Hello everyone, and welcome back to the Bath TCG blog. Today we have part two of our guide to this year’s rotation, covering the Unbroken Bonds expansion. This was arguably the most impactful out of all the TagTeam sets, with a number of meta-warping cards being released in this expansion. Want to find out which ones these are? Take a look down below to find out!

Pheromosa & Buzzwole GX

Whenever a card is released with an extremely powerful effect, it is always experimented with to see how competitively viable it really is. In the case of BuzzMosa, which could take one or even three extra prize cards for a KO, you only have to look at the card’s page on limitlesstcg.com to see how many decks tried to take advantage of Beast Game GX. The two most successful decks that made use of Buzzmosa couldn’t have been more different, however, with its first taste coming in Zapdos, a single prize deck that looked to use a variety of Ultra Beasts and Beast Energy to pull off some powerful attacks, in this case being Beast Game GX. Since Zapdos’ damage output wasn’t the highest, it could leave opponents Pokémon with a small amount of HP left, ready for BuzzMosa to finish them off for extra prizes. The card has more recently seen success in Eggrow Rillaboom, as its Elegant Sole attack is the most powerful attack the deck can use for only three energy, meaning that it could theoretically be used from turn two.

Kartana

Another Ultra Beast that saw play in Zapdos, Kartana’s Big Cut attack could hit for 190 damage thanks to Beast Energy and Choice band, making it perfect for taking out basic GX Pokémon in one hit. After the release of Glimwood Tangle in Darkness Ablaze, Kartana also saw some fun play as people tried to use its False Swipe attack and poison from Garbodor to take massive OHKOs on VMAX Pokémon. Although it required a lot of setup and a decent amount of heads flipping, there were plenty of highlight-reel moments where a VMAX was taken down in one fell swoop.

Reshiram & Charizard GX

One of the most prominent TagTeam cards to be released, Reshizard saw play in high tier archetypes from the time it was released right up until the time where it will rotate. Its three attacks were strong but all very different, meaning that Reshizard could be adaptable depending on the state of the game or matchup. Double Blaze GX could be powered up turn one going second thanks to Welder, meaning that you could take a big tempo swing on a two prize Pokémon right at the start of the game. If fully powered up, Double Blaze GX could also knock out any GX Pokémon thanks to its damage and wall-breaking capabilities. Flare Strike, its main attack, could knockout any basic GX and almost any basic V Pokémon. It was only ever a damage mod away from being able to knock out every other GX and TagTeam Pokémon, which was easy to do with a Galarian Zigzagoon and Scoop Up Net. Its final attack, Outrage, was designed for Reshizard to take big OHKOs to finish a game once it had been heavily damaged but it was also useful as poke damage to set up a KO with Flare Strike on the following turn. Naturally, the versatility of this card meant that it was played in a variety of decks, such as Reshizard, Green’s Reshizard, Welder Mewtwo, Ultimate Mewtwo, Welder Box, TempoZard, and Victini VMAX. When a card is included in that many archetypes, you know it must be doing something right.

Volcanion

One of Reshizard’s closest allies was of course Volcanion, which could set up three energy ready for a fourth to be put down on turn two for a Flare Strike. Since you could only ever play four copies of Welder in your deck, the possibility that you may miss one made the head start from Volcanion all the more welcome. Not only that, but its High-Heat Blast attack could also be used to deal with one prize Pokémon in one hit, or annoying walls such as Decidueye. With the release of Centiskorch VMAX from Darkness Ablaze, Volcanion found a new friend that liked to pile on as much fire energy as it could for massive damage. However, since Centiskorch wasn’t nearly as versatile as Reshizard, the deck really struggled when it couldn’t go second and use Volcanion’s Flare Starter for full effect.

Salazzle

Unfortunately for Salazzle, its fire typing meant that it was often anti synergistic with Welder. That card needed energy in the hand so it could place them down on the board, but Salazzle needed to discard them in order to draw more cards, which Welder did anyway. It wasn’t worth including/using energy recovery cards for energy that was better suited to being Welded. Salazzle did see some minor play as an experimental draw engine for Cinccino Mill, and with Unknown Hand as a way of drawing up to the magic 35 cards needed to instantly win the game, but neither of these were ever serious archetypes.

Blacephalon

Thanks to the wealth of fire support that arrived alongside it, Blacephalon bows out as one of the greatest single prize decks of all time. Being able to OHKO every Pokémon in the game is a badge very few cards can wear, but when you can do it multiple times in one game, that’s when people start to take you seriously. With cards like Giant Hearth and Fiery Flint to thin out your energy from the deck, Fire Crystal and Energy Retrieval to grab it back from the discard pile, and Welder to accelerate all three energy needed for Fireball Circus all in one turn, Blacaphalon became a resource-heavy deck that somehow never seemed to run out of resources. While it thrived off taking out TagTeam Pokémon, Blacephalon struggled to keep up after Fiery Flint rotated, and more Pokémon VMAX were released with even higher HP. Although it did see a brief revival with Reshizard in TempoZard, where Blacephalon would only be used once or twice for big swing knockouts, it wasn’t able to keep up with Pokémon as big as Eternatus VMAX.

Blastoise GX

One of my personal favourite GX cards, Blastoise GX was a crucial pillar of one of the most unlikely creations, Ultimate Mewtwo. Blastoise’s Rocket Splash attack was used as a big finishing move OKHO after Solgaleo’s Sol Burst GX had filled the board with special energy. A similar concept was also seen in Water Mewtwo which had Frosmoth accelerate energy to itself using its Ice Dance ability, with Blastoise then shuffling the energy back into the deck for huge damage.

Dedenne GX

If there’s one card that summarises this year’s rotation, it’s Dedenne GX. This card brought two attributes that every deck wanted, speed and consistency. The sheer dump-and-draw power that Dedenne GX brought to the table was unlike anything we had ever seen, and I would be very surprised if whenever Dedechange returns it hasn’t been nerfed in some way. Dedenne GX saw play in almost every top tier archetype, and even decks such as Mad Party couldn’t do without its discarding capabilities, including a Giovanni’s Exile so that it could be removed from play to keep favourable prize trades with opponents. Although powerful, Crobat V just doesn’t compare to Dedenne GX, and the days of playing that pair and a Professor’s Research to draw through a third of your deck in one go will soon be a distant memory. Although players won’t miss having a useless two prize Pokémon sitting on the bench, they certainly will miss Dedechange when they’re given a hand of five unplayable cards and a Quick Ball. Trust me, this one’s a biggie.

Muk & Alolan Muk GX

Another Mew3 centric GX, Muk & Alolan Muk’s Severe Poison and Poison Absorption combo was a handy healing option for when you knew your opponent was unlikely to switch out of the active on their turn. Meanwhile, Nasty Goo Mix GX was an excellent wall breaking attack for Pokémon such as Keldeo GX, Decidueye and Galarian Obstagoon, due to the fact that it placed damage counters and didn’t do actual numbered damage. This attack was also one of the only ways that Mew3 decks could defeat Eternatus VMAX, as you hoped that your opponent couldn’t switch out of paralysis as Eternatus slowly racked up poison damage until it was knocked out.

Weezing

Weezing was a spread card that would have seen success in almost any other era of the Pokémon TCG, but unfortunately for it, it was released just as HP records were being broken every few sets. Only being able to do 40 damage to the active and 20 to each opposing bench Pokémon (in addition to any Detention Gas pings that you were able to do throughout the turn) meant that Weezing just couldn’t keep up with TagTeam Pokémon that could continuously score a KO turn after turn.

Mewtwo

Although we will still be left with Eldegoss V, Mewtwo’s perk of being a single prize Pokémon, meaning that it could be reused with Scoop Up Net, meant that it was a very popular option for decks that couldn’t afford to have a two prize Pokémon sitting on the bench. Psychic decks such as Dragapult VMAX could search out Mewtwo with a Mysterious Treasure, Blacephalon and other Welder decks could recycle a Welder back to the top of the deck for that or the following turn, and any other deck that utilised a Scoop Up Net engine could make effective use of Mewtwo.

Mew

Six months ago, losing Mew wouldn’t have made that much of an impact on standard format. However, the recent rise and prominence of Rapid Strike Urshifu VMAX meant that Mew saw much more play during the last few months of its life. With it gone, there will be no form of bench protection in the format, leaving Urshifu to snipe away however it pleases. If single prize Pokémon were hoping that they would finally have a chance to shine with ADP leaving, then I’ve got some very bad news…

Marshadow

Yet another helpful single prize psychic Pokémon that is rotating, Marshadow was the main stadium removal option of choice for many decks that wanted to play a stadium other than Chaotic Swell. With that rotating along with Marshadow, stadium wars are well and truly back on the table. However, with the recent release of Path to the Peak from Chilling Reign, which is essentially a Power Plant on steroids, Marshadow’s loss will most greatly be felt on those turns where your opponent has played down a Path to the Peak, your hand is dead and you can’t use any of your abilities on your Pokémon. Safe to be sure, the majority of decks will be playing four stadiums post rotation.

Marshadow & Machamp GX

Since fighting was one of only two types to not receive more than one TagTeam Pokémon, it’s a shame that MarshChamp didn’t have enough support to make it viable. The lack of fighting-centric energy acceleration over the last few years has been blatantly obvious, to the point that the only archetype this card saw play in was Ultimate Mewtwo, a deck that used multi-type special energy cards. MarshChamp was the main counter to Pikarom, and subsequently, ChuChu, as it could OHKO both TagTeams with its Hundred-Blows Impact and Acme of Heroism GX attacks, and even Pikarom with a fully powered up Revenge.

Hitmontop

As mentioned in part one, the HitMon-Trio was far too slow to ever be a consistent contender. Although Hitmontop posed impressive damage, you would need at least three or four turns to get to Hitmontop’s attack, and that’s if your opponent hadn’t already gusted/sniped it or if you hadn’t bricked. And that’s before we even mention the possibility of them playing Mew…

Greninja & Zoroark GX

An ever-present in expanded, Dark Box never took off in quite the same way in the standard format. Since it was a deck that revolved around two stage one Pokémon GX, and also needed to play a non-draw supporter at its form of energy acceleration, it always had issues with consistency. Nonetheless, ZoroNinja was capable of doing huge late-game damage with Dark Pulse that could even knock out TagTeam Pokémon. This reason alone was behind ZoroNinja’s inclusion in Ultimate Mewtwo, which was a deck that thrived on having lots of energy spread around the board on multiple attackers.

Spiritomb

Don’t be fooled by its low hit points, Spiritomb was a Pokémon that packed a powerful punch. Thanks to its Building Spite ability, Spiritomb could power up its own Anguish Cry attack up to do 160 damage. However, Spiritomb’s power didn’t stop there, as a bunch of new tools were released throughout its lifetime. Cards such a Cape of Toughness, Jynx, Scoop Up Net, Spikemuth and Hiding Darkness Energy meant that Spiritomb, in combination with Jynx, could be moved around the board, picked up, and put down again to maximise the damage that all of your Spiritomb’s could do. Thanks to its excellent prize trading ability, Spiritomb saw success throughout the time that it had access to these tools, in addition to being the main attacker in a deck fronted by ADP, which could add an additional 30 damage to Anguish Cry with its Altered Creation GX attack.

Lucario & Melmetal GX

Being the other typing to receive only one TagTeam, metal was primarily fronted by LucMetal from the time of its release. During its first year, the deck struggled to rank consistently with the other top-tier archetypes and was too slow to power up for what, for four energy, was relatively low damage output. However, come the release of Sword and Shield base, the deck received a new main attacker, as well as two new forms of energy acceleration. Not only was Zacian V’s damage output much more efficient than LucMetals, but it could also accelerate energy to itself using Intrepid Sword. This, combined with Metal Saucer, gave the deck much more tempo and meant that you could quickly power up a Zacian or a Full Metal Wall GX depending on which you wanted to use first. Thanks to additional tanking tools such as Metal Frying Pan, Metal Goggles, Coating Metal Energy, Zamazenta V, and Cape of Toughness, LucMetal cemented its place as the leading tanking archetype in the format.

Gardevoir & Sylveon GX

Another walling archetype, Gardeon’s life was (along with nearly all other fairy Pokémon) sadly cut short by the release of Zacian V, and the announcement that the fairy typing would be discontinued after the Sun and Moon block, meaning that no new cards would be printed. While it was relevant, Gardeon’s Kaleidostorm attack allowed you to move energy around the board from one damaged attacker to a fresh new one so that you could continue to chain attacks and put pressure on the opponent. Thanks to healing tools such as Mallow and Lana and Great Potion, you could move your energy to a new Gardeon on the bench, and then heal and switch into a new one at the same time. Additionally, being a deck that didn’t play abilities meant that you could utilise a Green’s Exploration engine, which allowed you to plan your turns in advance and piece together your next combo.

Whimsicott GX

Another, if what slightly less relevant fairy GX, Whimsicott relied on its amazing Fluffy Cotton ability, which meant that your opponent had a theoretical 50% chance of doing no damage whatsoever with their attack. In return, Whimsicott could deal huge damage with its Energy Blow attack, the damage of which could be scaled very quickly thanks to cards such as Triple Acceleration Energy and Porygon-Z. Being a stage two deck that required a lot of energy, Whimsicott often used its Toy Box GX attack early in the game to get all of the combo pieces necessary to set up Porygon-Z, along with a handful of energies so you could start to scale up your damage.

Caturday

Whilst at first glance the attacks of the Caturday Pokémon didn’t seem too impressive, together they created a powerful combo that was one of the strongest and most fun single prize decks around. The archetype all centered around Persian, whose Gathering of Cats ability allowed all of the other Pokémon in the deck to attack for free. Cards such as Litten and Glameow would set up initial damage on one of your opponents Pokémon, before the most powerful attacker in the deck, Espurr, used its Ear Kinesis attack to snipe an opposing Pokémon on the bench, essentially tripling the amount of damage that it had on it – and all for free!

Persian GX

Another Persian that was played for its helpful ability, Persian GX saw play in Checkmate decks as a means of finishing of a TagTeam Pokémon to take all three remaining prize cards at once after Naganadel GX had used its Stinger GX attack. With Naganadel being knocked out after it attacked, that left Persian to clean up with its Cat Walk ability to search for any two cards you wanted, which were often more Island Challenge Amulets to force your opponent to take even more GX knockouts, Triple Acceleration Energies, and combo pieces that enabled you to discard more Pokémon to power up Persian’s Vengeance attack.

Porygon Z

Another card that, whilst not the most relevant competitively, I am still very sad to see go just because of the number of decks that were even made possible to play thanks to its Crazy Code ability, which let you attach as much special energy as you wanted during your turn. Whenever a new, potentially powerful Pokémon was released that didn’t have an obvious form of energy acceleration, Porygon-Z was always one of the first ports of call. Being able to throw as many special energy cards on as you wanted allowed you to find out whether these Pokémon’s attacks were any good, and worth setting up a stage two. While most of the time these decks never seemed to get off the ground, one archetype that did see success (in addition to Whimsicott GX) with Porygon-Z was Cramorant VMAX which, thanks to it being an evolution Pokémon, could utilise Triple Acceleration Energy in addition to cards such as Powerful Colourless and Recycle Energy. This meant that, with some lucky head flips (and maybe a use of Glimwood Tangle), Cramorant VMAX could deal massive OHKOs.

Beast Bringer

Continuing the Ultra Beast trait of interacting with prize cards, Beast Bringer was a way of completely changing your prize map for a particular game, and even enabled you to win in just two attacks! If you knocked out a TagTeam Pokémon with Naganadel & Guzzlord’s Jet Pierce attack when at six prizes, you would be left with two remaining. If your opponent didn’t have any OHKO-able two prize Pokémon on the field, then you could simply use its Chaotic Order GX attack to win the game. A similar strategy was seen in Baby Blacephalon, which could KO a TagTeam Pokémon for four prizes and a two prize Pokémon to win, or do the reverse and simply take three prizes twice. Either way, this saved you resources as you needed less fire energy in hand to take a knockout, for what was effectively the same effect!

Chip-Chip Ice Axe

Out of all the control pieces rotating this year, Chip-Chip Ice Axe may be one of the most impactful. Whatever control deck you were playing, you always wanted to ensure that your opponent couldn’t draw out of your lock. Being able to choose the least helpful card out of the top three of their deck meant that they would continue to draw-pass whilst their resources slowly dwindled or you milled them away, with this continuing every turn thanks to the recovering abilities of Oranguru and Excadrill.

Devolution Spray Z

With a card such as this, it was only ever going to see play in decks that utilised coming into play abilities on evolution Pokémon. In comes, then, Lycanroc GX, whose Twilight Eyes ability would discard energy from the opposing active Pokémon which, combined with Crushing Hammer, was a potentially powerful disruptive option for Dragapult VMAX, especially against Eternatus VMAX which struggled with energy disruption and could then be OHKO’d by Lycanroc’s Splintered Shards GX attack thanks to Aurora Energy.

Electromagnetic Radar

A staple of pretty much any Pikarom deck, Electromagnetic Radar was a fantastic setup tool that helped you find your early attackers and Dedenne GXs, whilst it was also an easy way to discard two lightning energy for Tapu Koko Prism Star’s Dance of the Ancients ability, meaning that it just one item card you could find an attacker, have an additional dig into the deck and set up your energy accelerator. Strong stuff indeed! It was so strong in fact that even Mad Party decks included E-Radar into their lists as a way of discarding more Mad Party Pokémon, in addition to searching out a Dedenne GX to search for even more.

Energy Spinner

Although the effect of Energy Spinner won’t be totally gone due to the existence of Energy Search in the format, the secondary effect of being able to search out three energy on turn one going second was an extremely nice option to have. While decks such as Gardeon or Dragapult VMAX appreciated the ability to thin the deck of energy cards on the first turn, it was decks such as ADP Zacian that really made use of the additional basic energy in hand. Players would attach one energy to an ADP, and then attempt to discard any additional metal energy so that they could activate their Metal Saucers for that turn or the one following, ensuring that they had at least one Zacian fully powered up for after they had used their Altered Creation GX attack.

Fairy Charms (Ability & Lightning)

The other final lot of Fairy Charms that are rotating, they were especially suited to Gardeon which wanted to tank hits and prevent opponents from knocking it out. With Pikarom being one of the most popular decks around at the same time as Gardeon, and with abilities forever being relevant in the format, these were two of the most popular Fairy Charms that the deck could use.

Fire Crystal

One of the key fire type tools that are rotating, Fire Crystal was a buffed energy retrieval that could only recover fire energy. Naturally, it was thrown into all sorts of fire archetypes as a useful energy recovery option, but the two decks that played Fire Crystal the most were Baby Blacephalon and Green’s Reshizard. Being a deck that discarded energy repeatedly in order to attack, Fire Crystal was the most efficient option for Blacephalon to get the energy it had just discarded for Fireball Circus straight back into the hand, and with two you could recover enough energy to OHKO any TagTeam Pokémon in the game. Meanwhile, being a Green’s deck, Reshizard could tutor out Fire Crystals at any time for instant Welder activation, meaning that you could continue to chain them turn after turn even if you didn’t have enough energy in the deck this thin out with Giant Hearth.

Giovanni’s Exile

Given that you aren’t usually wanting to discard your benched Pokémon, Giovanni’s Exile was only going to see play in a niche situation – which is exactly what happened. It was included in Mad Party decks as a way of discarding used Dedenne GXs in order to keep a favourable prize trade, especially against ADP Zacian. Since the deck needed to discard as many Mad Party Pokémon as it could in the early game, it still needed to use Dedenne GX to ensure that it could start off doing decent damage – and Giovanni’s Exile meant that you wouldn’t be punished for using it.

Green’s Exploration

Although Green’s Exploration was one of the cards most affected by the turn one supporter rule change, that didn’t stop it from seeing a huge amount of play during the final year of the Sun and Moon block. TagTeams such as Reshizard, Gardeon, LucMetal, Gengar & Mimikyu, ADP, and even Pikarom all benefitted from the powerful tutoring effect of Green’s, which could find you two specific trainer cards rather than using a Dedenne GX or draw supporter to have a dig into the deck that may not find you what you were looking for. Although all of these decks made use of Green’s engines before the new rule change, once it came into effect the viability of Dedenne GX shot up, as it was essentially a supporter effect that you could play on your first turn. This also wasn’t helped by the fact that Green’s Exploration was also outshone at that time by the newly released Marnie and Professor’s Research.

Lt. Surge’s Strategy

Banned in expanded for its controlling capabilities, Lt. Surge’s Strategy was almost exclusively used in control decks throughout its life in standard. From Pidgeotto Control, to Cinccino Mill, to Excadrill Control, Surge was used to play multiple disruptive supporters in one turn, such as Jessie & James, Mars, Bellelba & Brycen-Man, Boss’ Orders, and Faba. Since your strategy didn’t revolve around taking prize cards, Lt. Surge’s Strategy would be live from the moment your opponent took their first one, which was often very early in the game. Thanks to Oranguru and Excadrill, you could loop your Surges over and over again so that you could use two supporters every turn for the rest of the game.

Martial Arts Dojo

Most types would have gladly taken a +20 damage modifier, so having access to one that could give you an additional 40 damage was enough to persuade even non-fighting decks to use it. In the case of Martial Arts Dojo, decks would play a small amount of basic fighting energy so that they could utilise this damage boost if they went behind of prizes. Green’s Reshizard was one of the most prominent archetypes that used this combination, as you could search out a Martial Arts Dojo and an Energy Spinner in one turn to push Flare Strike into OHKO range for many of the top TagTeams in the format. In terms of fighting archetypes, Rampardos Fossils, Excadrill, Coalossal VMAX and Rapid Strike Urshifu VMAX all made use of Martial Arts Dojo in order to boost their already high damage outputs into OHKO range for even more targets.

Power Plant

Even though it has since been overshadowed by Path to the Peak, Power Plant had already begun to struggle more and more as new VMAX Pokémon were released and GX Pokémon with abilities made up less of the metagame. From the time it was released, any archetype that didn’t play GX Pokémon with abilities such as Tapu Lele, Zoroark, Dedenne, Mewtwo & Mew, in addition to any other useful attacker or bench sitter, could make use of Power Plant to stop opponents in their tracks. Not being able to draw cards with Zoroark or attack with Mew3 could be devastating, leaving your opponent with a stranded TagTeam in the active or with a completely unplayable hand and no way of drawing out of it. Although Mew3 and Dedenne GX continued to see huge amounts of play after the release of Sword and Shield, as more and more VMAX Pokémon were released it became harder to justify the inclusion of Power Plant in decks when the amount of GX Pokémon being played were diminishing.

Stealthy Hood

Featuring in a number of different archetypes, Stealthy Hood was most often played in Mew3 to play around opponents who included a Shadow Box Mimikyu into their decks. Mimikyu could completely shut off a Mew3 that had any damage on it, which could leave you scrambling to set up another attacker to knock it out. However, with Stealthy Hood, you could ignore this ability and carry on carefree with your gameplan, or knock it out without trouble if you were worried about your opponent’s tool removal or ability to recover Mimikyu multiple times.

Surprise Box

Appearing in Gengar & Mimikyu decks that played Omastar, Surprise Box was used to put trainer cards back into your opponent’s hand so that you could increase the amount of damage that you did with Poltergeist. Given that there is a Gengar pictured on the card, it was unlikely that Surprise Box would ever see play with anything else.

Welder

And here it is. The most impactful supporter, and possibly even trainer, that it rotating this year. Welder brought a combination of energy acceleration and raw card draw that was unlike anything we had ever seen before. Being able to attach three energy in a turn and draw cards allowed you access to a strong energy accelerator that didn’t cripple your ability to draw cards. Since fire decks wanted to play a Welder on nearly every turn, decks turned to draw cards such as Green’s Exploration, Dedenne GX, Jirachi and Oricorio GX to enable them to dig through the deck to set up their attackers ready for Weldering. As well as being included in every single fire deck, Welder also birthed the 2019 Worlds winning Welder Mewtwo, which made use of a variety of different attackers in combination with other energy cards such as psychic energy or Aurora energy to copy some of the most powerful attacks from in the game.

Triple Acceleration Energy

Triple Acceleration Energy’s stipulation that meant you had to discard it after every use did little to deter players from including this powerful card into their decks. Upon release, Triple Acceleration Energy saw a lot of play with Zoroark GX variants, which greatly appreciated being able to use more than just Double Colourless Energy. Once Zoroark rotated Triple Acceleration Energy mostly saw play in Checkmate decks that wanted to make use of Nagadanel GX’s Stinger GX attack. Other archetypes that relied on the card included Weezing Spread, Beheeyem, Mad Party, and Cramorant VMAX, with the latter two archetypes looking significantly weaker post-rotation now that they won’t have access to Triple Acceleration Energy.