2023 Pokemon Standard Rotation – Biggest Changes
Whether you like it or not, rotation in Pokemon TCG is as certain as death and taxes. With it, great decks rise and fall, and we all must learn how to make-do without some of our favorite cards and combos. While plenty of new and great cards have come out in the new Scarlet & Violet set, the biggest changes in the game come courtesy of the cards that are no longer legal to play in Pokemon TCG Standard.
Let’s look at the biggest cards to be rotated out and how they impact the meta.
Marnie – Supporter Card
Before rotation, Marnie was one of the most reliable supporter cards. It allowed you to force your opponent’s hand to the bottom of his/her deck and then he/she got to draw only four cards, while you got to draw five.
This card was hugely effective at offsetting your opponent and many decks could win from just playing this in tandem with Path to the Peak, or other effect canceling cards.
What to play post-rotation
Because Marnie is no longer available, people are playing Judge instead. Judge is a decent hand disrupter, but it has nothing on Marnie. It doesn’t give you the advantage of having more cards than your opponent, and both of your hands are shuffled back into the deck. Effectively, the outcome of this card is completely random. But that doesn’t make it a good card.
Inteleon Line and Shady Dealings
Inteleon was an incredibly powerful engine of the Sword and Shield era, and using it allowed almost any deck to have a chance. It’s long gone now, though, thanks to the 2023 Standard rotation.
What to play post rotation
There’s really nothing that replaces Shady Dealings’s ability to pull any trainer card in your deck. However, there are new, popular engines you can leverage. The most dominant draw engine right now has to be Lost Zone/Comfey. Of course, Mew VMAX and its Genesect V draw support engine is still kicking, so that’s another option. Still, Lost Zone and Genesect only really make sense for certain kinds of decks. Right now, nothing exists that affords the kind of flexibility that Inteleon allowed in regards to using just about any attacker.
Scoop Up Net
The loss of Scoop Up Net would be felt even more if Inteleon/Shady Dealings hadn’t rotated out. Still, Scoop Up Net was an incredibly versatile card, used for various combos from Galarian Zigzagoon and beyond. However, there is another really strong archetype that felt the loss of the net. That archetype was the Lost Zone Engine, specifically the Giratina VSTAR and Lost Zone Box decks.
What to play post rotation
While the versatility of Scoop Up Net is not matched by anything in the current meta, people are able to work effectively around it thanks to the use of Switch, Escape Rope, Switch Cart, and Beach Court. You may not be able to scoop up your Comfey, but you can pretty easily switch between Pokemon and get a few Flower Selecting abilities off in a turn.
In some ways, losing Scoop Up Net helped the Lost Zone decks out, because people stoped leaning only on Scoop Up Net, using a plethora of switching cards, making it more likely to bring the right Pokemon out of your bench when possible.
Quick Ball
Quick Ball also rotated out. This is a pretty big one that affected all decks. One of the issues with losing Quick Ball is that cards like Crobat V and Lumineon V have way less utility than they used to. Pretty much you’re stuck using Ultra Ball to bring those sorts of cards to your hand. But most decks just can’t afford to run a lot of Ultra Balls.
What to play post rotation
Nest Ball is the direct replacement for Quick Ball, enabling players to bring a basic Pokemon directly to their bench. This works really well for certain decks, and actually enhances them by eliminating the need to discard a card. Still, it doesn’t help those V supporters that activate when played from the hand.
Aurora Energy
Last but not least, Aurora Energy is no longer playable. This was a hard hit for Lugia VSTAR and pretty much a death sentence for Regigigas. Aurora Energy was pretty effective, enabling you to use it to replace virtually any energy, meaning that with the right deck behind you, you could leverage an insane number of combos. It was thanks mostly to this energy that Lugia VSTAR was so powerful – it could leverage combos with the likes of Radiant Charizard and Yveltal’s Cry of Destruction all in the same deck!
What to play post rotation
There’s no replacement for Aurora Energy, but people are finding workarounds. One combo Lugia VSTAR players are using is to leverage Single Strike Energy to do some real strong damage.
