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Impact Corner!
A look into the New Platinum: Arceus Set!
A look into the New Platinum: Arceus Set!
Time to Look through the Impact of the newest Pokémon set, Platinum Arceus! I have combed through the set, and evaluated my look on how these cards entering the format will impact the game. I hope you all enjoy, (And am sure that no one will agree with me 100%, that’s ok, I like a good Debate!)
~Higher Impact ~
Things you might see at the Winner’s Tables!
Things you might see at the Winner’s Tables!
1. Charizard, like quite a few of the cards in the Arceus Set, offer a nice opportunity to build a tank deck, and can offer some speed to go with it. The thing just has an enormous amount of HP for a viable non-level x card. And Fire Formation is a great Pokebody for it. With leaving just 1 or 2 Claydol or Uxie on the bench, you can be filling your bench with more of the Charizard line for later, and being doing a ton of damage for not much energy at all! I like the Charmander that goes with it in the set, it's a great starter with Call for Friends to help get out those fire pokemon to boost Fire Formation. Also, I am going to try running it with Heat Rotom. It's a nice basic with 80hp, a good starter to build up your upcoming Charizard with its Warm Up, and can turn itself into a Fire Pokemon with Heat Shift to add to Fire Formation. It's also nice that it's an electric type to combat Charizard's weakness, water!
21. Lopunny, new tech for Kingdra, or poor man’s Nidoqueen? Relaxing Shower allows you to discard an energy each turn and take off 1 damage from each of your Pokémon. This will allow you to heal your Kingdras a little bit, and get those water energies into the discard pile to build up for your big Aqua Stream attack! Not to mention that it's a good strategy to be retreating your Kingdra as much as possible to pay that 1 energy retreat cost, getting even more energy into the discard pile. Particularly late game, when you have a swarm of 3 or 4 kingdra on the field, you can be retreating, rotating, and healing all your Kingdra for a very affective late game build. (We Already know it can play early game.)
30. I like Sceptile 30 in this format. With all the grass type energy acceleration in the game right now, mainly the Wild Growth from the older Sceptile, Leaf Blast could be a great attack. This could be yet another card to break the barrier for grass decks to come back. Not to mention it heals itself 2 damage counters whenever you put a grass energy card on it from your hand, which is another underestimation for grass decks, the ability to heal. Whether you decide to run this with Leafeon X from MD, Tangrowth
from this set, or even possibly the Shaymin X combos from PL, we could see this card at the winners tables at cities.
87. Expert Belt could be a format changing deck. Recently the game’s been all about speed and who can get started the fastest. This is a Huge card to help Tank Decks (Though it can unfortuantly help the donk decks too). Your big tanks that have a TON of HP will have 20 more, and do 20 more damage while they are out there being destructive. It probably won’t change the way we all play Pokémon, we’ll still have donk decks at the winner’s tables. But this could work well in Flygon, Torterra, Kingdra, and any of those big decks that are looking to have 1 Pokémon doing damage for a while.
94-96 and AR1 through AR9, I’ll just cover all the Arceus in one swoop. This set comes with some trainer support to help this combo out, and with 4 Rosaenne’s Reaserch, this could be a potent deck! It can do just about anything the game calls for, and it can be fast with the right trainer engine and tech support. With the main Arceus, AR5, it can have amazing energy acceleration, and maybe not even need Tech cards, it might be able to function with just the supporters and trainers. I’d like to see how people work with these cards to make this deck. The only problem is that for the deck to REALLY work, you need the AR5 combo to start early in the game with Ripple Swell. To get all the different cards and types out, you kind of need tech draw cards like claydol and Uxie, but you can’t get 6 different types out with the uxie’s or claydol’s on the bench……Super Scoop Up? (Flippy.) I can’t wait to see the engine that gets around that problem.
97. For Gengar players, this card will bring them nightmares. Do I play the X card, throw in some premier balls, and go for having my Gengars have more powers and 30 more HP? Or do I keep with 4 SF Gengars, and its ability to be faster and more consistent. I really like how the X card goes with the theme of the original, being annoying to the opponent. The stinker already had the ability to KO you along with it, now it can take your level X cards and send them back into the deck once per turn too? Compound Pain really adds to Gengar's offence as well. When you get Gengar on the field, you can use shadow room turns 1 and 2 to spread 60 on two different Pokemon with Pokepowers, like the pixies or claydol, and then turn 3 with your 3rd energy use compound pain to get a double KO, which would have otherwize taken 4 turns. That combo can go as far as you want, waiting till turn 5 to get 4 KO's for example. The Old Snipe and Spread!
98. I like Salamence and Double Fall. Unlike Cressalia X that had the same ability to KO a Pokémon for 2 prize cards, Salamence has some big attacks, like Steam Blast for 100. Also the non level X has a form of energy acceleration that will be helpful to get to that 4 energy attack. Best of all, Double fall says specifically, “For each of your opponent’s Pokémon you Knocked out by damage from Salamence’s attacks this turn, take one more prize card.” With Salamence’s Shoot Through, you do 50 to the active, and 20 to the bench. You could pull 4 prize cards off of this attack if you do it right. (And) 160HP, tank it up!
99. Tangrowth X is Cool, Healing Growth is a nice power to having sitting on your bench each turn, flipping for a 4 damage counter heal Every Turn. Also, Big Growth is a great way to DEVISTATE your opponent Late game. 130 HP…tank it…a little. I like the New Tangrowth. Leaf Guard is always helpful, and swallow up is awesome with Tangrowth’s high HP, especially on the level X. And I just don’t think it’s all that hard to satisfy a 2 or 4 grass energy cost in this format. But I might choose the Power Whip Tangrowth from ALL the way back in Great Encounters over this one, or maybe run 1 of one, and two of the other.
~Medium Impact~
Things you might see at the Winner’s Tables...in the Seniors.
Things you might see at the Winner’s Tables...in the Seniors.
3. I like this set’s Heatran, I think it’s better than past basic Heatrans, and it goes much better with the level x card and its auto tails for burn. Magma Mantle could also go pretty well with some Palmers Contributions and Night Maintenances to get your basic energies back into the deck, allowing for bigger and more consistent hits, and stopping you from decking yourself.
5. The new Luxray is cool. 120 hp, free retreat, and Gadget bolt can work well with Expert Belt. It will give it 140hp and an attack of 80 for Gadget Bolt, and you can judge for when you think it might get KO’ed and discard the expert belt before it gives your opponent an extra prize from KO.
32. Spiritomb could make for a nice stall card for setting up your tank decks. It will slow down the game play while you get all your pokemon evolved, and full of energy, before unleasing the main attacker of your deck.
82. Beginning Door. This is great for your Arceus Decks…obviously. This card is going to be one of the only reasons that an Arceus deck is viable, but it makes it possible.
83. Bench Shield might be something you slip into certain decks, like Luxray varients. You can target the pokemon this is attached too and not take your 30 from flash impact.
88. Lucky Egg is cool. It’s not a bad combo with Uxie, you attach the egg to make room in your hand for set up, and then hopefully use the cards from the set up, and get a hand refresh when a Pokémon gets KOed. Perfect for situations where you know your going to have a stall, setup, or kamakazie pokemon used in your deck a lot. I think I’ll put one in my AMU deck for example.
90. Good to see the Professor Oak’s Visit will survive the rotation. Right now, with Looker's Investigation, Cynthia's Feelings, Palmer's Contribution, Bebe's and Rosaenne's, I'm not sure I want to waste too many of my Supporter Slots on this card. But after the rotation, it's good to know I'll at least have this decent draw card as an option. I could do far worse.
91. Ultimate zone, great for your Arceus Deck, obviously. In Arceus Decks, you will be running switches or Warp Points to help you Level Up your Arceus. When one gets heavily damaged, you can move an energy to the bench with Ultimate Zone, and then either retreat it, or use the switch or warp point to bring out the new one, and get a round about form of energy acceleration out of it. However, I think I might prefer to run Snowpoint Temple from LA, which adds 20 max HP to all basics on the field. Again, it might be nice to run 1 or 2 of each for variety.
~Lower Impact~
Things you might see at the Winner’s Tables...in the Juniors.
Things you might see at the Winner’s Tables...in the Juniors.
6. The new mothim is a swarm maker for your mothim deck. (Whoever has a Mothim deck.)
11. The Toaxicroak can cause some problems for your opponents. If you are using a fighting and psychic energy to satisfy the 2 colorless energy cost for Convert Blow, it does 60 and poison for 2 energies.
15. I like the Cherrim as a tech for your Grass Tanks with Cloudy Sky. The format has more than enough different Powerhouse Grass pokemon to make your grass combos out of without this deck. But if you just can't get your hands on Leafeon X, or Shaymin X, this card can add a little defence to your Big Grass pokemon that are healing, and maybe using Expert Belt.
19. Golem could make for a Nice Fighting Tank to build a tank deck around. 140hp, 50 damage for 2 energy, possible big 1 time hit for 3 energies, and a big 80 resistance free hit for 4 energies. Tank it up!
29. Rapidash, poor man’s Mewtwo X.
86. Always good to see you again energy restore!
~Final Analysis~
How much will this set impact the game?
How much will this set impact the game?
I am really happy with this set. Though I think it is going to be very difficult for any group of 100 cards to affect the format in this 1500 card modified world we are playing in. But I think that there are far more influential cards in this set than we saw in Supreme Victors. I also like that there are many high hp Pokémon in this set, and the addition of Expert Belt to really help give tank decks a chance to make it closer to the winners tables.
Overall, I just don't think we are gonna see too many of these cards flooding the final 4 at the city championships. (With the exception of Gengar X...but it's only there because it's an embellishment of the SF Gengar, not so much because of the Level X itself.) I think that after the 2010 Rotation, we might see a lot more of the Tangrowth, Salamence, Arceus Combo, and the Charizard. But that's looking pretty far into the future!
Rating Scale for Impact:
1~No card in the set will see play
10 ~ Every City Championship Final 4 deck will be dramatically affected by this set
Impact This Season: 4/10
Probable Impact for 2010 Season: 8/10
-Jason
dark::colorless:20)
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