Introduction

Hello Flipside readers! Andrew here with another article, and this time we are going to be taking a look at the new set that is about to be released, Shining Fates! This is not like our typical quarterly releases, as Shining Fates is more in the vain of Hidden Fates and Champions Path. The set has a lot of very unique cards, including tons of shiny variants of previously printed cards in the Sword and Shield Block. However, there are a solid amount of new cards included in this set so let’s look at five of the most important cards that are coming into the standard format.

All images and translations of cards come from Pokebeach.com.

Top 5 Cards from Shining Fates

Number 5: Crobat VMAX

VMAX Pokemon (Dynamax) – Evolves from Crobat V

[D][C] Stealth Poison: 70 damage. Your opponent’s Active Pokemon is now Poisoned. Switch this Pokemon with 1 of your Benched Pokemon.

[D][D][C] Max Cutter: 180 damage.

When your Pokemon VMAX is Knocked Out, your opponent takes 3 Prize cards.

Weakness: Fighting (x2)

Resistance: none

Retreat: 1

Crobat VMAX might not look like much on the surface but I think offers a lot in terms of utility for decks playing darkness energy. For starters, any VMAX that has an evolving basic V with “ Draw up to 6” in its ability is already off to a good start. It’s first attack is really solid, as it not only poisons the active after inflicting damage, but also allows you to retreat this card to the bench. You could pair this attack with something like Lillie’s Poke-Doll and force your opponent into playing a gust card to hit the Crobat VMAX.

Aside from this card being its own deck, this could potentially be a very efficient way for Eternatus VMAX decks to preserve a few of their crobats from being cheap prizes on the bench. Turning 180hps into 300 would make it a lot more challenging for ADPZ to win the game by chaining Boss’s Orders. It might be challenging for other decks to adopt a similar strategy, but the main point of this being that now there is a way to make Crobat V less of a liability.

Number 4: Ditto V

#50 Ditto V – Colorless – HP170

Basic Pokemon

Ability: Metamorphosis

Once during your turn (before your attack), you may switch this Pokemon with a Basic Pokemon V from your discard pile. Any attached cards, damage counters, Special Conditions, turns in play, and any other effects remain on the new Pokemon.

[C] Stick On: Attach 1 basic Energy from your discard pile to this Pokemon.

When your Pokemon V is Knocked Out, your opponent takes 2 Prize cards.

Weakness: Fighting (x2)

Resistance: none

Retreat: 2

This card is very remnant to an old ditto from Fire Red & Leaf Green that could switch itself with a basic from the bench.

In this case, Ditto V can only switch with Basic V pokemon, which might sound redundant, but VMAXes are also considered V pokemon. Nevertheless, what this card offers is a way to essentially run a fifth evolving V card in your deck, which in turn could be useful for many decks who need to get their main attacker ready by turn 2. This card could also offer a lot of utility in decks that want to synergize multiple VMAX Pokemon as one could bench this card early on and switch it with a Pokemon they want to evolve in. The attack as well is not bad since you can use this to help set up a bigger attack on the following turn if necessary. All in all this card is very good and I look forward to seeing how players utilize this card in the future.

Number 3: Reshiram

#17 Reshiram – Fire – HP120

Basic Pokemon

[R][L][D] Amazing Blaze: 270 damage. This Pokemon does 60 damage to itself.

Weakness: Water (x2)

Resistance: none

Retreat: 3

This might be the strongest amazing rare that we’ve seen. Three energies for 270 on any card is very efficient, and especially on a card that only gives up a single prize. This makes for a powerful trade-off of setting up an attack with three different energy costs. With cards like Tapu Koko Prism and Welder, you can cheat two of the energy attachments before attaching the darkness energy that you would need, so theoretically you can get all energies attached in one turn. 

It will be interesting to see if players adopt this card quickly or if it will take some time before the right pieces come together. I will say that a lot of cards that combo well with this card will rotate out after August, so the odds that this card picks up in play after ADP is gone might be low. However, I see a lot of potential for this card as long as the acceleration is there. Expanded is another story, where cards like Max Elixir exist and could make a turn one Amazing Blaze possible. We did not see much from the amazings rares last set, but maybe Reshiram can break the mold. 

Number 2: Manaphy

Basic Pokemon

Ability: Ocean Search

Once during your turn (before your attack), if this Pokemon is your Active Pokemon, you may look at the top 6 cards of your deck. Choose 1 Pokemon you find there, reveal it, and put it into your hand. Then, shuffle the other cards back into your deck.

[W][C] Water Splash: 30 damage.

Weakness: Lightning (x2)

Resistance: none

Retreat: 1

I really appreciate cards like this being printed, especially after TEU Jirachi being less useful after Escape Board rotating. Manaphy acts as a free Great Ball anytime it is in the active, which can make setting up evolutions significantly easier. This will be a great starter for any set up deck, especially ones that might be cripled on turn 1 without playing a supporter. I think this card will add a lot of much needed consistency to decks who are not trying to be hyper aggressive with Dedenne GX and Crobat V.

Something I’ve noticed in decks since the Jirachi engine lost a lot of its luster is that decks that need to evolve generally appreciate having something other than their main attacker active in the early turns. This is a great card to leave in the active to get knocked out while you set up as well as a great candidate to throw a U-Turn Board or Air Balloon on to retreat for free since it does not put itself asleep like Jirachi does after you use the ability. 

Number 1: Rusted Sword

Item – Tool

Attach a Pokémon Tool to 1 of your Pokémon that doesn’t already have a Pokémon Tool attached.

The attacks of the Zacian V this card is attached to do an additional 30 damage to your opponent’s Active Pokemon.

You may play any number of Item cards during your turn.

Despite the general mixed feelings about Zacian getting buffed, this card is nevertheless going to be a very powerful addition to Zacian decks. ADP Zacain will be able to utilize this card to fix Zacians numbers in order to take huge knockouts. With the additional 30 from Alter Creation, you can attach this tool card to boost Zacian V’s damage to 290, which will put any tag team in range of getting OHKO, as well as giving up four prizes due to Alter Creation GX’s bonus effect. In addition to this, if you were to combo Leon, a supporter that boosts damage by 30, then you can actually use Zacian’s Brave Blade attack for 320 which is the exact math you need to KO VMAX Pokemon like Centiskorch and Dragapult. This can also be threatening for decks like LucMetal Zacain because 290 is exactly enough damage to KO a Zacian with both metal goggles attached and under the effect of Lucario-Melmetal’s Full Metal Wall GX that reduces 30 damage taken to all metal pokemon.

The implications of what this might do to the meta are probably pretty clear, but in reality what I see is decks needing to build in ways to play around this extra damage boost. Tool scraper might find its way into more decks to make it harder for the damage modifier to get sick. We could also see Big Charm work its way into more VMAX decks as it would keep certain Pokemon just out of range of being one shotted. I will say that the VMAX decks are going to be less affected by this than the Tag Team decks. Decks like PikaRom and Mewtwo variants are going to have a much harder time dealing with Zacian V swinging for 290 as even Big Charm could be played around with a single Galarian Zigzagoon. We will ultimately have to see what this card does to the metagame but I would expect this card to certainly change things up.

Conclusion

Well that is going to wrap things up for this article! What cards are you looking forward to in the newest set? Let me know in the comments, I would love to see if there were any other cards that might deserve some attention. If you are looking to get your hands on some shining fates product, make sure to check out Flipsidegaming.com. If you want to keep up with me on twitter, you can follow me @theSkyPillar. Hope everyone is staying safe and I will see you in the next article!