Images courtesy of The Pokémon Company & The Pokémon Company International
The upcoming release of Pokémon TCG‘s newest expansion, Destined Rivals, will bring forth several Rocket’s, Ethan’s, Marnie’s, and Cynthia’s Pokémon, plus a plethra of supporting pieces for the Rocket’s archetype.
Despite all these, the Rocket’s deck still struggles to see success in Japan, where these cards are already legal. But this doesn’t mean that the set is a dud; there’s definitely powerful picks in the set that are powerful standalone cards, new archetypes on their own, and seeding the card pool for future decks that may one day reach the top of the meta.
Let’s see which cards may impact the current standard environment:
5. Rocket’s Watchtower
A hard tech card for Colorless Pokémon, this stadium will definitely see some play when metas become extremely focused. And even if it doesn’t see play, its existence plays a crucial role in the format — to discourage the use of the Noctowl engine which has skyrocketed in use since rotation.
4. Team Rocket’s Petrel
This might seem underwhelming, but Petrel is a straght reprint of Skyla and can be used alongside Arven for decks that want more ways to pull Trainer cards from the deck. It’s also one of the few Rocket’s cards that don’t need to necessarily synergize with the Rocket’s package.
3. Rocket’s Mimikyu
I might be overevaluating Rocket’s Mimikyu, but once again, the existence of this card gives the powerful Gardevoir ex deck another tech card it can potentially use should Tera Pokémon continue to see play in the meta, such as Charizard ex.
2. Marnie’s Grimmsnarl ex
Quite possibly the best Owner’s Pokémon printed from the past two expansions, Marnie’s Grimmsnarl provides an absurd amount of Energy acceleration through its Punk Up ability. An evolution can set up the board quickly after enough damage counters have been racked up by Froslass and Budew. And hey, we should at least be a little excited that there’s finally another competitive Owner’s Pokémon archetype!
1. Shaymin
Bench barrier is back! The proliferation of Tera Box was mainly due to the absence of bench protection, and Shaymin finally provides a way to protect little Basic Pokémon from getting preemptively sniped by damaging attacks. This will definitely see play until it rotates, or if we get a better bench barrier option in the future, which is highly unlikely until Tera Pokémon rotate.
There are definitely more exciting cards in this set. The entire Rocket’s package is one to keep an eye on, specially since the game designers have definitely tried to push the power of Rocket’s Mewtwo ex. Who knows, it might become the breakout archetype in the future?
If you want more Pokémon TCG articles, check out our feature on the fan-favorite format, Gym Leader Challenge, featuring its creator, Andrew Mahone. For Gym Leader Challenge decklists, read our feature on some decks to start with the format on the Pokémon TCG Live client.
