This September the Pokemon TCG rotates to a Black&White on format(BW-ON) bringing a huge change to alot of the game. The biggest part of this rotation will be the large amount of usable trainers it takes away. Cards like Junk Arm, Dual Ball, Pokemon Collector, Sage's Training and Professor Oak's New Theory will be leaving the game. This leaves us with a very limited trainer pool to work with.
BW-ON will only start its season with a slim total of six sets, which means we have a very slim selection of good trainers. The six remaining sets we have are
Black&White
Emerging Powers
Noble Victories
Next Destinies
Dark Explorers
Dragons Exalted (August release)
This is gonna be a small format at that start which is very small for a game with so much variety. Of these 6 sets only a handful of trainer/supporter/stadium cards are worth running in a deck. (This doesn't include cards from Dragons Exalted)
Supporters
Professor Juniper- Juniper is the draw card every deck will have to be running this format. With the loss of cards like Junk Arm and Sages Training, Professor Juniper is going to be the key card for decks like Zekeels and Darkrai builds to get those much needed energy into the discard pile.
Cheren/Bianca- With a lack of good Supporters in the BW-ON format, its time to give these two cards another go. Cheren lets you draw 3 cards, without having to shuffle your possibly good hand into your deck. While Bianca hasn't seen alot of play since its release, I feel its going to become a strong card in decks that can get rid of cards in their hand quickly without using their Supporter (in test games so far Bianca has got me 3-4 cards)
N- N will serve the same purpose it did last format, a reliable draw card that can shift games you are behind in back in your favour. A late game N in a match where your behind on prizes is a great way to stall out your opponent while you catch up, and without a large chunk of the good supporters/trainers from the HGSS-ON format the chances of your opponent drawing something off of N that will help them is very slim.
Trainers
The Ball Engine- With the departure of Dual Ball and Pokemon Collector, mass Pokemon searching through Trainers/Supporters has become extinct. However, this doesn't mean that you still cant put alot of Pokemon on the field. The ball engine (Ultra Ball, Level Ball, Great Ball, Heavy Ball) will shine this format since combined they can search for every Pokemon you put into your deck. With the only form of trainer lock being Gothitelle now, there is no reason not to run this engine in your decks.
Pokemon Catcher- Pokemon Catcher will always be one of the absolute best Trainers in the game, though in this new format one will require more timing and skill to run it. With the loss of Junk Arm you now only have the four catchers to work with and not the four plus your Junk Arms. This will lower the use of just randomly catchering up something to stall, as you will now wanna hold them for kills on set up Pokemon or weaker Pokemon in general.
Skyarrow Bridge- This card might see a drop in play with strong starters like Smeargle and Celebii Prime leaving the format. Since most decks will now try to run more beefy starters with some form of advantage (Thundurus, Virizion) or free retreat to begin with the need for the Bridge isn't as high as it was in the last format.
Dark Patch- Darkrai builds have become monsters thus far and with Rotation hurting decks like Zekeels and destroying CMT, Darkrai builds will become the meta. Dark Patch combined with Ultra Ball and Juniper is a broken combo that will shine in a format where the only other accelerators being Emboar and Eelektrik.
Stadiums
Skyarrow Bridge- This card might see a drop in play with strong starters like Smeargle and Celebii Prime leaving the format. Since most decks will now try to run more beefy starters with some form of advantage (Thundurus, Virizion) or free retreat to begin with the need for the Bridge isn't as high as it was in the last format.
Battle City- This is a strong counter stadium to Skyarrow Bridge but also serves as a great Stadium in general. In playtesting with my teammate Andrew we have found that Battle City has gotten us that one card we need to turn the game around very quickly (When combined with Empoleon its near broken). If Skyarrow Bridge sees a loss in play Battle City should see a rise in play.
Ruins of Alph- This is a interesting tech card, that some decks will run and some wont. Decks like Darkrai and Zekeels run Pokemon that counters their fighting weakness (Tornadus EX, Tornadus). Ruins of Alph would serve as a nice way to eliminate that threat and keep you hitting hard. (ex. a Tornadus EX with a Eviolite will only take 50 damage from a Terrakions Retaliate.)
With the exception of cards in the Dragons Exalted set these are just a few of the strong cards going into Septembers BW-ON format. Through my initial testing i am finding that this format has a nice balance of speed and strategy, and i hope to test with it alot more when we get Dragons Exalted.
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