Hasta La Vista, Baby — Post-Rotation Primer

My tumultuous relationship with Comfey finally comes to an end, whether I want it to or not. The Lost Zone Box deck made a lot of memories for me, and it seems like they all happened in the blink of an eye. Comfey is gone too soon, and I will dearly miss some of the other casualties as well. In fact, every card with the text “Lost Zone” has now gone there for good.

This rotation hits harder than most, but if there’s one thing I think we can all agree on, it’s good riddance to Snorlax; a card that rewarded doing nothing skillfully and created the most boring game states in the game’s long and storied history. I’m sure the Stall decks of the future will still be annoying, but hopefully they’re at least a little more interesting than Snorlax. Today we’re going to be discussing the decks that make it out alive. Which decks are limping along, hanging on to life, and which ones are going to thrive? We also have the new Journey Together set to consider. This set has some interesting cards, but overall, it’s a very underwhelming set and I don’t expect much from it.

As usual, Japan is ahead of the Western world in terms of formats, so they’ve already been playing in our post-rotation format. As such, we can look at their tournament results and draw some conclusions about the metagame. Aside from the massive 5,000-player Champions League in Fukuoka last month, there have also been hundreds of City League tournaments. While City Leagues aren’t necessarily indicative of the wider meta, it’s at least a lot of data and decks to look at.

Aside from Lost Zone and Snorlax, we’re also permanently losing every Pokemon VSTAR, so a moment of silence for the likes of Regidrago VSTAR, Lugia VSTAR, and Origin Forme Palkia VSTAR. Without Double Turbo Energy, it’s also unlikely that any Klawf decks will show up anytime soon. Most of the other pre-rotation meta decks continue to exist in some capacity, with some of course losing more than others. Let’s talk about them.

Miraidon ex

Aside from the decks that completely disappear, Miraidon ex suffers from rotation the most. Losing Raichu V, Raikou V, and Rotom V all at once is completely devastating, as that is a significant loss in power and flexibility. While Miraidon was capable of cheesing a few Prize cards with Iron Hands ex, it still relied on a big nuke attack from Raichu or Raikou at some point. As of recently, Rotom made a resurgence as a very nice consistency piece, allowing Miraidon to stabilize while going first. Of course, Forest Seal Stone was another key component of the deck, bolstering consistency while packing synergy with Arven and the Pokemon V. If that all wasn’t enough, no more Double Turbo Energy makes it more difficult to use the one attacker you still have left, as the deck would frequently utilize Double Turbo Energy to enable Amp You Very Much.

Reflecting this, Miraidon ex has seen no success in Japan. However, I have some theories about Miraidon that I’m eager to test out. Amp You Very Much is still an insanely strong attack, and it will still be good into the post-rotation metagame. Using it consistently, of course, is the hard part. That said, the deck still has access to Electric Generator and Magneton. Perhaps a Professor's Research– and Magneton-focused build could be enough to enable powerful Lightning-type attacks.

At Vancouver Regionals, Azul played Bloodmoon Ursaluna ex and Defiance Band, which is a cheeky way to close out games if other options are lacking, particularly against Gholdengo ex. It’s still very much in the realm of possibility to take four Prize cards with aggressive Amp You Very Much plays. That leaves only two to find. Boss-KO’ing a Fezandipiti ex is one way to do it, though there are less liabilities around without Rotom V or Lumineon V in the format, or you can just 2-shot a big Pokemon, utilizing the extra turn generated by favorable tempo.

Another idea I have is Lillie’s Clefairy. It takes two turns to power up, but Dragapult ex gives you those turns, and then you can one-shot Dragapult with the Clefairy. Searching out the Psychic Energy could prove difficult, so perhaps a Crispin build could have some merit. You don’t necessarily have to play Crispin with Clefairy, or at all, but the idea is there. Not only does Crispin instantly power up Clefairy, but it also helps with Iron Hands. One good Electric Generator plus one Crispin makes Amp You Very Much instantly ready to go. Overall, Miraidon hasn’t seen much success or hype because it suffers a lot. However, I would not count it out yet, as I think there is some merit to it.

Dragapult ex

At first glance, it appears that Dragapult loses a lot: Rotom V, Lumineon V, Forest Seal Stone, Radiant Alakazam, and Lance! All Stage 2 decks really enjoyed the Forest Seal Stone package with Arven, and now all that consistency is gone. On top of that, Dragapult loses Lance as a consistency option too. Nonetheless, Dragapult seems to be just fine. The built-in Drakloak engine is still strong, and Phantom Dive is still an amazing attack. Even without Forest Seal Stone, Dragapult still plays Arven for consistency, and it also can use Technical Machine: Evolution to quickly get multiple Drakloak in play.

Interestingly, most Japanese lists are playing Unfair Stamp as their ACE SPEC, much like pre-rotation builds of the non-Dusknoir variety. Although Unfair Stamp is good, I don’t think I can fully get on board with it. Sparkling Crystal was made for Dragapult and also has powerful synergy with Arven. The reason why Sparkling Crystal is so important is because it gives Dragapult the option to go fast. You don’t always speed blitz Dragapult in every game, but a turn 2 Phantom Dive going first is a lot of pressure that forces most decks to crumble under it. I cannot overstate how strong that option is, and thanks to Arven and Sparkling Crystal, it’s rather consistent as well.

Unfair Stamp can get some cheesy wins if you manage to use it early, which is definitely nice, but that’s not fully reliable. If you use it later in the game instead, you may as well just use Iono. Of course, it’s still possible to get turn 2 Phantom Dive without Sparkling Crystal, but the ACE SPEC Item makes it a lot more consistent. Sometimes you’ll have to attach to retreat, or you might not have two Energy since the deck doesn’t play that many. My initial inclination is to build very similar to pre-rotation, which clearly worked well and had many strong tournament finishes:

This concludes the public portion of this article.

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