Should You Pull? Lisia & Galarian Rapidash

After more than two years since her introduction in 2020, Lisia has finally acquired her first new alt. Though considered a mostly niche and easily forgettable character from the ORAS days, Lisia’s charm has earned her much popularity in Masters, where many events frequently feature her as well as arguably the most rerun Spotlight in the game for a notable period of time in the past. Her Sync Pair with Altaria has been subject to mostly callous reception despite her Contest popularity; apart from suffering against an increasingly competitive cast of Dragon and Fairy types across the years, she is amongst the most polarized units in the game in terms of appraisal, with many finding her cost extremely high due to her lack of sufficiency and very specific conditions for her otherwise powerful Dragon and Fairy-type coverage, while her defensive utilities also lack appreciation relative to the more common demands in the current game state. Appreciation for her was thus severely limited to the most dedicated of fans and lovers, myself included, in part due to how rewarding her playstyle can be to those who master it.

It is thus to the surprise of many that New Year’s Lisia’s new design with her shiny Galarian Rapidash takes a complete opposite spin from her base sync pair’s reputation. Where she once was an extremely needy, difficult-to-use girl whose value was subsumed by costs and specificity, she now emerges as a top offensive powerhouse that one would not expect from her identity as a Contest idol, being amongst the most simple, yet most efficient offensive forces introduced yet.  

The most standout quality one would notice on New Year’s Lisia and her Shiny Rapidash is her access to Giga Impact; being the first playable unit with access to the move, New Year’s Lisia is further unique in that her base Attack stat is very high despite having access to a high Base Power move, unlike other units such as Special Costume Sonia & Tsareena who have had lower statlines to balance out the raw BP access. Alongside Fairy Shift, its typing of which is one of very few typing with access to both a field effect steroid and a rebuff, New Year’s Lisia has access to incredible offensive range, easily amongst the highest in the game for a Striker. However, unlike contemporary damage chart winners such as Lance & Dragonite and Leon & Charizard, Lisia also possesses excellent sufficiency with access to Dire Hit + and her Trainer Move, A Battle Spectacular!, that gives her +4 Attack and Speed and a randomized 0 to 3 Physical Move Up Next stacks. New Year’s Lisia also possesses Quick Attack as her secondary offensive option; while significantly weaker, it provides her with an option if gauge is ever a concern to her as well as a unique increment in Defense Crush 9 from the grid, which adds some utility and increments to herself and her allies. 

New Year Lisia’s grid features an assortment of steroids despite her already excellent initial kit; Ramming Speed provides a meaty increment to her already powerful Giga Impact while Inertia and Brawn Sync 3 provide her with a powerful Sync Nuke to work with beyond her already tremendous DPS. While these make the core of her preferred options, she also possesses quality of life options that improve her setup and provide niche coverage. Critical Eye 1 on her Trainer Move allows her to save a turn of setup if she is functioning with specific compositional constraints, while Super Prepration 9 allows her to swiftly herald the curtain call to any Fairy-weak stages. Sync Freebie is an option if gauge is of concern, though her competent 337 Speed is usually enough to sustain her output with the right support. Her grid also possesses two +5 accuracy tiles that alleviate Giga Impact’s imperfect accuracy, while also providing specific field effect passives as available options. With Fairy being her main element, Whimsical Acceleration 2 is her primary beneficiary passive for gauge. In part due to Galarian Rapidash’s Psychic Typing, New Year’s Lisia also has access to Precognition 2 and Weird Vibes 1, though she lacks synergy with Psychic Terrain users to make such a selection worthwhile. 

New Year’s Lisia is as perfect an offensive unit as they come, with the closest flaw being her lack of Soften Up if one’s being picky.

Sync Grid Considerations & Lucky Skills

Sync Grid & Sync Levels

As a simple, linear offensive unit, New Year’s Lisia and Rapidash generally steers towards the steroid nodes in her grid available at 3/5, namely Inertia, Ramming Speed, and Brawn Sync 3, which provide her with the power worthy of being amongst the most powerful Strikers in the game. Nevertheless, her grid cost does hinder her ability to acquire all of the desired offensive nodes, namely an inability to take both Sync +25 nodes alongside the aforementioned passives; a single node with Inertia and Brain Sync 3 would give a noticeable increment over take two +25 nodes instead. Lisia’s Giga Impact accuracy tiles are also important as her common teammates lack accuracy buffs to compensate, as well as the fluid route they lead towards her main DPS steroid in Ramming Speed.

EX Viability

New Year’s Lisia’s EX allows her to blow past 3v3 stages quickly due to her powerful Sync Nuke; this also allows her to put focus on her stacked Giga Impact on the more durable middle target.

Lucky Skills

Critical Strike 2 is the gold standard for any offensive unit, with New Year’s Lisia being no exception.

Games Modes

New Year’s Lisia and Rapidash’s straightforward design and brute strength enable her to excel in any game mode. She is amongst the most powerful units in Masters Mode due to her stellar offensive strength that enables her to plow through even neutral stages without significant effort.

New Year’s Lisia’s access to Team Antitoxin makes her particularly useful in the common poison-employing Legendary Arena and Legendary Gauntlet stages, such as Tornadus and Cresselia, freeing up a Lucky Skill slot on the main frontline for those contexts.

Team Compositions

Sygna Suit Wally & Gardevoir are the obvious Sync Pair of choice for New Year’s Lisia when building compositions. Being the only unit outside of Gordie & Coalossal to compress both a field effect steroid and a rebuff, Sygna Suit Wally escalates New Year’s Lisia’s already potent damage to even more dangerous heights in a single slot. Beyond the steroids he provides, the two share an excellent mix of Type Skill synergy as fellow Fairy and Hoenn units in addition to rounding off Lisia’s missing Speed stages with Team Speedy Entry 2. 

Given Sygna Suit Wally’s requirement for Mega Evolving for his Buddy Move, specific Mega-Evolving Supports best round off the composition. Holiday Jasmine & Ampharos is the best candidate, as she is a Mega-Evolving Support that can round off Lisia’s missing Attack stages with her specific grid passives of choice while providing further increments with Mighty Friend 9, all while also giving a Seasonal Outfit Theme Skill. Sygna Suit Blue & Blastoise is a close second alternative for largely the same reasons as his contemporary Winter Jasmine, being able to Mega Evolve while also rounding off New Year Lisia’s Attack buffs, while also providing gauge acceleration of Giga Impact’s high gauge cost is of concern. SS Aura Cynthia & Lucario provide Sync acceleration in a Mega Evolving Support that allows the composition to go through rotations faster, though it comes at the detriment of lesser Attack on New Year’s Lisia. Jasmine & Steelix is an available alternative for those who lack the previous options, with Berserk Bunch rounding off New Year’s Lisia’s missing attack buffs while acting as a sturdy Mega Evolving Support that can provide gauge with Lockstep on her Clang! Trainer Move. 

Uniquely, New Year’s Lisia can also tango with Sygna Suit Wally and Summer Marnie & Grimmsnarl for a triple offensive core; while this requires Lisia to specialize in a significantly weaker Quick Attack build, the defense drops can prove particularly helpful while being able to run Whimsical Acceleration 2 allows her to weave in a Giga Impact or two in between due to the composition’s generally excellent gauge, with Summer Marnie also acting as the frontline of the team.

If one does not have access to Sygna Suit Wally, New Year’s Lisia lacks cost beyond the remaining Attack and Speed buffs missing that enable her to slot into any composition as a primary DPS force. Common supports such as Ingo & Excadrill, Sygna Suit Morty & Ho-Oh, Sonia & Yamper, Hilbert & Samurott as well as Fall Caitlin & Sableye can anchor her and a third member, with the two formermost units having the most stellar gauge support abilities to allow for more indiscriminate selection of the second offensive partner.

Showcase Video

As a Striker of the highest pedigree with her performance nearing contemporaries such as the mighty Sygna Suit Steven and Sygna Suit Serena, New Year’s Lisia & Rapidash are an excellent offensive sync pair that will definitely provide bang for your buck, especially for the Fairy typing. Competition for overall value does exist with the Kalos Champion duo still having banners as well as Sygna Suit Diantha and Diancie coming up alongside an unknown progression for the Kalos Villain Event, but it’s very unlikely that New Year’s Lisia will disappoint as an option in your repertoire.

About the author: this article was written by Rion, a good friend of the GamePress team. Just like myself, he is a huge Lisia fan, so we were very happy to let him write this article for us (note that we made sure that the quality of the analysis remains unbiased), thanks to him for this!