If you haven’t heard, the new format is Majestic Dawn and on (And not Platinum and on, like most of us assumed.) This new format brings good changes to the metagame. With less sets being removed, I personally was unsure what was and what wasn’t getting removed, which is why I made this post.
The Contents of this Article:
1) Cards in the sets: Diamond and Pearl, Mysterious Treasures, Secret Wonders, Great Encounters; that have been rotated out.
2) Cards in the sets: Majestic Dawn, Legends Awakened, Stormfront; that people assumed would have been rotated out (assuming a PL-on format)
PLEASE feel free to mention any cards that I have missed in the comments below. I am aware that I may have missed an important card or cards, and if you think one deserves to be added, feel free to comment on that also.
Here is a general overview of all of the commonly played cards that have been removed:
Rotated Sets:
Great Encounters:
-The removal of Great Encounters ruins all Speedrill decks. It also reduces the speed of almost all decks in the format, due to a removal of Claydol. A removal of Palkia LV.X reduces the effectiveness of Flygon, and the removal of Unown G is a mixed blessing.
‘Band Attack’ Beedrill
- The removal of the Band Attack Beedrill fully ruins all ‘Speedrill’ decks.
‘Cosmic Power’ Claydol
-Claydol is arguably the most used Pokémon in the entire game. Now that he is being rotated out, people are looking for new draw engines such as Ninetales for fire decks, or the new Magnezone from the Lost World set.
‘Download’ Porygon2
-A very powerful card to play two supporters per turn – used in few decks such as Porygon-z toolbox decks, rogues such as Probopass, etc.
Unown G ‘G for Godmode’
-Another Contender for most used Pokemon card in the game, heavily preventing the powerful Stormfront Gengar from destroying the metagame (among other decks.) The removal of Unown G gives decks that are based on special conditions or other effects of attacks a chance.
Moonlight Stadium
-Moonlight Stadium, a common card in decks which abuse free retreat for psychic Pokemon such as SP decks that are based on Toxicroak, Gengar decks that use Nidoqueen, etc.
Palkia LV.X ‘Restructure’
-A very popular card for Flygon decks, which allows them to bring up and lock down Pokemon like Claydol which have no way of retreating without warp point (or similar) once they are Sand Tombed.
Secret Wonders:
The death of Psychic Lock:
Worth its separate section, the classic deck Psychic Lock has been destroyed, because Gardevoir has been rotated. Gardevoir locks powers, and Gallade hits for ridiculous amounts which together prevented an opponent’s setup and also was able to hit them hard when they did.
Gardevoir ‘Psychic Lock’
Gallade ‘Psychic Cut’
Gardevoir LV.X
-The three main cards in Psychic Lock. Sadly, they are all gone. Memories… like the corner of my mind – misty water colored memories… of the way we were….
Ampharos ‘Jamming’
-When your opponent plays a supporter, you place on damage counter on all of their Pokémon. Usually people use multiple different Ampharos as a deck, although the deck has speed issues, it is a common rogue.
‘Psychic Shift’ Xatu
Prevents Venusaur mass special condition decks from removing the sleep condition from Venusaur, however this could be replaced with other cards that prevent special conditions.
Night Maintenance
-Enough Said. Very useful card.
Roseanne’s Research
-Needless to say this is one of the biggest changes – almost all decks ran 4 of these.
Mysterious Treasures:
Power Cancel Alakazam
-A general tech to counter decks that use many powers.
‘Airy Wall’ Mr. Mime
-Commonly used to counter Gyarados and Jumpluff decks, and also used in Shuppet to stall.
Team Galactic’s Wager
-Used for hand control and disruption in some decks.
Multi Energy
-Used in many decks instead of rainbow energy.
Diamond & Pearl
Dusknoir ‘Dark Palm’
-Used to control opponents bench and also can be used to let you shuffle fully set up attackers back into your opponent’s deck.
What ISN’T rotated out?
The general assumption was that the rotation would be either Stormfront on or Platinum on. The fact that we have a Majestic Dawn-on format, many of our favorite cards have been saved from being restricted. Below are a list of most of the commonly played cards from Majestic Dawn through Platinum that WOULD have been rotated.
Stormfront
By a wide margin the most important set that did NOT get rotated out. It contains two major parts of Scizor decks (Cherrim and Scizor), Fainting Spell Gengar (a major part of Queengar and Cursegar), Tail Revenge Gyarados (Gyarados is one of the most common decks), Take Out Machamp (Popular tech in Flygon) and Sableye – arguably the best starter in the entire format. If this set was restricted we would also have no Luxury Ball and Premier Ball, which would make getting out and sustaining a Stage 1 or 2 LV.X card much more difficult.
Cherrim ‘+10 damage to grass and fire’
‘Pound Down (No Poke’ Powers)’ Scizor
‘Spinning Tail/Grind’ Tyranitar
‘Overeager’ Sableye
Poke’ Blower+
Poke’ Drawer+
Poke’ Healer+
Legends Awakened:
-Contains the popular donk Kingdra, all 3 of the useful lake guardians and their LV.X’s, the Ditto which is a one-card counter to Flygon, Snowpoint Temple which is a good tech in SP decks, and Mewtwo LV.X which is a tech that destroys SP decks and Devoluter which is useful Vs. Gyarados.
Azelf
Mesprit
Uxie + Uxie LV.X
Regice ‘Regi Move’
Registeel ‘Regi Heal’
Majestic Dawn
- Contains the energy absorption Mewtwo, which allows Mewtwo to re-use energies from the discard for the LV.X. X’s Giga Burn attack. If Dawn Stadium was discarded, the new Feraligatr/Lanturn deck would be over before it began. Chatot is also a tech in some decks for extra draw power, and Unown Q is a key card in Shuppet, as without it Mr. Mime would not have free retreat. (As Mr. Mime is now restricted, this can also apply to the replacement wall.)
I hope you all appreciate my article. Indeed, it is fairly short and simple, but that’s what I intended it to be. In addition, I didn’t go into great detail, as I mainly made this list to show which cards were being rotated out; not specifically what effect every card would have on the metagame. If I was to go into more detail it would probably be more description of the uses of each card and still not adding those specific details, unless I was going to make the entire list itself a lot more detailed.
The three biggest losses (in my opinion) from the format: Roseanne’s Research, Claydol GE, and Night Maintenance.
