Everyone who has attended a prerelease, viewed scans, or simply heard the name “Mewtwo EX” knows that Next Destinies is a big deal. The set is full of several strong cards, and even if some of our favorites are not going to appear, it will make a huge impact on our current modified format. Like Noble Victories before it, Next Destinies is going to radically revamp the modified format before it, making for a fresh State Championship experience.
In my last article, I discussed how several of the current archetypes of this format will get impacted by the new set. For this article, I would like to discuss something a bit different: how the brand new cards themselves will impact the format. I will be investigating several different ideas, both popular and not-so popular, as well as in the forms of techs and brand new decks. Hopefully, you will have figured out what works, what doesn’t, and – most importantly – what could potentially win you a major tournament in the next few months.
Tools of the Trade: What Sorts of Decks Should Next Destinies Trainers be Used in?
One point I would like to address before getting into the knee-deep of new rogue decks is just how these new trainers ought to be utilized. I can safely say that each of these cards is at least marginally playable; however, they are not playable in everything, especially when it comes to obvious “cater cards” like Heavy Ball and Level Ball.
- Cilan is a definitive foil to Interviewer’s Questions. While the latter is capable of getting special energy cards en masse, Cilan is a surefire way to charge up your hand with basic energy. The most obvious place for this new supporter is any variant of Emboar BLW 20 or Feraligatr Prime. Regardless of how “archetypical” or “rogue” these decks may be, both can make decent use out of Cilan, and can lead to a sudden, out-of-nowhere charge up of a major attacker.
Also in the realm of energy acceleration, it works decently well with Celebi Prime, and more obscurely, it can even work in Eelektrik NVI or Typhlosion Prime variants that are Junk Arm-heavy.
Unfortunately, Cilan may most likely fall into obscurity the same way that Interviewer’s did. Finding the perfect niche role can be tough for this new energy searcher, especially when they could run a Pokémon Collector or draw card in its place. Still, it’s a reliable card that makes it somewhat better than Interviewer’s Questions when it comes to energy hog builds.
- EXP. Share is presently this format’s only way to run energy manipulation that doesn’t take the form of Double Colorless Energy and other Pokémon. The sorts of lists that can run an engine dedicated entirely to EXP. Share are uncommon, but when neither of the aforementioned cards are practical inclusions, it can be really useful when instantly charging up an energy-less attacker. It also greatly facilitates swarming, as it balances out the effects of Pokémon Catcher slightly.
- Since Ultra Ball is not included in the English equivalent to their Next Destinies, it will not be a mainstay in ball engines like I mentioned in Advancing Archetypes. Nevertheless, cards like Heavy Ball and Level Ball are still decent enough to use for a ball engine, or merely as supplements to the presently-existing orchestration of four Pokémon Collector with four Pokémon Communication.
Heavy Ball may at first glance seem to be like a major inclusion in several decks, as it is able to fetch huge metagame evolutions like Magnezone Prime or Emboar, and can grab powerful Basic attackers along the lines of Terrakion NVI and 4/6 of the new EX cards. With cards like Growlithe NXD 10 and Hippopotas NXD possessing their highest retreat costs ever, the makers of this game are practically begging you to run Heavy Ball – even if it means making Basic Pokémon halfway decent attackers.
Despite this R&D urging, I don’t recommend that you play this card except in a very specialized and/or supplementary way. Heavy Ball’s range is actually pretty mediocre, and since 80% or more of the cards it can get in HeartGold/SoulSilver-on are evolutions, it oftentimes leaves you stuck without a way to grab Basics if it’s the only search card in your opening hand. It is still a great card, however, so if you want to speed up getting your evolutions into play, then a single copy of this card could be really helpful.
Level Ball, on the other hand, has a far greater range than Heavy Ball, thus making it seem to be the more useful card. In this early testing stage, I find being able to crank out bench-sitters, crutch consistency cards, and other assisters to be extremely invaluable. Two of my decks in today’s article use Level Ball to great effect, and one of them even maxes it out to great effect.
- So far, the two Stadiums are both useful, but are not influential enough to bring back the good old days of “Stadium wars”: when two players would vie for board control by knocking one-another’s cards out of play. The key for a good stadium war is when at least one card produces an outrageous advantage for its initial user, and must be countered by the opposing player; otherwise, it’s just two players enjoying the same nifty effect.
When you take a look at every legal stadium in the format, the only one that ever produces anything that resembles this sort of advantage is Tropical Beach, as it gives its player the option to draw into a huge hand a turn earlier than the opponent. Judging or N’ing this hand alongside a counter to the Tropical Beach can be fruitful, but it is too situational to ever justify cluttering your deck with 2-4 of a card that will in all likelihood just be abused by your opponent anyways.
Even if it does build up a complex combo quickly, Tropical Beach is in itself not detrimental to the opponent, whereas past cards like Desert Ruins (Pokémon-ex hate) and Battle Frontier (Poke-Power/Poke-Body hate) most certainly were.
I feel that Skyarrow Bridge and Pokémon Center are just a continuation of this lack of stadiums’ significance, and that only uncommon scenarios will ever lead to them requiring a good old-fashioned “war” (e.g., a stall deck vs. a pure OHKO deck). In spite of that, they are still useful cards, so if you have a home for them, then by all means include at least a copy or two.
Splashable “Rogue” Cards Without Their Own Decks
One more set of thoughts before I move onto actual decks. I would like to take a relatively brief moment to discuss several interesting card that are most likely incapable of ever having their own decks, but could still provide useful effects. Essentially, these are some tech ideas that I think could help certain matchups, and allow for a little more unpredictability.
- Pinsir NXD seems like yet another terrible card of its species, and in most cases, this assumption would be correct. Against decks without energy manipulation, though, Pinsir can actually be a very scary card, as it can wipe a fully-charged attacker clean. Imagine, if you will, landing double heads with this thing on a Pokémon with several special Metals, or even leaving a card stranded in the active position indefinitely.
- Zebstrika NXD is an interesting card, as it is spiritual successor to the very fast, disruptive Manectric ex of the 2004-2006 era. Like Josh last week, I am afraid to say that it just isn’t capable of much, but at least it could serve as a means to get a setup deck going without running Vileplume. If applicable for the reason above, consider a tech line of this.
The Roguenomicon (Volume II)
As a sequel to the article I wrote a little more than a year ago, I would like to take this point in the season to discuss several interesting rogue decks that could seriously shake up the metagame at States, Regionals, and beyond.
Are you considering “going rogue” for the next stretch of tournaments this season? Do you want to beat the now even more muddled metagame as a result of Mewtwo EX? If so, then consider these four reiterated points from the article I wrote last year:
Rogue does not necessarily mean “bad.”- Rogue does not necessarily mean “good,” either.
- Rogue is a high risk/high reward play, thus demanding more testing than an archetype.”
- Rogues are often kept out of the top tiers due to terrible matchups, or a lack of strong ones.
To claim that something is just a pet project (e.g., my Serperior fun deck mentioned a few articles back) requires nothing; staking a claim on the effectiveness of a rogue is a whole other story. Other than one of these five builds, I do not consider any of these to be fun decks, bad decks, or anything less than worthy of consideration. Unlike the original Roguenomicon, several of these lists are actually brand new ideas, so there is definitely a lot on the line when testing them.
Naturally, I am further along in testing these since they’re my lists; however, to expedite your own testing process a little, I will tell you what my first impressions/results have been with these, as well as what they might need to become truly effective. I am particularly interested in tuning you all in to anything that might lead to these decks qualifying under point 4.
With all that said, let’s look at some rogues!
