Hello everyone! This is Elena from Gaia Storm TCG and welcome to another article here at CCGCastle. Everyone has been wondering about the impact that Rebel Clash would have in the meta once it became legal. Will it finally end the reign of ADP? Will Dragapult become the new tier S? What happens to control? And while it is still early to define exactly what these next three months are going to look like, we can now draw some interesting conclusions after some weeks of testing.

                                                              

The first interesting takeaway is that, as expected, there are some cards being now included in the majority of the decks. Giovanni (Boss Orders) is literally a must and most decks have been playing 2 copies along with a single Eldegoss V.  Speaking precisely of Edelgoss, this grass Pokémon is mostly played as a 1-off since it offers for sure a very welcome recycling effect, searchable via quick ball. Then, we have  Scoop-Up net -To me, this item’s design is at the verge of being broken and really enables some crazy strategies. Lastly, the reprint of tool scrapper has created a bit of controversy among the players, however. While some see the card and a must have (I must confess that I am just a nostalgic fan of tool scrapper), others would argue that tools are not even that relevant in this meta.

And what about the decks? Which are the most consistent options for this new era?

 

First, ADP clearly continues being a strong contender in the standard format. The deck has pretty much maintained all its key cards and gained crucial consistency cards like Eldegoss V and Boss orders that helps it finish the game. Next, a deck that I originally thought it was going to be more like a funny strategy than a real menace is Zacian Jirachi Combo. And believe me, don’t underestimate Zacian… it really has the potential to win against many top tier decks. This very original concept revolves around the combination of Jirachi Prism Star (yes, you read right) and Mr. Mime from detective Pikachu. The combination of these two Pokémon ensure you an extra prize card but thanks now to the release of Scoop Up net, this small combo can be repeated more than once. So, theoretically, all you need to do with Zacian is getting 4 prizes during the game and let your Jirachi take care of the rest!

Then we have lighting types. Pikazek is a deck which I was particularly eager to see how it was able to hold its ground in this format against the gigantic V Max pokémon and truth be told it has been doing a very good job so far. The addition of Boltund V helps the deck incredibly and, combined with the speed Pikazek already had, it really makes the deck a very consistent choice.

 

Dragapult V Max was perhaps the most hyped deck in the format and I truly believe it has potential to beat everything. However, as I’ve mentioned in the past, energy denial cards really punish the deck. That’s why many players have opted for mixed builds with a thin line of Malamar and while it really helps the deck, I still think it will not be the tier S people thought.

And lastly, we have Baby Blace, a deck that everyone knows by now. As I’ve already written in the past, Blacephalon’s presence in the meta is conditioned by the number of Tag Team Based decks that are popular. It won’t be a surprise  that we continue to see a lot of these faire decks now if we consider that a good percentage of the contenders will be ADP, Dragapult and Pikakrom.

 

So, in conclusion, we really have some interesting months ahead us with a very diverse meta. Make sure you pick all your staple cards here at CCG and thanks for reading!