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A weekly Pokédex Podcast from Bald Man in Japan Luke Summerhayes. A different Pokémon family every week.
In Ancient Greek Myth, the singer Orpheus entered the underworld to retrieve his love Eurydices. Hades took pity and allowed Orpheus to take Eurydices with him so long as she walked behind him and he didn’t look back until they were outside. Just before stepping back into the light, Orpheus lost faith and looked back, banishing Eurydices forever. In another legend, Hades’ wife Persphone was trapped in the underworld having eaten the food.
Japan, on the other side of the planet, has a similar legend. The deities Izanagi and Izanami were the creators of Japan and progenitors of key gods like Amaterasu. Izanami died giving birth to the god of fire, and when Izanagi went to visit her in the underworld she made him promise not to look upon her before revealing she could not leave because she had eaten. Like Orpheus, Izanagi betrayed his promise and fled after seeing his partner’s rotting visage.
Similar legends can be found in the Americas, with the Coyote and the Shadow People, or with the Goddess Ishtar in ancient Babylon. Similar stories like this lead some to speculate about a shared earlier origin, the so-called Proto Indo-European Culture. Or perhaps, different groups of people throughout time and space told similar stories because they were all dealing with the same thing; the inescapability of death.
I’m Luke Summerhayes, and I love Yveltal.
I grew up in the UK with an Atheist mother and a Catholic grandmother, so my cultural touchstones are routed in those traditions. Although people around me believed, to varying degrees, in some kind of afterlife, it was an unknowable thing behind an impenetrable veil. Overall, I never paid much attention to organized religion and zealous doctrine.
More recently, though, I moved to Japan almost eight years ago, and got engaged to a Mexican. I’ve discovered a less scriptural, more nature-based spirituality. And in the Japanese holiday of Obon and the Mexican Day of the Dead, I’ve found ways to remember, celebrate and live with the dead here in life. Perhaps life and death are not separated by such an impenetrable barrier after all.
Yveltal is the one who takes, a dark and flying type legendary Pokémon who appeared on the box of Pokémon Y. It has red and black skin, like exposed flesh, and a white ruff like a vulture or another carrion bird, symbols of death thanks to their habit of feeding on the recently deceased. It has a shell-like black back, and by curling up and hiding its red innards, it can form a cocoon.
Y
When its life comes to an end, it absorbs the life energy of every living thing and turns into a cocoon once more.
We hear about Yveltal first in rumours and stories. In Anistar City, an Old Man tells us
It happened about 800 years ago. The Pokémon known as Yveltal spread it's ominous wings, engulfing the lands of Kalos in darkness. At the moment, people and Pokemon throughout the land began to fall one by one. Yveltal let out a piercing cry and took to the sky, vanishing to an unknown location. Stories say the when it nears the end of its thousand-year life span, Yveltal absorbs the life force of the living things around it in order to charge its own energy. Another tale talks of the appearance of just such a terrifying Pokemon.
>Back 3,000 years ago, the Kalos region was engulfed in a terrible war. According to the stories, a Pokemon appeared ans stole the life force of countless living beings. Some people suspect the Pokemon that appeared was Yveltal, but there's no way to know. Maybe they're just using a legendary Pokemon as a metaphor for war and pestilence.
>In the tales, after Yveltal finished storing the energy it had absorbed, it transformed into a kind of cocoon, remaining in hiding deep in the mountains. According to old tales, as I say. Tales and stories.
Players of Pokemon Y will learn that some elements of this story are true, when Yveltal is found in Team Flare’s lab and almost used to activate the Ultimate Weapon. I used to think it made far more sense in Pokemon X, when AZ was using the power of Xerneas to revive his Pokemon, but perhaps that shows that I had not yet learned about the duality of life and death.
The name Yveltal combines an old spelling of the word death with the “al” sound at the end of Quetzcoatl, the Aztec god often represented by a bird or feathered serpent. This sun god had a brother, Xolotl, a god of death and monsters and night. As well as vultures and Aztec gods, Yveltal also incorporates elements of Celtic and Norese myth. Just as Xerneas drew from stags around the world tree, so Yveltal is reminiscent of the eagle on that same tree, or Celtic raven deities.
X
When this legendary Pokémon's wings and tail feathers spread wide and glow red, it absorbs the life force of living creatures.
Like with Xerneas, this hyperbole was matched by in-game capability. Yveltal didn’t have anything as game breaking as the Geomancy move, but the Dark Aura ability, which boosts all Dark-type moves, combined with the move Oblivion Wing, which takes back 75% of damage done, to make a monster that was difficult to stop. In every competitive format where it has been allowed, Yveltal has found itself a very comfortable niche.
Friend of the show Mikey from Pokemon Crossroads got in touch about Yveltal in the TCG.
Yveltal
Somebody who makes the Pokemon TCG cards must really love Yveltal. I won’t say that every Yveltal card has been playable but they tend to have unique cards that have found use in some form or another.
If you want to talk about some Yveltal cards that helped shape the game then we can look at one of the very first Yveltal cards printed.
XY base set Yveltal was played in almost every Darkness deck worth playing from 2014 to 2018. Most people played this Yveltal for its single energy attack, Oblivion Wing. Its signature move from the video games. Oblivion Wing would only do 30 damage but would attack one Darkness energy from your Discard on to one of your Benched Pokemon. So many players would use Ultra Ball to discard Darkness energy and then accelerate the energy to powerful Benched Pokemon such as Darkrai EX. Yveltal was literally a cornerstone card that made these decks run and bring darkness into matches. Especially because this Yveltal card was reprinted so many times to extend its reign in the Standard format.
If you want to hear about another amazing Yveltal then there is the one printed in 2021’s Shining Fates set. This Yveltal was so amazing that it was an Amazing Rare card. As noted by its rainbow background, this Yveltal has an impressive attack that involves multi-colored attack cost. This Yveltal’s attack was called Amazing Destruction that cost one Fire, Psychic, Darkness and two Colorless energy. What amazing thing did this card do to have such a unique attack cost?
It simply knockouts the Opponent’s Pokemon. That is all.
At first this Yveltal didn’t see any play due to the high attack cost that used up different types of energy. Though that all changed with the introduction of Lugia VSTAR and Archeops. This deck would use Lugia VSTAR to put two Archeops onto the Bench. The Archeops will use it’s Primal Turbo ability to accelerate two Special Energy such as Aurora Energy which provides every type of energy.
This was exactly what Amazing Rare Yveltal needed to see some play. By using two Archeops, they can power up Yveltal’s Amazing Destruction attack to knockout any Pokemon that stood in the way of Luga VSTAR. This was really helpful in a meta that still played powerful and high HP 3 Prize VMAX Pokemon. This single prize Yveltal skyrocket in usage and made the other decks work hard to counter it. The effects from this card is still being felt in the current TCG as Special Energy that provides every type of energy at a time being limited.
The last Yveltal that we want to bring up is actually one of the first Yveltal cards that has been printed, Yveltal EX. All the way back to 2014’s XY base set, Yveltal EX started to be played as soon as it was printed. This Darkness Pokemon had 170 HP and had two attacks. The first attack was Evil Ball that cost one Darkness Energy and one Colorless. It did 20 plus 20 more damage for each energy card attached to Yveltal EX and the opponent’s active Pokemon.
By the time that Yveltal EX came out, Mewtwo EX who had the X Ball attack with the similar damage output as Evil Ball was beginning to see itself drop in usage. When Yveltal EX came out, Mewtwo EX was shown the door. That was all because Yveltal EX was able to do 20 more damage compare to Mewtwo EX.
And every deck that played Darkness energy played this Yveltal EX. From there, Darkness decks began to take hold of the Pokemon TCG. It famously played well with Garbodor who had the Garbotoxin ability that turns off all Pokemon abilities.
Still, Yveltal EX would do all the heavy damage with Evil Ball. Then once it was close to being knocked out, it will use Y Cyclone to do some last bit of damage. In the process, it would pass its Double Colorless Energy that was most likely attacked to it to another Yveltal EX to keep the assault going or to Darkrai EX to pick off some Benched Pokemon. This Yveltal card was simple to play which led to it being played for years due to how many times it has been reprinted. Thus keeping its dark hold on the Pokemon TCG.
As mentioned before, the Pokemon TCG card creators must really love Yveltal because it keeps getting playable cards. It is safe to say that if Yveltal is seen on a card then it will most likely do something interesting. Hopefully the next one printed due to Pokemon Legends ZA will add on to the impressive Yveltal cards that reign darkness on the Pokemon TCG.
As I write this, we have just taken down the Altar in our house and the ofrendas left to dead loved ones. Nonetheless, I still feel as connected to that love as ever. Without death, we could not define life- and life is worth all the rest.
Music for Luke Loves Pokemon is by Jonathan Cromie. Artwork for the show is by Katie Groves. If you enjoy the podcast, find out about my other shows at podcastiopodcastius.org, get in touch on bluesky @podcastpodcast, or support the show at patreon.com/podcastiopodcastius.
If you want to see my slow playthrough of Pokémon Legends Z-A, check out twitch.tv/buskalilly. I love hearing from Listeners! Up next are Zygarde and Diancie, so hit me up about those or any other Pokemon. Even if you don’t feel like doing any of that, thank you so much for listening.
I love Yveltal. And remember, I love you too.