Pokémon TCG: Sword and Shield—Brilliant Stars

Rotation time and likelihood. When and How far back?

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Newb4life

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Hello, this year is my first rotation, and I am trying to look ahead to see what will be playable afterwards. When does the rotation normally occur and when it does come, what is the likely cutoff? I am unsure if it will be CoL forward, or BW forward. I am hoping that it will be CoL for the supporters etc, but I have heard some say BW forward is what is likely. Can anyone shed some light on this situation?

Thanks.
 
There is usually a rotation in September every year. Note the word usually. Things have been far from usual as of late, but thing should, in theory, go back to 'normal' this year.

No one can tell you what the rotation will be. No one knows at this points. The 3 most likely options are no rotation, CoL on, and BW on. I personally would prefer BW-on, since that'll will be more on par with what Japan will do (there is no CoL in Japan; it was an international reprint set). I also feel like going to BW-on is the more "developer intended" rotation.

However, we will see. There's really no way to know ahead of time.
 
There are also people speculating that only 2-3 HGSS sets will be rotated.

Last year's rotation was so unconventional that nobody really knows how this year will be affected.
 
Tash said:
There are also people speculating that only 2-3 HGSS sets will be rotated.

Last year's rotation was so unconventional that nobody really knows how this year will be affected.
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This is true, but looking at the past, the options I listed are the "most likely". I didn't feel I had to list all the speculated rotations, as that list could be extremely long :p
 
*insert unfounded speculation* and that is why I believe it will definitely be *random set* on.


Realistically, anyone not working in the p!p or tcpi offices will not be able to give you an informed answer. You must be a convert * insert game with proper tournament support and structure* player. Welcome to Pokemon, where they try to make it "all about the kids".Yet time and again they make off the cuff descisions that have no predictable pattern, which confound child and 20somethng alike.

(And to clarify; by proper support, I am NOT referring to local TOs or PTOs. They all go above and beyond with what they are given to work with)
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Tagrineth said:
Triumphant staying would really not be good for the game. I really can't see Triumphant not rotating.
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How do you figure?



I was talking this over with my friend. Now, mind you, this is PURE speculation, but I've felt this way for a while, and I don't think there will be one. I can't think of a good reason for there to be one. Lets look at reasons for last year's rotation.

1. We had too many sets, its was time. We KNEW we were getting a rotation, the speculation was WHAT.
2. D&P had to go. There was too much left out there that became broken, SF in particular. Between Gengar, Gyarados, and Sableye, the set was busted, especially with Pokedrawers and blowers, etc with Junk Arm. Though, in hindsight, I REALLY wish we had Machamp right now...THAT would make for a balanced format!
3. Everyone was tired of SP. Luxray would have been in 3 straight WC decks if SP wasn't rotated out. But, I think it would have been interesting to see some of the SP pokemon with some of our meta mechanics now (like Garchomp C with Eels).
4. Cutting all the way through Platinum did away with Level X mechanics.
5. Cutting Areceus seems kind of dumb in all reality, but the truth is, with Arceus, it was either run Spiritomb or lose, made for a boring meta. Though, it would have been cool to see Salamence try and shine.

So, taking those same reasons, this is why I don't think we will have a rotation this year:
1. We DON'T have ENOUGH sets. Assuming last season rotated after worlds, we would've had 13 sets prerotation (MD-BW), which is what we were told we were supposed to have, which is where we were the year before. They rotated 4, put us at 9. At the end of this season, we will have 9. If we rotate, that means we have few cards to pick from, a format NO ONE likes, but one we've put up with out of necessity this year. And, if we don't rotate, we have 9 sets, which is what we were told we were supposed to start a season with moving forward (which, as we've seen, means nothing).
2. There is no set in the game that "breaks" the format. Triumphant is still arguably they best set we have (Juniper, Junk Arm, great primes), but even that doesn't break the format. One could argue that Junk Arm is broken and it wouldn't be a bad argument, but if we didn't have cards like Catcher or Max Potion, Junk Arm isn't too bad. Having said that, we know we aren't going to rotate any B&W sets, so its there's no real point to rotating Junk Arm since its not the real culprit.
3. At this point, everything is still pretty fresh. The only card that I feel falls into the "everyone is tired of" card is Donphan. And truthfully, its not that great, has never been broken, and hasn't really done all that well on the whole. And, its one of the few cards that MAKE the game balanced at this point.
4. We have no mechanics to cut out. Primes are just regular cards with higher rarity and good attacks. One could argue legends, but they aren't played enough for anyone to card at this point.
5.There is no set that offers a "If we cut through this but not this, then this becomes broken" scenario.
 
3. At this point, everything is still pretty fresh. The only card that I feel falls into the "everyone is tired of" card is Donphan. And truthfully, its not that great, has never been broken, and hasn't really done all that well on the whole. And, its one of the few cards that MAKE the game balanced at this point.
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People still play Donphan?
 
Apparently it's considered anti meta or something... I don't exactly see it, but it is decent in Truth decks.
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Based on how Japan is going, a BW-on rotation wouldn't surprise me, but I also think UD-on (Awkward cut, but, if they cut UD, it will have only had 2 years of playability) is possible, as well as no rotation.

CoL would be disastrous with the amount of reprints it had...
 
chrataxe said:
...Triumphant is still arguably they best set we have (Juniper, Junk Arm, great primes)...
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What.

That being said, I would be absolutely fine with either Triumphant on or COL on or BW on.

UD on I think would be strange, since a lot of the good stuff from that set was put in COL anyway. Pretty much the only things we'd really be losing from UD would be FSL (we have Super Rod), Vileplume (Not a problem if they rotate Junk Arm), Rotom (Durant would be sad, the meta moves on), Sage's Training (We have Juniper, which burns the deck in a similar way) and Scizor Prime. Without knowing what these new Special Energy are, I don't know how bad losing Scizor would be. If they're like Boost, discarded at the end of your turn, then Scizor can leave in peace. If they're NOT discarded, I think we need Scizor.

TR on would be.... different. Having Junk Arm but no reliable Trainer Lock that's not Gothitelle would be bad. COL on would be a nightmare for Japan since it's a reprint set, but it keeps things like Ninetales and PONT in the pool. BW on would be limiting, but it could be fun. Regardless, if we have a rotation we lose Collector. That's good and bad at the same time. It could help Stage 2 decks have enough time to set up, but it makes decks more prone to donking. The ball engine just doesn't compare to a nice searching Supporter.
 
chrataxe said:
How do you figure?
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I figure because the years following the last "no rotation" were the most stale format this game has ever seen. SP, Gyarados. Format defined. Two years.

I was talking this over with my friend. Now, mind you, this is PURE speculation, but I've felt this way for a while, and I don't think there will be one. I can't think of a good reason for there to be one. Lets look at reasons for last year's rotation.
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You mean the reasons for the EMERGENCY rotation.

2. D&P had to go. There was too much left out there that became broken, SF in particular. Between Gengar, Gyarados, and Sableye, the set was busted, especially with Pokedrawers and blowers, etc with Junk Arm. Though, in hindsight, I REALLY wish we had Machamp right now...THAT would make for a balanced format!
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Machamp would destroy the risk vs. reward of EX pokemon and render them unplayable. Mewtwo can't kill Machamp with X Ball. EX decks would have absolutely no way to counter it efficiently.

3. Everyone was tired of SP. Luxray would have been in 3 straight WC decks if SP wasn't rotated out. But, I think it would have been interesting to see some of the SP pokemon with some of our meta mechanics now (like Garchomp C with Eels).
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Yes, and the reason Luxray didn't rotate out a year sooner was because of a no-rotation year. See where I'm going with this...?

1. We DON'T have ENOUGH sets. Assuming last season rotated after worlds, we would've had 13 sets prerotation (MD-BW), which is what we were told we were supposed to have, which is where we were the year before. They rotated 4, put us at 9. At the end of this season, we will have 9. If we rotate, that means we have few cards to pick from, a format NO ONE likes, but one we've put up with out of necessity this year. And, if we don't rotate, we have 9 sets, which is what we were told we were supposed to start a season with moving forward (which, as we've seen, means nothing).
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I'm sorry, but starting at 5 sets was THE NORM until the extremely ill-advised no-rotation year.

And was never this huge OMG PROBLEM that you're making it out to be. We were told we were supposed to start with 9 sets a season starting with the no-rotation year, and then the format fell apart until they cut back down to 5 sets. Think about that.

2. There is no set in the game that "breaks" the format. Triumphant is still arguably they best set we have (Juniper, Junk Arm, great primes), but even that doesn't break the format. One could argue that Junk Arm is broken and it wouldn't be a bad argument, but if we didn't have cards like Catcher or Max Potion, Junk Arm isn't too bad. Having said that, we know we aren't going to rotate any B&W sets, so its there's no real point to rotating Junk Arm since its not the real culprit.
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"if we didn't have cards that came AFTER Junk Arm, JArm wouldn't be too bad". Do you realise how illogical that line of thought is? Do you realise how asinine it is to effectively assert that JArm might as well stay because other extremely powerful trainers aren't rotating?

I mean, it'd be fine if JArm stayed and all the other trainers rotated out, but obviously that's impossible. So, the other option is JArm rotates and we keep strong trainers with the card type's intended limited usability!

Think about how much less abusive Catcher would be without Junk Arm, for example.

Also, Triumphant has Magnezone Prime. Blarg. I love the card but it's so blatantly overpowered.

3. At this point, everything is still pretty fresh. The only card that I feel falls into the "everyone is tired of" card is Donphan. And truthfully, its not that great, has never been broken, and hasn't really done all that well on the whole. And, its one of the few cards that MAKE the game balanced at this point.
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I'm sorry, what was that about Magnezone Prime?

4. We have no mechanics to cut out. Primes are just regular cards with higher rarity and good attacks. One could argue legends, but they aren't played enough for anyone to card at this point.
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This was never a concern with rotation before, and never will be.

5.There is no set that offers a "If we cut through this but not this, then this becomes broken" scenario.
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I'm sorry, what was that about Junk Arm with Dark Patch? Or Magnezone Prime with Ultra Ball?
 
No SP was not part of the no cut format. They were played in two different formats. We played SP's came out in Platinum when we were playing DP on for the 2nd year in a row then the next year we cut to MD on. You may have found the format stale but it was not the same format.

Last time we had a huge cut like we did last year was when they cut out the Holon engine a year early and we went to DP on. We kept that format two years in a row befoer we cut to MD on. I fully expect that this yupcoeing year there will not be a cut again and we will me playing HGSS on once again.
 
We can't really call Magnezone Prime broken any more after seeing what Rayquaza EX gives us, now can we?
 
Whenever the rotation is, I really hope it isn't mid season like the last one.
I would imagine it is gonna be after Worlds, probably BW on or CL on. Considering we'd have 5, almost 6 by then most likely of the BW sets. My deck is pretty rotation proof other than some trainers, so i' not too worried.
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