Time for the thunder to get lost with Rotation!
It was announced early that we the format for the 2020-2021 Season will be Team Up-on. Due to COVID-19, we do not know when we will see a return to tournament play. Though, it is expected that players will need to practice using this new format. As we see with any new format, there will be a few sets leaving the Standard format including the cards in those sets.
Today we are going to look at which important cards are leaving the format on Friday, August 28th, 2020 and how this will change the game. Starting from Ultra Prism and ending with the Black Star Promos! We are going to see almost all of the Prism Stars cards leave. Meanwhile, the more of the support of Ultra Beast and a buckle of the Ultra Beast Pokemon are leaving.
Buckle in! We got a lot of card that are leaving the format thanks to this year’s rotation!
Lost Thunder
Our travels through the Ultra Wormholes have now landed us in the land of Johto. The land that is lost in history but filled with shocking surprises. Lost Thunder gave Lightning decks plenty of new things to work with from ways to manipulate attack cost with Thunder Mountain Prism Star. There was even ways to boost the power of Lightning Pokemon thanks to Electropower. Johto was going to see a light show once these Pokemon and more started to battle.
Though, we also saw some Pokemon who thought it would be a great idea to make use of the Lost Zone. There were various Pokemon who drew power straight from the Lost Zone in order to use the Lost March attack. From Skiploom waving goodbye as it floats into the Lost Zone to Natu leading the parade. The Lost March archetype was ready to cause trouble for anybody who underestimated them.
Even some Ultra Beast Pokemon decided to manipulate the Lost Zone. One popular card who did was Blacephalon GX who threw Fire Energy into the Lost Zone in order to do some major damage. Luckily it had Naganadel to charge up Fire on the bench to help get Fire energy. Though, many other Pokemon decided to seek help from Naganadel. It was best to say that everybody wouldn’t mind some charging up to do some big damage.
The Lost Zone was making one last push to be useful with Lost Thunder. It is kind of fitting that the last time we saw the Lost Zone was also from a set that involved Johto. It feels as if we have come full circle. Though, once things got lost in the Lost Zone then there was no coming out from it.
Pokemon
Meganium
Skiploom
Jumpluff
Shuckle
Shuckle GX
Celebi Prism Star
Grovyle
Sceptile GX
Virizion GX
Typhlosion
Magcargo GX
Blacephalon GX
Mareep
Zebstrika
Zeraora GX
Natu
Unown (DAMAGE)
Unown (HAND)
Unown (MISSING)
Wobbuffet
Girafarig
Shedinja
Giratina
Sigilyph GX
Cofagrigus
Naganadel
Alolan Meowth
Dialga
Genesect GX
Alolan Ninetales GX
Granbull
Xerneas Prism Star
Blissey
Ditto Prism Star
Lugia GX
Trainers
Adventure Bag
Choice Helmet
Counter Gain
Custom Catcher
Electropower
Faba
Fairy Charm G
Fairy Charm P
Fairy Charm F
Fairy Charm D
Heat Factory Prism Star
Life Forest Prism Star
Lost Blender
Lusamine Prism Star
Mixed Herbs
Moo Moo Milk
Morty
Net Ball
Professor Elm’s Lecture
Sightseer
Spell Tag
Thunder Mountain Prism Star
Wait and See Hammer
Whitney
Energy
Memory Energy
Thoughts
Lost Thunder walked so Team Up could run.
What does that mean? It means that a lot of cards from Lost Thunder were good on their own when they came out. Though, when Team Up release with the big Pikachu & Zekrom GX then these cards from Lost Thunder became great.
You had Thunder Mountain Prism Star that made attacks from Lighting Pokemon cost one less energy. You bet Pikachu & Zekrom GX abuse this Stadium in order to get turn 1 Full Blitz with only two Energy attachments.
Did you need a way to do more damage? Then that is fine because you had Electropower to boost those attacks! Play down Electropower and your attacks were doing 30 extra damage. You could even stack them! It really helped Pikachu & Zekrom GX reach numbers that they couldn’t hit before.
Needed a way to get free retreat? Zeraora GX was there! Anything with a Lightning Energy attached to them now had free retreat. Zeraora GX was never the focus to use as an attacker but it found good friends with those who used Lightning Energy. This card even saw play in Rayquaza GX decks. Sometimes it even got the chance to attack in those decks. In recent decks that use Lightning Energy, Zeraora GX has started to see itself get cut. Though, there are some decks that still play Zeraora GX for that nice Thunderclap Zone.
It is true that Lightning Pokemon got some support but others got a good leg up. Psychic Pokemon got a little bit of a boost . Giratina was able to make friends with Malamar decks. So much so that it became the main attacker of the deck. Not only could Giratina do heavy damage thanks to Shadow Impact doing 130 damage. You could even get Giratina back by using the Distortion Door ability. This ability allows you to put Giratina back to your bench from your Discard. It would also allow you to do some damage to your opponent’s Pokemon.
Though, if you wanted some Psychic support from the Trainer side then they did try with things like Morty and Spell Tag. In the end more players played Spell Tag to get damage counters on the field. After all, if a Pokemon equipped with Spell Tag is knocked out then you can put four damage counters on your opponent’s Pokemon. That was pretty amazing for Giratina who could use that damage to help knockout another Pokemon.
Eventually Spell Tag found friends with Weezing and Shedinja. This card saw some play! It is no surprise that most single prizes Psychic decks decided to play four copies of Spell Tag.
Before we finish off talking about Psychic Pokemon, we need to talk about Naganadel. This card had a unique ability where it could accelerate energy but only to itself. Now, Naganadel didn’t have an impressive attack. Though, other Pokemon would use Naganadel to assist in their attacks. The hard part would be putting up several Poipole on the bench and evolving them. Once you do that then start using Charge Up to get energy from your discard on to Naganadel. That way Rayquaza GX can boost the damage of it’s Dragon Break attack.
Another Pokemon paired with Naganadel was Blacephalon GX. The ultimate Ultra Beast combo! Blacephalon GX would just take the Fire energy that Naganadel grabbed and blow it up into the Lost Zone. This hot Ultra Beast did saw some play when it first came out and actually had to compete against itself, Blacephalon (no GX) as the top Fire Pokemon. Though, Blacephalon GX lost that fight because it just ran out of fire. Literally.
When you throw away your Fire energy into the Lost Zone then that means you can only attack so many times. Especially against Tag Team GX Pokemon who would need a lot of Fire Energy to be discarded into the Lost Zone to be knocked out. Eventually Blacephalon GX became second fiddle to “Baby Blacephalon” as a way to take a single prize by using Burst GX. That way the deck can take their last Prize Card.
Lost Thunder also gave us the return of an old mechanic with a new twist. That was Lost March and all the Pokemon that came with it. This deck tried to get a foothold in the meta but it never saw the same success as the similar namesake, Night March. The Lost March archetype did get some support in the form of Lost Blender and Skiploom’s ability to dump itself and the Hoppip into the Lost Zone. Though, it never got the same popularity. Especially as we saw how much HP that Tag Team GX Pokemon had.
There are some charming trainers to talk about. Especially the Fairy Charm cards that were the last piece of Fairy support that the type got before getting the boot from the game. There were some Pokemon who could have used it such as Granbull. After all, this Pokemon saw plenty of play from players. If they could get their hand to zero cards then it meant a huge attack. Though, the Fairy Charm cards would see major play once Gardevoir & Sylveon GX enter the game. They would cause players who play GX decks lots of trouble in a format that had limited ways to remove Pokemon Tools.
Lost Thunder gave us a lot of Trainer cards that had interesting conditions to be used. There was Counter Gain which can only be activated after being behind on prizes. Once you were then your attacks cost one less energy. This allow you to have sneaky counter attacks in various decks.
There was Mixed Herbs and Custom Catcher. The later would be used more often. Especially after players realize they needed new gusting effects. Both cards did something if you played one. Though, players wanted to play two at the same time in order to use much more powerful effects. These cards saw a lot more play later on in “Green” decks that used Green’s Exploration. Players would use this Supporter to grab either one or both copies of the card to do what they needed at the time. Custom Catcher and Mixed Herbs certainly were useful in this way.
Last but not least is Heat Factory Prism Star. This Stadium really heated up Fire decks as a nice way to draw cards. All you will need to do is just discard a Fire energy to draw three cards. This really helped in digging for a needed card. Players would use Fiery Flint to grab Fire energy and then discard one of them by using Heat Factory Prism Star. Players were really using the fire from the factory to produce some amazing plays.
The thunder is being lost in this rotation for Lightning decks. Though, we can all admit that Lost Thunder really did brought a lot of great cards for plenty of decks and sets that came before it and that were to come. Now it is time for the deck to be lost to the formats of the past and enter the Lost Zone.
Rotation is today! Best of luck in creating your next best deck!
