The Stuff of Legends

By Steffanie Saw

Legendary Pokémon rule in the latest Pokémon TCG expansion, Diamond & Pearl—Legends Awakened.

Few people can resist the powerful attraction of Legendary Pokémon. More often than not, these Pokémon have impressive attacks, innovative abilities, and the potential to break new ground in the Pokémon LV.X adds to the cool factor. There's nothing like sharing the joy with other players when you’re lucky enough to find a Mesprit LV.X (Legends Awakened, 143/146) in a booster pack at a Legends Awakened Prerelease event.

This expansion features a famous trio of Legendary Pokémon, Azelf (Legends Awakened, 19/146), Mesprit (Legends Awakened, 34/146), and Uxie (Legends Awakened, 43/146), and their LV.X versions. With its Time Walk Poké-Power, Azelf allows you to sneak a peek at your Prize cards, and then swap a Pokémon you find there with a card from your hand. Level-up to Azelf LV.X (Legends Awakened, 140/146) and use its Psychic Aura Poké-Body to remove all Weakness from your Psychic-type comrades. Azelf LV.X's Deep Balance attack can strike a heavy blow, since the number of damage counters you get to put on one of your opponent’s Pokémon equals the amount of Energy cards your opponent has in play.

Uxie brings with it a wonderful Set Up Poké-Power that makes it worth considering even for a non-Psychic deck. Need a few cards? When Uxie comes into play, this Poké-Power lets you replenish your hand by drawing until you have 7 cards. For those players who tear through Trainer cards to set up their strategy, this Poké-Power will come in very handy indeed. Its Psychic Restore attack recycles Uxie and its attached cards back into your deck, but with the right Trainer cards, you can find Uxie once more, and start the process all over again.

One of Mesprit’s strengths lies in its ability to shut down its opponent’s Poké-Powers. Psychic Bind will render decks that rely on Poké-Powers defenseless for one turn. Play Mesprit LV.X and you will have at your disposal one of the most colossal attackers since the likes of Wailord ex and Charizard ex. You won't be able to execute Mesprit LV.X's Supreme Blast attack unless you have Uxie LV.X (Legends Awakened, 146/146) and Azelf LV.X in play, but the player who can achieve this will do 200 damage for a nearly guaranteed KO.

The Legendary Pokémon Deoxys works alone, but it comes in four different forms in Legends Awakened. These forms are Deoxys Normal Forme (Legends Awakened, 1/146), Deoxys Attack Forme (Legends Awakened, 24/146), Deoxys Defense Forme (Legends Awakened, 25/146), and Deoxys Speed Forme (Legends Awakened, 26/146). Each has its own unique abilities, but they all share the same Form Change Poké-Power. Form Change allows you to search your deck for any Deoxys and switch it with the Deoxys that used the Poké-Power. Since you can stock your deck with up to four copies of each Deoxys, you shouldn't have a problem finding the new one you need.

Deoxys Normal Forme is great to bring out a bit later in the game, when your opponent is likely to have a lot of Energy cards in play. Its Energy Crush attack does 20 damage and then adds 10 more damage for each Energy attached to all of your opponent's Pokémon.

Staying true to its name, Deoxys Defense Forme keeps up its guard even while attacking. Psychic Defense strikes for 40 damage, then prevents all effects of an attack on your opponent's next turn, and reduces damage done to Deoxys by 20. On the attacking side, Deoxys Attack Forme can use Psychic Boost to inflict 80 damage. On the next turn, Psychic Boost’s power is reduced to 20 damage, but it should slow your opponent down enough for you to switch to another form or allow you to wait for one turn and let its power build back up to 80 damage.

Deoxys Speed Forme can swoop in quickly and use its Speed Shot attack to strike for a consistent 30 damage to any of your opponent’s Pokémon, ignoring the usual Weakness, Resistance, or any other effects that could weaken or negate the attack.  This is an excellent way to finish off Pokémon with low HP that may be hiding on your opponent's Bench.

With so many more Legendary Pokémon left unmentioned in this article, we've just begun to scratch the surface of many strategies and combinations waiting to be discovered. Learn for yourself what Legendary Pokémon are truly made of with Diamond & Pearl—Legends Awakened!