This week was a huge week for the Pokemon TCG. The first big thing that happen was Boundaries Crossed, Plasma Storm, Plasma Freeze, Plasma Blast and Legendary Treasures were finally rotated out on September 1st. A lot of major decks were also taken out of Standard that day only for the next day to have several new decks based off a new set enter Standard officially. Ancient Origins has now entered the Standard format to allow trainers to play some ancient secrets in this weekend’s League Challenges. Some of those secrets includes the Stadium card, Forest of Giant Plants. This card allows players to instantly evolve their Grass type Pokemon. Many Grass type Pokemon will love this but Shiftry will not be able to be in this forest when it comes to tournaments. That is because it was banished from being played at any sanctioned Play! Pokémon tournaments that uses the Expanded format a day before the inclusion of Ancient Origins.
It was a busy week for Pokemon TCG player but the hype and controversy is still growing out of control thanks to Forest of Giant Plants. This is all thanks to Forretress from FlashFire who may have sneaked into the forest in order to bask in it’s instant growth. You can see this in today’s match where Team Fishknucles will be using a Forretress-Latios deck in the Expanded format.
The Forretress-Latios deck relies on Forest of Giant Plants in order to take turn-one knockouts. It works similar to the Shiftry Deck where you use a combination of aggressive draw support and items to retrieve Forretress from the bench in order to place it back on the bench over and over again. Though, the Forretress-Latios deck runs Latios EX and Psychic energy. This allows the deck to knock out anything that remains on the field after the barrage of thorns on the opponent’s Pokemon. This is thanks to Latios EX’s Fast Raid attack which allows it to attack on your first turn. Even if the deck fails to take the turn-one knock out, the opponent has been put in a corner where they will find it difficult to climb out of.
Clearly this strategy is causing some controversy. It is a deck that can take a win without allowing your opponent the chance to retaliate or even play their turn. Pokemon have shown currently and in the past that they dislike “one-turn-knockout” decks. Now that Shiftry has been banned, will Pokemon focus their slights on Forretress? Does Forretress and Forest of Giant Plants address a problem that needs to be addressed? Should this be done before Regionals which will be played in the Expanded Format? Watch Team Fishknukles play the Forretress-Latios deck and leave a comment with your opinion on this matter.
