It's January 24th (in Japan) and while it may not mean much to us everywhere around the World, it's release day for the new Battle Partners set in Japan. But even bigger than that, it's Rotation day in Japan! Which means cards from the F-Block are no longer legal for Standard play. For the rest of us, it will be April 11th.
Let's have a reminder of what cards are rotating, there a whole load of them so I will only focus on the ones that are playable and have seen play in many decks.
Want an easier way to figure out what cards are rotating? Literally anything with a yellow border (unless they have been reprinted with the silver border). So this isn't just any normal rotating, we are also rotating the yellow board cards era which stretches back to Base Set back in 1999 (and yes I still have some of my old Base Set cards still with me)! This is the new era!
First things first, every and ALL Pokémon Vs are gone. If it has the big V, it's gone. That also means the VSTAR mechanic is rotating. Which means were are now no longer able to:
- Starbirth (Arceus)
- Find any 2 cards and put into hand
- Star Portal (Palkia)
- Attach up to 3 Water energies to any of your Water Pokémon
- Star Chronos (Dialga)
- Do 220 and take an extra turn
- Star Abyss (Darkrai)
- Take 2 Item cards from discard and put into hand
- Ancient Star (Aerodactyl)
- Gains ability to stop V and VSTAR mons from using their abilities
- Moisture Star (Goodra)
- Heal all damage from this Pokémon
- Star Requiem (Giratina)
- KO opponent's active Pokémon if you have 10 or more cards in Lost Zone
- Legacy Star (Regidrago)
- Discard top 7 cards from your deck, then take 2 cards from discard into your hand
- Summoing Star (Lugia)
- Put 2
Archeops Colourless Pokémon from discard onto your bench
- Star Alchemy (Forest Seal Stone)
- Yes it's a Tool card but it still works as a VSTAR on any V Pokémon. Find 1 card and put into hand.
Yes they were all called Star if you never noticed it. As for Giratina, there's another big loss, that is the Lost Zone mechanic. Which means we lose:
- Comfey, the main draw mechanic for Lost Zone (LZ)
- Cramorant, hits for free when LZ is 4
- Miragate Gate activates when LZ is 7
- Sableye spreads 12 to anything when LZ is 10
- Giratina VSTAR KOes active when LZ is 10
- Colress adds 2 more cards to LZ while adding 3 cards to your hand
- Lost Vacuum sends one Stadium or Tool from either side to the LZ including one card needed to use this card
There's one cool mechanic we are also losing, which is the Radiant Pokémon! You can only have one of these in your deck but they can be game changing.
- Radiant Greninja, draw engine
- Radiant Charizard, late game attacker as a single prizer
- Radiant Hisuian Sneasler, adds poison damage
- Radiant Alakazam, moves 2 damage counters around your opponent's side
But in reality, there are some big cards rotating from this block that will change the game, especially because some of them are the engine for successful decks we all know and love:
- Lumineon V, takes any supporter
- Rotom V, draw 3 card then ends turn
- Manaphy, bench protection
- Bibarel, draw engine
- Radiant Greninja, draw engine
- Kirlia, draw engine
- Comfey, draw engine using the LZ
- Snorlax, blocks retreat
- Archeops, engine accelerator
- Regigigas, engine accelerator
It will take some time to get used to not seeing some of these staples for sure. I especially will miss having Arceus, Giratina and Bibarel legal as these three were instrumental in my Regional win and also my Worlds run in 2023. But we're not just losing Pokémon cards obviously, we will have to say goodbye to some big Trainer and Energy cards as well!
It's not a big list of cards but I felt these were the more important ones to point out and I included some old favorites just in case.
When it comes to Supporters, we'll miss some really helpful cards:
- Irida, finds a Water Pokémon and item
- Cyllene for the gambling people
- Roxanne, disruption when your opponent is down to 3 or less prizes
- Colress, draw power
- Worker, stadium bump and draw power
- Thorton, currently a favourite with many decks to help switch Basic Pokémon from discard with bench
But the biggest hit I feel might come from the Items because we do lose some really important stuff here:
- Cancelling Cologne, I mean need I say more? Cancels opponent's active effects
- Feather Ball, great for searching out Pidgeot ex especially
- Hisuian Heavy Ball, a card I personally like because you can look at your prizes then take a Basic Pokémon. Helps with prize checking!
- Switch Cart, another switching option
- Trekking Shoes, helps to thin the deck out a bit
- Lost Vacuum, stadium or tool disruptor
- Capturing Aroma, ball search on a coin flip
There aren't any real big Tools we will lose but the obvious big one is Forest Seal Stone, it's too good as mentioned on my VSTAR bit. For Energy we're only losing two big ones. Gift Energy is mainly for Lugia decks but losing Double Turbo Energy will hurt a lot of decks and now decks have to find another way to power up attackers needing two colourless energy to attack.
And finally Stadiums, there are some big ones here:
- Magma Basin, helps to attach energy from discard for Fire attackers
- Collapsed Stadium, limits bench to 4, often used to get rid of a bench sitter
- Temple of Sinnoh, stops Special Energy from having their effects
- Lost City, sends a Pokémon that was KOed into the Lost Zone
- PokeStop, discard top 3, any Item card discarded goes into hand.
Losing PokeStop will hurt a lot of decks and it was one of the main draw engine for many decks. That could also be changing as playing a lot of Item cards now may not be the best of ideas with the introduction of Budew into the format. Still a good way to thin the deck out!
And with that, I wanted to share 20 decks from the current format and show how rotation will effect these decks. There are some notable exclusions but these are for the obvious reason that the main attacker is rotating, be it Regidrago, Palkia or Lugia.
#20 Iron Thorns ex
Cards affected by rotation in deck: 21.67%
Iron Thorns may not look like it will lose much from rotation but losing Double Turbo Energy hurts the deck way more than losing the other 3 cards not named Cancelling Cologne I feel.
Yes losing Cologne is a big deal for the deck as now it will have no answers to stuff like Mimikyu. But without DTE, the deck might just seize to exist. I feel like if anyone still wants to play Iron Thorns, they should switch over to the Dragapult built.
#19 Dusknoir/Charizard ex
Cards affected by rotation in deck: 13.33%
This might be the only rouge deck that won a City League in Japan and it's a really cool way to play Charizard with Dusknoir and of course Budew. It's quite a turbo build with Radiant Greninja, PokeStop and Trekking Shoes in this list which you don't usually see in Zard decks.
And guess what? Those cards, along with Lumineon V, are the only ones rotating so this build might not even last as there aren't many good replacements for these specific cards. So if you want to try this version of Zard, you got a few months to make it work!
#18 Hydreigon ex
Cards affected by rotation in deck: 6.67%
This build of Hydreigon is only going to lose 4 cards, one of the lesser affected decks but three of them are major losses for many decks! This is just the first of many decks on this list will feel the pain of losing the Forest Seal Stone combo package (Stone + Lumineon and/or Rotom).
Losing Dark Patch does mean you lose a way to power up your benched Dark mons but that shouldn't be a big issue. In fact, I feel Hydreigon gains one big thing from the rotation, that being the loss of Manaphy from many decks.
And you might notice one yellow border card wasn't cancelled off because you can easily swap this Duskull to the one introduced in Shrouded Fable.
#17 Charizard ex/Noctowl
Cards affected by rotation in deck: 10%
Ok let's address the elephant in the room. Yes that's a Brandon in the list. I don't even know what it does. I just took the first decent list for Charizard/Noctowl I could find and this looked the most decent of the others so yeah, it is rotating, but let's act as if it's a Cancelling Cologne or something else.
This build of Charizard won't be missing the Stone package, in fact it won't lose much. Sure losing DTE means Terapagos can't attack out of nowhere now and has to rely on either two attachments in 2 turns or Zard ex powering it up. For this, I can see either Mela or Crispin making it's way to the deck to solve this issue. Losing Manaphy does suck, but Rabsca is still a thing just in case. Other than that, Zard Noctowl doesn't really lose much. But like any other good Zard deck, losing Thorton will hurt, and we will have to play more of our basic mons now.
#16 Chien-Pao ex/Baxcalibur
Cards affected by rotation in deck: 21.67%
Yes Chien-Pao is still a thing. Yes Baxcalibur is still around and while the two of them are staying, the deck is losing a number of key pieces. Thorton is a new inclusion so it won't miss that more than others. But we are losing Irida, the key piece to establish Baxcalibur on board!
But if it's not Baxcalibur we are getting out of Iridia, often times it's Radiant Greninja as it is one of the draw engine of the deck, and well that is rotating. But here comes the bad news, the other draw engine in the deck, Bibarel, is also rotating. The deck could turn to Revaroom as a psudeo replacement for both Greninja and Bibarel. But wait it gets worse, PokeStop is also gone. The deck will need a complete makeover to get back into contention but I do think it can adapt. These raindance-type abilities have always been good anyway.
#15 Dragapult ex/Charizard
Cards affected by rotation in deck: 11.67%
Dragapult and Charizard had a big showing this weekend in Birmingham and it's not as if it's a new idea that just showed up, Pult and Zard have had some results over in Japan as well and I do expect it to still be a thing going into rotation. Sure, you will miss the Stone package and Manaphy, but other decks will also have to adapt to it.
The one thing the deck might miss greatly, like any other Dragapult deck, is Radiant Alakazam. It helps to move damage counters around, especially to help you get KOs on 70 HP Pokemon when you can only spread 6 damage counters from Phantom Dive. Alakazam helps to set up some big KOs and sure Hawlucha can help as a replacement to it but while Hawlucha's effect only comes in once, Alakazam effect comes every turn so that's a huge change.
#14 Pidgeot ex Control
Cards affected by rotation in deck: 26.67%
Pidgeot Control is one of the more affected decks by rotation. It loses a tone of stuff. You can't discard cards from your opponent's hand from Luxray anymore or retreat lock with both Snorlax and Mawile. It also loses Miss Fortune Sisters, one of the best ways to run your opponents out of important item resources.
But the big loss surely has to be Rotom, Lumineon and Forest Seal Stone. These decks tend to rely on Rotom early on to draw them enough cards to start setting up the perfect board state to either lock opponents or slowly disrupt their setup or hand. Without the Stone Package, it will be much harder to set up Pidgeot ex by Turn 2, which is what the deck needs to get everything going. Losing DTE also means Wellspring Ogerpon now has to do 20 damage with Sob instead of no damage, which is not ideal.
#13 Gouging Fire ex
Cards affected by rotation in deck: 20%
Gouging Fire actually loses a few important stuff to make the deck running the way it does currently. Not having Radiant Greninja will make the deck significantly slower and not having Magma Basin means you can't just establish an attacker with 3 energy attack cost out of nowhere now. It loses a few attackers as well, Entei V is now gone and even though it's not in this decklist, Delphox V is another big loss as it can help take two prizes on someone not prepared for it.
The other main loss is Switch Cart. Gouging Fire ex needs to retreat to use it's Blaze Blitz attack again and without Switch Cart, now you are just relying on either hard retreat (or Latias ex), Jet Energy or the new Surfer supporter card. It's still a decent rogue choice all things considered, and can easily adapt to the new format. Let's not forget Hop's Zacian ex is weak to Fire type so there's some food for thought.
#12 Terapagos ex/Dusknoir
Cards affected by rotation in deck: 13.33%
Technically, this deck only loses 5 cards. One of them is enough to competely change the way this deck looks into the new rotation. Without DTE, Terapagos will now need to find another way to attack, and that might require the use of Glass Trumpet or Supporter cards like Mela or Crispin.
Losing Thorton means the deck can't get a surprise Cursed Blast out of nowhere anymore as well. The other cards rotating aren't as big but losing Feather Ball does mean that you now just can't use Noctowl to search out a Feather Ball and Rare Candy to get a Pidgeot ex up and running so we're back to old faithful Ultra Ball for the time being. The new Brock supporter card from the next set might also help with that.
#11 Gholdengo ex
Cards affected by rotation in deck: 13.33%
As you might notice, I'm not sharing the Palkia build for a very good reason, Palkia is gone so Gholdengo players will switch over to the Energy Search Pro build. But either side of Gholdengo will miss 3 main cards. Radiant Greninja is one of the deck's draw engine along with Gholdengo itself and also PokeStop, another card also rotating. You could replace Greninja with Revaroom as a new sub-draw engine alongside Gholdengo.
Losing Irida is also big as now you can't directly look for an Item card, likely Super Energy Retrieval or Energy Search Pro, to use right away. The deck will now have to rely on the likes of Ciphermaniac and the combo of either Gholdengo or Fezandipiti to find those specific combos. Ignoring all that, it's still the same deck that just wants to see lot of energies to Make It Rain.
#10 Roaring Moon ex
Cards affected by rotation in deck: 18.33%
Turbo decks in general will take a big hit in this next rotation as a number of them will lose the combination of Trekking Shoes, PokeStop and Radiant Greninja. Roaring Moon ex is no different but it also loses Dark Patch so like Gouging Fire before it, now it can't power up an attacker that needs 3 energy to attack out of nowhere.
Everything else is still the same, Sada is still the best way to get energies onto your attacker but the deck might start to morph more into a toolbox type deck where it starts off attacking with Roaring Moon and Koraidon first while trying to get Roaring Moon ex ready to attack later on.
#9 Raging Bolt ex/Teal Mask Ogerpon ex
Cards affected by rotation in deck: 13.33%
Speaking of Turbo Decks, I present to you the king of Turbo Decks! And unlike Gouging Fire and Roaring Moon, Raging Bolt only needs two energy cost to attack so it's attack is not affected by rotation. The deck's draw power however, is the one that takes the hit.
Without Radiant Greninja and PokeStop, the deck now has to rely solely on Teal Mask Ogerpon ex, Prof Sada's Vitality and Fezandipiti ex. The big question going into rotation is the more intruging one, does the deck still partner up with Teal Mask Ogerpon ex or the incoming Iono's Bellibolt ex, which charges up Lighting Energies. Ogerpon attaches energy once but you get to draw a card. Bellibolt attaches energy as often as you like, but it has to be on an Iono Pokémon.
#8 Ancient Box
Cards affected by rotation in deck: 10%
It might look as if not much is rotating from Ancient Box but the cards rotating is enough to affect the deck, just ask any Ancient Box players. The deck is another one that is heavily reliant on the Radiant Greninja and PokeStop to run through the deck as quickly as possible. Greninja could be replaced by a Revaroom line which might mean more energies in the deck.
Hisuian Heavy Ball is also helpful to get, usually, Radiant Greninja out of the prizes. The deck still has plenty to survive the rotation, it will just have to get used to finding new ways to thin through the deck as there aren't any good replacements for PokeStop.
#7 Terapagos ex/Klawf
Cards affected by rotation in deck: 25%
This Poison build of Terapagos is one of the decks most affected by rotation. A few of the cards work in tandem so if one were to leave, naturally the other would too. 3 Switch Cart was usually the best way to get Oranguru into or out of the active to get a Forest Seal Stone, and yes those 3 are gone.
Radiant Hisuian Sneasler is a big loss as it was one of the ways to put more damage counters on Poisoned Pokemon in between turns to help you get KO at the perfect timing, be it before their turn so they can't use Fezandipiti ex or going into your turn so you can get another KO. The other big issue is the loss of DTE. Terapagos and Klawf will now need to find another way to attack, and relying on double energy attachments in two turns isn't always the best way. This poison build will need a complete makeover to be viable going into the next format, or perhaps find another partner.
#6 Archaludon ex
Cards affected by rotation in deck: 3.33%
We go from one of the most affected decks by rotation to probably the least affected deck by rotation. Yes, there is a Dialga build but since that is rotating, I will showcase the other build that is just based on Archaludon. It's only losing 2 cards!
Lumineon V isn't even a big loss for the deck as it has ways to find the supporter it needs with PokeGear and these supporters are mostly 2-offs or more. Radiant Greninja however is the big loss, the deck was quite reliant on it to not just draw cards, but to help discard energies for Archaludon ex to make use for it's ability. Thankfully there is a natural replacement in the form of Revaroom, and this is probably the one deck that can easily get Revaroom out of the active thanks to Archaludon, Turo and Scoop Up Cyclone.
#5 Ceruledge ex
Cards affected by rotation in deck: 10%
While I chose not to showcase the loss of Dialga VSTAR in Archaludon, I felt I had to do so for Ceruledge with Palkia VSTAR. Ceruledge has often relied on it not just as a back-up attacker but also to threaten Moonlight Shuriken with Radiant Greninja.
There is a replacement for Greninja thankfully for the deck in Revaroom and even PokeStop isn't as big as a loss for the deck as it can just replace it with Cycling Road, which helps to discard energy which is what the deck wants anyway. With all that in mind, the deck actually doesn't lose much from rotation and might just be in a better spot for it.
#4 Miraidon ex
Cards affected by rotation in deck: 11.67%
Miraidon is one of the few decks, perhaps the only one, on this list where it actually loses attackers more than Trainer cards. Losing Raikou V and Raichu V means the deck now no longer has an attacker with 2 or less energy cost for attacks. Both are important for the deck, Raikou for extra draw and Raichu to hit big numbers for a one-hit KO.
Even Zapdos will be missed as it helped to fix numbers, especially against stuff like Iron Thorns ex with it's 230 HP. And even though Iron Hands isn't rotating, losing DTE means the deck now has to either rely on hitting energies off Electric Generator or from Magneton. And with Budew lurking, you might not even get to use Generator. But there is some hope in the form of Iono and her Bellibolt, that card might completely unlock new combos for this deck to exploit.
#3 Charizard ex/Pidgeot ex
Cards affected by rotation in deck: 8.33%
And now we come to my personal favourite deck. Charizard actually loses just 5 cards, but they're all quite important to the deck. We've got the trio from the Stone package which helps to unlock the deck's combo pieces so it will greatly miss that. Rotom has a natural replacement in Cleffa but there aren't any replacements for Lumineon or Forest Seal Stone.
Another card that helps with getting the perfect combos is Thorton, you now can't surprise your opponents out of nowhere after they had taken a KO on your Pidgey or Charmander or the occasional surprise Cursed Blast out of nowhere.
Maybe the biggest loss for the deck is Radiant Charizard, it's the only true single-prized attacker in the deck and it help with the late game prize trade. So yes, Zard is one of the least affected, but the cards rotating will leave some big gaps in the deck. That said, it will still be one of the strongest decks going into rotation however as you still have the holy trio of Charizard, Pidgeot and Dusknoir.
#2 Dragapult ex/Dusknoir
Cards affected by rotation in deck: 10%
With the introduction of Budew, Dragapult might replace it's dragon brethren Regidrago as the best deck in the format. And going into rotation, well Regidrago VSTAR is gone so Dragapult goes back into being it's own deck and it's already doing so in the Prismatic Evolution format.
But it does lose some big cards from rotation. Lumineon and Forest Seal Stone helps to enable some key combo pieces for the deck as it does rely on getting the perfect board state. Radiant Alakazam, as mentioned previously, is another big loss as it loses another key piece for it's combo to take multiple prizes. Manaphy is another dangerous loss as the deck might now be open to early game snipes.
Losing Lance is quite a shame as Lance as finally found it's home in this new build of Dragapult. There are some natural replacements in the form of Jacq or Perrin but for a Dragapult deck, Lance will always be the best choice to help set up your Dragon line. Like Zard before, the deck is still in a fantastic spot going into the next rotation. It still has it's draw engine in Drakloak. The same cannot be said about our final deck on this list.
#1 Gardevoir ex
Cards affected by rotation in deck: 13.33%
8 cards rotated. It may not sound like much but half of them will be the reason the deck changes completely. The current Ralts we all play can be easily replaced with another 70 HP Ralts. Kirlia however is irreplaceable. Refinement, or Trade, has always been one of the best abilities in the game and this helped Gardevoir to become one of the best decks since the introduction of Gardevoir ex.
And we're not just losing this draw power, the other draw power of Radiant Greninja is also gone so the deck might to rely on something like Revaroom, since you do want to discard Psychic energies anyway. Losing Manaphy might not be as big of a deal if the board isn't filled with Kirlias now.
I'm very curious to see a Gardevoir ex deck will look like post rotation without Refinement Kirlia. Those are all the decks I've got for you and if you're wondering how they all fare for rotation, here's a quick little recap:
Decks affected by rotation from least to most
- Archaludon ex - 3.33%
- Hydreigon ex - 6.67%
- Charizard ex/Pidgeot ex - 8.33%
- Dragapult ex/Dusknoir - 10%
- Ceruledge ex - 10%
- Ancient Box - 10%
- Charizard ex/Noctowl - 10%
- Miraidon ex - 11.67%
- Dragapult ex/Charizard - 11.67%
- Gardevoir ex - 13.33%
- Raging Bolt ex/Teal Mask Ogerpon ex - 13.33%
- Gholdengo ex - 13.33%
- Terapagos ex/Dusknoir - 13.33%
- Dusknoir/Charizard ex - 13.33%
- Roaring Moon ex - 18.33%
- Gouging Fire ex - 20%
- Chien-Pao ex/Baxcalibur - 21.67%
- Iron Thorns ex - 21.67%
- Terapagos ex/Klawf - 25%
- Pidgeot ex Control - 26.67%
Thanks for reading!
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