Pokémon TCG: Sword and Shield—Brilliant Stars

Dark Explorers Lackluster?

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Poke Trainer J

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Seems to me like it's a very bad set, we don't get very many good cards other than Crashing Hammer, Random Reciever, and Ultra Ball 2 of which were cut from Next Destinies. Most of the Stage 2's in this set are unplayable because of how fast the meta is and reprinting Rare Candy almost seems like a sick joke by P!P/TPCi after they errated it from being the good card it once was.

Raikou EX had potential until Terrakion ruined it and it doesn't really have the damage output to be competitive in this format compared to Zekrom EX. Entei EX is alright I guess but then again Reshiram EX variants hardly see play because of how fast the format is, there is no reason why anyone should be running Emboar or Typhlosion especially when Zebstrika can shutdown your setup with Disconnect.
 
Dont forget the trainer that accelerates dark from the discard and the tool that gives them +20 damage

also Raikou EX, Darkrai EX, and Tornadus EX will be quite good
 
You missed a few major points there.



Darkrai EX becomes a great tech; giving lots of things free retreat. He’s also a decent attacker.

Zoroark is an AMAZING non-ex attacker.

Darkness claw/tooth/whatever gives dark types the support they’ve been needing.

Dark patch provides dark types with energy acceleration.

Empoleon is viable in Japan; a format where they’re first past the gate, speediest takes all, so it’ll be decent here too. Decent attack, decent ability, it’ll be interesting.

Groudon EX will be fun in fighting decks, and it might make the truth viable again, so long as raikou ex sees less play… (which might happen, might not, still a cool card tho)

Tornadus EX, while giving away two prizes, makes a great tech against mono fighting decks if you’re playing CMT, etc…

Zorua itself is amazing because of that attack, ascension.

Random receiver, paired with junk arm, means that junk arm now effectively reads “Discard two cards from your hand to recover from an unplayable hand. Shuffle your deck afterwards” Pokegear could fail. Not RR.

Ultra ball will be staple, and might help magnezone a bit… just a bit though.

Raikou EX is… well, it’ll make Eel mirror matches veeeeery interesting. Might even be its own deck with 4 max potion, 4 catcher, etc



Why are you writing off a set we haven’t even had released, especially one that promises to bring back a totally dead type (darkness) into the forefront of the metagame?
 
For the record, when Dark Rush came out in Japan, mewtwo EX abuse was effectively cut in half, went from dominating the top tables to being only in about half of successful decks. There's more good in there than you're giving it credit. Zoroark for example is VERY effective, and consistent as heck to boot.

And you downplay Raikou's damage but its damage doesn't matter. That's like saying Blaziken ex was bad because it couldn't hit the opponent's frontline hard. It doesn't matter. Whatever support backbone your opponent is relying on is dead. Whatever your opponent hasn't evolved yet is dead. 100 has for a very long time been a sort of "magic number" for a snipe attack, and even with our inflated HP totals today - stage 1 and MOST basic pokemon get smashed, and it's easy to set up 2hko's on stage 2 and EX pokemon with it. Far from bad. And as an added bonus he's practically immune to Mewtwo EX.
 
Poke Trainer J said:
Seems to me like it's a very bad set, we don't get very many good cards other than Crashing Hammer, Random Reciever, and Ultra Ball 2 of which were cut from Next Destinies. Most of the Stage 2's in this set are unplayable because of how fast the meta is and reprinting Rare Candy almost seems like a sick joke by P!P/TPCi after they errated it from being the good card it once was.

Raikou EX had potential until Terrakion ruined it and it doesn't really have the damage output to be competitive in this format compared to Zekrom EX. Entei EX is alright I guess but then again Reshiram EX variants hardly see play because of how fast the format is, there is no reason why anyone should be running Emboar or Typhlosion especially when Zebstrika can shutdown your setup with Disconnect.
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You try so hard to dislike stuff that you forget all the good things and get confused.

1. 2 excellent Trainers that will become staples, plus one which helps keep Special Energy in check when Lost Remover Rotates . . . seems good to me.

2. Zebstrika is nowhere near as popular as you seem to imagine. Entei-EX isn't that great regardless.

3. According to you, Raikou-EX doesn't have the damage output to be competitive, while in the same paragraph you talk about how Zebstrika ruins decks!? Don't worry about Raikou . . . he'll make it just fine.

4. Reprinting a staple card with the new text is somehow a 'sick joke' is it? Wow. You REALLY want to find reasons to hate, don't you? Most people would see it as a good opportunity to keep the candy in rotation and make it cheaper/more accessible for new players. Evos may not be great now, but who knows when you might need this card in future?

5. Like others have pointed out, you have conveniently 'forgotten' to mention a whole load of other stuff that has good potential . . . Dark Pokemon + Support, Groudon-EX and Tornadus-EX (both superior to Entei btw), Empoleon, Espeon . . .

Why not be positive about what the set has to offer, instead of trying to twist everything so you can be as miserable as possible about it?
 
Well I think this set will be really good actually. Way better than Next Destinies. Because when you think about it only 2 or 3 of the EX's in the set and maybe Zebstrika are worth playing.
 
QD4U said:
Well I think this set will be really good actually. Way better than Next Destinies. Because when you think about it only 2 or 3 of the EX's in the set and maybe Zebstrika are worth playing.
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Actually, I've seen all the EX's so far being used in competive decs.
 
Yep, pretty sure that every single one of the EX Pokemon has been in a deck that has top cut States.
 
Raikou, Tornadus, and Darkrai will all see play.

Dark Patch and Dark Claw along with the new Zoroark will make a pretty effective deck.

Ultra Ball is amazing.

Espeon could also be interesting.
 
baby mario said:
You try so hard to dislike stuff that you forget all the good things and get confused.
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Yeah it's just that this format has been really frustrating for me even though it's been really fun, I should've set my expectations a bit higher but you're right.

1. 2 excellent Trainers that will become staples, plus one which helps keep Special Energy in check when Lost Remover Rotates . . . seems good to me.
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Yeah I agree there...

2. Zebstrika is nowhere near as popular as you seem to imagine. Entei-EX isn't that great regardless.
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I think Zebstrika is mainly meant to cripple Stage 2 decks but aside from that it has some decent to okay matchups against other decks. I can see Entei EX being decent, but now I'm thinking that Typhlosion Prime still has the edge against it despite being one of the few competitive Stage 2's in the format right now.

3. According to you, Raikou-EX doesn't have the damage output to be competitive, while in the same paragraph you talk about how Zebstrika ruins decks!? Don't worry about Raikou . . . he'll make it just fine.
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I sort of have a love/hate relationship with Raikou EX, while it lacks the 50 extra attack to do better than Zekrom EX it's still a decent card all in itself. I've heard some people say that Raikou EX is better than Mewtwo EX but I don't really see a comparison when Mewtwo EX is more versatile with X Ball.

4. Reprinting a staple card with the new text is somehow a 'sick joke' is it? Wow. You REALLY want to find reasons to hate, don't you? Most people would see it as a good opportunity to keep the candy in rotation and make it cheaper/more accessible for new players. Evos may not be great now, but who knows when you might need this card in future?
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The only reason why I called the reprinting of Rare Candy a 'sick joke' in Dark Explorers was because of how Stage 2's are getting alot of hate in this format compared to Basics and Stage 1's. There is a possibility that Stage 2's will get better but only when TPCi/P!P stops giving Basic and Stage 1's more support than they've already been given.

Magnezone isn't able to keep up with the format anymore, neither is Vileplume or Reuniclus however Typhlosion is still hanging in there by a thread (no pun intended). 95% of the current metagame right now is either Basic or Basics with Stage 1's cause speed is pretty much everything nowadays. I could be wrong on that analysis but it is what it is, take it for what you will...

5. Like others have pointed out, you have conveniently 'forgotten' to mention a whole load of other stuff that has good potential . . . Dark Pokemon + Support, Groudon-EX and Tornadus-EX (both superior to Entei btw), Empoleon, Espeon . . .
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Groudon EX is alright but I'm not sure If it's good enough to counter Eels at least compared to Terrakion EX down the road. Tornadus EX isn't that bad actually but I still prefer Zapdos in ZekEels to be able to bench snipe with Random Spark. Empoleon well Eels can counter it easily so yeah. Espeon might be alright but it's Catcher bait though.

Why not be positive about what the set has to offer, instead of trying to twist everything so you can be as miserable as possible about it?
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I'd like to but I just don't see very much out of this set compared to Next Destinies, I don't see Dark Explorers worth getting a box for as much as the latest set where everybody was scrambling to get Mewtwo EX's and stores were sold out for like 2-3 weeks until the next shipment came. Though it is a good set to get singles for but then again with the EX Pull Rates being the same as Next Destinies people will probably still buy boxes of it regardless.
 
Dark Explorers is the greatest thing ever just for one particular card, Heatmor.

Fire - 90 hp

[C] 10+ If the Defending Pokémon is Durant, this attack does 50 more damage.


No more durant decks. :biggrin:
 
Slev said:
Dark Explorers is the greatest thing ever just for one particular card, Heatmor.

Fire - 90 hp

[C] 10+ If the Defending Pokémon is Durant, this attack does 50 more damage.


No more durant decks. :biggrin:
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Quite the contrary. Heatmor pretty much just makes Zekeels or Raikeels or whatever have that much more dominance over the metagame.

I'm not saying that Zekeels will use one, but Durant will most likely drop in popularity just because Heatmor exists.
 
EliGagerNorris said:
Quite the contrary. Heatmor pretty much just makes Zekeels or Raikeels or whatever have that much more dominance over the metagame.

I'm not saying that Zekeels will use one, but Durant will most likely drop in popularity just because Heatmor exists.
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That's fine by me. I just don't like playing against Durant decks.
 
Is Heatmor confirmed yet though? As a Durant player I will be very sad if Heatmor gets released just before nats. I don't think it will be the end of Durant because only a few decks will tech in Heatmor (decks that really struggle in the match-up, like Celebi) but it will make things a lot harder. Well actually if all Celebi decks tech in Heatmor then yeah... uh... it's kinda over. It all depends on how much play the card sees.
 
Pokemon Trainer J: Stop perpetuating lies. TPCi has nothing to do with card design. P!P has nothing to do with card design. If you are concerned with card design, then put the onus on the people that actually design the cards: PCL and TPC in Japan.
 
Poke Trainer J said:
Most of the Stage 2's in this set are unplayable because of how fast the meta is and reprinting Rare Candy almost seems like a sick joke by P!P/TPCi after they errated it from being the good card it once was.
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Except Rare Candy wasn't good before the erratum... it was broken. Evolutions are not meant to be in play first turn of the game. Even second game was a problem for the duration of Rare Candy's pre-erratum text. You do not want first turn Vileplume or Magnezone or just about any Stage 2 that has or seen play recently. We'd get variety, but you'd have even less of a chance of winning going second.

Two wrongs don't make a right: first we had Stage 1 Pokemon that were too fast, then we got Basic Pokemon that made those Stage 1 Pokemon feel slow as molasses. Dial back the fast damage, tweak the Trainer availability (and possibly first turn Trainer rules). Don't blame fixing a past wrong for the mess.

Plus, what pretty much everyone else has said about there being several good cards coming up.:thumb:
 
EliGagerNorris said:
Quite the contrary. Heatmor pretty much just makes Zekeels or Raikeels or whatever have that much more dominance over the metagame.

I'm not saying that Zekeels will use one, but Durant will most likely drop in popularity just because Heatmor exists.
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As long as I no longer have to worry about that stupid ant, I'd be fine with a theme deck being BDIF.
 
bullados said:
Pokemon Trainer J: Stop perpetuating lies. TPCi has nothing to do with card design. P!P has nothing to do with card design. If you are concerned with card design, then put the onus on the people that actually design the cards: PCL and TPC in Japan.
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Well thanks for correcting me on who actually designs the cards for the Pokemon TCG/OCG, don't get the wrong idea I wasn't trying to lie about what I said earlier in this thread.

Otaku said:
Except Rare Candy wasn't good before the erratum... it was broken. Evolutions are not meant to be in play first turn of the game. Even second game was a problem for the duration of Rare Candy's pre-erratum text. You do not want first turn Vileplume or Magnezone or just about any Stage 2 that has or seen play recently. We'd get variety, but you'd have even less of a chance of winning going second.
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I don't want 1st turn Vileplume or Magnezone either, I forgot to mention they should return the 1st Turn Rules back to the way they were in DP-On along with un-nerfing
Rare Candy. It wasn't that Rare Candy was broken it made Stage 2's much more playable and If it wasn't for the BW 1st Turn rules they probably would've seen much more play than they do now.

Durant hasn't really been a huge problem for me as it's easy to beat If you're playing an Aggro Basic deck however what I don't like is how Mewtwo EX either makes for horrible game openers and makes games decided by whoever X Balls first which is what usually happens during a Mewtwo war. The format would be more stable without Mewtwo EX but it's something we all have to deal with.
 
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