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Pojo's Pokémon Card of the Day

Otaku	Hello, readers!  As you know from the front page announcement and some of the other reviews, this week begins our countdown of the top 10 cards leaving Standard Format play as of September 1st, 2017, when the oldest releases rotate out.  All five active Pokémon CotD crew members submitted a list - 21times, aroramage, Vince, Zach Carmichael, and myself - from which the official Pojo site’s list was crafted.  Cards with legal 2017-2018 Standard Format reprints (if known at the time) are not eligible for this list, though cards with similar replacements are because we aren’t just concerned with the future but the past and present with this list.  It was left to each reviewer to decide the specifics with which they were concerned.  You know me; I like to be very precise (especially with 21times happily going beyond even my efforts!) but I made some bad calls in managing my time, so once I was down to a few dozen cards, I had to mostly eyeball it.  Our tenth place finisher is Mega Turbo (XY: Roaring Skies 86/108), a Trainer-Item that attaches a basic Energy from your discard pile to one of your Mega Evolution Pokémon in play.  We’ve reviewed it twice before, first as our number five pick from XY: Roaring Skies and then again as our number nine pick for all of 2015.  The quick recap of those reviews is that being a Trainer is typically useful, being an Item is great except when anti-Item effects are prominent in the metagame, and while there is no cost to use this card the two conditions are something specific in your discard pile and something else specific on your field.  Anti-Item effects have been a big deal for most of the Standard Format lifespan of Mega Turbo, and most decks do not run both Mega Evolutions and basic Energy (though the combination is also not rare).  This card is quality Mega Evolution support and helped make (arguably break) multiple Mega Evolution focused or supported decks.  Energy acceleration tends to be potent in the Pokémon TCG, usually only failing where badly overpriced or poorly timed.  Some Mega Evolutions relied heavily upon Mega Turbo to set up just one or two durable attackers.  Others took advantage of it for a quick speed boost throughout the game because they only needed one or two Energy.  A third group split the difference, just needing it for a speedy start with either another form of Energy acceleration or manual Energy attachments maintaining the field afterward.  There is a fourth group of miscellaneous uses that defy the other categories as well, such as attaching to a Bench-sitter to fuel another effect or only being needed for a particular power play.  Rotation is removing many Mega Evolutions from competitive play, which shouldn’t come as a surprise because Pokémon-EX are now the “old guard”, being replaced by Pokémon-GX as the premier gimmick.  So it was only natural that they and their support would be heavily hit by this rotation.  We aren’t losing all of them, but only those with effective alternatives are not diminished by the loss of Mega Turbo; it wasn’t a staple for Mega Evolution focused decks but it was always nice to know it was an option.  So, what are the effective alternatives?  You’ve got to Evolve your Mega Evolution from a Basic Pokémon-EX, so Max Elixir is a serious consideration, paralleling many of the requirements for a good Mega Turbo candidate.  Water-Type Mega Evolutions probably would have been using Aqua Patch instead of Mega Turbo, anyway.  Expect Mega Turbo to continue to be a presence in Expanded, though like most older cards, its days of relevance are numbered; what are the odds a similar Item doesn’t replace it, Pokémon-GX or another future gimmick mechanic don’t finally render Mega Evolutions obsolete (even the “good” ones), and the opposite extreme is a problem as well since we know older cards are more likely to get banned if something “breaks” them via combo.  If you’re going to the lengths required to play a Limited Format game using Mega Turbo now, it probably won’t do you much good.  You’ll need a Mega Evolution, its Basic Pokémon-EX counterpart, and a means of getting basic Energy into the discard pile; much trickier than in Constructed Format play.  Ultra Ball is an Uncommon in this expansion, so it isn’t hopeless for the +39 route, but odds are you’ll have to run a fleshed out deck so that basic Energy can hit the discard pile from retreating and other Pokémon being KO’d.  Either way, you also still need to get your Mega Evolution into play and have this card when you need the Energy.  Most of the time, Mega Turbo ends up as a dead card you can only use as pure filler, I guess since it might allow you to bluff.  Even when you get the minimum required to use it, the timing has to be correct.  So, even though I scored it quite high before, I’ve got to significantly lower it this time; Mega Turbo is brilliant when you pull it and a Mega Evolution line plus get it before that Mega Evolution is already powered up but doing this requires a lot of luck, both in pulls from packs and draws from your deck.  This results in the clunky aggregate score since it’s usually useless, sometimes nice, and sometimes amazing.  Ratings  Standard: 3.5/5 (soon to be N/A)  Expanded: 3.5/5  Limited: 1.75/5 (aggregate)  Conclusion  Mega Turbo is a key piece of Mega Evolution support and most of the remaining Mega Evolutions in the soon-to-be Standard Format will suffer for its loss.  As the game gives way to Pokémon-GX, though, this becomes less and less a concern.  The narrow focus means this card impacts only certain decks deeply, explaining why it occurs here and not later in the countdown.  Eventually, all Mega Evolution cards will leave Standard play, and Mega Turbo would cease to matter even if present.  Breakdown  Mega Turbo has taken 10th place with 10 voting points, finishing two voting points ahead of a tie we had for 11th and 12th place, and three voting points below tomorrow’s 9th place finisher.  Had the card placed identically on all our lists with 10 voting points, it would have been everyone’s ninth place finisher but it only actually made three of our five lists.  It did, however, place 9th on my personal list; I am not disappointed it placed one below where I had it as there were many similar cards that seemed to be of equal importance being lost to the rotation.  It was so close, I even forgot that I had this had made my final top 10!
aroramage	Well, it's that time of year again! Another year, another set of rotations to account for, which means another Top 10 of cards lost to said rotation. It's fortunate that we didn't end up going down to just the Sun&Moon sets, as some folks were predicting, but that would also have been wildly uncharacteristic for the Pokemon people to do, don't you think?  The main sets we're losing are going from Primal Clash to Ancient Origin - overall, not too big a loss. At least, that's what it might seem like on the surface. But a lot can happen in just 3 sets, and these 3 in particular were very impactful in their own ways. In fact, we came up with a full list of around 23 cards that were so important! We may not have exactly agreed on which cards were more important, but to give an idea of the ones that didn't make the Top 10:  -M Rayquaza-EX, with its Delta Evolution trait that provided an amazingly quick and effective evolution on a Mega-EX -Rough Seas, the Stadium that allowed Water decks to continuously sustain for longer than many other decks -Regice, the king of stalling out against Pokemon-EX -Vespiquen, the queen of the Vengeance strategy -Archie's/Maxie's whcih both opened up combinations that were too hard to pull off otherwise  And that's just a sampling! But let's not dwell on what didn't make the list - we're talking about what made the cut! And the first card at #10 is Mega Turbo!  If you were to ask anyone who plays Expanded how you go about building around a Mega-EX, chances are they'll tell you that in most cases, Mega Turbo is a must-run. It's the Item that accelerates Energy out of the discard for every Mega in existence, and as such it should definitely be run in these decks. Unless your Mega is something like M Manectric-EX (PHF) who has a cheap attack and charges others pretty easily. But for the most part, if you ran a Mega-EX deck, you ran Mega Turbo.  Course this reliance on such an Item in addition to a reliance on Spirit Links - which are themselves Items - is probably one of the reasons Mega decks won't be popular in the rotating format - simply because of the presence of Garbodor (GRI). It's hard to believe that a card that came out 2 years later is going to impact a card that came out only 2 years ago, but that's the truth about the impact a card like that can have on an Expanded format. Never mind that running it in non-Mega-EX decks is...well, just plain silly, really.  Mega Turbo is going to probably find its home in any Mega deck, and you can expect that the few remaining Megas in Standard are going to miss it greatly.  Rating  Standard: N/A (once September comes around, this card's not allowed)  Expanded: 3.5/5 (although I guess since the season started on July 10th, you can start to look for workarounds)  Limited: 4/5 (if you get a Mega in this format, you run this card - otherwise, don't bother)  Arora Notealus: Mega Turbo helped make Mega decks more viable, alongside the Spirit Link cards. Without it, a lot of Mega decks would have been too slow or too expensive to deal with, and they might not have had as big of an impact as they did. Though I can imagine this card hitting for far more if they had made it ANY Energy instead of just basic.   Next Time: I'm seeing not one, but TWO!! Two things rotating out!!
21times	Mega Turbo (Roaring Skies, 86/108) begins our countdown of the top ten cards lost to rotation.  A four of in most Mega Pokemon decks, Mega Turbo allows you to attach a Basic energy card from your discard pile to one of your Mega Pokemon in play.  I still remember seeing this card played against me for the first time and thinking, “Wow I didn’t even know that card existed.”  This card benefited every Mega Pokemon, accelerating their attacks or allowing them to recover energy from a Mega that was just KO’d.  I think the most creative use of Mega Turbo was in a Mega Rayquaza EX (Roaring Skies, 76/108) decklist that played Volcanion EX (Steam Siege, 26/114) for the sole purpose of ensuring that a Basic Fire energy card got into the discard so that the Rayquaza player could then use Mega Turbo to attach that Basic energy and then manually attach the Double Colorless Energy (Sun & Moon, 136/149) so they could attack as early as turn one. So this gives me a good opportunity to explain my thinking behind some of the choices I made in determining my list of top ten cards lost.  Mega Turbo didn’t even make my top twenty.  It was a great card for most of its existence and, like I said, a four of in many Mega decks.  But it’s not a top card lost to rotation … because it’s already been lost for other reasons. Here’s my reasoning – right or wrong, agree or disagree: a card can’t be lost to rotation if it’s already not seeing play because of some other reason.  Mega Turbo is the perfect example of this.  Since GUR became Standard legal, no Mega Pokemon has placed in the top eight of any of the four major tournaments since then (Masters Division).  Mega Pokemon have virtually disappeared from the meta, and, naturally, Mega Turbo has vanished with them.  I just couldn’t put Mega Turbo on my lost to rotation list because it’s already been lost because of the dominance of the new GX Pokemon. And you can tell me I’m out in right field on this one – certainly, if you come from the perspective of how prevalent a card has been over the term of its existence, I wouldn’t argue with you that for most of the past three years, Mega Turbo has been a great card.  Times have changed though, and, from a forward looking perspective, this card has simply lost its relevance in the meta today. Rating Standard: 2 out of 5 Conclusion Here’s my litmus test: when was the last time you played Mega Turbo?  When was the last time you played a Mega Pokemon deck?  Maybe I’m wrong, maybe you got nostalgic and played Mega Gardevoir EX (Steam Siege, 79/114) or Mega Rayquaza EX recently, but you’re in the minority then.  In 316 matches in July, I’ve faced only 19 Mega Pokemon, which means Mega Turbo has fallen to a peripheral role in our current meta.  One year ago, Mega Turbo was probably a 4 or 4.5 out of 5; today, I might be gracious in giving it a 2.
Vince	Hello readers! It’s that time again as we dive in to our fourth anniversary of the top ten cards lost to rotation.  Rotation happens every September, taking out couple Pokemon TCG expansions, forcing players to make adjustments to their existing archetypes or to play a different kind of deck.  Expansions about to leave include XY Primal Clash, Double Crisis, XY Roaring Skies, XY Ancient Origins, and some XY promos up to XY66.  So, unless you’re playing Expanded, you will never get to use those cards anymore unless the designers decide to reprint a card or reintroduce a feature under a different Pokemon or Trainer cards.  Some cards in our countdown may or may not involve multiple cards that are related to each other, so there may be more than 10 cards involved!  I will still give a score for Standard since we still have one month left to enjoy using those cards in Standard before September rolls.   Staring with the 10th card is Mega Turbo from XY Roaring Skies.  This card grabs a basic Energy card from the discard to one of your Mega Evolution Pokemon.  This is a supplemental piece of support as it accelerates energy to fuel their attack cost.  Having a full four would mean you’ll be able to get your Mega Evolution Pokemon to attack right away, even with four or five energy attack costs.   Mega Turbo may be leaving rotation, but there are various Pokemon whose attacks or abilities would allow multiple energy attachments (usually involves a single type).  It wasn’t mandatory in every deck, but it provided a nice bonus for when no other energy accelerators are available.  Some Mega Evolution Pokemon didn’t even need Mega Turbo if their attacks were colorless friendly such as a Double Colorless Energy for Mega Mewtwo’s Psychic Infinity attack.  Overall, this is a card that will be missed.   Ratings:   Standard: 3.8/5 (Cards that involve energy acceleration warrants another look.)   Expanded: 4/5 (Same here, with more Mega Evolutions in this format’s card pool.)   Limited: 5/5 (If you have Mega Evolutions…………..that you pulled from XY Roaring Skies; Both Mega Rayquazas, Mega Gallade, and Mega Latios.)   Notes:  I didn’t have Mega Turbo in my personal top 10 list.  I wish I have, but there’s no room for me to fit in the crowd of other great cards in this countdown.   Coming Up: A Double Rainbow Energy wannabe………………….sort of.