If you haven’t heard, the new format is Majestic Dawn and on (And not Platinum and on, like most of us assumed.) This new format brings good changes to the metagame. With less sets being removed, I personally was unsure what was and what wasn’t getting removed, which is why I made this post.
The Contents of this Article:
1) Cards in the sets: Diamond and Pearl, Mysterious Treasures, Secret Wonders, Great Encounters; that have been rotated out.
2) Cards in the sets: Majestic Dawn, Legends Awakened, Stormfront; that people assumed would have been rotated out (assuming a PL-on format)
PLEASE feel free to mention any cards that I have missed in the comments below. I am aware that I may have missed an important card or cards, and if you think one deserves to be added, feel free to comment on that also.
Here is a general overview of all of the commonly played cards that have been removed:
Rotated Sets:
Great Encounters:
-The removal of Great Encounters ruins all Speedrill decks. It also reduces the speed of almost all decks in the format, due to a removal of Claydol. A removal of Palkia LV.X reduces the effectiveness of Flygon, and the removal of Unown G is a mixed blessing.
‘Band Attack’ Beedrill
– The removal of the Band Attack Beedrill fully ruins all ‘Speedrill’ decks.
pokemon-paradijs.com‘Cosmic Power’ Claydol
-Claydol is arguably the most used Pokémon in the entire game. Now that he is being rotated out, people are looking for new draw engines such as Ninetales for fire decks, or the new Magnezone from the Lost World set.
‘Download’ Porygon2
-A very powerful card to play two supporters per turn – used in few decks such as Porygon-z toolbox decks, rogues such as Probopass, etc.
Unown G ‘G for Godmode’
-Another Contender for most used Pokémon card in the game, heavily preventing the powerful Stormfront Gengar from destroying the metagame (among other decks.) The removal of Unown G gives decks that are based on special conditions or other effects of attacks a chance.
Moonlight Stadium
-Moonlight Stadium, a common card in decks which abuse free retreat for psychic Pokémon such as SP decks that are based on Toxicroak, Gengar decks that use Nidoqueen, etc.
Palkia LV.X ‘Restructure’
-A very popular card for Flygon decks, which allows them to bring up and lock down Pokémon like Claydol which have no way of retreating without warp point (or similar) once they are Sand Tombed.
Secret Wonders:
The death of Psychic Lock:
Worth its separate section, the classic deck Psychic Lock has been destroyed, because Gardevoir has been rotated. Gardevoir locks powers, and Gallade hits for ridiculous amounts which together prevented an opponent’s setup and also was able to hit them hard when they did.
Gardevoir ‘Psychic Lock’
Gallade ‘Psychic Cut’
Gardevoir LV.X
-The three main cards in Psychic Lock. Sadly, they are all gone. Memories… like the corner of my mind – misty water colored memories… of the way we were….
Ampharos ‘Jamming’
-When your opponent plays a supporter, you place on damage counter on all of their Pokémon. Usually people use multiple different Ampharos as a deck, although the deck has speed issues, it is a common rogue.
‘Psychic Shift’ Xatu
Prevents Venusaur mass special condition decks from removing the sleep condition from Venusaur, however this could be replaced with other cards that prevent special conditions.
Night Maintenance
-Enough Said. Very useful card.
pokemon-paradijs.comRoseanne’s Research
–Needless to say this is one of the biggest changes – almost all decks ran 4 of these.
Mysterious Treasures:
Power Cancel Alakazam
-A general tech to counter decks that use many powers.
‘Airy Wall’ Mr. Mime
-Commonly used to counter Gyarados and Jumpluff decks, and also used in Shuppet to stall.
Team Galactic’s Wager
-Used for hand control and disruption in some decks.
Multi Energy
-Used in many decks instead of rainbow energy.
Diamond & Pearl
Dusknoir ‘Dark Palm’
-Used to control opponents bench and also can be used to let you shuffle fully set up attackers back into your opponent’s deck.
What ISN’T rotated out?
The general assumption was that the rotation would be either Stormfront on or Platinum on. The fact that we have a Majestic Dawn-on format, many of our favorite cards have been saved from being restricted. Below are a list of most of the commonly played cards from Majestic Dawn through Platinum that WOULD have been rotated.
Stormfront
By a wide margin the most important set that did NOT get rotated out. It contains two major parts of Scizor decks (Cherrim and Scizor), Fainting Spell Gengar (a major part of Queengar and Cursegar), Tail Revenge Gyarados (Gyarados is one of the most common decks), Take Out Machamp (Popular tech in Flygon) and Sableye – arguably the best starter in the entire format. If this set was restricted we would also have no Luxury Ball and Premier Ball, which would make getting out and sustaining a Stage 1 or 2 LV.X card much more difficult.
Cherrim ‘+10 damage to grass and fire’
pokemon-paradijs.com‘Tail Revenge’ Gyarados
‘Pound Down (No Poké’ Powers)’ Scizor
‘Spinning Tail/Grind’ Tyranitar
‘Overeager’ Sableye
Poké’ Blower+
Poké’ Drawer+
Poké’ Healer+
Legends Awakened:
-Contains the popular donk Kingdra, all 3 of the useful lake guardians and their LV.X’s, the Ditto which is a one-card counter to Flygon, Snowpoint Temple which is a good tech in SP decks, and Mewtwo LV.X which is a tech that destroys SP decks and Devoluter which is useful Vs. Gyarados.
Azelf
Mesprit
Uxie + Uxie LV.X
Regice ‘Regi Move’
Registeel ‘Regi Heal’
Majestic Dawn
– Contains the energy absorption Mewtwo, which allows Mewtwo to re-use energies from the discard for the LV.X. X’s Giga Burn attack. If Dawn Stadium was discarded, the new Feraligatr/Lanturn deck would be over before it began. Chatot is also a tech in some decks for extra draw power, and Unown Q is a key card in Shuppet, as without it Mr. Mime would not have free retreat. (As Mr. Mime is now restricted, this can also apply to the replacement wall.)
I hope you all appreciate my article. Indeed, it is fairly short and simple, but that’s what I intended it to be. In addition, I didn’t go into great detail, as I mainly made this list to show which cards were being rotated out; not specifically what effect every card would have on the metagame. If I was to go into more detail it would probably be more description of the uses of each card and still not adding those specific details, unless I was going to make the entire list itself a lot more detailed.
The three biggest losses (in my opinion) from the format: Roseanne’s Research, Claydol GE, and Night Maintenance.
Great article. Man, my t tar deck might have to incorporate flygon to make up for the free retreat supported by Moonlight Stadium. Does anyone else have free retreat card that we could all use? And how about a new draw power? what if people don't want to run a fire deck? i think Dodrio sv is good, manaphy, cleffa, and maybe even any pokemon that knows collect would be sufficient for fast speedy decks that don't get speed from draw powers.
The loss of Claydol cannot really be replaced as no pokemon does the same job. I believe that SP will rule the metagame – as without Claydol or Roseannes, most all other decks (excluding SP) will be slowed dramatically.
In terms of draw power, I think there will be more focus on trainer engines. For example, Pokemon Collector to search for Uxie, or an introduction of Cyrus into decks it normally wouldn't be in.
For free retreat, you could always use switch or warp point, however I know that does not help. Flygon seems the most viable option.
If pokemon draw power is up your alley, apart from Uxie and Uxie LV. X, you could run Noctowl, which can service as a powerful backup attacker in some circumstances.
OMFG YOU KNOW SO MUCH!! YOU SOOO PRO!!
I'm a wee bit angry at the whole Roseanne's being gone issue, but I'll most likely have to use Pokemon with Call for Family or Call for Friend attacks (UL Stantler, PL Dunsparce, Togepi)
Although… SP HAS to play toxitank, as machamp (I would guess gechamp specifically) will rule SP without unown G
I don't think the loss of Palkia Lv.X will be felt as hard by Flygon players as much as the loss of Trapinch SW.
cybertails why not call energy? thats in SF. Jahioki, you forgot 2 talk bout that.
i think dusknoir sf+slowking gs could be used as draw power, with heal cards like pokehealer+
roseannes out pokemon collector in claydol out uxie x and eventually magnezone prime in night maitenance out palmers contribution in.
Good article! Certainly, this will be helpful to many who want to know what is initially staying and what isn't.
Once again, great read. We all are getting more prepared for rotation by the minute as it seems.
i feel like however many of pokemon are still in our next format, most decks are still going to have to change and it might be very interesting just because some keys cards are gone. Gyrados loses felicities, stage 2 lose claydol, Sp loses the security of unknown g. however, this new format is not cool beause all of these things point to stronger sp matchups. with the cards there are now though, if they were to cut out diamond and pearl through great encounters right now, sp would rule. they are too good. Machamp may seem good against sp, and he is, but because their is no claydol, getting a second or third machamp out might be really hard to do and sp might not even need to play toxi tank. besides it would be such a risk to play stadiums in a sp deck vs Machamp when machamp will most likely have 2-4 BTS. frankly, mewtwo x is by far a better counter than machamp for sp and if i were to play sp, i would just keep using the “Crash Chant” Mismagius. I strongly dislike this format change because Sp is still unmatched. other decks just dont stand a chance.
I am really gald Warp Energy is still around because it is really is the only way to get a high retreat cost Pokemon out of the active position if they are under a Trainer Lock (like Spiritomb), without wasting a whack of Energy that is.
In my Fire Deck, Ninetales does wonders when you already have 7+ cards in your hand. Tho you pry will need to run a couple shuffle supporters (Oaks) in the deck to put some back.
One concern tho is that Ninetales has lower HP than Claydol so thats definitely a minus..
i highly agree…flygon is so good because of that retreat lock
i say dudrio is better because of free retreat…that makes it alot better in my opinion.
Ninetales GS has 90 HP. Ninetales MT, which got rotated out had 80 HP.
Oops. yeah it does have 10 hp more… Just got cards confused.. hehe
Oops. yeah it does have 10 hp more… Just got cards confused.. hehe
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