Here Comes the Scoop Up Net — Ideas for the Rebel Clash Format

The release of Rebel Clash is approaching and it is with a total lack of originality that, like every writer, I’ll be writing my initial thoughts on what this set will bring. I will cover the most influential cards, discuss some of the most promising deck archetypes and give decklists for them, as well as some general ideas of where the metagame is headed.

Overall, Rebel Clash in not an amazing set in my opinion. There are plenty of Pokemon V in this set which are either too weak to play, or to build a deck around that won’t do anything particularly strong. Take Toxtricity VMAX, for example. Sure, you could build a deck around it alongside the new Garbodor, but is it interesting to have a Pokemon VMAX that hits for 240 damage (plus Poison)? Does it make any sense to run something like this instead of Pikachu and Zekrom-GX? Probably not. I’m not saying it can’t have success at the local level, but it’s not a deck that does anything unique and that doesn’t seem very competitive. I feel like I would waste both your time and mine if I spent time on every similar Pokemon in the set.

Instead, let’s start with the cards that are most likely to have an effect on the metagame: The Trainer cards. Since these can be played in any deck, powerful Trainer cards tend to shape up the metagame more than most Pokemon. Think of how Quick Ball gives every deck a way to search for its main Pokemon or how Lillie's Poké Doll paved the way for a bunch of Mill and similar archetypes.

Trainers

This concludes the public portion of this article.

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