We go over the most competitively relevant cards coming out in Destined Rivals! 

Destined Rivals prereleases start this weekend, and this set is sure to shake up the format! Destined Rivals features several new Owner’s Pokémon, from Ethan, Cynthia, Arven, Marnie, Misty, Steven, and most importantly: Team Rocket! These archetypes have lots of powerful tools and fun strategies that should be great to experiment with. There are also lots of powerful cards in the Team Rocket archetype that are, by themselves, ubiquitously playable. In this article, I’m going to go over some of the new archetypes that will pop up, some of the best cards in the set, and what decks we will see them used in.

Cynthia’s Pokémon

Cynthia’s Pokémon seem to have a lot of versatility in damage boosting, consistency, and soaking damage to re-inflict that damage to your opponent. The primary cards to look at here will be Cynthia’s Gabite, Cynthia’s Garchomp ex, Cynthia’s Roserade, Cynthia’s Spiritomb, and Cynthia’s Power Weight.

Cynthia’s Gabite

Ability: King’s Call
Once during your turn, you may search your deck for a Cynthia's Pokémon, reveal it, and put it into your hand. Then, shuffle your deck.

[F] Dragonslice: 40 damage.

Cynthia’s Garchomp ex

[F] Spiral Dive: 100 damage. You may draw cards until you have 6 cards in your hand.

[F][F] Dragon Buster: 260 damage. Discard all Energy from this Pokémon.

Cynthia’s Roserade

Ability: Glory Yell
Your Cynthia's Pokémon's attacks do 30 more damage to your opponent's Active Pokémon (before applying Weakness and Resistance).

[G][C][C] Leaf Step: 80 damage.

Cynthia’s Spiritomb

[C] Raging Curse: 10x damage. This attack does 10 damage for each damage counter on your Benched Cynthia’s Pokémon. This attack’s damage isn’t affected by Weakness.

The main idea I see this archetype going for is getting a Roserade or two set up, along with the Garchomp ex to swing for big damage and draw a lot of cards consistently with its first attack. This deck focuses a lot on consistency where the Gabite will be used to fetch a lot of these Pokémon throughout the game reliably and efficiently, given that it’s just a stage 1 Pokémon. Getting 3 Gible down and finding one Gabite can cause a chain reaction of getting Gabite into play, then turning into more Cynthia’s Pokémon over the course of the game. Being that Garchomp ex has its own built-in consistency, you won’t need to run many other setup Pokémon such as N’s Zoroark ex, Drakloak, etc. It draws enough cards all on its own! What you’ll then want to do is take hits onto your Garchomp, and with the Power Weight, it will have a massive 400HP! This will allow Spiritomb to eventually clean up a lot of your opponent’s Pokémon for just a single colourless energy! A brilliant strategy, coupled with Roserade to boost damage by 30, you can one-shot almost anything with Garchomp’s second attack, dealing 290 damage. If you get a 2^nd Roserade into play, you’ll be dealing a massive 320 damage, knocking out most stage 2 Pokémon ex in the format, such as Dragapult ex and Gardevoir ex!

Ethan’s Pokémon

Ethan’s Pokémon thrive on using the Ethan’s Adventure Supporter consistently, allowing you to set up your board effectively. Built with Ethan’s Quilava, Ethan’s Typhlosion, and Ethan’s Ho-oh ex, this deck consistently sets up a slew of fire-type attackers to deal with most threats your opponent could throw at you.

Ethan’s Adventure

Search your deck for up to 3 in any combination of Ethan’s Pokémon and Basic [R] Energy, reveal them, and put them into your hand. Then, shuffle your deck.

Ethan’s Quilava

Ability: Adventure Bound
Once during your turn, you may search your deck for an Ethan’s Adventure, reveal it, and put it into your hand. Then, shuffle your deck.

[R] Combustion: 40 damage.

Ethan’s Typhlosion

[R] Buddy Blast: 40+ damage. This attack does 60 more damage for each Ethan’s Adventure card in your discard pile.

[R][R][C] Steam Artillery: 160 damage.

Ethan’s Ho-oh ex

Ability: Golden Flame
Once during your turn, you may attach up to 2 Basic Fire Energy from your hand to 1 of your Benched Ethan’s Pokémon.

[R][R][R][R] Shining Feather: 160 damage. Heal 50 damage from each of your Pokémon.

Finding your Ethan’s Adventure supporter will be the key to this deck actually setting up consistently. With the help of PokéGear 3.0, Quilava, and Earthen Vessel, you should be able reliably set up your board. Using Earthen Vessel to find your Fire Energy to attach for free with Ho-oh is very powerful and can’t be understated. Ho-oh’s attack is quite costly at 4 Fire Energy for only dealing 160 damage, but this will two-hit most Pokémon ex in the format while also healing your Pokémon in the process. I would not rely on this attack necessarily, but we’re looking to use Typhlosion’s first attack the most. Once we get all 4 Ethan’s Adventure supporters in the discard, it will be swinging for a massive 280 damage every turn thereafter. This huge swing on a one-prize attacker will one-shots a lot of Pokémon ex, even with Bravery Charms attached or stage 2 Pokémon ex such as Pidgeot ex.

Arven’s Pokémon

The main Pokémon we’re going to use with this archetype are Arven’s Mabosstiff ex, Arven’s Greedent, and Arven’s Sandwich. This deck will thrive on fully healing your Pokémon to swing for big damage consistently.

Arven’s Mabosstiff ex

[C] Hustle Tackle: 30+ damage. If this Pokémon has no damage counters on it, this attack does 120 more damage.

[C][C][C] Boss's Headbutt: 210 damage. During your next turn, this Pokémon can't use Boss's Headbutt.

Arven’s Greedent

Ability: Greedy Order
When you play this Pokémon from your hand to evolve 1 of your Pokémon during your turn, you may put up to 2 Arven's Sandwich from your discard pile into your hand.

[C][C] Rolling Tackle: 50 damage.

Arven’s Sandwich

Heal 30 damage from your Active Pokémon. If that Pokémon is an Arven's Pokémon, heal 100 damage instead.

The idea with this deck is to efficiently use Mabosstiff’s first attack for any type of energy, tanking hits, healing off all the damage and then swinging for a massive 150 damage turn after turn. Arven’s Greedent getting back two Sandwich will ensure the Mabosstiff will consistently take hits and swing big!

Team Rocket’s Pokémon

Team Rocket’s Pokémon are the most powerful archetype in the Destined Rivals expansion. Team Rocket’s Mewtwo ex is the center of attention, being able to swing consistently and swiftly for a massive 280 damage turn after turn! Add in Team Rocket’s Spidops and the variety of new Team Rocket supporters, and you will have a deck that is fast, aggressive, and a force to be reckoned. Let’s take a look at the most important cards for this archetype!

Team Rocket’s Spidops

Ability: Charging Up
Once during your turn, you may attach a Basic Energy card from your discard pile to this Pokémon.

[G][C] Rocket Rush: 30x damage. This attack does 30 damage for each your Team Rocket’s Pokémon in play.

Team Rocket’s Mewtwo ex

Ability: Power Saver
This Pokémon can't attack unless you have 4 or more Team Rocket’s Pokémon in play.

[P][P][C] Eraser Ball: 160+ damage. You may discard up to 2 Energy from your Benched Pokémon. This attack does 60 more damage for each card you discarded in this way.

Team Rocket’s Mimikyu

[P][C] Gem Mimicry: Choose an attack on your opponent’s Active Tera Pokemon and use it as the effect of this attack.

Team Rocket’s Articuno

Ability: Resistance Veil
Prevent all effects of attacks used by your opponent's Pokémon done to your Basic Team Rocket’s Pokémon. (Damage is not an effect.)

[W][C][C] Dark Frost: 60+ damage. If this Pokémon has Team Rocket’s Energy attached, this attack does 60 more damage.

Team Rocket’s Archer

You can play this card only if any of your Team Rocket's Pokémon were Knocked Out during your opponent's last turn.

Each player shuffles their hand into their deck. Then, you draw 5 cards, and your opponent draws 3 cards.

Team Rocket’s Ariana

Draw cards until you have 5 cards in your hand. If all of your Pokémon in play are Team Rocket’s Pokémon, draw until you have 8 cards in your hand instead.

Team Rocket’s Factory

Once during each player's turn, if that player played a Supporter card with Team Rocket’s in its name from their hand during that turn, that player may draw 2 cards.

Team Rocket’s Giovanni

Switch your Active Team Rocket’s Pokémon with 1 of your Benched Team Rocket’s Pokémon. If you do, switch in 1 of your opponent’s Benched Pokémon to the Active Spot.

Team Rocket’s Great Ball

Flip a coin. If heads, search your deck for an Evolution Team Rocket’s Pokémon, reveal it, and put it into your hand. If tails, search your deck for a Basic Team Rocket’s Pokémon, reveal it, and put it into your hand. Then, shuffle your deck.

Team Rocket’s Receiver

Search your deck for a Supporter card with Team Rocket's in its name, reveal it, and put it into your hand. Then, shuffle your deck.

Team Rocket’s Petrel

Search your deck for a Trainer card, reveal it, and put it into your hand. Then, shuffle your deck.

Team Rocket’s Proton

If you go first, you may use this card during your first turn.

Search your deck for up to 3 Basic Team Rocket’s Pokémon, reveal them, and put them into your hand. Then, shuffle your deck. 

Team Rocket Energy

This card can only be attached to a Team Rocket’s Pokémon. If this card is attached to anything other than a Team Rocket’s Pokémon, discard this card.

As long as this card is attached to a Pokémon, it provides 2 in any combination of [P] Energy and [D] Energy.

The first thing I want to say about this deck is that it is absolutely INSANE. The consistency afforded by the Rocket engine, the energy it gets, and the attackers it can utilize make this deck ridiculous. The first thing to keep in mind is that Mewtwo cannot attack unless you have 4 or more Team Rocket Pokémon in play. The downside I can see of this deck is that bricking will be far, FAR more punished than in any other decks due to this constraint. The good news is that bricking should be fairly rare, with the Team Rocket Receiver and Team Rocket’s Proton being able to set your board up with no issues. Andrew Mahone actually posted a very decent starting list to his YouTube channel, Tricky Gym, which I will link here:

https://youtu.be/OwOzT08nxUc?si=zjRm0-gNkwzrzer4

Being able to use Spidops turn after turn to generate energy onto the board for Mewtwo’s attack is powerful, but being able to also use Spidops as a one-prize attacker in lots of matchups will prove invaluable to the deck’s overall performance. Mimikyu is a very nice tech here as well, being able to take advantage of Lillie’s Clefairy ex’s Ability to copy Dragapult ex’s Phantom Dive to hit for weakness and spread damage will be crucial to lots of strategies moving forward. In the same vein, I believe Mimikyu will also find a place in Gardevoir ex decks for a similar reason. Having a Mimikyu to copy Wellspring Mask Ogerpon ex, Terapagos ex, Pikachu ex, Flareon ex, etc. will be a huge addition to Gardevoir decks.

Steering back to the Rocket deck, the consistency that’s built into it cannot be understated. The stadium card adds an explosive amount of draw to any Rocket Supporter you can play. The best hand would be to have Proton either naturally or via Rocket’s Receiver and the Stadium in hand to draw 2 additional cards after getting your basics from the deck. This is a huge boost to an already powerful archetype, but I’m sure we will see some lists running an amount of Team Rocket’s Watchtower, which shuts off all Colourless Pokémon’s Abilities. This could prove to be an important tool against things like Bloodmoon Ursaluna ex which removes its Seasoned Skill Ability, locking it into play with no easy way to attack with Blood Moon. Being able to use the Articuno as a small tech attacker and bench-sitter is crucial. With the amount of Corner lock strategies popping up through the use of Maractus JTG 008. Articuno will prevent Corner from locking your Pokémon Active. It also removes any funny plays for your opponent to Mind Bend with Munkidori SFA 072, or any other silly shenanigans. But the main use of Articuno will be to prevent the extra 6 damage counters from being spread on your bench which means Dragapult won’t be able to take 3 or 4 prize turns with Articuno in play. The amount of counterplay this seemingly straightforward deck has is surprising in a lot of ways. There’s a whole lot about this deck that I cannot put into words, so give Andrew Mahone’s video a watch- he goes over the plays well, and watching it on screen does the deck more justice than reading about it.  

Very Good Tech Cards and When to Play Them

Shaymin

Ability: Flower Curtain
Prevent all damage done to your Benched Pokémon without a Rule Box by attacks from your opponent's Pokémon.

[C][C] Smash Kick: 30 damage.

This card will singlehandedly change the format. Most formats that are fair will have some sort of Bench-Barrier-esque effect that is available. This one is a balanced solve as it does not block bench damage to Rule Box Pokémon, but does protect the little guys while you are setting them up. This pumps the brakes on decks like Terabox, Gardevoir ex, etc. from just sniping down your little guys before they get setup. This effect is extremely powerful and gamechanging, so they have mitigated its efficacy fairly, in my opinion, by giving it 80HP, making it unsearchable from Buddy-Buddy Poffin. This card will be a staple in most Dragapult ex, Gardevoir ex, and other Stage 2 decks.

Team Rocket’s Golbat // Team Rocket’s Crobat ex

·         Ability: Sneaky Bite

When you play this Pokémon from your hand to evolve 1 of your Pokémon during your turn, you may put 2 damage counters on 1 of your opponent's Pokémon.

[D] Confuse Ray: 30 damage. Your opponent's Active Pokémon is now Confused.

·         Ability: Bite About
When you play this Pokémon from your hand to evolve 1 of your Pokémon during your turn, you may put 2 damage counters on 2 of your opponent's Pokémon.

[D][D] Assassin’s Return: 120 damage. You may put this Pokémon into your hand. (Discard all attached cards.)

The Crobat ex line is a throwback to the Crobat line from Phantom Forces. I believe the best utilization of this line will be with Hop’s Zacian ex! Being able to pick off little Pokémon on the bench while dealing massive damage to the Active Pokémon can be a powerful strategy. With the likes of Professor Turo’s Scenario, it can be a devastating blow. I believe this line can be playable in Dragapult ex, but the double Stage 2 is hard to fit in a deck with limited space as it is. However, the spread from Phantom Dive is greater, gets around the previously mentioned Shaymin, and can churn out more damage a lot faster. You can even use Golbat to help Dragapult knockout Pokémon ex with up to 220 HP in a single hit! Crobat’s attack being able to put itself back in the hand for a single Team Rocket Energy attachment has to have a place in the metagame somewhere. It’s important to note, however, that the effect of Assassin’s Return will discard the Energy, so there will be a limited number of times you can use this effect.

Energy Recycler

Shuffle up to 5 Basic Energy cards from your discard pile into your deck.

We’ve seen this card in three previous formats and it has been splashable in some degree, but it certainly shined the most during the days of Lost Box’s popularity. In general, this card will see a good amount of play and it will be good to pick up at least 2 or 3 of this card just to have on hand in case a deck comes along that can break it. It is technically a great addition in decks such as Iono’s and Chien-Pao/Baxcalibur, however those decks are not quite up on the tier list at the time of writing. But keep this card in your mind when seeing new cards that will be revealed as the year goes on!

Sacred Ash

Shuffle up to 5 Pokémon from your discard pile into your deck.

This is the first reprint this card has seen since its original printing in XY: Flashfire in 2014. I remember playing back then and this card made a huge splash in the metagame. While it was not widely played in multiple copies, it was the ONLY recovery card we had for a long time until XY: BREAKthrough gave us Super Rod. Even when Super Rod came along, Sacred Ash was still around to give decks that rely on lots of Pokémon an option for a much larger recovery card for only one deck slot.

Team Rocket’s Venture Bomb

Flip a coin. If heads, put 2 damage counters on 1 of your opponent’s Pokémon. If tails, put 2 damage counters on your Active Pokémon.

I could write an entire essay on this card and how format warping it can be. At first glance, you may think, “Well, this card might damage yourself on a 50/50 chance, so why would this be good?” And, in a vacuum, you would be correct to question such a card. However, in the context of the format, keep in mind that we have tools such as Munkidori to be able to send the damage back to your opponent’s Pokémon anyway. So, on the one hand, you have a 50% chance to send 20 damage their way and additional damage with Munkidori, or you have a 50% chance to just deal an extra 20 damage to their board through your Munkidori. This results in at LEAST a 100% chance to deal an extra 20 damage to your opponent’s board with an upside potential that you could deal even more with Munkidori in play. Importantly, this can allow you to take prizes before actually attacking, allowing you to set up multiple knockouts that previously would not have been possible. This card will be format changing, in my opinion and you should pick up several copies to use yourself. Even then, a 50/50 of being able to turn off Pikachu ex’s Ability, or just take an extra Prize card can accelerate games beyond what they were meant to be and can apply a ton of pressure very quickly. For decks like Dragapult ex, you can use this card with Munkidori as seen with Rowan Stavenow’s top 16 list from Atlanta. Like I said, I could write an entire article on how to best utilize this card in so many different ways and why it’s a devastatingly good card in this format.

Team Rocket’s Watchtower

[C] Pokémon in play (both yours and your opponent's) have no Abilities

As previously mentioned in this article, this card may see play in the Rocket deck, however this card is ubiquitously playable in decks that do not rely on colourless Pokémon’s Abilities. Being able to have a generic stadium you can play to shut off the likes of Noctowl, Bloodmoon Ursaluna ex, Fan Rotom, Bouffalant, Pidgeot ex (….The list goes on and on!) will be crucial for these other strategies to have counterplay into these decks that so easily find resources turn after turn and allows them to slow these decks down considerably.

Destined Rivals is slated to really shake up the metagame further than what Journey Together did, and so many of these cards will be high in demand. There are lots of new deck brews I’ve seen popping up and I’m excited to get my hands on this set to start grinding games with the new options available. The North American International Championships will be the first tournament where this set is legal and it will be a thrill to see what people have come up with to work their way to victory. I will be playing as well, and I will be writing a couple articles up until then on my thoughts on some fun decks, competitive decks, and overall how I feel about the format with Destined Rivals legal. As always, thank you so much for reading and I hope this article was helpful or at least entertaining! Have a great time with Destined Rivals, everybody, and root for the team from Dark Fox TCG at the North American International Championships coming up!

 

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