Hi, everyone! Like most of you, I am getting tired of the current Standard format and am absolutely ready for Scarlet and Violet to drop, and for rotation to hit.
This format has certainly been kind to me. I made every Day 2 at every event I attended and made Top 4 twice and Top 16 once, all with Amazing Rare Rayquaza Lost Zone, and I have had a ton of fun with the deck, but I am getting ready to move on to something new. I will certainly miss the deck, but I’m sure I will also get to play plenty of Lost Zone Variants in the post-rotation format with Scarlet and Violet. I am particularly excited to try Giratina VSTAR again. Lugia VSTAR has gatekept Giratina in the Silver Tempest format, but should no longer be as dominant due to losing many of the Special Energy cards which made it so versatile. Giratina VSTAR was my favorite deck in the Lost Origin format, and I ended up finishing in the Top 4 of the Salt Lake City Regionals, which was unfortunately the only event I was able to attend in that format. It is a shame that it was so short lived, as I think it was a much more interesting and diverse format than Silver Tempest was.
Today I will be reviewing what I see to be the ten strongest cards in the new Scarlet and Violet Base set expansion. Please remember this is just my opinion, and you are free to disagree. I tend to rank cards which are guaranteed to see play in many different archetypes. I am sure time will prove me wrong on at least one of these rankings – it is hard to objectively evaluate every card in a set with over 100 brand new cards.
Before we get into the rankings, let’s touch on some new mechanics introduced with Scarlet and Violet.
First up we have ex cards. There isn’t all that much special about these. They are a direct replica of old, old school ex Pokémon, where they have no special attributes other than giving up two prize cards, and only the final stage evolution is an ex Pokémon. This is reminiscent of GX cards, but without the once-per-game GX attack.
There is also the Terrestrial Mechanic, which acts like an ancient trait – essentially an Ability that cannot be turned off. All of the ones so far simply prevent damage to them while they are on the bench.
Both the ex and Terrestrial mechanics seem pretty lazy to me, and I wish they had put some more effort into these. A cool idea could have been to make it so that once per game, your ex Pokémon can Terrastalize (as they do in the Scarlet/Violet video game) into a different type until the end of the turn. This could make a lot more decks viable, as they would be able to hit for weakness on anything once per game. In a meta dominated by fire Pokémon, for example, decks centered around Grass Pokémon could still stand a chance, as they take a big OHKO by hitting for weakness once per game.
There is also a new rule change which states that Pokémon Tool cards no longer count as Items and instead count as their own subtype of Trainers. This is mainly a nerf to the Supporter card Irida, which searches for a Water Pokémon and an item card. This change means Irida can no longer search for Choice Belt, for example, which eliminates one of the main reasons Lugia decks play a copy of the card. This is also a nerf to Cram-O-Matic, as it can no longer discard a Tool card in order to have a chance to search for any card in the deck.
All these rule changes seem pretty minor, and it definitely seems like Pokémon is taking steps to simplify the rules of the game. Simple is not always worse, so long as it leaves room for skill expression. If anything, the Tag Team and early Sword and Shield eras were some of the worst eras for skill expression, in my opinion, as the mechanics at the time like Tag Team GXs and early VMAX Pokémon were so powerful that games became super linear and centered around them, as there were no other options for viable decks. Gone are the days of three-prize Pokémon knocking each other out in one hit, and I am all for it.
With all that said, let’s dive into what I think will be the most impactful cards from Scarlet and Violet.
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