Pokémon TCG: Sword and Shield—Brilliant Stars

Megalo Cannon/Plasma Blast metagame cards.

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pokedan24

New Member
It's hard to tell what's going to be big when next set comes out, but if I had to take some guesses...

Genesect/Virizion: The obvious choice. Genesect gets all the plasma support and two cool ace specs. Virizion provides some acceleration and more importantly protection from lasers. I don't know if this deck will be tier one, but I think it should be good.

Cradily: I think someone will find a way to break this. As I learned with Yugioh, even cards with huge drawbacks can be worked around and made broken. Something that lets you get out stage 2s without rare candy or weak basics definitely has potential.

Volcarona: Fun deck idea. This + Plasma Flareon. Speed through your deck while powering up Flareon's Vengence. Probably won't be top tier, but it seems like a fun gimmicky deck.

Porygon Z: A nice addition to the plasma pool. Things that move energy around have always been good. You can pull off some surprise attacks with Snorlax, Lugia, or Tornadus. You also have Colress Machine and Thundurus EX for easy acceleration.

I think Kyurem EX could be good in Blastoise decks. The new Eelektross could be a nasty surprise when playing Eels. Silver Bangle and Silver Mirror are amazing tech cards against popular decks. And a one of Jirachi EX could make all the difference. Other than that, I have no idea.
 
pokedan24 said:
And a one of Jirachi EX could make all the difference.
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Ive been toying with this Jirachi idea, I love that u can get a supporter when u want, then u could use the (super) ssu that's what I'm gonna call it, and just pick jirachi back up, i mean, 90HP is the worst ever for an EX but maybe he will see play for the skyla - catcher - win finale
 
^

Yeah, I think Virizion will be the most impactful too (even more so than Genesect). It provides a counter to lasers and gives grass some much needed support.

Another one I have my eye on is the toolbox Sigilyph. Imagine a pokemon with four eviolites. And that's just one possible combo.
 
Dialga EX is what I'm looking forward to other than Genesect. It's 2nd attack with other milling and disruptive card like Hammers, or even Ghetsis can make a pretty sweet milling deck. The damage output isn't bad either.
 
Prefacing this by pointing out that we are discussing ideas for decks important to the metagame, not just fun, cool ideas.

pokedan24 said:
Cradily: I think someone will find a way to break this. As I learned with Yugioh, even cards with huge drawbacks can be worked around and made broken. Something that lets you get out stage 2s without rare candy or weak basics definitely has potential.
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I am much more skeptical. Cards with huge drawbacks that prove broken (such as in Yu-Gi-Oh) due to because players find a way to mitigate that draw back... or bad game design. Wow, almost went on a huge rant, even by my standards. There are some significant differences in game design and mechanics that means doing something "the same" in both games can result in radically different levels of effectiveness, plus Yu-Gi-Oh's card designers have struggled with the idea of deferred payment; e.g. it doesn't matter that a card requires "X" because I'll win by playing this card; if the cost isn't up front I never actually pay it and if it is then who cares if I win?

Here we have a space intensive strategy that requires you add some Basic Pokémon to it for a legal deck.

pokedan24 said:
Volcarona: Fun deck idea. This + Plasma Flareon. Speed through your deck while powering up Flareon's Vengence. Probably won't be top tier, but it seems like a fun gimmicky deck.
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Interesting idea, but seems too clunky; to discard Pokémon requires they be non-Team Plasma... which your main two Stage 1 Pokémon are. You need to discard a lot of Pokémon to get Flareon [Plasma] hitting hard with Vengeance. Anything that isn't a Pokémon and that you have to discard is pretty much a waste. Lastly, you are setting up with an attack on a Stage 1 for a Stage 1; you are going to be dealing with a Prize deficit as most decks will get Volcarona into OHKO range by their deck turn.

pokedan24 said:
Porygon Z: A nice addition to the plasma pool. Things that move energy around have always been good. You can pull off some surprise attacks with Snorlax, Lugia, or Tornadus. You also have Colress Machine and Thundurus EX for easy acceleration.
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A Stage 2 Pokémon to move around four Special Energy cards? In this format, where Stage 2 Pokémon struggle even to be Bench-sitters and whatever you slap those Energy on has to survive or else you lose them all and can at best slowly recover them.

The rest I didn't quote seems plausible.
 
Running over the set list for interesting cards...

Cradily - Like Otaku pointed out, tight Stage 2 list that will have to squeeze Basics in just to be legal. If nothing else, Cradily decks will probably be rather mulligan prone, which is not a good thing. Besides, most Stage 2s still aren't on the level of EXes, so you will still see an EX-oriented metagame. However, it has been (over)hyped to the extent that at least for 2-3 tournaments after its release, it will see play.

Virizion EX - This is one of the big ones. Finally the Grass type gets an acceptable form of Energy acceleration! Still, the fact that you can't attack T1(unless you run Team Plasma Badge and get it on T1 along with the Colress Machine and Grass Energy) is a minor downside, considering Genesect EX grabs KOes like nobody's business. Laser immunity for Grass-types is great as well.

Genesect EX - The other really big one(its the mascot...). With T2 Emerald Slash and a Plasma Energy in hand, you can start swinging with Megalo Cannon T3, which is doing a LOT of damage pretty fast, and Red Signal lets you take advantage of the snipe damage easily.

Eelektross - I'm not sure about this, but I think it might make for a nice 1-of in Eels decks(assuming no rotation of course) as a finisher, since you will have Energy scattered around on the field. Obviously you evolve after pulling off all your Dynamotors to get one dose of Crush and Burn. Again, this is really specific, and I would never ever use more than 1 in a deck.

Drifblim - I don't think this can be called anything more than "cute". Sure, against dedicated Plasma decks it will be a free 70 damage Energy Removal, but dedicated Plasma decks will probably easily KO the Drifloon in the first place.

Sigilyph - This card shouldn't be in this format :(. In other formats, there would be sooo many wacky thigns you could do, but I can only foresee Rocky Helmet/Rock Guard and Eviolite shenanigans even standing a chance. Then again, almost every deck runs a Tool Scrapper, so they'd probably Scrapper off 2 of the tools before KOing it...

Jirachi EX - It looks like a nice 1-of in combination with 1-2 Super Scoop Ups to help ease Supporter droughts. 90 HP on an EX is crap though.

Haxorus - Very much a poor man's Machamp SF. First of all, it needs 2 Energy(though Blend WLFM can provide it), secondly, its in a format with even better Basics(EXes) than Machamp, and thirdly, Rare Candy is significantly weaker now and Broken Time-Space doesn't exist. Plasma decks would overrun it pretty quickly.

Porygon-Z - Just like Cradily, I think this is receiving more hype than due. Sure, it has applications(such as quick preparation of Plasma's big 2: Lugia EX and Snorlax, and also for Tornadus EX), but its far too slow, and is much too restricted(you may not even have all 4 Plasma Energy on the field at the same time).

Chatot - Really gimmicky card I can only forecast one use for; sacrificial anti-Garbodor(costing only Energy after all). Not a good card at all, but maybe someone will slot it in to deal with Tool-abusers like Garbodor and Sigilyph?

I'm much more speculative on the Trainers.

Silver Bangle - Most big attackers are EXes in the first place. Kyurem could use it, as could Snorlax, but I don't see that large a pool of potential users. It will definitely see play though.

Silver Mirror - Now this can actually be a big deal for Plasma decks. Currently, every attacker used in Plasma decks is Plasma itself(to take advantage of Deoxys EX), and dropping Silver Bangles onto your field can virtually shut them down instantly(particularly if they've run through their Lasers and Catchers already).

Iris - I'm not sure how you'd use this on any non-final turn, since our Supporter engine is so good already(/sarcasm) that we practically need to play one every turn to keep up. Even on the final turn, its oriented towards decks that play a bit more slowly(and hence give up more prizes), and I don't know how many of them will need Iris.

Caitlin - Hand refreshing cards are always good, particularly with our oh-so-great Supporter engine right now. Particualrly useful on the turn after a huge Colress to get rid of the dead draw and hopefully get better cards. However, it doesn't work as well on a lategame N, which is where you'd probably want the hand refresh(Bianca, Juniper, Colress are all infinitely superior in that case).

Scoop Up Cyclone - Nice name, but I'm not sure its worth the Ace Spec slot. Primary purpose is to be a non-discarding Max Potion, and I don't know how many decks really need that, considering only Sableye can use it more than once(I imagine it could pull some shenanigans with it though).

The Blastoise set I don't see any particularly interesting cards in(though I will take this chance to say that somebody is going to play Quad Suicune somewhere just because of the Ability and proceed to flop around).

That rounds out what I personally feel are the relevant cards in this deck. The one possibly useful card I left out is Dialga EX, because I can only see it being useful with the help of Porygon-Z, and I don't see Porygon-Z being good enough to warrant building an entire deck around. If you do use it though, you need Dialga EX, Thundurus EX, Porygon-Z to really mill with any degree of reliability. Reverse Edge is rather pricy for what it is supposed to do.
 
I love that Chatot.

More easily searchable than Tool Scrapper. Deals with that multi-Tool Sigilyph deck, Bangle/Mirror stuff, Garbodor . . .

Apart from that, it's just the obvious stuff plus the Trainers.

Cradily seems like it's a Garchomp LV X that is much more awkward to use in a format that is much less tolerant of Stage 2s. And I don't remember Garchomp LV X being that brilliant.
 
Destiny Warrior said:
Scoop Up Cyclone - Nice name, but I'm not sure its worth the Ace Spec slot. Primary purpose is to be a non-discarding Max Potion, and I don't know how many decks really need that, considering only Sableye can use it more than once(I imagine it could pull some shenanigans with it though).
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One of my regrets over the "Computer Search" reprint debacle is that like Dowsing Machine was to Item Finder, this could have been to traditional Scoop Up... and that could really hurt decks like Sabledonk. Still a lot of other "broken" decks but every little bit helps.

Otherwise the actual effect is good, perhaps better than Destiny Warrior is giving it credit for, but certainly no worse. Whether we retain a format of big, Basic attackers or were to shift to one focused on Evolutions, denying a Prize while replenishing resources is great so long as you have a back-up attacker ready. For decks with good, Energy efficient attackers it might be worth it; save a Prism Energy or Double Colorless Energy from being discarded, flush away damage, and play that same Energy down to your back-up attacker. When it is something like Landorus EX or Mewtwo EX, that could be a very potent play. Scoop Up was potent even as a single back in the day (granted you had Item Finder to reclaim it, but I know I rarely did).

Perhaps if non-shuffling draw power catches on, Recycle might finally prove worthwhile; success with a follow-up draw of at least one card means you are ultimately running Super Scoop Ups with one guaranteed success!
 
Yeah, I go back and forth on whether or not Cradily is good. But I have faith in the creativity of deckbuilders to come up with something good (even if I can't see it now).

As far as combos go, Plasma Kyurem + Silver Bangle + 2 or 3 Deoxys EX = easy KO on EXes. It just might replace lasers in the plasma toolbox.
 
pokedan24 said:
Yeah, I go back and forth on whether or not Cradily is good. But I have faith in the creativity of deckbuilders to come up with something good (even if I can't see it now).

As far as combos go, Plasma Kyurem + Silver Bangle + 2 or 3 Deoxys EX = easy KO on EXes. It just might replace lasers in the plasma toolbox.
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Yeah, lasers get replaced for Siver Bangle and then Tool Scrappers to deal with Silver Mirror.
 
I think Haxorus is pretty solid though. I mean even without the anti plasma attack, you still have something that does 40 damage per energy attached. 3 energy and you're hitting for 120. Not many pokemon hit for that much without some kind of drawback. This hits that for just 3 energy and can continue to increase it's power. I don't know if it will see play, but it is above average.
 
A couple of other cards that are interesting.

Houndoom: Does 120 plus burn against plasma pokemon (60 base). Doesn't seem like anything special at first, but it IS a dark type so it gets easy acceleration with Dark Patch and gets boosted with Dark claw. Of course, I think it would be better to use it with Silver Bangle. 120 + 20 burn damage + 30 from silver bangle = 170. In other words, instant KO on Deoxys and Thundurus.

Tropius: One of the best anti Keldeo cards ever printed. It also gives grass a counter attacker against opponents with big hitters (and some more draw never hurts either). Just seems like a solid card with a lot of uses.
 
Na, Blastoise decks are too good to go away. Keldeo is still very powerful and there are other non grass weak options (mostly in the Kyurem family).

Darkrai will always be good as long as Dark Patch and sableye are in the format.
 
no laser effectiveness = half its power is gone. Hammers wont be enough to really carry it through.

i doubt blastoise will even live long enough to be able to pass off the waters to keldeo.

its going to be nasty.


but at least when Dark Exp gets rotated with Megalo coming, we will just be losing a tier 1 deck that would end up suffering anyways.
 
Darkrai isnt going to disappear. Hydreigon is still around and doing well (Havnt stopped playing it and have had lots of success even to date) and I only see it getting strong with this set. (Mostly the new tools and such) In my opinion I dont think they will rotate Dark Explorers. But geez do I wish they will.
 
Tool Scrapper will see more play without a doubt, making Sableye even better. Sableye also loves Scoop Up Cyclone. These are two pre-exisitng cards that will be boosted by the Plasma Blast.
Cradily, Siglyph, and the other interesting Pokemon are just that - interesting, but not powerful.
Jirachi EX definitely has potential, but mostly as a tech. Kitschy combinations, like with Sableye and Scoop Up Cyclone won't see much play because you're still limited to one supporter per turn.
Houndoom really has potential, IMO. Assuming Patch and Claw are still in rotation, it could be amazingly powerful alongside Absol and Sableye. The three of them together set up tremendously fast and disrupt beautifully. Absol already does massive damage for little energy and Houndoom will be able to take advantage of Patch and DCE. Darkra may be used as a bench-sitter, but it is comparatively slow and weak. And decent non-EXs are always nice because of the prize count. As such, I definitely think that dark is the type to beat.
 
They are definitely NOT metagame cards...

But for fun decks, these are what I'm looking forward to the most:

Tropius -- Nice Basic for a Grass deck, and offers decent attacks.

Abomasnow -- Water Pokemon with Grass attacks gives it good tech support.

Chatot -- For the "Basic fan" in me, and maybe can be used in an interesting way.
 
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