History Luxray in the TCG Pokemon Trading Card Game Overview!

Wassup guys and welcome to the next Pokemon TCG Overview on the Luxray line. Luxray is a fairly popular pokemon from gen 4 and it was proven with the recent Pokemon of the Year poll where it placed highly in its generation. It isn’t difficult to see why; it has a good cool factor going with its design and unlike other gens it has fairly good stats considering you can have access to Shinx pretty much in the beginning. The competitive battler in me though always had a small problem with this guy in the way its stats where distributed to go with its moves and typing.

On the bright side all of this goes out the window in the tcg where any pokemon can shine if they receive a lucky blessing from the designers and boy did Luxray get that. As a pure mono lightning pokemon the entire line was always weak to fighting and excluding prints in gen 5 they have always carried a metal resistance.

Its only attack Lightning Star was also not easy to pull off; requiring a large 4 lightning energies to do 80 and always forcing you to move them on a benched pokemon if any. I suppose you could have tried to use this with Dragonite from Delta Species but it wouldn’t be as impressive as some other combinations using D/P and ex series pokemon. The first set of every new era is usually funky in the sense that it power creeps the previous era but soon left in the dust with more new sets getting released. It was the case with this card too as it would become even less impressive as following D/P sets would come out. I’m gonna tell you right now though that this is the most beautiful Luxray card hands down.

Luxio didn’t get the same treatment but a few of its cards do get nice free retreat. That would be the original D/P print/POP 8 print and the second Next Destinies print. The Disconnect Luxio from Ultra Prism did have some slight hype and made some players curious having an easy to use item lock attack but ultimately didn’t do much given the rest of the card and the format. I guess I’m a little late to mention this but there aren’t any Japanese exclusive promos for this whole line either, only a few alternate art prints like in the POP 8 Series.

The nice thing about Shinx is that numerous of its prints have had cool and special things about them. The Mysterious Treasures print had a hold item/berry effect a unique effect most cards never got; in this case with its Rawst Berry it would get rid of a burn. In the last true D/P set Arceus it was honoured with a shiny pokemon secret rare complete with a pokebody and a handy payback attack that could come in handy at a desperate time, although to be honest if your opponent had one prize left and you were trying to deal 40 using a 50 HP pokemon you had already lost. Star Barrier is a bit redundant too but either way this was a secret rare card with a 1 per 2 boxes ratio if I’m not mistaken. There’s also the 50 HP Ultra Prism one that can evolve immediately with its ability if you go second on the first turn.

Which brings us to the big feline itself. Being a D/P pokemon you can get at the start of the game it makes sense that the original Luxray debuted in the first Diamond and Pearl set as a rare holo, a great blessing. I can’t quite put my finger on it but the rare holo cards specifically from the first D/P set are exceptionally beautiful. To be quite honest with you, compared to the strongest pokemon the first D/P set brought this Luxray wasn’t very impactful. No complaints about its stats, although with this set it could have easily had 130 HP but it only had one retreat and the metal resistance could come up. With its Gleam Eyes poke-power you could force your opponent to bench a basic pokemon of your choice from their hand assuming they had any. This kind of ability needs to be comboed with something else to be a good strategy so it wasn’t exactly the greatest thing for Luxray to get.

The next Luxray took a few sets coming in Legends Awakened but it was much stronger; quite frankly in every way possible. (Hmm, I think this might be prettier than the first one looking at it again) It matched the stats of the D/P one, only this one even had free retreat and it has 2 better attacks and a body. With Rivalry if your opponent had any Lv. X pokemon in play you were doing a whopping 50 more damage to the active pokemon. Lv. X pokemon were pretty much the face of the D/P era making this effect insanely handy with that extra damage being so generous. Plasma would do 40 for 2 while letting you attach lightning energy from the discard pile to Luxray. Very solid, helping you use Shock Bolt which did a good 100 for 3even though you had to discard all lightning energy afterwards.

Even though its pre-evolutions were alternate arts in POP 8, the Luxray in here is a new card. Unfortunately, it’s worse than the excellent Legends Awakened print and kind of in the same boat as the first one. It shares the same stats getting back that one retreat and Thunder, its only attack can do 120 for 4. Certainly much stronger than 80 but has the coin flip chance to damage Luxray for 40, negating any edge it would have had. It also combines pretty badly with Luxray’s Intimidating Fang, the only good thing about this card. If Luxray was active you could block 10 damage from your opponent’s attacks. This is really stingy damage however for a stage 2 body like this. Mayhaps 30 might have been too generous but 20 would be fair enough and that extra defence would have gone a long way. Plain card for the most part, the original Luxray at least has more potential for combos.

The best part is that with a Lv. X pokemon in your opponent’s field you could get away with even just using Plasma as doing 90 for 2 was nothing to scoff at. It wouldn’t be easy to pull off, but combined with Magnezone giving you energy acceleration or another partner this Luxray would give your opponent nightmares if they dared to bring a Lv. X out.

Of course, that comes with the next card, Luxray GL Lv. X. Not only the strongest Luxray card hands down but one of the strongest and most dominant pokemon of all time. It’s not often that I give out the perfect card stamp but this is a pokemon that easily gets it. Everything from its stats, attack and power are top tier perfect, considering the format it was printed on of course. As an add-on to a basic pokemon 110 HP with free retreat and a resistance that could come in handy was perfect. Flash Impact would be essentially 60 for 1 hitting 1 of your pokemon for 30 too but that could be mitigated with Garchomp C Lv. X, Luxray’s greatest partner or even Poke Turns. No doubt the strongest aspect of this card and what really made it so strong and one of a kind was the overpowered Bright Look poke-power.

Okay, now for the total opposite, Luxray’s most famous and accomplished prints. They both appear in Rising Rivals and they are SP pokemon owned by Volkner. The regular Luxray GL is the first card here, a strong basic pokemon with good stats and strong attacks. Just by being an SP pokemon it gains a substantial advantage over other basic pokemon thanks to the SP trainer engine working exclusively with them. So with Energy Gain you have a strong 1 for 30 and a strong 2 for 70 Trash Bolt. Trash Bolt required an energy discard from the hand but that strong and fast damage output was more than worth it. However, just left like this while strong, it isn’t groundbreaking on epic proportions.

Since then we’ve had a few pokemon with that same effect but during the 4th gen era this power was crazy strong and something only this card could use. Gust of Wind, Pokemon Catcher or however you want to refer to it this effect would pull an opponent’s benched pokemon of your choice. Thanks to this power and all the other things that made this card fast and aggressive this pokemon was able to prey on smaller pokemon before they evolved, or just outright kill support pokemon without a second thought. Even crazier was the activation condition that made it work ridiculously well with Poke Turn. It was the foundation of LuxChomp, one if not THE strongest most well rounded decks of all time, Blazeray, Luxape and commonly used as a tech in other decks too for being so versatile.

Setting such a bar, it would be impossible for the last print in the era to surpass it, but even if it didn’t the Luxray in Arceus is still a really sweet pokemon and possibly the second best Luxray card in the era. It matches the same good stats of the Legends Awakened print with that excellent free retreat and both of its attacks are good. Flash does a decent 1 for 30 with the chance to negate your opponent’s next attack with a coin flip. Gadget Bolt is the really cool attack here. Normally it will do 60 for 3, but if you have a pokemon tool attached to Luxray you can discard it and do 100 instead. This works flawlessly with Expert Belt, a tool that would boost your HP and damage but let your opponent take two prizes after knocking it out.

Despite getting more than one print, 6th gen was just as bad. Flashfire Luxray has again decent stats but both attacks leave much to be desired. Fang Snipe is a bit unique letting you choose to discard a trainer card in your opponent’s hand but the damage is low and it costs 2 energies. It kept it in check. Wild Charge is pitiful if you consider Black and White Zekrom was a basic pokemon and still around. Now that I think about it that Zekrom puts this card to shame.

The other nice thing about it was Intimidating Fang, blocking 30 damage from attacks if this guy was active, POP Luxray throwback this time. Overall, this card is good on paper but sadly had to miss the mark.

Before I finish I wanna quickly look at the Rebellious Clash line while am at it. The line loses the metal resistance again like the one in gen 5 and both pre-evolutions have a decent trick on their sleeve. Shinx can do 60 for 1 if your opponent has taken 3 or more prize cards and Luxio can instantly be played on the bench if you draw it at the beginning of the turn.

Originally Written in 2020

With this combo you could do 120 for 3, with the best part being that it was compatible with DCE and you could make this a fantastic 120 for 2. Hell, you could even put the Expert Belt on immediately and start with Flash for 50 if you know you’ll survive and safely get rid of it next turn. This pokemon could dish out amazing damage for the time; enough to OHKO every popular pokemon and easily 2 shot everything else. Unfortunately, this card went mostly underlooked when Luxray GL Lv. X was faster; it’s really sad though this card would even survive a hit against Donphan Prime if it was fresh unlike the SP that had a times 2 weakness.

The story is the same with other gen 3 and gen 4 pokemon. They get a few good cards in those eras and everything goes south with gen 5. The Luxray in Next Destinies looks good hanging around rooftops like Spiderman but that’s about it. It has decent 140 HP and only one retreat and Flash Impact is an unfitting throwback from Luxray GL Lv. X that came too quickly here. It does 60 for 1 and will only hit your pokemon for 20, so technically it’s a slight improvement but you gotta realize this was the set when Mewtwo EX and the other EX pokemon came out in. Crunch is even worse, a straight downgrade and not even DCE compatible. It couldn’t even 2 hit KO EX pokemon.

Breakpoint was supposed to be Luxray’s turning point getting one of these boring Lv. X imitations, the Break cards but it was so bad I wager people may not even know it ever existed let alone remember it. Technically you could get some OHKOs if you got a few heads with Wild Fury but not only were there other pokemon that could do this gimmick faster, for the energy costs and being a Break the damage output wasn’t good either. Oh, and the regular Luxray in here was also ass, so I don’t even have to bother. Straight up a plain blank card.

Sun and Moon did do a 180 though, we’ve already talked about the decent pre-evolutions from Ultra Prism and Luxray itself is no different. Bearing solid stats for the era with 150 HP and free retreat, this card is still legal in standard right now but difficult to use. The most appealing thing about it is certainly Volt Bolt, a 150 damage snipe for 3 and you have to discard all lightning energies. By no means is it the greatest trade-off for energies and damage output but because it was a snipe it still made it appealing. The real curse that held back this card was being a stage 2; pokemon like Magnezone and Eelektrik could have been viable partners if that wasn’t the case. I myself wanted to find a good way to use this card but it didn’t work out and now Cramorant V ensures its attack is obsolete.

This latest Luxray probably won’t do much to lift its downhill legacy, it has some okay stats but not really considering the times we’re in and with Raid you can do 160 for 1 if you evolved from Luxio this turn. Perhaps the set will enable players to regain this effect easily as there are other pokemon here sharing Luxio’s ability but I’m not that optimistic. Then again I could be missing something.

This concludes our lengthy, but hopefully enjoyable tcg overview on the Luxray line. Luxray’s legacy and successful cards are entirely in its debuting era with every other era afterwards letting it down somehow. Ultra Prism was the closest set to let the line make a comeback but ultimately didn’t work out and Luxray Break, the only other special card it got besides the SP duo was a useless waste of time.

TCG wise, it is one of the most unique pokemon out there. It has many bad cards under its name but that same pokemon also has one half of LuxChomp, the most dominant deck of the D/P era. Since then it never regained that status, and there’s a good chance it never will, but OGs of the pokemon tcg will never forget that legacy and ultimately it’s a legendary achievement nearly any other pokemon would live to have. Thanks for reading and hopefully enjoying. I’ll see you guys next time and make sure you never underestimate this line in the D/P era if nothing else!