King Piplup
Active Member
Yep, I forgot a "no" in the sentence starting with "once", but that was the intent of the statement.
2013-2014 Modified Format?
- Thread starter ShinAkuma
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Yep, I forgot a "no" in the sentence starting with "once", but that was the intent of the statement.
A watched format never rotates. Didn't Ben Franklin say that?
Envoyofduels
New Member
When was it announced (date/day) the year that there wasn't a rotation?
Swordfish1989
New Member
I'm not sure why we're so excited for this rotation. There are SO many cards that have been reprinted that the format will barely change. Juniper's been reprinted enough times that it cannot be rotated. Max Potion reprinted. N Reprinted. Catcher Reprinted. Bianca Reprinted. What do we really lose? Eel. Even if they do the most drastic rotation I can think of (Dark Explorers on), the format will still change little. Sure, we'd lose Catcher and N but that's really it. You'd have to assume they'd rotate out the promos EXs, which IMO would be a weird thing to do (rotate out Darkrai and Mewtwo but not Rayquaza even though they came out at the same time?)
At the rate of current reprints, even next year's rotation won't affect the meta lol
At the rate of current reprints, even next year's rotation won't affect the meta lol
rivershock
Member
Dark Explorers on would also eliminate stuff like Level Ball, Heavy Ball, Skyarrow, Double Colorless, Prism and Cilan, plus the various things from before Next Destines, like Crushing Hammer and Eelektrik.
Swordfish1989
New Member
True, and I suppose Darkrai can't survive w/o Dark Patch and the like. But TBH, I don't think that rotation would even make sense. I think the mos likely rotations would be NXD-on or even no rotation.
Regardless, the meta would indeed see some changes to it, but I don't think it would be the 'OMG everything's different now!' rotation like when SP rotated away for example.
Regardless, the meta would indeed see some changes to it, but I don't think it would be the 'OMG everything's different now!' rotation like when SP rotated away for example.
Otaku
Active Member
Still nice to know, especially for the folks wanting to sell off older cards or that are just getting into the game.
Swordfish1989
New Member
True, frankly I don't know what deck to play right now. I'm bored of Landorus/Garbodor, I don't like PlasmaKlang, I don't want to invest in PlasmaBox because of the tins, and I don't want to play Eels in case NV is rotated. The only deck it really leaves me with is Darkrai, and I don't know if it'll get rotated if they get super extreme w/rotation this year. I've been borrowing decks at league lately just to play something different.
You're in my boat. I actually sold all my Plasma Box cards in preparation for the plummeting prices.
Funny enough, I'm running Darkrai right now.. On my way to building Garbodor/Basics for the rest of the year and preparing for next format. Want to use that garbage man til the end. Just working on which ones to include with.
I think Darkrai is just a cheap and very dominant choice at the moment. If it gets rotated..goodbye prices, but tbh it's pretty cheap atm anyways so you don't lose much, and if its not rotated you're still holding onto a Tier 1 deck.
I just don't see a rotation coming.. It really limits the metagame more than people think. And would make it Plasma vs Anti-Plasma.
But then again.. When X/Y comes out, that's at least two sets before June 2014.
That's a lot of sets available for play.
I'd be please with NV and on. As would many.
Funny enough, I'm running Darkrai right now.. On my way to building Garbodor/Basics for the rest of the year and preparing for next format. Want to use that garbage man til the end. Just working on which ones to include with.
I think Darkrai is just a cheap and very dominant choice at the moment. If it gets rotated..goodbye prices, but tbh it's pretty cheap atm anyways so you don't lose much, and if its not rotated you're still holding onto a Tier 1 deck.
I just don't see a rotation coming.. It really limits the metagame more than people think. And would make it Plasma vs Anti-Plasma.
But then again.. When X/Y comes out, that's at least two sets before June 2014.
That's a lot of sets available for play.
I'd be please with NV and on. As would many.
I was actually hoping for a deep rotation like DRX-on to be free of catcher. Then I realized blastoise would be just about unstoppable. You couldn't kill the blastoise, so you would have to deal with the black kyurem or loaded deo, or suicune as a non ex attacker. With it one shotting everything I can't think of a deck that could keep up. Because even kyurem gets hurt losing prism. So now I'm hoping for Next Destinies on.
Eh, I think that Chandelure/Rayquaza, Garbodor variants, and Virizion EX/Genesect EX would really give Blastoise a run for it's money in a DRX-on format. I see that being a pretty decent format, especially since you could safely (ok, mostly safely) run Jirachi EX. You would, of course, lose Darkrai, Gothitelle, and Eels decks, and Plasma would be a lot worse, but I think I'd really enjoy that format.
But that's what rotations do. They limit the format. Formats are always really tightly packed (so to speak) immediately following rotation.
Remember the HGSS rotation? Donkphan vs anti-Donkphan. That was basically the entire metagame for what... two sets?
Rotating through Dark Explorers would trim out a bunch of really really strong Pokemon-EX. While a five-set rotation might be tough for some people to swallow, I kinda feel like it'd have the best overall impact on the game (what with losing Eelektrik, DCE, Catcher, and Dark Patch in one fell swoop).
And I wouldn't worry TOO much about Blastoise suddenly becoming the de facto dominant deck, since Genesect variants should be able to mop the floor with it.
Otaku
Active Member
1) They keep re-releasing Pokémon Catcher in Japan; it is not unprecedented for them to get a different format or have some bizarre restrictions to make theirs match up to our "[Insert Set]-On and [insert Promo]-On" format, but Pokémon Catcher isn't going away unless we rotate to X&Y-On, pretty much. :lol:
2) Pokémon Catcher isn't what makes parts of this format feel stagnant. Remember, if we didn't have all these fast, hard-hitting decks/combos to begin with, Pokémon Catcher wouldn't result in OHKOs that prevent set-up/sabotage more advanced strategies. Don't believe me? If you can't OHKO a Bench-sitter you forced up front, what would happen? Your opponent would Retreat/Switch/etc. it back to the Bench, and in this format probably drop a Max Potion to make it so your last attack was completely wasted.
3) Ditching Pokémon Catcher is unlikely to make things better; it would weaken many popular decks... but not enough to prevent them from dominating. Of the popular decks, you would probably only lose the ones that are a bit less stale, ironically enough... and they would be replaced by just as boring "Bench-sitter" decks. We would basically be in a similar situation to now; technically there are a lot of decks, they just use similar cards and similar strategies, making them all blur.
Making a cut at either NVI or Dark Explorers would be highly unlikely. After all, the real end of the non-Plasma BW block of sets is at BCR, and that would leave us with exactly 2 sets. Rotation is never that drastic, but they do tend to cut one theme at a time. Cutting everything BCR and earlier would also be strange, because then one of the new themes, ACE SPECs, would be left without Computer Search, which has been an allstar in many decks.
I saw a few people mention promo reprints. From my memory, they always rotate the promos out together with the actual set print, so saying that Darkrai/Mewtwo have been reprinted as promos is irrelevant. If the normal ones rotate out, so will the promo ones.
Let's also not forget that the company recently gave away 2 foil Catchers to the top 100 P!P participants. Rotating Catcher out one month after that would be, from a marketing standpoint, an atrocious move. I'm not saying they didn't do this last year with foil Junk Arms, because they did, but it's something to keep in mind.
Finally, I'd like to mention that the company has shown little understanding of 'the format' and 'its health' when considering rotation. We've often been left with weird cuts that made only 1 deck somewhat viable, I've even heard people mention that they were 'waiting for the next set for the format to become diverse again'.
I saw a few people mention promo reprints. From my memory, they always rotate the promos out together with the actual set print, so saying that Darkrai/Mewtwo have been reprinted as promos is irrelevant. If the normal ones rotate out, so will the promo ones.
Let's also not forget that the company recently gave away 2 foil Catchers to the top 100 P!P participants. Rotating Catcher out one month after that would be, from a marketing standpoint, an atrocious move. I'm not saying they didn't do this last year with foil Junk Arms, because they did, but it's something to keep in mind.
Finally, I'd like to mention that the company has shown little understanding of 'the format' and 'its health' when considering rotation. We've often been left with weird cuts that made only 1 deck somewhat viable, I've even heard people mention that they were 'waiting for the next set for the format to become diverse again'.
TheRolesWePlay
New Member
I think NXD is still the most likely. After a deep rotation of five sets (set-wise, not playability-wise) I don't think it'd make sense for them to do ANOTHER deep cut of 5 sets to DRX, and cutting to DEX would seem a little too arbitrary.
You can say what you want regarding cutting sets for playability, but in the past they've tended to cut more to blocks than anything else (HP-on being the odd one out likely due to the way DS and LM were released, and also MD-on which was just in middle of a large block), and BW is pretty easily split into three chunks, non-EX, EX, Plasma.
You can say what you want regarding cutting sets for playability, but in the past they've tended to cut more to blocks than anything else (HP-on being the odd one out likely due to the way DS and LM were released, and also MD-on which was just in middle of a large block), and BW is pretty easily split into three chunks, non-EX, EX, Plasma.
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Otaku
Active Member
So... still no official word, huh?
Like many, I divide the sets out as:
"Early" BW-Sets: Black & White, Emerging Powers, Noble Victories
"Middle" BW-Sets: Next Destinies, Dark Explorers, Boundaries Crossed, Dragons Exalted.
"Late" BW-Sets: Plasma Storm, Plasma Freeze, Plasma Blast
with the themes of "Newest 'Base' set", "Pokémon-EX focus", "Team Plasma focus". Yes there are things like Ace Spec cards that pop up in the middle of that, but such a mechanic doesn't seem as striking to me (plus given the popularity and potency of Computer Search, a rotation that knocked it out a little early might be exactly what is needed... or at least desired by whomever makes such decisions). Master Ball is a nerfed Computer Search/exalted Ultra Ball, after all.
@Stealth brought up that promos tend to also rotate... this is true but not the whole story. In the past, promos have been used to retain cards through rotation. I believe it has been a while since this was done, but that could simply be because there have been no such cards TPCi wanted retained that needed such help.
Perhaps the "Prerelease Promos" indicate how the BW Promo cards line-up with the sets? If that is the case, DRX-On would cut Mewtwo EX and Darkrai EX, as that set's corresponding promo is Altaria (BW Promo BW48) while Mewtwo EX is BW Promo BW45 and Darkrai EX is BW Promo BW46. It if we rotate BW: Dark Explorers and later sets, however, the corresponding Promo appears to be Volcarona (BW Promo BW40), which would include them.
Like many, I divide the sets out as:
"Early" BW-Sets: Black & White, Emerging Powers, Noble Victories
"Middle" BW-Sets: Next Destinies, Dark Explorers, Boundaries Crossed, Dragons Exalted.
"Late" BW-Sets: Plasma Storm, Plasma Freeze, Plasma Blast
with the themes of "Newest 'Base' set", "Pokémon-EX focus", "Team Plasma focus". Yes there are things like Ace Spec cards that pop up in the middle of that, but such a mechanic doesn't seem as striking to me (plus given the popularity and potency of Computer Search, a rotation that knocked it out a little early might be exactly what is needed... or at least desired by whomever makes such decisions). Master Ball is a nerfed Computer Search/exalted Ultra Ball, after all.
@Stealth brought up that promos tend to also rotate... this is true but not the whole story. In the past, promos have been used to retain cards through rotation. I believe it has been a while since this was done, but that could simply be because there have been no such cards TPCi wanted retained that needed such help.
Perhaps the "Prerelease Promos" indicate how the BW Promo cards line-up with the sets? If that is the case, DRX-On would cut Mewtwo EX and Darkrai EX, as that set's corresponding promo is Altaria (BW Promo BW48) while Mewtwo EX is BW Promo BW45 and Darkrai EX is BW Promo BW46. It if we rotate BW: Dark Explorers and later sets, however, the corresponding Promo appears to be Volcarona (BW Promo BW40), which would include them.
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