With this year's 2020 rotation, we are losing five different sets; Ultra Prism, Forbidden Light, Celestial Storm, Lost Thunder & Dragon Majesty. These five sets had some very major cards in them for certain decks. Some of the most notable losses are; Cynthia, Escape Board, Thunder Mountain, Malamar, Ditto Prism, Diancie Prism, Acro Bike, Electropower, Mysterious Treasure & Fiery Flint. This rotation will change quite a few archetypes from being good; for example, decks like Pikachu & Zekrom GX get a lot weaker now they lose both Thunder Mountain & Electropower. Some entire archetypes are going to be rotated out all together like Malamar variants & Blacephalon/Naganadel. At the same time, some decks like ADP & Eternatus VMAX don't really lose much and will stay very powerful! The way decks are built will be a bit different now, especially with the loss of Escape Board for Jirachi. Let's discuss some of these big changes to our format!

 

Trainers Leaving

Out of everything leaving the standard format, the Trainers we are losing make the most impact. Of course, we are losing one of the best draw supporter cards we had in Cynthia. Cynthia was a simple card that let you shuffle draw 6 cards & was very good in decks that needed that shuffle draw to help set up; some people would even choose Cynthia over Marnie. Now that Cynthia is gone, decks will have to adapt to using Marnie now as it doesn't shuffle draw 6 but does draw you 5 cards & can disrupt the opponent. Cynthia is really the only major supporter we lose as Professor's Research, Marnie, Welder & Erika's Hospitality will all still be around giving you good Supporter options still.

 

The items we are losing are huge as losing the two best Lightning support cards in Thunder Mountain & Electropower makes lightning decks a whole lot worse. PikaRom losing these two cards could effectively make it fall out of the top tier and into the rogue category. Mysterious Treasure is another significant Item loss as Psychic & Dragon decks won't have this search option anymore. Mysterious Treasure was a really good card for Dragapult VMAX & Mewtwo & Mew GX, but since Malamar is leaving altogether, it may not matter as much. But any future Psychic types that are good will not have this amazing search card available to them anymore. A great consistency card that is also leaving is Acro Bike. Acro Bike helped with thinning the deck out, getting cards in the discard pile & was great for digging through your deck when looking for a specific card. Even though thanks to both Dedenne GX & Crobat V there is some consistency and deck drawing to work with, Acro Bike will be missed in quite a few decks. Fiery Flint leaving is also pretty relevant as it was used in most Welder based decks, especially Baby Blacephalon, which without Fiery Flint, makes the deck a lot worse.

 

Some relevant stadiums are leaving too. Such as; Shrine of Punishment, which was good for hitting the right numbers & for dealing extra damage to Tag Team GXs; Ultra Space, which was helpful in Baby Blacephalon; Life Forest was good for Rillaboom decks, and Heat Factory was great in Fire decks. Though fire still has Giant Hearth, which is always good.

 

Some of the important Tools we are losing include, Spell Tag which was good in Malamar decks, but also in decks like Caturday & Weezing Spread. Counter Gain, which was good for decks that could use an energy and a colorless attack, usually to attack for 1 energy like Throh, Decidueye & Mimikyu. And Hustle Belt also leaving is big for Spiritomb decks as it allows them to hit hard, but we do have the new Cape Of Toughness tool that is also great with Spiritomb. However, there is one vital tool leaving that will shake up Standard quite a bit. 

The Jirachi Nerf 

While I just mentioned most of the most significant losses our format will face in terms of trainers, the biggest one debatably is Escape Board. Escape Board was one of the best cards for Jirachi to use. Escape Board allowed Jirachi to be able to retreat after being asleep & was relevant for Jirachi as it allowed to be a free pivot. A lot of decks rely on Jirachi to help set up, and now without Escape Board, the way Jirachi is used will be changed drastically. For starters, decks using Jirachi will now have to rely on Switch & Scoop Up Net to move Jirachi from the active spot. This can take upwards of 8 slots in your deck to play 4 of each and then with the Jirachis on top, creating a total of 11-12 slots in your deck dedicated to just Jirachi support. This can create some clunky builds as some decks utilizing cards like Metal Saucer, Turbo Patch & Rare Candy probably won't have room for all of it. There is a brand new supporter that might make Jirachi still feasible, and that is the new Bird Keeper card. Bird Keeper allows you to switch your active with a benched Pokémon & then you draw 3 cards. So after you use Jirachi's ability, you play Bird Keeper. The only issue with Bird Keeper is that it only draws your 3 cards, which is not very good if you're trying to dig for specific cards. Marnie & Professor's Research are usually far better supporters to have for drawing. It will be interesting to see what happens with Jirachi in our new Standard Format and if it will continue to be used a lot, or if people will just cut it all together, so they have more space in their deck for other important cards. 

Pokémon Leaving 

There are some relevant Pokémon that are also leaving our format, and one of the biggest ones is Malamar from Lost Thunder, which was good with both Dragapult VMAX and Mewtwo & Mew GX, but now they will have to adapt without Malamar. Of course, a few Malamar variants will no longer be in the format anyways like Giratina/Malamar & Ultra Necrozma/Malamar as they will also be leaving. Yveltal GX is another big loss as Yveltal GX started to pick up a lot of play thanks to Scoop Up Net & Galarian Zigzagoon. Yveltal GX was also one of the best ways to deal with a big hp VMAX, and it was great to allow you to keep up in a fight against one. Oranguru leaving is very relevant too as it was the face of most Control/Mill style decks. While most people did not like playing against those decks and Pokémon even ended up banning Bellebela & Brycen Man, Oranguru was never touched. But now that it is leaving standard alongside Articuno GX, Control decks probably get worse and become unusable. Electrode GX is another interesting loss as it started to pick up some play as its ability works on VMAXs and V Pokémon, but now that option for powering them up is gone. Some other relevant GX losses which mainly apply to Mewtwo & Mew GX are, Magcargo GX, both Solgaleo GXs and Silvally GX. The Solgaleo GXs are the biggest hit for Mewtwo & Mew GX as they were useful in the Ultimate Mewtwo deck and the Welder Mewtwo deck, respectively. Both Magcargo GX & Silvally GX were useful in Welder Mewtwo, and those 2 options are also now gone. These losses could make the Welder & Ultimate Mewtwo decks a lot worse. Another significant GX loss is Zeraora GX, which was very useful in PikaRom decks as it provided a free retreat option for those decks. This means PikaRom takes a massive hit with Electropower, Thunder Mountain & Zeraora GX leaving.

 

Some Prism star cards leaving that were really good are Ditto Prism and Diance Prism. Ditto Prism was a great card for any stage 1 and 2 decks. Diance Prism was useful in fighting decks. Since fighting decks will do less damage now, even though there is Martial Arts Dojo, it could mean they can't one-shot an Eternatus VMAX or even Pikachu & Zekrom now. And Jirachi Prism, which was just starting to pick up popularity in decks like Zacian V and Mad Party, as an extra way to take a prize card when combined with Mr. Mime & Oranguru but now that combo is gone.  

Energy Leaving 

Some special energy cards are leaving the format too, including Rainbow Energy, Beast Energy & the Unit Energies. Rainbow Energy was a great card in Spiritomb decks to help it do more damage. Beast Energy was good in Ultra Beast decks like Blacephalon and Naganadel & Guzzlord GX. And the Unit Energies were great in multi-type decks and also for Porygon-Z decks as they could allow you to use a toolbox of attackers. Even with these Special Energy losses, we will still have great Special Energy cards like Aurora Energy, Capture Energy & the basic type special energy cards like Horror Energy & Burning Energy. Soon, we will even be getting more for Grass & Fighting! 

 

In conclusion, the new standard format will be different as decks will have to adapt to either using or not using Jirachi anymore, Fighting decks will have to be more Powerful as cards like Sandacona V might rise up, Welder decks will need to bump up their energy counts & Giant Hearth counts, and some decks like Mewtwo & Mew GX variants, PikaRom, Control & Blacephalon will fall off in play as they lose some significant resources for their decks. While some Tag Team cards like ADP, EggRow & LucMetal will continue to stay popular, it is looking more likely that VMAXs will finally be starting to take over the Standard Format. As Eternatus, Centiskorch & Inteleon all look to be very powerful in the new format. The new Standard Format will definitely be more challenging, and it will be interesting to see which decks can adapt and if any older decks that lose a lot of resources can continue to be good. 

 

Post By: Littledarkfury