The Worlds That Could Have Been — Reviewing Darkness Ablaze
Hello everyone! Jimmy here with another article on your favorite website once again. It has been a long, grindy process playing and covering the Pokemon TCG since the beginning of quarantine and the cancellation of all Pokemon tournaments, but players finally having something to look forward to again! The official release date of Darkness Ablaze is August 14th, but most players are already knee deep in practicing, thinking, or purchasing all of the goodies from the newest Pokemon set. Not as good as the world being back to normal, but it is definitely better than nothing.
The set has a lot to offer, from some powerful Trainer cards and support Pokemon all the way up to an entirely new archetype. In the past, I would have to say that new sets tend to receive a lot of hype but don’t change a whole lot outside of introducing some new inclusions for old decks, but that is not the case here. The Standard format will receive a pretty large shakeup with the release of Darkness Ablaze. Some online tournaments will be played under the format it creates, then another large shakeup in the form of the rotation will occur. Today I will be going over the new cards to come out of Darkness Ablaze, along with taking a look at how the Standard format will look prior to the rotation. There will be online tournaments played under this format and it is interesting to discuss how things will change for that, so this feels like a good topic to cover. Don’t worry, I will be here when the rotation occurs to share my thoughts on everything to come of that as well. Without any further delay, lets kick off the article with a look at the top cards in Darkness Ablaze!
The Tops
These are cards I feel are pretty much guaranteed to have an immediate impact prior to the rotation happening.
Turbo Patch
This is one of the most hyped cards in the set, and I think everyone would agree that it is for great reason. Turbo Patch is an easy to use form of energy acceleration that can be used in any deck. This is something the game has not seen since Max Elixir, which was honestly the first of its kind. Generally energy acceleration is type specific, similar to something like Malamar or Welder. Historically all forms of quick and easy energy acceleration have been strong — Dark Patch, Max Elixir, Metal Saucer, and Welder. I do not think Turbo Patch will be any different, especially because a lot of decks have been looking for a card like this. I expect to see a lot of decks adding this card, so only time will tell what attackers make use of this extra speed the best.
Crobat V
This is another card that is both extremely hyped and versatile for its Ability. Some cards are only good in certain decks of course, but that is not the case at all with Crobat V. I am certain that almost every deck will be including a Crobat V right off the bat. Dedenne-GX is a very strong card that we see in high counts in a lot of decks, and functions similarly to Crobat V in the sense that they are both strong draw cards with a once per turn limitation. By having both of these support Pokemon in your deck, you can make use of both of them in one turn if needed. If you don’t, you have the same number of strong support Pokemon in your deck so you don’t lose anything and gain an additional option. This is my reasoning for why Crobat V will likely be seen side by side with Dedenne-GX in every deck that previously played two or more Dedenne-GX. My only exception for this would be decks that include Cherish Ball, as that does not search out Crobat V like it does with Dedenne-GX. I do think Dedenne-GX is a better card than Crobat V so it will not forfeit its spot in decks that only want to include a single draw support Pokemon. On the other side of the coin, Eternatus V can only make use of Crobat V due to the type requirement, so that will be one deck that does not include Dedenne-GX. I think that will be the only deck to do so until the rotation of our friendly rodent friend, which will be when the true reign of Crobat V begins.
Eternatus V and Eternatus VMAX
This concludes the public portion of this article.
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