Lilligant (Emerging Powers EP 14) – Card of the Day

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Hello! I’m Celebi’ (Celebi Prime – you math geeks out there would understand),and this is my first Card of the Day. I hope you like it! I’ll be reviewing Lilligant from our newest set, Emerging Powers.

Let’s start off with its basic form, Petlil. We have two cards to choose from – one from Black and White and one from Emerging Powers. Both of them have a donkable 50 HP, a nasty Fire weakness, and Water resistance. The Black and White Petlil has an attack for one grass energy that does 10 base damage and says, “Flip a coin. If heads, this attack does 10 more damage and heal 10 damage from this Pokémon.”

The healing is pretty much useless since it’s very unlikely that a Petlil would survive a hit, and the 10 or 20 damage won’t do much. This card has no use other than to evolve into Lilligant.

Petlil from Emerging Powers has two attacks. The first, Stun Spore, paralyzes the defending Pokémon on a flip for one grass. This could be nice, so that your opponent can’t attack your Petlil next turn, but the 50% chance of failure is bad. The second, Cut, for GC, does a pretty overpriced 20 damage. Neither of the Petlils is that great, but I’d prefer the one from EP with Stun Spore.

Now let’s take a look at Lilligant itself. It has 90 HP, decent but a bit on the low side for a non-evolving Stage 1. Like its basic form, it has water resistance and a bad fire weakness. With Reshiram, Typhlosion and Emboar all so popular, Lilligant will be easily 1-shot. Fortunately, its attack gives you a good chance of disabling your opponent’s Pokémon from hitting it the next turn.

The attack that’s been attracting a bit of hype (*cough* baby_mario *cough*) is Bemusing Aroma. For G you do 20 damage. The text under the attack states, “Flip a coin. If heads, the Defending Pokémon is now Paralyzed and Poisoned. If tails, the Defending Pokémon is now Confused.”

pokebeach.comThis means that, regardless of the flip, it’s likely that your opponent will be unable to attack – if they’re Paralyzed, they can’t, and if they’re Confused, it depends on another flip. The Special Conditions do a nice job of slowing down the opposition, which can be key if you get a bad start. Its second attack, for GCC, does a vanilla 60 and isn’t worth the 2-3 attachments.

There are three decks or, rather, deck types that immediately come to my mind which would benefit from a teched 1-1 or 2-2 Lilligant. The first is, obviously, Special Condition decks, such as Leafeon/Roserade. If you used Bemusing Aroma and flipped heads, paralyzing and poisoning the defending Pokémon, you could do 100 damage with Leafeon next turn (assuming your opponent did not in some way remove the Special Conditions). A Leafeon/Roserade deck might benefit from using Lilligant as a starter, running 3-2, 3-3 or maybe even 4-3 for consistency.

The second deck is Mew Box. Anthony Smith wrote a great article here on the deck and various techs, one of them being Lilligant. Pokémon Catcher is a broken card that will benefit many decks (particularly Stage 1’s such as Megazord), giving them the edge they need to be fast, powerful, and disruptive. The immediate solution would be Item-lock. Quick imposition of Special Conditions would strengthen the lock. This makes Lilligant a great tech, one that definitely merits some testing with.

The last is pretty much any deck that’s slow. Inflicting special conditions can help to level the playing field by slowing the opponent down too. This would work nicely in Beartic/Vileplume, since it combos with the Item-lock.

Speaking of Leafeon/Roserade, it’s a fairly inexpensive (and fairly competitive) deck that’s definitely fun, and frustrating for your testing partner. I have a skeleton list here, but obviously I’m not a pro and a lot of changes could be made.

Pokémon – 243 Petlil EP
3 Lilligant EP
4 Eevee (your choice)
4 Leafeon UD/CoL
4 Roselia UL
4 Roserade UL
1 Zorua (Your choice, but I prefer the McDonald’s Promo)
1 Zoroark BW
Trainers – 152 Professor Juniper
2 Professor Oak’s New Theory
2 Super Scoop Up
2 Seeker
2 Pokémon Collector
2 Dual Ball
3 Pokémon Communication
Energy – 144 G
4 P
4 Rainbow
2 Double Colorless

That’s 53 cards total, or 7 empty spots. Again, this is basic, imperfect and not extensively tested. I included the Zoroark as a tech against Reshiram and Zekrom; I personally would up it to a 2-2.

I think Lilligant is a pretty good card with some potential. Its pros include speed, disruption and, of course, epic cuteness. The major con, which keeps me from giving it a higher rating, is its fragility and its weakness to Fire. In this format of 1-shots, with fire type running rampant, Lilligant is unlikely to survive a single hit. For playability, I give it 3/5. The artwork is just plain awesome, and I give it a 5/5.

So…do you agree with my review? Do you like the article style? Any feedback is appreciated.

Reader Interactions

11 replies

    • CarlosPero  → Ricky

      For a long game, maybe. The problem is, damage output is too low. 

      Roserade and Vileplume are key components of my Bearhug deck. And Lilligant has certainly gotten my attention. I’m honestly not very excited by Beartic’s relatively small 50 damage, so Lilligant hitting for 20 is pretty underwhelming to me too too.  What’s the long-term strategy….Lilligant lock and 5HKO their active?  In the meantime, I’m pretty sure they’ll use that time to build up a return KO.  So then the strategy could become Lilligant swarm, but then arguably there are better swarm decks.

      If I were to use Lilligant, it would be as a stall tactic, a better one than Gloom anyway.  But a 1-1 is a lot to require for a stalling tech.

  1. Jacob Willinger

    Flipping heads with this bird would be oh-so-satisfying.

  2. Mekkah

    “If you used Bemusing Aroma and flipped heads, paralyzing and poisoning the defending Pokemon, you could do 100 damage with Leafeon next turn (assuming your opponent did not in some way remove the Special Conditions)”

    Paralysis is automatically removed at the end of your opponent’s turn, so you’d do 50 with Leafeon.

  3. theo Seeds

    Switch Retreat Evolve

    those are my big 3 on this one.

  4. Patrick Healey

    EP Lilligant is my favorite legal card. Its truly rude in the right situations. Its perfect in my Lilligant, Vileplume, Kingdra Prime deck!!!!

  5. Jesse clawges-Griffith

    I’m considering running this in a Beartic/Accelgor/Lilligant deck with a Milotic w/ Clear search for good measure hehe

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