Hello everyone! This is Elena from Gaia Storm and today we are going to jump into a topic that is gathering the attention form (literally) the entire world: Which are the consequences that the rotation is bringing and how does it affect to the current building of the decks?

The first important thing to note here is that we are shifting from a somewhat mixed environment to a full Tag Team based one. The reason why I am saying this is precisely because not only Tag Team Pokémon are currently the most powerful cards in the game but also, they’ve received some very interesting support in the new set with the arrival on Cherish Ball and Tag Switch. At the same time, the rest of the strategies have lost many consistency tools, too many perhaps. Without splashable searching cards like Ultra or Nest ball and the fact that there is almost none way of recycling Pokémon, it is very difficult to set up a complicated board with evolutions. That’s precisely what makes big basic Pokémon like Tag Team as good as they are now.

One of the interesting consequences this situation is immediately bringing to the table is that regular GX Pokémon are becoming the new one prize attackers. Let me elaborate this idea a bit further. When the format was dominated by GX/EX Pokémon, forcing an odd prize exchange was crucial for winning a game because it meant four KOs (3 EX and 1 normal Pokémon) instead of three. Now, we will be seeing a similar situation given that it only takes two KOs on a Tag Team Pokémon to win the game! Who would have thought in this situation a couple of years ago… The only actual one prize attacker I can see for Worlds in Giratina because it can consistently KO a Tag Team in just 2 hits with its ability.

Concerning the deck building, one of the most relevant changes is the loss of Tapu Lele and Marshadow, cards that refreshed the hand and were searchable my multiple items. Now, the only remaining similar alternative is Dedenne GX, which is a bit more restrictive given that it discards the entire hand. Another crucial card that will be include in decks from now on seems to be Custom Catcher (at least while we wait for the arrival of Great Catcher). Now, as everyone, I have mixed feelings with Custom as it is wonderful and useless at the same time but there is no real alternative to “lysson” a Pokémon in the bench.

Of course, there are some early impressions from a couple of testing weeks and I am sure there will be multiple surprises in Worlds and in the following tournaments. We will cover the most promising builds in the next article so stay tunned and don’t forget to get all the cards here at CCG!