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“Mardi Trois:” Rowan Stavenow’s Top Three Picks for New Orleans

Hello, readers! NAIC Is around the corner, and with Destined Rivals being introduced into the game, we have a relatively low quantity of new cards worth discussing. However, a few of these cards will have a major impact on today’s metagame. In today’s article, I’m going to be analyzing the impact of three new cards, as well as discussing my top three deck choices for NAIC, including sample deck lists and the pros and cons of each deck.

Before I get into my top three choices, I’d like to lay out the logic that has led to these rankings. With the release of Destined Rivals, there have been three meaningful changes to the game. First off, all bench protection has returned to the game in the form of Shaymin. Regardless of whether this card is or isn’t included in specific archetypes, I believe its existence will be enough to scare away decks that heavily rely on bench sniping effects. Zoroark ex without Darminitan is practically pitiful, and Tera Box without Wellspring Mask Ogerpon ex is just an unnecessarily complicated version of Raging Bolt. I do think Raging Bolt ex remains playable without the use of Raging Bolt SCR.

Second of all is Team Rocket’s Watchtower. Originally I saw this card as an anti-Noctowl card exclusively, but the more I played with it, the more I realized the significance of blocking Bloodmoon Ursaluna ex. Joltik Box and Dragapult both rely heavily on the use of Ursaluna. Originally I theorized that this card would not see any play, and Tera decks would remain unscathed, but now I think otherwise. This is a minor hit to Eevee Box, Tera Box, and Raging Bolt ex.

And finally, the most substantial change in this format is Grimmsnarl ex. Originally Mewtwo ex was believed to be the premiere ex Pokemon of the set, but with the support of  Spikemuth Gym and the efficiency of Grimmsnarl ex’s ability Punk Up, I believe it will be a top archetype at NAIC. However, I find the deck to take relatively even matchups against the majority of the format, with the exception of a poor Joltik Box matchup. Additionally, given its poor draw engine, many games are high-variance and come down to that final Iono. With this logic, I figure its arrival to have a fairly low impact on the rest of the meta, besides a few more Joltik players, and a few less Gardevoir players.

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