Sylveon Control (TCG)

Sylveon Control
Sylveon-GX and Eevee Types used Major cards Sylveon-GX, Eevee, Acerola and Lusamine Era 2017–2018

Sylveon Control was a Pokémon Trading Card Game deck archetype played during the 2017–2018 season. The deck's strategy revolved around Sylveon-GX's potential to draw cards with its attack for playing stall-based resources. Sylveon Control was featured in a few Regionals's Top 16s, notably claiming 1st place at the 2018 Offenbach Regionals, but was not as present in bigger events of the season and was overshadowed by the presence of Oranguru Stall in the format.

Strategy

Lusamine

Sylveon Control aimed to have the opponent run out of cards from their deck to draw at the beginning of their turn, a possible win condition in the card game. Sylveon-GX's Magical Ribbon attack was used to draw any 3 cards from the player's deck, which would be usually healing and Energy disruption cards, and play them on the following turns. It was possible to easily setup a Sylveon-GX due to Eevee's Energy Evolution Ability, allowing not only Sylveon to attack on the first turn (if going second) but also preventing Eevee, a Pokémon with 60HP, from being Knocked Out before evolving. Once per game, Sylveon-GX could also attack with Plea-GX to put the opponent's Benched Pokémon into his hand and halt the setup of some threats.

This deck was effective by Magical Ribbon needing only one Energy to use, Sylveon-GX withstanding attacks with its 200HP and the presence of Lusamine to almost limitlessly recover Supporter cards from the discard pile. The opponent could shuffle the drawn cards back to the player's deck with N, but new cards were guaranteed to be drawn by its secondary effect. Usually only one Sylveon-GX would be in play to prevent the opponent from using Guzma, the player keeping other Pokémon in their hand when Sylveon was not at the risk of being Knocked Out.

Key cards

Plumeria

• Sylveon-GX - Sylveon-GX's Magical Ribbon attack cost only and allowed the player to search the deck for 3 cards and draw them. For three energies, it could also use Plea-GX once per game to put two of the opponent's Benched Pokémon into his hand and rarely attack for 110 damage when needed. As a Pokémon-GX however, the opponent could Knock Out less Pokémon than usual to win a game.
• Eevee - Energy Evolution allowed Eevee to evolve into a Sylveon-GX from the deck when a basic Energy card was attached to it.
• Plumeria - Used along with cards such as Crushing Hammer and Team Skull Grunt to have the opponent run out of Energies to attack.
• Max Potion - Healed off all damage from a Pokémon but discarded all Energies attached to it. Acerola was also used with a similar utility.
• Bodybuilding Dumbbells - Increased the Sylveon-GX's Hit Points this card was attached to.
• Lusamine - Retrieved two Supporter cards from the player's discard pile to their hand. Since it could target a discarded Lusamine, this allowed a loop of Supporter card retrieval, despite preventing another Supporter from being played that turn.
• Guzma - It was often useful to switch the defending Pokémon with one that could not attack (or attack for less damage) and neither retreat immediately.
• Double Colorless Energy - Reduced the number of Energy cards needed to use Sylveon-GX's more expensive attacks.

Typical decklist

Hampus Eriksso's decklist at the 2018 Offenbach Regional

Quantity	Card	Type	Rarity
4×	Sylveon-GX
4×	Eevee
1×	Counter Catcher	I
4×	Crushing Hammer	I
3×	Enhanced Hammer	I
1×	Field Blower	I
4×	Max Potion	I
1×	Nest Ball	I
1×	Pal Pad	I
2×	Bodybuilding Dumbbells	I
3×	Acerola	Su
1×	Gladion	Su
2×	Guzma	Su
2×	Judge	Su
3×	Lusamine	Su
1×	Mars	Su
4×	Plumeria	Su
2×	Professor Kukui	Su
2×	Team Skull Grunt	Su
1×	Lysandre Labs	St
1×	Mount Lanakila	St
12×	Fairy Energy	E	—
2×	Double Colorless Energy	E

Possible tech cards

Hoopa

The following cards were often used in Sylveon Control in place of certain cards included in the above lists.

• Gardevoir-GX - A single evolution line was played by champion Hampus Eriksson at the 2018 Offenbach Regional for circumstances where it was more useful to Knock Out a Pokémon than keep discarding its Energy cards.
• Hoopa - A Basic Pokémon immune to Pokémon-EX and Pokémon-GX's attacks due to its Scoundrel Guard Ability.
• Professor Kukui - Allowed Sylveon-GX to knock out certain threats with up to 130HP in the format.

This article is part of Project TCG, a Bulbapedia project that aims to report on every aspect of the Pokémon Trading Card Game.