US Nationals are under way this weekend. The best players from all over the United States will come out with their best decks to win Championship Points. All of this leads up to the big competition at Worlds in Washington, DC. This is a sign that the season is coming to a close as trainers fight against each other to see how great they are.
This tournament also means that we will soon receive news about next year’s format and which sets will be used to shape it. Rotation is a powerful thing and it could spell the end of some decks and the rise of others. It is a powerful tool that can make trainers finally put down a great deck and start working on new decks. Finally, it could mean huge changes to a metagame that is always changing.
This week, we are going to discuss different scenarios depending on which sets are rotated out. Click below to read more.
For those who don’t know. Rotation is the way that Play! Pokemon encourages trainers to use new and unique strategies. This is suppose to create a healthy playing environment for trainers by removing certain TCG sets from the legal tournament format. Once certain cards have been removed from the format then it is up to the players to find which cards would make good replacements for some while also rule out which decks are simply not playable.
This then leads to one question: Which sets will be seeing the boot once August comes? Lets look at some scenarios for possible formats.
Scenario 1: Boundaries Crossed-On
A Boundaries Crossed-On format would mean that Next Destinies, Dark Explorers, and Dragons Exalted will be rotated out. This would automatically put a blow in the popular FluffyChomp deck that uses Garchomp and Altaria. Thanks to reprints in later sets, the main players like Garchomp and Altaria will be saved but the engine will be lost, Gabite. This Dragon type Pokemon had the Dragon Call ability which allowed the player to search out their deck for any Dragon type Pokemon. This ability gave FluffyChomp incredible speed to set up and attack on a moment’s notice. Once Turn 3 passes by, the field can be swarm by Dragon Pokemon. Without Gabite, the process to do this will be much slower and the deck may not even be worth playing. The WLFM Energy will be lost as well which helped the deck in it’s speedy attack.
Deck and Cover Accelgor would be gone which marks the end of the Accelgor Item Lock decks. Accelgor would simply Deck and Cover to poison and paralyze a Pokemon to trap it in the active. Then Trevenant or Gothitelle would move into your active to keep your opponent from using any items such as Switch or Float Stone. This deck was so powerful that it won US Nationals last year. Now cards like Virizon EX has made this deck drop in popularity but it sometimes get some use but it won’t anymore once the main player Accelgor is gone from the format. Trevenant and Gothitelle will need to find another Pokemon or card to be used with.
Darkness decks will lose a few handy things with this type of rotation as well. Dark Explorers had brought many things to help strengthen Darkness Pokemon such as the energy acceleration item, Dark Patch. The ability to have a Turn 1 Darkrai EX or Yveltal EX won’t be possible without this card. Another card that will be missed is Sableye and his pesky Junk Hunt attack. This means no more barrages of Crushing Hammers, Enhanced Hammers and HypnoToxic Lasers.
Speaking of items, we will see several items being rotated out from these sets. The first one to mention would be Level Ball from Next Destinies. This card gave us the ability to search out at least one low HP Pokemon in a turn without sacrificing our draw Supporter. Enhanced Hammer will be gone which means no easy way to discard Special Energy. Decks playing high Retreat Cost Pokemon like Plasma Klinklang will miss Heavy Ball which provided the same benefits that Level Ball did. Handy cards like Skyarrow Bridge, Tool Scrapper and Exp Share would be gone too.
Other Pokemon of note to be rotated out would include: Ho-oh EX, Registeel EX, Ninetales and Giratina EX.
Scenario 2: Plasma Storm-on
A Plasma Storm-on Format would mean we will lose the sets mention before plus Boundaries Crossed. One of the most noticeable things gone would be the Ace Spec, Computer Search. This card may have dropped in usage recently but this powerful card gave players the ability to pull anything out from their deck at anytime. It may have involved discarding two things but Computer Search could be the much needed Supporter to pull you out of a bad hand and into an explosive play.
The FluffyC
homp deck would finally be killed off if Boundaries Crossed was crossed off as Altaria was reprinted in that set as a Shiny. Garchomp’s main draw was the ability to power up his cheap attacks by using multiple Altaria. Another card to be crossed out of the format would be Landorus EX which is a quck and easy attacker that could spread damage. It may have dropped in usage thanks to Water type Pokemon like Keledo EX but Landorus EX still has a spot in the format as a Raichu slayer.
Skyla would be the first popular Supporter to be lost thanks to a rotation if a Plasma Storm-On format was put into effect. This card was useful to players as it allowed them to get any Trainer card they needed such as Muscle Band, Level Ball, Pokemon Catcher, HypnoToxic Laser, Computer Search or even another Supporter for next turn. Skyla was a card that people once had a high number in their decks to help them out in a tight situation.
Scenario 3: Legendary Treasures-On
A Legendary Treasures-On format would be the most dramatic shift in the format. This will eliminate all of the Black & White cards and put us into an XY only format. Sets that were introduce less then a year ago will be gone. All of the Plasma cards would be wiped out. Supporters such as Professor Juniper, N, Skyla and Colress will be gone from the format. The infamous Hypnotoxic Laser and helpful Float Stone would be eliminated from all decks.
Popular decks such as Plasma variants, RayBoar, Genesect-Virizon, Plasma Klinklang, Blastoise variants and Empoleon will all be unplayble thanks to the cards not being in the format.
The popular Virbank-Laser combo that is used to add an additional 30 damage to a Pokemon between turns would be lost. Exeggcute being used for Diving Draw on Empoleon would be out of the format.
If these three sets along with the sets that were mention before were rotated out then this will be the most dramatic change in the metagame. So many decks would be gone leaving only decks that could be created from Legendary Treasures and beyond to be made. It will truly be a format made up of XY and a possible OmegaRuby and AlphaSapphire sets generation.
Is this a bad thing? In this writer’s opinion, I do not think so. Legendary Treasures reprinted several Pokemon EXs that were popular during the BW era such as Mewtwo EX, Darkrai, EX and Keldeo EX. The only popular Pokemon EX that wasn’t reprinted was Rayquaza EX which has been seeing mix success after Dynamotor Eelektrik had left the format. Lugia would be useless now that Plasma Energy is gone but it won’t be the first time a change in rules had made a card useless. Just take a look at First Ticket. Most importantly, a Legendary Treasures-On format would mean no more HypnoToxic Laser. Nothing is more frustrating then getting tails when flipping to wake up a Pokemon in a game that you had the lead. It will be disappointing to see so many useful Supporters being rotated out. Though, in reality, do we really need to cards that do the exact same thing but both can’t be played in the same deck together? Lets give Professor Juniper the boot and welcome Professor Sycamore with open arms.
Lastly, I wouldn’t mind a good reason to make new decks using cards from the XY sets. There is a certain deck I would love to make using cards from Furious Fists.
What may actually happen? We will most likely see a Boundaries Crossed-On Format. This way there will be plenty of decks to use while using a few. Certain decks may get weaken or drop in usage but there will be enough decks to keep a colorful format. There are already cards such as Pokemon Fanclub waiting in the wings to take the place of Level Ball and Heavy Ball. Rainbow Energy has returned to see Prism Energy go away. Fairy Box decks will miss the Prism Energy but similar decks have lived with just Rainbow Energy alone in the past.
A Boundaries Crossed-On format would keep the majority of players happy as well. That way it won’t make majority of a person’s collection worthless overnight.
Rotation is coming. The question will be how far will it cut? Furious Fists is on the horizon and that will add another set into the format made up of ten sets already. Maybe there will be surprise and a scenario that wasn’t mention would be used. We won’t know until after Nationals. No matter what, these cards could still have worth if the Legacy BW-On format gains any traction in the next season.
Good luck to all who are taking part in Nationals!
