What’s up guys,
I’m back with another set review, this time looking at the upcoming mini set Dragon Majesty. We’re only looking at the Top 5 cards because, since it’s a mini set, the lower numbers of a Top 10 would most likely consist of irrelevant cards, simply because the set has a lot less cards than a normal expansion.
#5 – Wishiwashi
The story about how I was informed of this card was funny, as the reveal occurred while we were in Norway to prepare for the 2018 Pokémon TCG World Championships. At some point, when most of us were just hanging around and watching some streams/listening to music, Philip all of the sudden mentioned a new Wishiwashi and we all started making fun of it while brainstorming a little bit about how the card could actually be used with Wishiwashi GX. Now that we’re done with the old standard format and preparing for our first Sun & Moon tournaments, I have to say that this card seems to have a decent amount of potential, at least from what I’ve seen from the current standard format so far. Even if it doesn’t end up as a top meta deck, I’m still 100% sure that there will be some people trying some interesting strategies involving Wishiwashi GX and this one.
#4 – Victini Prism
I think that Victini is a super good card with the right support/synergy to either apply early pressure or to be a quick game finisher. The only reason why Victini is not on the number one or two spots is that all the cards that make/would make Victini super powerful rotated at the beginning of the new standard season, which makes Victini basically unplayable in Standard, but still very strong in Expanded. Especially Volcanion EX and Max Elixir help to boost Victini’s power in their own way. Max Elixir helps to immediately set up Victini on your bench without having to worry about it being targeted by a Guzma or Lysandre. Volcanion on the other hand helps to fire up Victini’s attack super quickly to bring it in range to KO even the biggest Pokémon GX/EX. Every “Steam Up” ability you use already boosts Victini’s attack by 50 damage (+30 for steam up and an additional energy for the attack), which is a pretty respectable boost, especially if you use three “Steam Ups” and already have some basic energies in your discard pile. In my opinion Victini is that one card that fire decks needed to become relevant in Expanded again and I’m sure that we will also see Victini see some play in Standard, as long as we get some kind of fire support in the future.
#3 – Dragonite GX
I was very surprised when I looked at Dragonite GX, because I didn’t really expect it to be any good, just like most “random” Stage 2 Pokémon in mini sets. When I took a closer look at the card, I thought that it’s already decent on its own and knowing that there would be dragon type support in this set, I immediately valued the card a lot more. And I shouldn’t be disappointed; cards like Altaria, Zinnia and Lance really help Dragonite GX a lot already. It’s a pretty bulky attacker that can also deal a significant amount of damage for just one energy, or completely take out your opponent’s Pokémon with its second attack. I really like that Zinnia and Lance make it a lot easier to set up Dragon Pokémon, since they always had some difficulties in setting up, especially because they almost always require two completely different kinds of basic energies, which has been an even bigger issue ever since Double Dragon Energy rotated. I can’t say too much about its relevance for the Standard metagame right now, but I’m going to try it out for sure, once we get access to Dragon Majesty on PTCGO to start testing.
#2 – Zinnia
The next two cards in this list are the main reason why I’m so excited for Dragon Majesty and how it might help bring dragon Pokémon that aren’t already supported by cards like Malamar or Vikavolt back into the metagame. Much like the previously mentioned support Pokémon, Zinnia helps to fix one of the main problems that almost every dragon type Pokémon has. They often have very powerful attacks, but to be able to use them, you often require a lot of energies of almost never matching types. If we take all the currently relevant dragon Pokémon for example, we look at Ultra Necrozma GX, which requires metal and psychic basic energies, and Rayquaza GX, which uses grass and lightning energies. Cards like White Kyurem GX with its water and fire energy requirement don’t have any reliable energy acceleration to power them up. This is where Zinnia comes in. She offers a lot of new combo potential and with cards like Oricorio and Ribombee it might not even be too hard to get access to your basic energies in the turn that you want to play Zinnia. The only drawback of her is that one of your Pokémon must be knocked out during the last turn, but considering the potential benefit, this is a perfectly fine drawback.
#1 – Lance Prism
Much like Zinnia, Lance helps to fix the set-up problem of dragon Pokémon. Everyone that has played the Pokémon TCG in recent history knows how hard it is to setup stage 2 Pokémon without the necessary support. The last time we had Supporter cards that let you immediately put a stage 2 in play, both were used very successfully. Archie’s Ace in the hole was featured in the so called “Archie’s Blastoise” deck that won the 2015 Pokémon TCG World Championships in the Masters Division. It also saw play in “Night March” decks that wanted to make use of Empoleon DEX, and even today you still occasionally see it in Expanded decks. Maxie’s Hidden Ball trick was primarily used to set up early Archeops NVI to completely prevent your opponent from being able to evolve any Pokémon from their hand. This combination of cards eventually even led to Archeops being banned (one of the first bans in recent Pokémon TCG history). Today it’s still seen in Expanded to get Gallade BKT into play to be able to deal with fighting weak Pokémon like Zoroark GX. Both Maxie and Archie required you to not have any cards in hand except the Supporter itself, which sometimes lead to problems setting them up if it wasn’t the number one priority in your deck. Lance on the other hand only requires one of your Pokémon to be knocked out during the last turn to be played, which makes him much more accessible. I’m pretty sure that Lance is at least going to be tried out with a variety of dragons and I’m sure some of those combinations will have decent potential to do well at tournaments. I’m personally looking forward to play Dragonite GX with Lance and Altaria to quickly set up a board with heavy hitters.
Dragon Majesty offers a surprisingly high number of decent cards that might see play in a competitive environment. I’m really excited to try out different concepts and hope that at least some of them will prove valuable. Honorable mentions include Kingdra GX and Altaria, which I think both have some potential but fell just short to be in the Top 5. Also make sure to check out my full set review on YouTube.