pokebeach.comWelcome to today’s COTD where I’ll be taking a look at Dialga G LV.X from Platinum. Due to Dialga G LV.X being one of the most powerful cards in the game, it’s hard not to be a bit biased when reviewing it, but, alas, I will do my best. Just like I did with Gallade 4 LV.X, I see it fit to review Dialga’s basic form as well as the Level Up.
Dialga G comes with a very high 100 HP, which should make it more difficult for Garchomp C LV.X to snipe. It has a hurtful x2 weakness, so watch out for Blaziken FB LV.X (and the uncommon Infernape 4 LV.X as well). This SP Basic also comes with a handy Psychic resistance, so Gengar and Uxie should have a tough time Knocking it Out. Dialga G is a Metal-type Pokémon, which gives it access to Special M Energy, and combined with its high HP should make it difficult for any non-Fire Pokémon to 1HKO. Unfortunately, Dialga is also handicapped by a semi-high Retreat Cost of two, but can be managed by Warp Energy.
This monster of a Pokémon comes equipped with two attacks. “Deafen”, for MC (Energy Gain reduces that to a very cheap M) does a low 10 damage, but comes with an extremely useful effect: Your Opponent cannot play Trainer or Stadium cards during their next turn. “Deafen” works especially well early-game against Gyarados and SP.
Dialga G’s second attack, “Second Strike”, isn’t as interesting. For the semi-high cost of MCC (I say semi-high instead of high because it can use Energy Gain as well as Double Colorless Energy), it does 50 damage, but, if the defending Pokémon has two or more damage counters on it, it does 70 damage instead. If it was only required to have one damage counter on the defending Pokémon, it would be slightly better because you could “Flash Bite” a lot of basic Pokémon SP, then KO them. Not a terrible attack, but not a mind-blowing one either.
Dialga G is by no means a bad card, but probably the only reason you would play it is to get its Level Up into play. Let’s continue.
Dialga G LV.X has pretty much the same stats as its Basic counterpart: Same x2 weakness, same -20 resistance, same Metal-typing (shocker, right?), and, surprisingly, it has the same Retreat Cost (most either get higher or lower). However, it does get a nice boost in HP, bringing it to a high 120, which surpasses almost every other Basic Level Up in the format.
By leveling up, you will gain access to an attack and a Poké-Body. Its Poké-Body, “Time Crystal”, shuts off all Poké-Bodies belonging to non-Pokémon SP in play. That’s a lot of Pokémon: Mewtwo LV.X, Donphan Prime, Scizor Prime, Spiritomb, Vileplume, and a few others that I’m forgetting. Having answers to all of those Pokémon is really a huge edge and is the reason why 1-1 Dialga G lines are added into LuxChomp lists.
Like I said, Dialga G LV.X provides both a Poké-Body and an attack. “Remove Lost”, for the massive cost of MMCC (even if you can use Double Colorless Energy or Energy Gain, that’s still a very costly attack), does 80 damage. In addition, you flip a coin until you get tails. For each heads you get, an Energy attached to the defending Pokémon is sent to the Lost Zone.
Despite its damage output being a bit low, keep in mind that, when played in DialgaChomp, it will be remedied by two things. First of all, many/most (depends on your area) DialgaChomp lists run multiple copies of Expert Belt, which means that you’ll be a 140 HP Pokémon hitting for 100 damage with possible Energy removal.
Secondly, in DialgaChomp, the focus is to tank with Dialga G LV.X by using Garchomp C LV.X’s “Healing Breath” to consistently remove damage counters from it, as well has having 3-4 Special M Energy to reduce the damage you receive in the first place. Having this much durability means that, if you power up Dialga G LV.X once, there is a good chance it won’t be KO’d for the rest of the match. These are many of the factors that have made DialgaChomp one of the top decks in the format.
My Recommendation: DialgaChomp is one of the most powerful, as one of the most difficult, decks in the format to use. It is definitely a great deck to take to Cities, but only if you know how to use it. Also, a 1-1 Dialga G line is great in LuxChomp for countering VileGar as well (Yuta Komatsuda won Worlds with it included in his LuxChomp build).
My Rating: 4.75/5
it is an epic card but i’d rate it as a 4.5/5. he can easily help out any decks that revole around speed. 1 turn of trainers give speed decks a leap but not enough to keep leaping. you need dgx in there to continue the anti-trainer lock.
Let’s not focus on the actual rating; it’s trivial. Also, your train of thought doesn’t make sense. Could you please elaborate on how you mean?
well i’ve ran speed decks and i lurned one thing. that if i were to get 1 turn of trainers sure i can bring up a jumpluff or kingdra prime but when they got a trainer lock back you just cant keep up. dgx solves that problem which is why i dont like regice.
dgx gets level downed.
1 turn with DGX is all you need. That 1 turn of trainers, you burn through all of it and Poke-Turn your DGX anyways.
dgx gets level downed.
people play this in gyarados, but personally id rather run blaziken or luxray/uxie to counter plume
for those of you who think you need to get lucky on burn flips to use blaze, his body makes the damage 120
people play this in gyarados, but personally id rather run blaziken or luxray/uxie to counter plume
for those of you who think you need to get lucky on burn flips to use blaze, his body makes the damage 120
It shuts down the body rather than KOing it, so it can’t be used and just wasting space on their bench.
nothing can shut down blaze fb’s body, it is an sp.
I’m talking about DGX shutting down ‘Plume’s body, not Blaziken FB’s.
shiftry can lock down his body.
nothing can shut down blaze fb’s body, it is an sp.