Pokemon Article:
Next Destinies - Set Analysis
By Glaceon, Riskbreakers, and Vulpix Yolk from PokéBeach
(i) Pokémon
Amoonguss
Amoonguss is an interesting card out of Next Destinies; many people feel it has a great amount of potential in this format. The reason many people like Amoonguss is because of its Sporprise Ability. Poison and Confusion on the defending Pokémon is excellent, and since Amoonguss doesn’t need energy or Rare Candy to function, it can be slipped into just about any deck in the metagame. It is great for any deck that may need any extra 10 damage to OHKO something in the meta, or a deck that can hold a high retreat Pokémon in its opponent’s active position for several turns. Amoonguss is generally only used as a tech. However, it can be considered a staple in one slightly played deck in the format.
♦ Amoonguss with Leafeon UD: Amoonguss provides amazing support for Leafeon; inflicting the Defending Pokémon with 2 special conditions means that Leafeon is going to be able to hit for 100 damage for one energy and 110 after applying for Poison. Unfortunately for Amoonguss, it has to fight with Roserade for play in Leafeon decks because Roserade can also inflict the Defending Pokémon with Poison and Confusion. I prefer Roserade, but this is purely player preference. If you are going to use Amoongus over Roserade in a Leafeon variant, you can continue to your Amoonguss’s Sporprise Ability by returning it to your hand with cards like Super Scoop Up, and Seeker. Torkoal and Houndoom Prime are both great tech options in this deck, because you can inflict the Defending Pokémon with three special conditions in one turn, meaning Leafeon can hit for 150 damage before the effects of Special Conditions take place. Leafeon/Amoonguss is a great deck to look into if you are wanting to play rogue because once set up, you can get an OHKO almost every turn thanks to this deck's extremely high damage output.
Chandelure
Chandelure is one of the few cards out of Next Destinies that is going to give the former tier 1 deck, Chandelure, a boost in competitive play. Unfortunately, Chandelure Next Destinies is sort of a one trick pony, because it can only be effectively used as a tech in one deck in the metagame. Although it may not have numerous amounts of uses, Chandelure Next Destinies is a very effective tech in Chandelure.
♦ Durant Matchup: This card can help Chandelure out in one of its most difficult match ups, Durant. It’s fire typing and ability to hit for decent amounts of damage can help Chandelure pull off a much needed OHKO in a tight situation. The downside of Inferno, of course, is that you have to discard the energies attached, so it would be difficult to get a string of KOs against Durant. Generally, it's better to use the first attack against Durant, since it sets up multiple KOs at once. It will be difficult for them to recover the Durants you knock out, since they can’t play their Revives when your Vileplume is out.
♦ Attacking Uses: While getting a couple useful knock outs against Durant can be helpful, Chandelure Next Destinies can help out a standard Chandelure list in a different way with its Flame Burst attack. You only need one fire energy to use Flame Burst, so it will be easy to add the energy to attack, and the energy will be easy to search out if your Chandelure list is playing Twins. Flame Burst helps further Chandelure’s sniping ability, since it hits two benched Pokémon for 30 damage, not to mention 30 damage to your opponent’s active Pokémon.
Chandelure Next Destinies does have some issues, such as its damage output being altered by Eviolite, the fact that it is harder to effectively utilize Tropical Beach with it in the deck, and the issue of it being within OHKO range of the dragons. However, these cons shouldn’t keep Chandelure from seeing play. It is still a great tech to consider when playing a standard Chandelure list, and it will definitely something you should expect to see at your upcoming State Championships.
Vanilluxe
Ah Vanilluxe, this is an interesting card to come out of Next Destinies. Any former Flygon Lock players like myself will recognize Vanilluxe’s Slippery Soles Ability, since it is very similar to Palkia lv.X’s Restructure Poké-Power. The difference is that you get to choose the Pokémon you send to your active, and your opponent gets to choose which Pokémon they want to send to their active. This can work as a form of disruption, and can help you get a Pokémon out of your active in a tight situation.
♦ Uses in VVV: The most effective way to use Vanilluxe as a tech is in Vanilluxe, Victini, Vileplume, since you are already playing Vanilluxe’s pre-evolutions. The main use for this card is to disrupt your opponent, while continuing to put them under a paralysis lock. Vanilluxe works almost like a Switch under your own Vileplume lock, and can help you get certain Pokémon out of your active. This can be very useful when your Vanilluxe is inflicted with a Special Condition, be it Paralysis from another Vanilluxe, or Confusion and Poison from a card like Roserade or Amoonguss.
Vanilluxe isn't too great of a tech in a lot of decks in this format, simply because it is a stage 2. Once set up, however, Vanilluxe Next Destinies can drastically help many decks in the format out of difficult situations. It just takes too much time to set it up.
Zapdos
Zapdos is part of of the legendary bird trio in this set, and apparently the only useful one of the three. The first attack gives a 50 snipe for a Lightning Energy and a DCE. This can be useful stuff turn 2 for sniping down Tynamos, Magnemites and any other weak basics. The second attack is similar to "Macheap's" (Machamp SF) Hurricane Punch, which was one of the most-used flippy attacks in the game. It can deal to a max of 200 damage with a lucky flip.
♦ Can be paired with Fliptini as an addition to Corners: Corners can use a more reliable Electric attacker if the meta calls for it. DCE and this guy will do just that. Fliptini here is just gravy because it will also be Catcher bait, so some people may choose not to add it.
♦ Eelzone: Another Electric Pokémon means another toy for any Eel deck to play around with. Zapdos gives snipe capabilities to the deck, so it's worth a spot in some versions. If you're lucky, try out the second attack and watch the table flip as you do 200 damage to your opponent.
In general, this Zapdos is very playable, but the lack of Lightning weakness in the meta hurts it. Lost Remover hampers its capability to abuse DCE, and most benchwarmers are a 2HKO to it. It can function as a pseudo-Donphan counter, but who plays that much Donphan these days? Terrakion, on the other hand, is very played.
Zebstrika
Wait, the first attack does what? Trainer Lock? It also does 40 damage? Wow! This should be very useful to play! It also snipes for 80 as well! Finally a non-EX card that will be seen in States everywhere. Yeah, right... maybe if we lived in a different dimension. Kidding aside, Zebstrika is borderline decent. It deals a decent amount of damage and can hit for Trainer Lock, which is crippling to many decks. If Trainer Lock is so big, why is this card only decent? One, the attack only does 40 damage which is a 5HKO on any EX. By most standards, that is a bummer. Two, the snipe is great and all but it only hits for 80 which is 10 short of killing any Reuniclus or Eels. To be fair to the card, it can get powered up by Eels and Trainer Lock by T2, which is a pain to any deck not running their own lock. The problem is that it’s too frail, and that the amount of damage isn’t very high. While somebody might be able to turn Zebstrika into a monster of a card, I say it is borderline decent at best. To summarize, too little damage and too little HP makes the card get mauled by the heavy hitters of the format.
Gardevoir
Gardevoir is one of the best Pokémon to come out of Next Destinies. It has effectively given psychic type Pokémon their own form of energy acceleration; the best energy acceleration before Gardevoir for psychic type Pokémon was the Jirachi Shaymin engine, which was very iffy. Gardevoir is an interesting acceleration card for a powerful type in our current format, and in my opinion, it is going to see play in every format until it is rotated or outclassed.
♦ Gardevoir with Mewtwo EX:
One card that works great with Gardevoir is obviously Mewtwo EX. Mewtwo EX can hit for large amounts of damage with its X Ball attack after Gardevoir is out, since your psychic energies will count for double. This mean you can power up Mewtwo's Psycho Drive, or use X Ball with only one energy. Since Mewtwo EX counters itself so well, Leavanny Noble Victories is a great tech to consider if you are considering building a deck around Mewtwo and Gardevoir, since it eliminates your pesky psychic weakness.
♦ Uses in Gothitelle: Another great way to play Gardevoir is to use it as a tech in Gothitelle decks. Gardevoir and Gothitelle have great synergy. Since a standard Gothielle list already plays maxed out Rare Candy, the deck's overall consistency won’t be greatly altered, and once Gardevoir is set up, your opponent won’t be able to Pokémon Catcher it into your active thanks to Gothitelle’s Magic Room ability. With Gardevoir in play, Gothitelle can hit for extremely large amount of damage, with only 3 psychic energy attached, Gothitelle can hit its opponent for 150, and with four psychic energy attached, you can OHKO any card in the format (without Eviolite or Defenders attached). Gardevoir Gothitelle could be a hard hitting force to be reckoned with, and it is definitely a deck that you should be prepared to see.
♦ Gardevoir with Darmanitan / Exeggutor: Gardevoir paired with either of these Pokémon is an extremely high hitting combo, however, it requires a decent amount of luck to function properly. With Gardevoir, it is very easy to build up large amounts of energy quickly, and hit for large amounts of damage early in the game. If you aren’t satisfied with your coin flips for the turn, you can always use Victini’s Victory Star ability to re-flip and get a second chance at hitting your desired damage output. Your main attackers are very vulnerable to Mewtwo EX’s X Ball attack, however; that can easily be solved with a Mewtwo EX tech of your own. This deck faces two fairly obvious problems that are holding it back. These problems are that you don’t know how much damage you are going to be hitting for during your turn, and that it is hard to build up a second attacker after your first is knocked out. While both of those problems significantly hold the deck back, the deck can still be a decent rogue deck in our meta.
Musharna
Musharna is a Stage 1 Psychic Pokémon with a very similar Ability to Uxie Lv. X. The reasons Musharna doesn’t see the play Uxie Lv. X did is because Musharna has a retreat cost of three and it puts the card not wanted back on the top of the deck instead of on the bottom. Also, Uxie Lv. X was a one card tech, while Musharna is usually run in 2-2 or 3-3. Uxie was already used in every deck, so Uxie Lv. X only took up one more card slot. Munna definitely isn’t at all useful without Musharna.
♦ Trainer-lock variants: Musharna is okay in trainer lock variants because it can't be Catchered up for stalling. However, most trainer locking variants do not need Musharna and should be able to do fine without it. In The Truth, the Bench tends to be cluttered, and Musharna cannot hold many damage counters with only 100 HP.
♦ Decks with no drawpower but a high Switch count: In decks that do not have drawpower, Musharna could work for extra support. However, these decks have to have a high switch count because if Musharna is Catchered up the only way to get it out of the active position is to retreat. With a retreat cost of three, Musharna will be up there for a while and the other player can set up more Pokémon and attackers.
To be honest, I can only see Musharna working in those decks. Musharna is its own thing, unlike Uxie Lv. X. Uxie Lv. X had a one-energy retreat cost, and only used one spot in a deck, unlike Musharna. I give Musharna a 2.5/5. It could be useful sometimes, but it isn’t useful enough to be successful and justify how much space it takes in a deck. If Musharna had a one or two-energy retreat cost, I think it would be more playable.
Darmanitan
Darmanitan is a Stage 1 Pokémon with 110 HP and 2 attacks. The first attack isn’t great, but the second attack, combined with the Psychic typing hitting Mewtwo for Weakness, allows it to OHKO Mewtwo-EX a good amount of the time. The only problem is that the attack is flippy, and if it were to be paired with Victini, it would be at least a five card tech, but often up six or eight.
♦ Deck Possibilities: I think Darmanitan is more of its own deck than a tech, because as a tech Darmanitan takes up almost one sixth of the deck's space.
♦ Gardevior/Mewtwo: Since Gardevior makes all psychic energy count as two, Darmanitan could be a useful revenge attacker once your own Mewtwo gets revenge KO’d. However, it is flippy, and a Stage 1 card, so the Mewtwo player has multiple chances to knock out either Darumaka or Darmanitan.
♦ Decks with DCE in need of a Mewtwo counter: Decks that use DCE that really need a Mewtwo counter could use Darmanitan, but I think that Mewtwo could be a better play as a counter in those decks, especially considering they use DCE, giving the player the possible surprise factor.
Though Darmanitan could be a counter to Mewtwo, I think it is outclassed by other better Mewtwo solutions. I give Darmanitan a 2.5/5. Though it could be a Mewtwo counter, there are much better cards for the job.
Shiftry
Shiftry is a Stage 2 dark type card with a helpful resistance to Psychic. However, Shiftry should never be active. Shiftry would be used for its power, which, on a coin flip, shuffles one of the opponent’s Pokémon into their deck.
♦ Deck Possibilities: Shiftry does not fit well into any of the current decks. The reasoning for this is if it were to be played, the player must devote one sixth of their deck towards Shiftry, which still only works on a flip. Shiftry’s attack cost is too expensive for the effect, which is 60 damage. If this were to be used in a deck, I could only see it being used in a rogue deck devoted to it, where Shiftry plays a major role. Otherwise, I cannot see Shiftry doing well in this meta, and cannot recommend it as a play in any meta deck.
Cincinno
Another rulings clarification for this one: Victory Star of Fliptini will NOT work on Cincinno’s Ability (I got that question several times so might as well clarify it for all to see). On to the review of the card. There really isn’t much to say about this card. It is a better version of Jumpluff TRR, which just annoyed the heck out of its opponents. Basically, Cinccino has typical Stage 1 stats, such as 90HP. Its Ability, which gives it a 50% chance at immunity when the opponent attacks it, is very conditional and luck-based. This card would have been so much better had it been printed in earlier sets, when hitting for 90HP was a chore. Now, hitting for 90HP is so easy with so many hard hitters such as Reshiram, Zekrom, and the EX cards. Also, you could just Catcher any support that Cincinno has and make quick work of it, resetting Cincinno’s attack at the same time. This card shows very little promise and should only be used for league decks when facing those newbies who you just want to mess with and stick a trollface on.
(ii) Trainer, Supporters, Stadiums, and Special Energy
Cilan
This card reminds me of Mr. Stone’s Project from a long time ago. Searching for energy has been important in most formats but unfortunately, this card doesn’t deliver as much impact to our current format. The main reason is that it’s too one-dimensional. Mr. Stone’s Project, while not the most playable card in the format back then, did give you the option to search either your deck or your discard for energy. Cilan only allows you to search from the deck. Fear not however, there are a few decks who can still enjoy this card’s presence.
♦ The most prominent example for this would be Emboar variants. Magneboar and Reshiboar require lots of energy on the board and Cilan is a good way to accelerate energy searching so that attaching becomes a lot easier.
Other than this though, Cilan’s uses are few and far between. The card just suffers from being a Supporter, since it means once you play it, you lose an opportunity to draw extra cards for the turn via Oak's or Juniper. This is really crucial unless playing an Emboar deck where energy attachments are the key. Just like its old brother Mr. Stone’s Project, I don’t see this card making huge waves around the competitive format.
Exp. Share
Before discussing the card in general, let’s first clarify a ruling on this card. Two different Benched Pokemon having Exp. Share can both receive one energy each from the fainted Active Pokémon. Now that’s out of the way, let’s get into the card itself.
Exp. Share is a Tool that allows benched Pokemon to receive a basic energy from the active that just got KO’d. On paper, it looks like a very good card but in reality, it’s just a so-so card that has a lot of cons as well.
We start with its card type. It is a Pokémon Tool, and we know that only one Tool can be attached to a Pokémon at a time. To use Exp Share, one has to compete with the other Tools in the format - Eviolite and Rocky Helmet. You have to decide whether the free energy is worth using the tool slot that could’ve been used for Eviolite or Rocky Helmet. It is usually on personal preference, but there are a few decks that could make use Exp. Share.
♦ Corners and CoKE are the primary decks that could use Exp Share. Corners is notorious for being one of the best anti-meta decks out there, but its biggest weakness is its reliance on Shaymin UL to move around energy, basically having no energy acceleration at all. Running an Exp. Share or two in Corners can lessen the burden of attachments and make the decks' flow better. The problem is, you’re sacrificing a couple of Eviolites to make this work and Eviolite is one of the best tools for Corners. A whole lot of testing and personal preference will come into play when players decide what tool to run.
♦ CoKE also has that “lack of energy” problem, especially when your Electrodes are not popping nicely. Again, Eviolite is the competitor for the spot in this deck.
Personally, I like this card and its uses are good but it suffers from two things. One is its lack of flexibility. Not being able to move Special Energies is severely limiting its usefulness and second, the other two tools are far superior in what they do. Wrapping up, Exp Share is a good card and can be played, but it came to a format where there are better options.
Heavy Ball
This set really loves to give us Balls right? They should have just given us Random Receiver. Anyway, Heavy Ball is the second of the two "Ball Engine" cards in this set and, like the other one, it’s a guaranteed search with a big condition. It can only search Pokemon that have a retreat cost of three or more, excluding Legend halves. As with any ball engine card, its uses will be limited. Its main use will probably be in Magneboar and ReshiBoarEX where most of the Pokémon in the deck have large retreat costs. But even with this facor, it will not warrant more than two copies per deck due to its inability to search Basics. There are so many better Pokémon search cards for most decks (like MTC and Durant) that this card isn’t worth much consideration. There aren’t many usable decks right now where majority of the Pokémon have a retreat cost of three or more. Only consider using this card when playing Magneboar or ReshiBoarEX.
Level Ball
This trainer card allows you to search for a Pokemon with 90HP or less. At first, one should be wondering why this card should be even mentioned when there are better search options such as Pokémon Collector, Pokémon Communication and even Dual Ball . The answer here is that the search this card provides is guaranteed and does not use your Supporter for the turn. This typically works in the favor of decks like Durant (Durant has 70HP, Rotom has 60HP), ZekEels (Tynamo has 30HP, Eelektrik has 90HP) and could work as a one-of in some other decks. The card also provides a boost for less-used attackers such as Cinccino and Zebstrika.
♦ This works best for Durant because all of the cards in the deck have less than 90HP. It used to play Dual Ball, which was good but very flippy. On a personal level, I would prefer the 100% chance of a guaranteed Pokemon rather than the 25% chance of getting nothing in return. We all know about that business saying “high risk, high return” but in a TCG game, we all want to reduce number cards in our decks that require coin flips. Therefore, Level Ball is a good replacement for Dual Ball.
♦ Using this card in ZekEels is a bit hard for some to swallow because the deck has many Pokémon that have 100HP or more. The thing to do with ZekEel is to run a heavy line of both Pokémon Collector and a fairly heavy line of Level Ball. One would want to get Tynamos and attackers such as Zekrom through Collector, and then use Level Ball to search for Eels. It is a bit more cost-efficient that Communication because you don’t have to return a Pokémon to the deck. This can get a bit frustrating at specific times since the deck usually only runs about 15 Pokémon. I have tested Level Ball in ZekEel and it has been working well so far.
The cons to this card are pretty obvious. Unlike Dual Ball and Communication, it is not splashable in every deck. Most decks run big basics such as Zekrom and Reshiram who are not searchable via Level Ball. Overall, it’s a very decent card and would be even better had this format not been a “Big Basic/Big HP” format.
Pokémon Center
Pokémon Center is a mediocre card that heals 20 damage from a benched Pokémon of choice between turns. This effect isn’t very useful most of the time, but I see a few decks where this could be useful.
♦ The Truth
Pokémon Center could be a bit useful in The Truth, healing 20 damage from a benched Pokémon between turns. Though every removed damage counter helps, it is not enough to justify a 3 or 4 card tech. I would use Blissey or another healer over Pokémon Center in The Truth. Though Pokémon Center could work, it is too outclassed by other cards to waste three spots on.
♦ TyRam
The purpose for Pokémon Center in TyRam is to heal Afterburner damage from benched Reshiram. This could be useful, but I would rather have more consistency cards then healing a few damage counters off of Reshirams that will often be OHKO’d anyways.
♦ Durant
The strategy with Pokémon Center in Durant is if your opponent cannot OHKO Durants, the Durant player would retreat the damaged Durant, and Pokémon Center would heal the damage. However, this is an energy-consuming process, and most decks have a way to OHKO Durants. If they don't they're probably going to lose anyway. I wouldn’t recommend it.
I give Pokémon Center a 1.5/5. Pokémon Center’s uses are very limited. In the decks where Pokémon Center could be useful, it is often outclassed by other cards.
Skyarrow Bridge
Skyarrow Bridge is a Stadium card with a very good effect. Skyarrow Bridge drops the retreat cost of all Basic Pokémon by one energy. This is useful because it allows cards like Celebi Prime, Tynamo, and a large variety of other Basics to retreat for free.
♦ Celebi/Mewtwo-EX/Tornadus: The reason Skyarrow Bridge is a good and mandatory play in CMT is because it allows Celebi to retreat for free, which is key in the deck, and also useful for changing attackers. It helps Tornadus retreat, which can be useful, but more importantly, Celebi. Celebi provides the energy acceleration for the deck, so forcing the discard of energy or use of Switch for energy acceleration is really bad. Celebi is usually sent up after KOs, when you need an attacker. Having to discard an energy to retreat Celebi would limit options and possibilities, effectively making the one-energy acceleration useless. This is why it didn't see play before Skyarrow was released.
♦ 6 Corners: The deck 6 Corners is made up only of basic Pokémon, so Skyarrow Bridge monumentally helps the deck. Virizion, the preferred starter, has a one energy retreat cost, so Skyarrow Bridge brings Virizion’s retreat cost down to zero. Not only does this make it so that an energy not wasted on retreating, but it makes it so there are more energy on the field after Virizion retreats. This allows earlier attacking for other Pokémon and better energy control. Virizion is also turned into a free retreater, making it easier to choose a Pokémon to put active after your opponent Knocks Out your current active.
♦ Zekrom EX/Eelektrik/other attackers: This is another deck made up of mostly basic Pokémon, meaning another deck where Skyarrow Bridge is beneficial. All Tynamos will have free retreat, and Mewtwo-EX and Zekrom will have more manageable retreat costs. It allows a player to switch attackers more easily without having to use too many resources.
♦ ZPST: Skyarrow Bridge helps ZPST a ton. It makes it easier to donk because all basic Pokémon in the deck have free retreat except Zekrom, but Zekrom is usually the donker anyways. Pachirisu and Shaymin starts aren’t that bad anymore because they get free retreat from Skyarrow Bridge. In the past, a Shaymin or Pachirisu start tended to mean no chance to donk, but that is not the case when Skyarrow Bridge is out!
I give Skyarrow Bridge a 4.5/5. It is very useful in many basic decks, but, though not broken, gives basic decks a huge advantage over Stage 1 or Stage 2 based decks. Being an unsearchable Stadium card in a way balances this, but in count of three or four there is still a great advantage.
Prism Energy
Prism Energy is an amazing card for a format overrun by overpowered Basic Pokémon. It can be used in a large potion of decks in the metagame, and is going to be the clear play over Rainbow Energy for most decks in the format. That being said, Rainbow Energy may also see play in decks that are utilizing Prism Energy.
♦ Uses in Corners: Corners is probably the most obvious deck that can get a large boost from Prism Energy. It can help power up any attacker in Six Corners, which is excellent for a deck that needs so many different energy types to use all of its Pokémon's attacks. A Six Corners list can now play 4 Rainbow Energy, and 4 Prism Energy, meaning that it has 8 energy cards in the deck that can be used to power up any attacker. This is an amazing addition, not to mention that the energy can be moved off of attackers that are dying with Shaymin UL. Thanks to Shaymin UL, Prism Energy, and the large amount of Switch that a standard Six Corners list plays, you can power up just about any attacker in your deck at any time simply with two Prism Energy on your field. Six Corners is going to be an even larger contender in the metagame with the release of Prism Energy.
♦ Uses in Electrode Variants: Any deck that utilizes Electrode Prime and powerful basics is going to see a decent boost in power thanks to Prism Energy. Since Special Energy can be attached with Electrode’s Energymite Poké-Power, Prism Energy can be put down on to any attacker on your field after an Energymite. Maxed out Prism Energy with maxed out Rainbow Energy is going to make it so you can power up just about any basic in the format with three energy off of an Energymite. This is going to give CaKE variants a large boost, because they can now effective power up more Pokémon than Cobalion and Kyurem. Techs like Terrakion, Mewtwo EX, Reshiram EX and Zekrom can now be played without too much list alteration. Except to see various basics in Electrode variants thanks to the release of Prism Energy.
♦ Uses in Durant: While Durant doesn’t receive as large of a boost from Prism Energy as Six Corners and Electrode Variants do, Prism Energy can help Durant in one simple way. It can be used as opposed to Rainbow Energy to help you power up Rotom UD’s Plasma Arrow attack. This attack has proven to be very useful with Black Belt, because you can OHKO a large amount of attackers in the metagame that may be posing a threat to your Durant swarm. Prism Energy outclasses Rainbow Energy, because when attached to your Pokémon, they don’t have to take the one damage counter that comes with Rainbow Energy. While this may not seem like a large improvement, it is actually somewhat game-changing. Before the release of Prism Energy, when Rainbow Energy was being played in Durant, if you were forced to attach a Rainbow Energy to your Durant, your opponent would only need to deal 80 damage to get the OHKO. This meant that the Durant you attached the Rainbow Energy to could now be one-shotted by Cobalion, Tornadus, Thundurus, and Virizion even if it had an Eviolite on it. With Prism Energy instead of Rainbow Energy, none of those Pokémon can one-shot your Durant. Prism Energy helps keep unneeded damage of off your Durants.
Prism Energy is a great card, one of the best “trainers” out of Next Destinies. You can expect it to see play from the upcoming Pokémon State Championships to the day that it is rotated. Prism Energy is a must-own card, and is going to be considered a staple in various decks in the metagame.
(iii) Closing Notes
Riskbreakers:
Next Destinies was a set that was highlighted by the EXs and rightfully so. EX's are the real game-changing cards here. The set does offer a few good non-EX cards like Skyarrow Bridge, Gardevoir, DarMAXitan, and the TSS lines. But the rest of the set just gives us “teases” - cards that have some potential but aren’t too good because of the lack of firepower and/or over-reliance of luck. Overall, this set should be known for the EXs and again I should be referring you guys to Zorua’s “The EX Factor” for a more in-depth analysis of all the EXs cards in the set. Let’s just be thankful that this set wasn’t like Emerging Powers though. If I were to give this entire set a rating, it’d be a 7/10.
Glaceon:
I think that Next Destinies is a mediocre set, with a few good cards, but mostly bad cards. Though the return of EXs is exciting, I do not think this is one of the better sets released, despite useful Trainers and Supporters, and a few playable EXs. The meta, though I don’t really like it too much, is actually great. The better player will win.
Vulpix Yolk:
Next Destinies has altered the metagame. The re-addition of EX cards has completely reshaped the format as we know it. Since the release of Next Destinies, the "magic number" of 130 HP has been completely eliminated. Many new decks have come out of Next Destinies, and just about every former deck in the metagame has received some sort of assistance from the amazing trainers, supporters, stadiums, and special energy card this set has to offer. With the release of new EX Pokémon, excellent reprints like Double Colorless Energy, and the other great Trainer cards out of this set, I feel Next Destinies is one of the best sets we have in the format.
