Kash Top 15 List: Cards from Brilliant Stars

 So I just noticed that the last time I did one of these was for Battle Styles. Yes, a whole year ago. I complete forgot, whoops! But it's all good, I've found some spare time to do one for Brilliant Stars just a day before it's released thanks to my Switch now having some screen issues so I have to put my Legends Arceus journey on hold.

Having had a look through the set, there are quite a number of great playable cards in here for us to look forward to. Of course this is also a good set for collectors with the character rares being included featuring playable cards from previous sets but they won't count in here. And of course, I've only got 15 of them here but there were a number of cards on my wishlist that I had to cut but wanted to give an honourable mention:

• Liepard (Similar to Zoroark-GX and Minccino, it's the same ability!)
• Moltres (Similar to Zapdos and Hoopa, one energy cost needing a specific thing to happen to attack for 90)
• Raikou V (Similar to Suicune V and Entei V....or should I say the same card, just different typing!)
• Cinccino (Similar to Lotad for Call for Family, always a good turn 1 attack)
• Raichu V (Attacks for all sorts of amounts of damage if you can energies on board quickly)

So here's my own opinion of the 15 best cards coming out of Brilliant Stars. Obviously there might be some better ones I have missed out on, I just took a quick look through of the set list to see what popped out for me and the cards I kept hearing about from the others. And because it's quite last minute, it will look a bit messy so apologies for that. 

Also I'll include the cards that these cards were similar to as many of them are quite identical to great cards from the past, some with better versions and some maybe not so, but still are old favourites. A lot of them are from XY Breakthrough as you will see. 

(Prices are as of 24th February, based on TCG Player)

#15 - Collapsed Stadium - 137/172 - UC - $0.32

Similar to: Parallel City (XY Breakthrough)

Bench restriction is back in the game after a long while. In the past we had Sudowoodo that did something similar at the cost of it taking a spot in your bench too and if it got knocked out, your opponent goes back up to 5. 

This does something similar to Parallel City where it can hurt your opponent's set up while also taking away an awkward bench sitter for you. Back then, you had to make one choice or the other but with Collapsed Stadium, it fixes that by doing both. And with Stadium wars being a big thing now, this will probably see play. Decks like Mew, Suicune/Entei/Raikou, Inteleon and Eternatus won't want to see this. 

#14 - Entei V - 022/172 - UR - $4.47

Similar to: Suicune V (Evolving Skies)

Yes, we do get two reprints of Suicune from Evolving Skies in Entei and Raikou but Entei V gets the jump for me here. Firstly it has 230 HP, 20 more than the others. Sure at the cost of a higher retreat cost but that shouldn't be much of an issue. With cape/charm, Entei V could become an annoying adversary to take down. 

The thing that really helps it is the new Magma Basin stadium as you can easily get an Entei V attacking right from the off whereas Suicune would need Melony and Raikou needs Flaaffy. Sure they're all the same but a stadium that gives the free attachment feels a bit better. It could be a strong new contender in the meta and with so many Fire support in this set with Basin, Moltres and the next card on this list, Kindler.

#13 - Kindler - 143/172 - UC - $0.97

Similar to: Misty's Determination (XY Breakpoint)

Even though I've got Misty's Determination on here as the card similar to Kindler, you can in some ways also add Bill's Analysis from Team Up to that list. Here, like Misty, you'd need to discard a card (in this case a Fire energy) and like Misty, take any card you want, but here, you take 2 out of the top 7 (similar to Bill's Analysis) and not 1 out of the top 8.

And because it's any card, that is quite the powerful effect itself. Bill saw some play just for being able to get Item from a similar situation so imagine what Kindler can do when it's any card. It could help decks like Entei to get two more Pokémon to help do more damage, or even find combos like Rare Candy and an out to Ludicolo in a way similar to Suicune V in the past. 

It could also help Leon's Charizard find the piece to get whatever it needs to either get a Charizard up or find the last few pieces to hit for high amounts of damage, be it Leon, Choice Belt or Basin to attach energy. Although I don't think it will see play in many Fire decks at the start, I'm curious to see how this card will be utilised in the coming months.

#12 - Gloria - 141/172 - UC - $0.19

Similar to: Brigette (XY Breakthrough)

Brigette is back! And with Lumineon V in this set, you can easily set up a board similar to the days when Brigette and Tapu Lele-GX were a staple in many decks, mostly Zoroark-GX decks. The catch is it can only be basic without a Rule Box, which is what Brigette was anyways!

We've seen two Prof supporter cards similar to this try but fail miserably because they were either restricted to 60 HP mons or 3 different typing. Gloria only has the restriction to Rule Box mons which makes it great! One prizer decks and decks needing to set up now have a way to quickly get things up and running. Be it Malamar, Charizard, Dark Box Inteleon or, as much as it pains me to say it, control decks and Durant Mill stuff. Oh god they're back.

#11 - Roseanne's Backup - 148/172 - UC - $0.33

Similar to: ???

So as you can tell, Roseanne's Backup is one of the few cards on this list that isn't similar to anything I can remember from the past because it's quite different. 

You could say it's a combination of Special Charge, Lana's Fishing Rod and Super Rod in some ways as you get to do all of that plus a stadium! 4 cards back into the deck can only be a good thing. Sure, those cards I mentioned were all Items cards which makes this effect a bit weaker since it takes your 1 turn supporter rule but it's still a powerful effect.

With this, you can always get one of your main attackers back into the deck, get that game winning Band or Sight back into the deck or get back that game winning tech Tool or Stadium back in, help yourself to win the stadium war with another Stadium and the biggest being saving an Energy. Special included. Stuff like Capture and Rapid Strike can now be saved and I can see this being a one off in some Inteleon or even Rapid Strike decks for that ability alone. In fact this sounds like the perfect card for a deck like Rapid Strike Urshifu VMAX in some ways. 

#10 - Bibarel - 121/172 - HR - $2.12

Similar to: Octillery (XY Breakthrough)

It is the return of our ol' favourite Sushi Master but instead of Octillery, now it's Bibarel. God's older brother will easily see play for the ability alone as many decks back in the XY era used Octillery as their draw engines and it wasn't always just one, it could be two or even three per turn if you had 3 of them in the bench.

The attack is useless and will never be used but being able to draw up to 5 cards is very powerful because of stuff that can happen in the late game. Your opponent could Marnie you into a bad hand but if you're able to thin it out, you might just save yourself with Industrious Incisors. Feeling stuck after having played down everything in your hand, II it back up to 5! 

We've seen many games where players will do whatever they need are down to 1-2 cards in their hands and most of the time it's nothing helpful. This is where Bibarel will save the day for those decks. It's too good to ignore plus a Pokémon ability as a draw engine will always see play. Octillery did. Silvally-GX did. Genesect V is right now. And Bibarel is the next. 

#9 - Manaphy - 041/172 - R - $1.98

Similar to: Mr Mime (XY Breakthrough)

Bench Barrier is back! For those of you playing Jolteon VMAX and Rapid Strike Urshifu VMAX, you now have an issue to fix. Mew in the past had been a real headache for Rapid Strike and now Manaphy arrives to give it even more headaches especially with it's 70 HP, similar to Mr Mime back in the day. 

This card alone will see some decks go into hiding for a while (they will eventually make a return which will no doubt bring Manaphy back into the fold again) and give one-prizer decks, set-up decks or control/mill decks now a chance to stand up to spread decks. Mr Mime and Mew saw load of plays in all kinds of decks and for that reason, you know Manaphy will see play in any sort of deck you can think of. 

Even the spread decks themselves might use them to win the mirror. The 70 HP is quite relevant and it escape 3 snipes from Inteleon and can be brought back by stuff like Rescue Carrier. And with 70 HP, it's even better than Mew. Just the attack is worse but who cares if Manaphy is doing it's job and protecting your bench right?

#8 - Lumineon V - 040/172 - UR - $16.02

Similar to: Jirachi-EX (B&W Plasma Blast)

We've seen this ability before. It's always seen play be it with Jirachi-EX or Tapu Lele-GX. But it's not as high on my list as I would if it was similar to Tapu Lele-GX because you're really only playing this for it's great ability, amazing even. The attack? Forget about it. Even though it's a good way to get it back into the deck, 3 energies is awkward in it of itself (unless your deck has DTE). 

But this is still going to be a game winning card. How many times have we seen someone reach out to get that late Tapu Lele-GX for a Boss or whatever supporter they need to win the game. This will do the same thing. It's a game winner, end of story. Great late game card, and for some decks, also a great early game card to get stuff like Gloria down. Just hope it's not the only Pokémon card in your starting hand. We all know that feeling.

#7 - Charizard VStar - 018/172 - UR - $75.59

Similar to: Umbreon V / Reshiram & Charizard-GX

Yes, it's another Charizard card so you money hungry suckers are already foaming up but hear me out. This is also a playable card. And I like playable Charizard cards as the last two playable Charizard cards have been two of my most successful decks ever (ReshiZard-

GX and Team Up Charizard).

So of course the moment I saw this, I knew I had to try it out. It has Umbreon V's Moonlight Blade in Explosive Fire...but better! 130 becomes 230 if it has a damage counter and in case you need a reminder, we now have Magma Basin which means Charizard Vstar can start swinging for 230 by Turn 2, taking down most Vs already. In that sense, it reminds me a lot of ReshiZard since it also did 230. And like ReshiZard, Charizard Vstar can also hit 260 to it's multi-prizer counter parts with the help of the new Choice Belt! And with stuff like Zigzagoon and Inteleon, that number just keeps going up to the point you're close to KOing a VMAX.

And that's where it's VStar Power comes in. Star Blaze for 4 energy hits for 320. Not 300 like usual, but 320. This is taking out almost every 3 prizer in the game. And for those with 330 or 340 HP, fret not as you have Choice Belt and Inteleon/Zigzagoon to reach those numbers. For those reasons, I can see Charizard Vstar actually being a good deck by itself. It one isn't just for the collectors but for players like me too whose favourite is Charmander so you know I need this. The biggest issue for this is well....it's a Charizard so people like me won't really be able to play it because it'll be stupidly expensive. You can thank the collectors for that issue.

#6 - Cynthia's Ambition - 138/172 - UC - $0.26

Similar to: Lucky Egg/Lillie/Bruno

Cynthia sure does seem to always get good Supporter cards, doesn't she? Add this one to this list. In a way it's similar to Lille where an addition effect gets your hand up to 8 cards and in some ways Lucky Egg as you're wanting your opponent to have KOed one of your Pokémon for you to draw more cards. 

In that sense, it's also similar to Bruno since it draws 8 but it shuffles the hand where in the case of CA, you keep whatever you had and draw up to 8, the option for either should help single prize decks even more as they've been relying solely on Bruno for a while. Decks that relying on having a combination of cards to hit what they need might also rely on this to get them there.

#5 - Magma Basin - 144/172 - UC - $0.70

Similar to: Nothing, one effect similar to Frozen City (B&W Plasma Freeze)

Now this is one of the cards in this set that feels very new to me because I've never seen anything quite like it. The closest thing I can think of was Frozen City where energies attached meant putting 2 damage counter onto the Pokémon.

Magma Basin is a little different as it directly attaches the energy itself for that 2 damage counter to happen and it does it from the discard pile as well which is always a good thing, especially since it's already giving you a second energy attachment per turn. The downside being it has to be on the bench but that can be easily worked around. 

But I can see this stadium being a 4-off in the possible resurgences of Fire decks. The new Moltres from this set actually works well with this since it needs to have damage counters to do 90 damage and not 20 damage, which you can get from this stadium so while you're waiting to power up one of your main attackers, Moltres can help soften them up. Charizard Vstar as mentioned earlier goes well with this since it needs damage counters to hit 230. Entei really does become a Suicune reprint with the help of this since it goes down to 210 HP. Victini VMAX and Centiskorch VMAX now have ways to finally attack right off the get-go again since Welder left. As a fan of Fire types, I will for sure be testing this out.

#4 - Arceus VStar - 123/172 - UR - $72.48

Similar to: Arceus & Dialga & Palkia-GX (Cosmic Eclipse)

The cover star of the set and of course Arcues Vstar just had to be good. A colourless attacker that helps to power up other big attackers? This is the kind of card that will find a spot in any and every deck. In fact, you might just see a field full of Arcues Vstars but they're all not the same deck because they've got their own different typing of attackers. 

Trinity Nova is pretty much Ultimate Ray from ADP-GX, hitting for 180 to attach 3 energies. And I say 180 because you'll most likely be using DTE to help fix the triple energy attachment but it can hit for 210 with the help of Choice Belt so in a way, again it's similar to ADP-GX. The difference is the 3 basic energies only goes to V Pokemons. Still a good effect I'd say.

But the thing that really makes it good is it's VStar Power, Starbirth. Because of it, you are almost guaranteed to hit Trinity Nova by turn 2 because of the ability to search any 2 cards. Most of the time, DTE will be one of them and the other could either be the attacker you want to power up, a Choice Belt to fix some maths, a Boss' Orders to take out one of your opponent's V Pokemon (210 HP guys aren't safe if you've got a Belt too) or whatever else you need to help you win more. Even a Path to the Peak helps since you won't be using your ability again for the rest of the turn. This will see a lot of play in the next 2 years. Will it challenge Mew as the best deck in format? Unlikely but it could be the most popular. 

#3 - Double Turbo Energy - 151/172 - UC - $1.20

Similar to: Double Colourless Energy

DCE is back!!! Rejoice everyone. Just change the C to T and the only downside of this card is that you do 20 less damage so now, even more maths will be involved in the game. 

But in saying that, even with the -20 effect, this is still very good and many decks will be using it. The 20 itself can easily be fixed by an Inteleon ping for starters. Cards like Choice Belt, Leon or Power Tablet helps negate it so you'd do 10 more damage at the very least. 

For the longest time we're not have a double colourless attack and while double energy has seen a lot of success with Rapid Strike Urshifu, it's really only limited to them. Decks like Arcues VStar, Mew VMAX, Mad Party are all itching to use this. The latter now has a much easier time to attack and not just rely on 4 Twin Energy. DCE always saw play and DTE will too.

#2 - Choice Belt - 135/172 - UC - $1.06

Similar to: Choice Band (SM Guardians Rising)

Choice Band is back but instead of wearing it on our heads, now we can live our our inner WWE/AEW superstars with our own Choice Belt around our waists. We've seen how good Choice Band was back in the Sun and Moon era, +30 to GXes and EXes changed the game a lot. And before that, Muscle Band saw play because it did +20 to ANY active. 

The ability to do +30 to any V (be it normal V, VMAX or VSTAR) will speed up some games. VMAX decks will be using it to knock out other big attackers but also stuff like Arceus Vstar (it'll need the buff to lessen the pain from TDE with it's -20 effect), and even decks like Suicune V can now taken clean one shots of most VMaxes with it's Inteleon/Ludicolo combos. Single prize decks will also be having a field day with this to take down the big boys. 

Grab all them belts because we'll be using it but be warned, this will likely cause a rise in play of both Tool Jammer and Tool Scrapper so a one-off Belt won't be the way, you'll need more to get around that. And let's be honest, you don't really want just one of these in a deck, we'll likely see two, maybe even three in some decks.

#1 - Ultra Ball - 150/172 - UC - $0.49

Similar to: It's a Reprint!

Is there really anything I need to say on why it's the best car out of this set? It's Ultra Ball for f-sakes. The best search card is back in the game. Ultra Ball always saw play in every possible deck known to man in Pokemon TCG. It will see play in almost every deck in this meta too.

Need to find a specific evolution? Problem solved! Need to find that game winning Lumineon V or Eldegoss V? Problem solved! Need a way to discard a few cards in your hand to use Bibarel or Genesect V? Problem solved! Need a way to make your lunch even better? Problem still unsolved but go play Pokemon TCG while you're at it and you'll most likely be using Ultra Ball to search out something. 

This is easily in my view the best card of this set. And the ironic part? This is also the card most of us already have and ready to put 4 of them (or less) back into our decks. Sadly, this is also the card that will not just keep Mew VMAX at the top but in fact, make it even better than before so be prepared to see even more of Mew VMAX for the next 3 months.

These cards will make building decks a little different now with more search outs, more ways to hit more damage, an easier way to attack for more than 1 energy, drawing more cards and one-off techs to find cards or protect the bench. Hopefully the game will get better thanks to these cards. Thank you for reading and I hope you have a great day ahead. 

Kash Memories: 25 years ago, Royal Rumble 1997

 So there's a few wrestling event that I can say I remember watching as a kid, but to say what was the first one is hard to say. I can remember seeing Summerslam 1994 because of the Bret Hart vs Owen Hart title match and the Undertaker vs Underfaker match, or events after that. But the first one I know for I watched for sure is Survivor Series 1996.

The one after that? Yup, the 1997 Royal Rumble some 25 years ago (I know, I'm old). I can vaguely remember things that happened in the 1995 and 1996 Rumbles (both of which won by Shawn Michaels) but for the whole PPV, the 1997 is the first one I can remember ever watching it. It was one of those events I had on my VHS tapes and I'd watch it a few times. Even till this day, I'll go back on the WWE Network just to watch the 1997 Rumble match, personally one of my all time favourite matches ever. And the event itself it blew my mind as a 7-year old watching all of this.

(ok yes, I was meaning to post this on the 19th on January for it really be 25 years after the event but it slipped my mind, so here we are 10 days later)

It was the first time I had seen a wrestling PPV held inside an actual stadium too so the sound was completely different to the normal wrestling shows, you could hear the 60,000+ crowd chanting and making some noise during the event. Even hearing the theme songs for the wrestlers sounded way different on a stadium show to the usual you'd hear at an arena show.

The opening match was a straight out brawl between two guys everyone in the wrestling world knows by now, Goldust vs Hunter Hearst Hemsley. We all know about the bizzare one Goldust is but he had his best run during this time while Triple H was just starting to get find his way, we were getting glimpses of the Triple H we all know about during this time. Also the first time he had a bodyguard following him and not a valet, something he's known to do for a while. HHH won with a Pedigree, something we all got used to for the next 15 years hahaha!

Second match was a throw-away match between Ahmed Johnson and Farooq but hey they did continue that feud into the Rumble match later on too. I will say this, the Nation of Domination was a cool faction, one of my favourite groups for sure. 

And then we had Vader vs Undertaker. Two big scary dudes. Undertaker is Undertaker, need I say more. Vader was awesome too, for a big guy he's quite agile and also he's a 400-pound monster who can do a Moonsault with ease! WTF! That shouldn't be possible.

I do remember this match quite well too. Taker's entrance was eerie because of whatever sound effect they had during it, making the arena sound so windy. This match was one of the first time where the result stunned me. I was left just staring at the screen thinking....did that actually just happen??? 

Undertaker's old manager Paul Bearer, who turned on him a few months back, shows up to distract him but then we find out the new surprise. Vader's original manager Jim Cornette was a no show and we found out why! Paul Bearer is now Vader's manager???? I could understand him being with Mankind but Vader??? That was a surprise I didn't see coming. And the even bigger surprise? Vader beat Undertaker, clean 1-2-3 pin with the Vaderbomb! Now that's a surprise result. And the best part? Undertaker attacks the referee after that match, he was pissed about that match, we hadn't seen him this pissed before.

The match before the Royal Rumble was something very new to me. By this point, I only really knew about WWF and WCW. So seeing wrestlers from the Mexican company AAA was quite the eye opener. I really wished that WWE would do something like this, have wrestlers from different company show up not just for one match but even the Royal Rumble itself! 

4 of the AAA guys were in the Rumble, that was something new to me. If you ask me, the Royal Rumble match is always the perfect time to open the "forbidden door" and bring someone from another company in just for the intrigue and I'm so happy that this year, WWE are actually doing that with Impact Wrestling's Mickie James being in the women's Rumble match.

And then the 1997 Royal Rumble match. Stone Cold Steve Austin made himself a star here. Before this, he was still not quite the mega-star we all knew about but his match with Bret Hart at Survivor Series put him on that path and it continued here with him winning the Rumble from the #5 entry spot too! It was also one of the first few times I remember seeing someone eliminate others quite quickly to give themself a few moments to rest, Austin did that early on in the match and also during the last third of the match too just before Bret Hart showed up as the 21st entrant. Go to youtube, see Hart's entrance and just look at Austin's reaction to it. That reaction and hearing Hart's theme song still gives me chills to this day.

There were some other fun stuff too. Owen Hart eliminated his own brother-in-law British Bulldog and trying to make it look like he did it accidentally haha! Mil Mascaras eliminating himself was super funny to see. Jerry Lawler being eliminated after just 4 seconds, Hart hit him with 2 punches and he was in and out of there so quickly he could "complete a sentence".

The finish of the Royal Rumble match was another "what the hell just happened" moment for little ol' me. Steve Austin was eliminated by Bret Hart but the referees didn't see it so Austin got back in as if nothing happened and eliminated Undertaker, Vader and Hart to win the whole thing. This kind of thing has never been done in the Royal Rumble and has only been repeated once but to no result either. It was an interesting spot and a genius way to further a story but man I was pissed because I was a Bret Hart fan and he got screwed yet again, he should have won the damn thing and his outburst at Vince McMahon after the match was just too real, you could feel it. 

You can watch the whole Rumble match here: 

And then the main event, WWF Champion Psycho Sid vs San Antonio's hometown hero, the Heartbreak Kid Shawn Michaels! Not as good as the Survivor Series match but HBK wasn't feeling well so you could see why. But at least he got his big win in front of his family and friends to regain the WWF Championships. I still remember seeing the crowd go nuts when he got the 1-2-3 fall! Good stuff, when wrestling is done right, it's fun to watch. 

Good memories. If you ask me to rank favourite PPVs of all time, Royal Rumble 1997 is easily in my top 3. No question. Not because there were many great matches or what not, it was the first big event I got really into and that started my fandom into wrestling that goes on till this date. I had lots of memories just watching this and still remember to this day thanks to the WWE Network whenever I'm in the mood to re-watch it. If not for this, would I even be talking about wrestling all the time? We always kept a few VHS and for the Rumbles, 1997 and 1998 were the ones I had and remember fondly but this one more so than any of the other PPVs we recorded. Good memories. 

Kash Top 21 List: Best Pokemon cards released in 2021 (stats based)

 Well it's the holiday period and it being the end of the year, I'm usually way too free and get bored and start finding things to do. If you have followed me, you may have noticed that sometimes, I'll be so bored that I'll end up writing lists for things I like and of course, the same thing has happened this year. And not just games, I wanted to do one for Pokemon cards and after thinking of what the best one could be, of course it hit me, why not a list for the best cards released in 2021?

But with a twist! An opinion based list would probably be too common and I'm pretty sure no-one wants to listen to my opinions so I thought why not do with based on statistics. Since we've got Play Limitless , Trainer Hill and PokeStats at our disposal, I can easily find some ways to go about it. The main thing here is to show which cards that were released in 2021, be it a re-print or something new, made a huge impact on the standard meta during the year, be it Battle Styles, Chilling Reign, Evolving Skies or Fusion Strike, and considering both pre and post rotation. 

The way I did it, I only counted events with 256+ people and only counted the top 8 decks because doing more tourneys or more than top 8 will mean way too much info and I probably won't have the time to finish it. I'm a lone soldier here anyway so I have to make do with some limits. So the results won't be as accurate as possible but it's the best solution I could come up with. And since it's 2021, why not a top 21 list instead of 15 or 20 or 30! 

(Just in case, all results are based up till time of writing, which was 22nd December 2021, it might be released much later than that)

As for some of the calculations you'll see, this is how I worked it out:

• Total Points - Points counted using Trainer Hill's points for Regional style events (256+) (1st = 200, 2nd = 160, Top 4 = 130 and Top 8 = 100)
• Seasonal Points - Pretty much the total points divided by the quarter the cards was from (Battle Styles/4, Chilling Reign/3, Evolving Skies/2 and Fusion Strike/1)
• Average Points - Taken from the amount of events played in that quarter: (using this gave me Total Average and Quarterly Average Points)
• Battle Styles - 24
• Chilling Reign - 14
• Evolving Skies - 2 (Pre-Rotation) and 13 (Post-Rotation)
• Fusion Strike - 6
• Quarterly Average Points - I had a feeling my first two methods would still heavily favour cards that were released early on so I wanted to try a system where I would divide the average by the quarter they showed up (Battle Styles/4, Chilling Reign/3, Evolving Skies/2 and Fusion Strike/1) just to make it more fair. These may not be the best systems to use and I didn't have time to look through the whole year as I'm the only one working on this so worked with whatever I could go with. 

Some cards came close but didn't quite make the list, the ones being close were Victini VMAX, Cross Switcher, Leafeon VMAX, Sylveon VMAX and Echoing Horn. There are some obvious stuff that didn't show up and my reasoning for them:

• Sobble - I wasn't sure which one to put, either Sobble or Inteleon but a lot of decks have gone with the 70 HP sobble so I thought Inteleon ended up seeing more play because of that and went with it.
• Genesect V - Again, wasn't sure if I should put this or Mew VMAX but if we were to think about it, would it be just as good without Mew? Some have tired and none have made it succesful. 
• Rapid Strike Energy - Great card, but sees play almost exclusively with Rapid Strike Urshifu VMAX decks and as a one-off with Rapid Strike Urshifu V in Suicune decks
• Single Strike Energy - Another great energy card but just like it's counterpart, it sees plays exclusively with Houndoom BST and if not for Houndoom, it might not even see play

And if you're wondering how I ended up ranking each card, I went with a simple solution. I'd take each of the ranking each card had from the different points system and gave them all an average ranking on where I thought they'd likely end up being ranked and from there, it was just sorting who went where. So pretty much each ranking divided by 4 here is how it was decided. Like I said, I wanted to do it statistically and I thought this was probably the best way I could think of.

So with that in mind, here is the top 21 cards that were released in the year 2021 that made an impact on the game looking at Standard format and how it did in big tournaments based on events on Play Limitless (so before you start going at me, "Player's Cup doesn't count and I didn't even think about it"). And if it does look messy, it probably is because I can't remember how many times I kept changing how I would calculate the points and which system to use for this bit: 

#21 - Jolteon VMAX - Evolving Skies

Total Points: 1,240 (21st)

Seasonal Points: 620 (21st)

Total Average Points: 144.74 (21st)

Quarterly Average Points: 72.37 (21st)

Wins: 1

Top 4: 6

Top 8: 9

Saw play in: Jolteon VMAX

First up is Jolteon VMAX, which initially didn't see much play at first for the weird reason that while Jolteon VMAX was in Evolving Skies, Jolteon V was actually only a promo and to get it, you'd have to get the Alternate Art version from the set, making it pricey difficult to get. It did get one big win in Evolving Skies and it's still the only one yet, though it's now one of the more successful decks with the release of Mew VMAX and will likely continue to be a force in the format going into 2022. One of the better spread decks in Standard format at the moment.

#20 - Fan of Waves - Battle Styles

Total Points: 3,350 (15th)

Seasonal Points: 837.5 (20th)

Total Average Points: 328.71 (19th)

Quarterly Average Points: 82.18 (20th)

Wins: 4

Top 4: 8

Top 8: 28

Saw play in: Usually a one off in many different decks such as Victini VMAX, Rapid Strike Urshifu VMAX, Greens decks, Dragapult VMAX, Cinderace VMAX, Leafeon VMAX, Ice Rider Calyrex VMAX, Suicune V/Ludicolo, Sylveon VMAX Rapid Strike Box

Not quite Enhanced Hammer but a good alternate at the very least. It saw play as a one-off in many decks at the start before not seeing much play at all for the next few months. Inteleon decks would end up start picking it up to slow down decks like Rapid and Single Strike mainly for their energies and it has seen a suddenly spike in play thanks to the emergence of Mew with it's Fusion Strike Energy. Don't be surprised to see more Fans going into 2022.

#19 - Crystal Cave - Evolving Skies

Total Points: 1,890 (20th)

Seasonal Points: 945 (17th)

Total Average Points: 318.21 (20th)

Quarterly Average Points: 159.1 (15th)

Wins: 3

Top 4: 5

Top 8: 15

Saw play in: Mostly Zacian V/Zamazenta V or Duraludon VMAX decks and also a one-off in Mew VMAX

This one card pretty much pretty much made the Zacian/Zamazenta deck one of the better decks going into the new rotation. Having lost Lucario & Melmetal-GX and Metal Frying Pan, Zacian lost some ways to reduce damage but in comes a card to help heal damage and not just to one Pokémon as well! Duraludon has seen a rise in play with the release of Fusion Strike with Crystal Cave helping it's tank-ability strategy. Even Mew VMAX will play a one-off Cave to help heal their benched Genesect Vs to stop from spread decks hitting it for the perfect number. 

#18 - Ice Rider Calyrex VMAX - Chilling Reign

Total Points: 2,800 (18th)

Seasonal Points: 933.33 (18th)

Total Average Points: 375.51 (17th)

Quarterly Average Points: 125.17 (16th)

Wins: 2

Top 4: 10

Top 8: 23

Saw play in: Ice Rider Calyrex VMAX/Suicune V/Inteleon CRE, Ice Rider Calyrex VMAX/Inteleon SSH

Melony needed the perfect partner when it was released in Chilling Reign and of course, Ice Rider was just that. It started life as a top 3 deck with the ease of hitting 250 for just two energies and potentially one-hit certain VMAXes thanks to Inteleon making it a favourite amongst players. Even though it's no longer a top 5 contender in terms of decks in the last few format, it's still one of the better decks around, and now along with Suicune V, as a great partner to work with if needed.

#17 - Houndoom - Battle Styles

Total Points: 3,550 (14th)

Seasonal Points: 887.5 (19th)

Total Average Points: 406.76 (14th)

Quarterly Average Points: 101.69 (18th)

Wins: 4

Top 4: 15

Top 8: 27

Saw play in: Single Strike Box, Umbreon VMAX, Gengar VMAX

The reason you don't see Single Strike Energy on this list is because if you are playing that, you will be playing Houndoom because it's Single Strike Roar ability helps to attach it from the deck, which is incredibly helpful to speed up your game plan. It saw little to no play in the first two formats until Umbreon VMAX was released, which is when the Single Strike decks finally thrived. And now having a Dark-type attacker to counter the many top decks with Dark-weakness, Single Strike decks have now become one of the best decks in the Standard format. There has been many occasions where either having 3 or not having a single Houndoom pretty much decided how your games would go, I cannot say how much more important this one card has been to those kinds of decks.

#16 - Cheryl - Battle Styles

Total Points: 3,920 (12th)

Seasonal Points: 980 (16th)

Total Average Points: 357.15 (18th)

Quarterly Average Points: 89.28 (19th)

Wins: 3

Top 4: 19

Top 8: 29

Saw play in: One-off in Jolteon VMAX, Rapid Strike Urshifu VMAX, Corviknight VMAX, Mewtwo & Mew-GX Dark Box, Eternatus VMAX, Malamar VMAX, Togekiss VMAX, 

These kind of heal cards will always find a way to make itself a pain to deal with in any format it's in and while it did take a while, Cheryl did end up being a staple in decks like Jolteon VMAX and even early on with Rapid Strike Urshifu VMAX. It made perfect sense for decks using Bronzong to move energies around and even the new Inteleon VMAX would utilise a four-off  since it's game plan revolves around not having energies on itself but where Cheryl thrived the most were with decks that tend to attack with just one energy cost (Rapid Strike Urshifu and Jolteon comes to mind).

#15 - Umbreon VMAX - Evolving Skies

Total Points: 3,320 (16th)

Seasonal Points: 1,660 (13th)

Total Average Points: 397.18 (15th)

Quarterly Average Points: 198.59 (12th)

Wins: 4

Top 4: 14

Top 8: 25

Saw play in: Single Strike Box, Gengar VMAX, Eternatus VMAX

Lycanroc-GX has returned in the new form of Umbreon VMAX! This one card pretty much made Single Strike a deck people found awkward to play with into one of the best decks in the format. It's been a top-two deck for the last quarters and it's not hard to see why. Having a gust option on a Pokémon has always seen success and for that reason, it's even seen play in some decks with either a 3-2 or 2-2 line just for the gust option, with Eternatus VMAX the one making the best use of it. And being a dark attacker hitting for 160, it's the card big psychic decks like Shadow Rider VMAX, Dragapult VMAX and Mew VMAX all don't want to see. 

#14 - Rapid Strike Urshifu VMAX - Battle Styles

Total Points: 6,640 (7th)

Seasonal Points: 1,660 (13th)

Total Average Points: 422.86 (13th)

Quarterly Average Points: 105.71 (17th)

Wins: 9

Top 4: 26

Top 8: 49

Saw play in: Rapid Strike Urshifu VMAX with either Jirachi TEU, Cinccino SWSH or Inteleon CRE, partnered with Dragapult VMAX or as a tech attacker with Sylveon VMAX or Zeraora V Rapid Strike Box

So honest true, when I first started making this list, Rapid Strike Urshifu VMAX was initially first on my list. Then I moved it down to 3rd when I decided to include re-print cards. Then I started working on a points system and it kept going down to 7th, then 10th, and now down in 14th. Rapid Strike Urshifu VMAX is one of the best attackers in the game, it has two great attacks, one that hits 150 when it moves into the active for just one energy and of course, the other hitting 120 to two Pokémon (or 150 with either Passimian or Scope or if you're lucky enough to have both, 180 on Vs). 

The honest truth it, as good as it is, it just hasn't seen much success in bigger tournaments. It's only been considered a top 3 deck in the Fusion Strike quarter, which if you're keeping count, the 4th quarter of this format which does raise questions as to why it didn't do so well in the first 3 quarters. Then again, having a Psychic weakness can be a problem as they are three big decks using Psychic-type VMAXes which does stop Rapid Strike Urshifu VMAX from reaching it's full potential and likely will stay this way till it rotates sadly.

#13 - Mew VMAX - Fusion Strike

Total Points: 2,310 (19th)

Seasonal Points: 2,310 (8th)

Total Average Points: 385 (16th)

Quarterly Average Points: 385 (5th)

Wins: 4

Top 4: 8

Top 8: 17

Saw play in: Mew VMAX/Genesect V

One of just two cards from Fusion Strike to be included in this list but of course, Mew VMAX had to be included. We have not had a clear BDIF for a long time until this showed up. Sure it may only have seen play for the last two moths of the year but it's clear to see how much of an impact it's already made in this short space of time. 

Mew VMAX is that deck that just has it all to make it the clear BDIF from this format and likely for the rest of 2022, it has:

• A built in-draw engine with Genesect VMAX
• Clean 210 attack from Genesect which has the downside of not being able to attack the next turn but as Mew VMAX has a free-retreat, this can easily be worked around
• The ability to take cheeky donks with Meloetta in Turn 1 for 210 damage
• Power Tablet giving it +30 damage
• Shred-like attacker in Max Miracle to cancel out irritants like Decidueye
• Sky Return-style attack in Mew V's Psychic Leap
• Dyna-Barrier attack from Latios preventing damage from VMAXes
• Takes 20-less damage thanks to Oricorio
• Elesa's Sparkle attaching 2 Fusion Strike energies from the deck
• Speaking of Fusion Strike energy, it stops abilities affecting it such as Quick Shooting from Inteleon CRE

And if you think having that amount of options wasn't bad enough, Mew is one of the few decks that can get away with playing Cram-O-Matic too! With that crazy amount of options, it's no secret why Mew VMAX is the clear BDIF going into 2022, but since it did only just show up, it's only featured in the middle of the list but still a decent placing I'd say. 

#12 - Suicune V - Evolving Skies

Total Points: 3,720 (13th)

Seasonal Points: 1,860 (11th)

Total Average Points: 493.97 (11th)

Quarterly Average Points: 246.99 (10th)

Wins: 3

Top 4: 14

Top 8: 30

Saw play in: Suicune V/Ludicolo EVS/Inteleon CRE and Ice Rider Calyrex VMAX/Suicune V/Inteleon CRE

If I was biased, this wouldn't be here and it'd be in the top 10. It's no surprise how much I like Suicune V as a card, and also people may not know that Suicune is actually my favourite legendary Pokémon too! Melony already had a great partner in Ice Rider Calyrex VMAX but Suicune V gives the Water supporter a second attacker to go with, and one that is a Basic attacker too. 

Not only does it have a useful first ability to just draw one card, but also Blizzard Rondo punishes anyone who may over-bench. It can go from 80 damage, to 200 damage to even 320 damage with a little help from Ludicolo from Evolving Skies. Paired with the likes of Inteleon and the aforementioned Ludicolo, it's made Suicune one of the better decks in the format, not quite a top 3 deck yet though sadly as evident from it's points and why it's only 12th on here. But in saying that, a Suicune V deck did win the POG Worlds 2021 championship.

#11 - Melony - Chilling Reign 

Total Points: 5,030 (11th)

Seasonal Points: 1676.67 (12th)

Total Average Points: 610 (9th)

Quarterly Average Points: 203.33 (11th)

Wins: 3

Top 4: 19

Top 8: 41

Saw play in: Ice Rider Calyrex VMAX/Inteleon SSH, Suicune V/Ludicolo EVS/Inteleon CRE, Ice Rider Calyrex VMAX/Suicune V/Inteleon CRE, Rapid Strike Urshifu VMAX/Inteleon CRE

And speaking of Melony, it shouldn't be a big surprise to see it alongside Suicune on this ranking having been a go-to deck for many players in the past few months. Melony in some ways is similar to my personal favourite supporter of the past years, Welder, but instead of attaching 2 energy of a certain type from hand, it attaches one certain type from the discard. That's the good part of it. The bad part is that it can only be a V Pokémon. 

Still that hasn't stopped Melony from seeing play with any deck featuring either Ice Rider Calyrex VMAX or Suicune V, or in many cases, featuring both at the same time. Lately it's also seen play with Rapid Strike Urshifu VMAX to help it get back-to-back G-Max Rapid Flow attacks. Easily the best Supporter card to be released apart from one other...

#10 - Shadow Rider Calyrex VMAX - Chilling Reign 

Total Points: 6,160 (9th)

Seasonal Points: 2,053.33 (9th)

Total Average Points: 586.33 (10th)

Quarterly Average Points: 195.44 (13th)

Wins: 8

Top 4: 26

Top 8: 47

Saw play in: Shadow Rider Calyrex VMAX, with and without Alcremie VMAX

Shadow Rider made claim to the title of BDIF the moment it was released in Chilling Reign and it's not hard to see why. Having a Trade-style ability is always a good thing but instead of discard a card, it actually attaches a basic Psychic energy to a benched Psychic Pokémon. And as I've always said, anything that helps to speed up energy attachment is always a really helpful thing and one to watch out for. 

And even though Shadow Rider was the BDIF in just one quarter (Chilling Reign) the impact it made that one part of the year was enough to put it in 10th spot on this list. Not a single attacking Pokémon released in 2021 scored more points in one quarter than Shadow Rider Calyrex VMAX this year so it had to be well represented on here. There is sadly a good reason why it's not seeing much success and part of the blame can be put to Mew VMAX, as it being successful meant more Dark decks seeing play, which indirectly affects Shadow Rider from doing well.

#9 - Tool Jammer - Battle Styles

Total Points: 6,580 (8th)

Seasonal Points: 1,645 (15th)

Total Average Points: 679.65 (7th)

Quarterly Average Points: 169.91 (11th)

Wins: 6

Top 4: 25

Top 8: 52

Saw play in: Initially only saw play in Victini VMAX, Decidueye DAA, ADP/Moltres and Eternatus VMAX, saw a rise in play with the release of Leafeon VMAX and Umbreon VMAX and also Galarian Weezing SHF

Tool Jammer was an interesting one to figure out. Initially I only had it near the bottom half of the ranking but once I looked into the results, it kept showing up! It first saw play as a cheeky one off tech in decks like Victini VMAX and Eternatus VMAX as a way to not fully rely on Tool Scrapper, which many decks were still relying on.

That all changed when Leafeon VMAX was released. Leafeon's attack was all about hitting for as much retreat cost as possible and with Galar Mine, that helped it even more. So naturally most deck would try to cover with Air Balloon and that's where Tool Jammer comes in. Not only does it stop it from giving less retreat cost, it's also been the cause of much pain for decks like Zacian and Suicune that were hoping to survive a hit with their Cape of Toughness. One of the more underrated cards to come out of this year.

#8 - Battle VIP Pass - Fusion Strike

Total Points: 2,910 (17th)

Seasonal Points: 2,910 (7th)

Total Average Points: 485 (12th)

Quarterly Average Points: 485 (1st)

Wins: 5

Top 4: 10

Top 8: 22

Saw play in: Mew VMAX, Single Strike Box, Malamar CRE/Rapid Strike Box

Now this one did surprise me a bit, for the longest time I had Battle VIP only as high as 11th and as low at 20th at one point. And then I decided to try a quarterly average system and that's where Battle VIP Pass shone through. 

It's no secret to see why it has the best score in that area. It may have only seen play in one format but that in one format, the two best decks, Mew VMAX and Single Strike Box, are the two main decks that rely heavily on getting Battle VIP Pass to set up it's attackers and their support Pokémon, be it Houndoom or Genesect. And even though it's only useful in the first turn, it's clearly a worthy addition with how successful it's been in just two moths, with 5 of the 6 decks winning 256+ tourneys all having Battle VIP Pass in their deck. 

#7 - Galarian Moltres V - Chilling Reign 

Total Points: 5,800 (10th)

Seasonal Points: 1933.33 (10th)

Total Average Points: 775.29 (6th)

Quarterly Average Points: 258.43 (9th)

Wins: 4

Top 4: 27

Top 8: 45

Saw play in: ADP-GX, Mewtwo & Mew-GX/Dark Box, Eternatus VMAX, Rapid Strike Urshifu VMAX, Sylveon VMAX, Sableye V, Galarian Weezing SHF

We didn't get many great tech cards but if I may, I'd like to think Galarian Moltres V was probably the best tech to come out of this year. It showed up at the same time as Shadow Rider Calyrex VMAX which many had predicted to be an instant BDIF and it having a Dark type weakness meant Galarian Moltres saw play in all sorts of decks. It became ADP-GX's main choice for a partner, helped bring a new version of Mewtwo & Mew-GX with the Dark Box variety, and helped Dark decks like Eternatus VMAX and Malamar VMAX speed up energy with good ol' Energy Switch thanks to it's Direflame Wings, easily one of the best abilities in the game at the moment. As I've said, any sort of energy acceleration is always a good thing and I like those kinds of decks. 

It's not a bad attacker too as 190 can trouble a lot of Vs and two shot all VMaxes as the simple price of hitting 30 to yourself. And with Raihan releasing in Evolving Skies, it made Moltres an even more viable partner for many decks, sometimes even get a Moltres fully powered up out of nowhere! Lately it's been the partner of choice for Rapid Strike Urshifu VMAX to counter it's psychic-weak matchups and to help accelerate energy for G-Max Rapid Flow, it's even seen play as a partner for the likes of Sableye V, Leafeon VMAX and Sylveon VMAX. After all, when you've got the likes of Mew VMAX and Shadow Rider Calyrex VMAX ready to do well in any event, just having Galarian Moltres V can sometimes be enough to swing the match to your favour. 

#6 - Raihan - Evolving Skies

Total Points: 7,870 (6th)

Seasonal Points: 3,935 (4th)

Total Average Points: 676.28 (8th)

Quarterly Average Points: 338.14 (7th)

Wins: 7

Top 4: 28

Top 8: 63

Saw play in: Rapid Strike Urshifu VMAX, Dragapult VMAX, Togekiss VMAX, Zacian V, Suicune V/Ludicolo EVS/Inteleon CRE, Ice Rider Calyrex VMAX/Suicune V/Inteleon CRE, Leafeon VMAX, Sableye V/Inteleon CRE, Decidueye DAA

I did mention a while back that Melony was the best Supporter card released this year apart from one other who was similar to it and that of course is Raihan! If this was up to me, I'd have it easily in the top 5. Raihan was easily my favourite card to come out of Evolving Skies and it's seen instant success right off the bat with as many as 9 different decks utilising it!

It has the catch of only being able to use the turn after one of your Pokémon is knocked out but the comeback potential helps it. It does the same thing as Melony but instead of just Water energy, you can attach any basic Energy and not just to a V, but to any Pokémon! And instead of drawing 3 cards, you get to search your deck for any card. You might even say that's better than Melony in some ways. It's found natural partners in Inteleon decks that can easily search it out and easily powering up attackers such as Galarian Moltres V, Suicune V, Decidueye DAA, Dragapult VMAX and Rapid Strike Urshifu VMAX. One of the better cards to come out this year and I can't see myself not placing one Raihan in any deck I play moving forward. Along with Suicune V, Inteleon and Moltres V, probably my favourite card to come out of this year.

#5 - Path to the Peak - Chilling Reign 

Total Points: 9,450 (5th)

Seasonal Points: 3,150 (6th)

Total Average Points: 973.99 (5th)

Quarterly Average Points: 324.66 (8th)

Wins: 11

Top 4: 37

Top 8: 73

Saw play in: Mainly in Pikachu & Zekrom-GX, Ice Rider Calyrex VMAX, Rillaboom/EggRow-GX, Togekiss VMAX, Jolteon VMAX as a one off in Rapid Strike Box, Shadow Rider Calyrex VMAX and Mew VMAX

Power Plant was gone but it's replacement didn't take long to show up in the form of Path to the Peak. For a while both cards were legal in Standard. Path does the same thing Plant did a while back, forcing people to play the Stadium war and playing as many as 4 stadiums to stop certain V decks from doing it's thing. 

Be it Shadow Rider, Mew, Suicune, Umbreon, Galarian Moltres and specifically Dedenne and Crobat, a lot of decks have found themselves to be stuck whenever a Path was in active and many players have lost games due to the old Path and Marnie strategy, where you hope to give your opponent little to no chance of making a comeback. And often times, it does work. (Unless your opponent is a Mew then usually they draw out of it).

#4 - Fog Crystal - Chilling Reign

Total Points: 10,410 (4th)

Seasonal Points: 3,470 (5th)

Total Average Points: 1,143.9 (4th)

Quarterly Average Points: 381.3 (6th)

Wins: 14

Top 4: 40

Top 8: 79

Saw play in: Dragapult VMAX, Shadow Rider Calyrex VMAX, Malamar CRE/Rapid Strike Box, Mew VMAX

I'll be the first to admit, initially this card wasn't even on my first draft list! And I was silly to completely miss it out because it's been one of the better cards to come out of this year and the results has proven just that. Psychic typing always do seem to have that extra ball search lately, we had Mysterious Treasure not long ago but Fog Crystal is just as good. You either get a basic Psychic Pokémon or a Psychic Energy, the perfect card for the four decks mentioned above. 

And it's shown why it's so good. Shadow Rider made full use of it not just to set up their board but having the energy to accelerate and draw more cards would end up meaning it won the game faster than most decks. Dragapult had a fair better time setting up thanks to Fog Crystal. Even Malamar made full use of it to set up Inkays and all it ever needed was one energy to attack anyway. And finally, the new BDIF, Mew VMAX, is also a psychic type so that was always going to be an auto-inclusion. 

#3 - Inteleon - Chilling Reign 

Total Points: 12,370 (3rd)

Seasonal Points: 4,123.33 (2nd)

Total Average Points: 1,427.25 (3rd)

Quarterly Average Points: 475.75 (2nd)

Wins: 8

Top 4: 50

Top 8: 98

Saw play in: Well, too many decks to name.

Now this one I did have a hard time of choosing who would better represent the fact that the Drizzle + Level Ball combination has pretty much created a new style of deck this year. Many of those decks still played a 70 HP Sobble while only a few chose not to play Inteleon. After all, it's got a free 20 snipe anywhere, how can it not be good? I did have a tough time deciding if Keep Calling Sobble should be in this spot or this Inteleon, since without the Sobbles, you might not even get these Inteleons set up anyway, but in thinking about it, a lot of people have kept playing the 70HP Sobble so I had to give this one the nod with that in mind.

The whole line has been super playable, be it Keep Calling Sobble to set up your board, Drizzle to search out any Trainers you needed or Inteleon to help you reach numbers for certain KOs or even SWSH Inteleon to search for Trainer cards. This whole combo with Level Ball have created/improve these deck archetypes:

• Rapid Strike Urshifu VMAX (One of the most played decks in all of 2021, helps to set up all sorts of numbers for both attacks and to just generally set up an attack too)
• Ice Rider Calyrex VMAX (A constant force since Chilling Reign)
• Decidueye DAA (Helps sets up Decidueye even quicker and reach certain numbers faster)
• Rapid Strike Malamar (Best one-prize deck in the format for the longest time)
• Dragapult VMAX (Helps spread even more damage on the board and that combo became the BDIF during Evolving Skies quarter)
• Leafeon VMAX (Perfect partner to help Leafeon set up numbers and search the specific combo pieces it needs for big attacks)
• Suicune V (Since Evolving Skies, one of the more popular decks in the meta and it's a natural partner to set up and hit perfect numbers along with Ludicolo)
• Zacian (Yes it even saw play with Zacian to make it a powerful one-shot machine)
• Jolteon VMAX (Probably the best partner for it since Jolteon will need a bench mon to be sniped for the full effect)
• Sableye V/Galarian Weezing SHF (More for the set-up option and an easier way to power up Sableye up with snipes and a great way to search out Raihan too)
• Hoopa DAA/Galarian Moltres EVS (Probably the best new one-prize deck to come out in the latter half of the year and once again each piece helps to set up attacks and damage)

I mean, this just shows how important Inteleon and it's family has helped to make the game in some ways more fun seeing as you don't need the help of some random V or GX to set things up. It makes me happy to see that a stage 2 card is now viable to play, that's how I've always liked playing the game anyway, I'm really not a big fan of silly "Big Basic" mons. Each stage has an important role to play and all that couldn't be possible without the help of the next card on this list. 

#2 - Level Ball - Battle Styles

Total Points: 16,910 (2nd)

Seasonal Points: 4,047.5 (3rd)

Total Average Points: 1,629.26 (1st)

Quarterly Average Points: 407.32 (3rd)

Wins: 11

Top 4: 63

Top 8: 129

Saw play in: Before Chilling Reign, saw play in decks like Mad Party, Spiritomb and even as a one-off in Single Strike Urshifu VMAX. After Chilling Reign, any deck with Inteleon in it. 

Even before the introduction of Chilling Reign, Level Ball actually did see success, taking 3 wins alongside the likes of one prizer decks Mad Party and Spiritomb, all having attackers less than 60 HP. Even Single Strike would use it just to set up Houndours! So it was already a good new card coming out of Battle Styles. And then Chilling Reign hit.

We did have Drizzle for the longest time but both Sobble and Inteleon from Chilling Reign made it an even better. Thanks to Level Ball, you can easily set up 4 Sobbles on board and start getting anything you need from your Drizzles. The 12 decks mentioned above and made full use of Level Ball just to get Sobble and Drizzle in play and to much success too. It's also a good way to set up techs like Lota and Lombre, Pyukumuku, Galarian Zigzagoon and Rowlet. The fact that the Drizzle-Level Ball combo has seen success with many different archetypes just shows you how popular it is, you could even say it's probably the most played draw engine of the year. If this was based off my own opinion, I would have Level Ball easily in the #1 spot.

#1 - Escape Rope - Battle Styles

Total Points: 19,320 (1st)

Seasonal Points: 4,830 (1st)

Total Average Points: 1,563.6 (2nd)

Quarterly Average Points: 390.9 (4th)

Wins: 20

Top 4: 74

Top 8: 151

Saw play in: A four-off for Spiritomb. As a one-off in many decks such as Victini VMAX, Centiskorch VMAX, ADP-GX, EggRow-GX, Rapid Strike Urshifu VMAX, Pikachu & Zekrom-GX, Mewtwo & Mew-GX/Welder Box, Eternatus VMAX, Dragapult VMAX, Sylveon VMAX, Jolteon VMAX, Ice Rider Calyrex VMAX, Suicune V, Leafeon VMAX, Mew VMAX.

Surprised? I sure was. But then again, I did just list down 16 different decks that saw success with an Escape Rope in their deck, that kind of statistic we can't ignore. Escape Rope is obviously a really good just because for an Item, it's a gust card, which can sometimes even win you the game outright if your opponent is trying to make you hit into the one Pokémon that can take a hit while the rest of their bench can't or even better, when they just have one Bench, making it an instant gust. Not just a good card offensively, it also helps you get one of your active Pokémon out if it happened to be stuck in front. 

So it can't be a surprise to see why it saw so much success this year. Granted, it's not really a new card, it was legal just a few years ago but it's always been good so I had to include it. It scored the most points and and all 4 quarters, it was always one of the highest scoring card in events. There may be other great Item cards better than this but if you think about it, Level Ball is restricted to just 90HP or less Pokémon and Fog Crystal to just Psychic types, that doesn't hold Escape Rope down as pretty much any deck can make it work. And for that reason, that's why it is the best card released in 2021 from a statistical point of view and possibly in the opinion of others too. I hope you enjoyed reading this and thank you for stopping by my page!