putting in an Item lock. All of this at the cost of a Double Dragon Energy!
Next there is Sonic Volume which is similar to Giratina’s Chaos Wheel. This attack does 120 damage which puts it over Chaos Wheel in damage output. It also prevents your opponent from playing Special Energy from their hand. It limits what your opponent can do and slows them down by keeping that Rainbow Energy or Double Colorless Energy in their hand. And all this attack needs is an extra energy on top of your DDE!
Lastly, Noivern GX has free retreat. That is amazing because it can be used as a Guzma pivot when you want to take a knockout on a specific Pokemon. Any Pokemon with free treat is a great Pokemon to have in a deck.
The Cons
The bad things about Noivern GX is that all the good things about the attacks are no longer in Standard. The key factor to make Noivern GX decent lies within Double Dragon Energy. This energy is the cornerstone to giving Noivern GX a shot. It sucks that this card rotated right around the time that Noivern GX was being release. You bet that people would be trying to relive the Quaking Punch days with Noivern GX, DDE and Distort.
Also, Sonic Volume is a double edge sword. It does sound like Chaos Wheel but it doesn’t lock Stadiums and Tools. Instead it trades that of for extra damage. That isn’t bad though as it can guarantee a two hit KO on any GX or EX in the game. Though, there are times when you may wish to prevent those Tools from being used such as Float Stone to trap a heavy Pokemon.
Lastly, it has a weakness to Fairy in a meta that is being ruled by Gardevoir GX. Any match up between Noivern GX and Gardevoir GX will resort to a lost.
How to Play It
You can try to play Noivern GX in Standard. It will be a little slow because you will need to attach one energy at a time to it. Start off with Brigette to get three Noibat and put on a Basic Darkness energy on one of them. That is if you get one. After that you will then need to evolve them into Noivern GX and start using Distort. Maybe you can add a Wally but it will be useless because you can’t attack with Distort until you get that second energy attached.
There is a new energy coming out in Crimson Invasion that acts as two Rainbow Energy called Counter Energy. Though you will need to be behind in prizes to take advantage of this card. Once you are up in prizes then the energy becomes a single colorless energy. The hard part is finding a way to become behind in prizes in a game where you want to get prizes.
Though you will want to use Noivern GX in Expanded where Double Dragon Energy is alive and well!
All you need to do in Expanded is to evolve your Noibat into Noivern GX and attach a Double Dragon Energy! If you have an option during your first turn then go ahead and attach a Basic energy to a Benched Noibat to set up a second attack. During you second turn you can evolve your active into Noivern GX and attach a Double Dragon Energy. From there you can lock your opponent from Items with Distort. Add another energy to hit 120 to knockout a Pokemon and maybe prevent a Double Colorless Energy from hitting the field.
If we are going to be playing in Expanded then lets hit up all the stops!
You can give Noivern GX a backup singer in the form of Altaria from Dragons Exalted. This Pokemon has an ability called Fight Song that boost the attacks of Dragon type Pokemon by 20. Simply set up two Altaria on your bench and now Noivern GX’s Distort attack is doing 90 damage. Slap on another energy to use Sonic Volume and now Noivern GX is doing 160 thanks to some singing Altaria.
If you want to use more Expanded tools then go ahead and attach Muscle Band to Noivern GX. This Tool will give Noivern GX a boost of 20 damage to any Pokemon that it attacks. The extra 30 from Choice Band is nice but useless against decks that rely on heavy non GX attackers. Though Muscle Band doesn’t care who you are attacking. It will give you an extra 20 no matter what. Now that Sonic Volume with the boost of two Altaria and Muscle Band is hitting 180. The magic number to knockout a Tapu Lele GX.
Lastly, you can use Noivern GX to set up knockouts. Maybe you want to be more aggressive by using Sonic Volume to put 120 or more damage on your opponnet’s Pokemon. This can be done by using Guzma to drag an opponent’s Benched Pokemon and using a Benched Noivern GX as a pivot. Do this a few times to put 120 or more damage on your opponent’s Pokemon. Once that is done then you can go ahead and use Boomburst GX to spread damage around and take prizes.
Noivern GX may not have the loudest voice in the Standard format but it can rock loud in Expanded. This Pokemon start with a whisper to mess up your opponent. Though it won’t be long until it is screaming in your ear with all the damage it is causing. So if you are planning to hit up Daytona’s Expanded Regional then give this card a listen!
