On the Dark Horizon – A Look at Post Rotation
Hello PokeBeach readers! It is nice to be able to write again, especially because it is time for the annual rotation! This is where older sets get rotated out of the Standard format, and if you didn’t already know, everything prior to Team Up is on the chopping block. Additionally, Bellelba and Brycen-Man and Mismagius have been banned due to what everyone assumes are potential combos in the future involving either of these cards. While Bellelba & Brycen-Man was not used much outside of control decks prior to the release of Darkness Ablaze, it had potential to be used as a defense mechanism against the infamous Eternatus VMAX, a deck expected to compete at the highest level. Mismagius on the other hand, while used in Garchomp and Giratina-GX and Naganadel and Guzzlord-GX in previous metagames, had not seen play in quite a while. While it may have an effect in the future due to more cards being released, that ban does not have an impact on the current metagame in the slightest. With all that being said, I am here to fulfill my promise of some post rotation content for you all! In my last two articles, I covered Darkness Ablaze and the impact I expected it to have on the Standard format, both before and after the rotation. Some of that information will definitely be beneficial to anyone looking to get a start on trying out the new decks and adjusting to the new format, so I would recommend giving those a look if you haven’t already. Otherwise, I am going to spend this article talking about the previously mentioned Eternatus VMAX, along with a few notes on the format as a whole. Without further adieu, let’s kick things off with a look at the gigantic Pokemon everyone is talking about.
Eternatus VMAX
As everyone already knows, Eternatus VMAX is an absolute powerhouse that was released in Darkness Ablaze. Before being legal for play, it was predicted to be the deck to beat and absolutely dominant. While many decks are predicted to act similarly to that due to the hype around new cards, Eternatus VMAX showed potential right off the bat. In player’s testing, both prior to and post rotation, I think everyone would have to agree that Eternatus VMAX was one of the best decks. The first opportunity any Darkness Ablaze card had to prove itself was at a large online event that was held for the pre-rotation format. While Eternatus VMAX did not win, many players trusted their tournament life in the deck, and it made it all the way to top eight. As far as after the rotation goes, Eterantus VMAX does not lose much of anything and all the decks around it get at least a tad weaker. This puts the deck in a great position as it competes for the title of best deck in format.
This concludes the public portion of this article.
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