Lugia ex Single Card Strategy

By Cole Bendall

EX Unseen Forces has brought back the Johto Region Pokémon from the video games Pokémon Gold and Pokémon Silver, and one of the more notable returnees is the Legendary Bird Lugia ex (#105/115).

This card could be used as a heavy hitter in practically any deck, as long as you have the Energy to use it. At 100 HP, it isn't the strongest of the Pokémon-ex, but its attack is utterly insane. For 1 Lightning, 1 Fire, and 1 Water Energy, you can do 200 HP damage to your opponent's Defending Pokémon! This has the power to Knock Out any Pokémon currently released! The difficulty in this is that after attacking, you must discard those 3 Energy cards from Lugia ex. However, if you keep it as a back-up on your Bench or use Trainer cards, such as Mr. Stone's Project (EX Emerald #79/106), to quickly retrieve those Energy cards from your discard pile, you can easily get Lugia ex up and running again.

Note, though, that just because you can use it as a constant attacker every 3 turns doesn't necessarily mean that you should. Lugia ex takes a while to power up and once it has attacked, you need to power it up again with more Energy. Therefore, it's sometimes best kept on the Bench. That way, you can build it up throughout the game and use it as a nice finisher or as a last-ditch hope to fight back if you're losing and attempting to get back in the game.

Lugia ex is a Colorless Pokémon, giving it an advantage over Dragon Pokémon currently being used such as Dark Dragonite (EX Team Rocket Returns #15/109), Rayquaza ex (EX Deoxys #102/107), and Salamence ex (EX Deoxys #103/107). Lugia ex also has Resistance to Fighting, which is what one would expect from a Pokemon that can fly. Unfortunately, Lugia ex has a Weakness to Psychic Energy, which leaves it prone to being Knocked Out by any relatively powerful Psychic-type Pokémon, so take care if this is the case-remember, as is the case with any Pokémon-ex, if your opponent Knocks Out one of yours, he or she takes 2 Prize cards. Finally, Lugia ex requires only 1 Energy to retreat, which is quite low for a Pokémon-ex; this allows you to give it a chance to build up and recover on the Bench if it gets in danger.

Lugia ex's Silver Sparkle Poké-Body is also quite useful. Should one of your opponent's attacks damage Lugia ex at all and your opponent flips tails on a coin flip, he or she has to return one of the Energy cards attached to that Pokémon back to his or her hand. This makes for a solid stall move against your opponent-if your opponent wishes to attack, he or she has to risk returning that Energy. This may annoy your opponent a great deal if he or she wishes to build up other Pokémon while attacking Lugia ex.

Lugia ex, admittedly, does take a while to power up and start attacking, but despite this, it proves itself to be a strong card. Strike fear into your opponent's heart when this versatile bruiser hits the table!