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Decidueye-GX leads a powerful
group of Grass Pokémon into battle.
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It all started with the Sun & Moon base set. Decidueye-GX was clearly the best of the starter Stage 2 cards. Its Feather Arrow ability allows you to put two damage counters on one of your opponent's Pokémon before you attack, while its Razor Leaf attack deals out a respectable 90 damage for only three energy. Even the non-GX Decidueye was the focus of the best theme deck of the set. Strong supporting Pokémon such as Shiinotic allowed you to search your deck for more grass Pokémon while good attackers such as Pinsir and Spinda could hold their own while you got more powerful Pokémon set up.
For added power, you could include Lurantis-GX into grass decks which can do a whopping 120 damage for three energy while also healing 30 from Lurantis. You can also retrieve two grass energy from your discard pile with Flower Supply and still deal 40 damage for only one energy. And that's just from the first set. Guardians Rising introduced a grass type Trevenant which deals damage in multiples of 30 depending on how many Item cards are in your opponent's hand. Golisopod automatically takes 30 less damage from attacks while dealing a potential 150 damage to your opponent's Pokémon-EX or Pokémon-GX. And let's not forget the Lurantis promo card included in the Guardians Rising blister packs which can increase the damage done by your grass and fire Pokémon with its Sunny Day ability. Grass-types are weak to fire, and the recently released Burning Shadows expansion introduced strong fire-type Pokémon and Trainer cards to help control Grass's power, but it remains to be seen if they can be combined into competitive decks.
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Bewear is a running gag in the anime.
The crafty people at the Pokémon
Company think it's good marketing
to include a Bewear in every set.
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You'd think that with over 800 Pokémon to choose from, coming up with new cards would be incredibly easy. However, that doesn't seem to be the case. Nearly all seventh generation Pokémon with the exception of a few Legendaries have received a print by the third set. In some cases, the new Pokémon have already been reprinted. The Mudsdale and Araquanid lines have already appeared in two sets. The Pokémon Company has fallen head over heels for Bewear seeing as it has been given a card in all three sets so far and has received a promo GX card.
On the other hand, Pokémon who have been given competitive cards in the XY era are back for more in Sun & Moon. Darkrai and Gardevoir from Burning Shadows are looking to exert their predecessors' dominance once again. Mewtwo will come back this November, and it's safe to say we can expect other Legendaries from previous generations to return as GX cards.
3. New rotation, time to rethink strategy
Take a look at this list from PokeBeach's June 2017 TCG Cup. In particular, pay close attention to the names and quantities of Supporter cards that are used. Not a lot of variety is there? What's the point of Pokémon printing 20 or so new Supporter cards in every set if competitive players always use the same one? As of July 2017, all sets going backward from Breakthrough and XY Black Star promos below XY67 will not be legal in standard. Notable losses include VS Seeker, Hex Maniac, Double Dragon Energy, Forest of Giant Plants, and Sky Field. N is unfortunately still around; it's been reprinted regularly since Black & White. I was hoping it would go away as there are other draw cards available which I think are more useful than N.
There is a good YouTube video linked here which offers more details on prominent cards that have been rotated out. I highly recommend you check out the other videos on the channel which are helpful in identifying strategies to use with new cards as they are released.
Verdict
Overall, I'm enjoying the Sun & Moon era of the TCG. The new cards are fun to play with and I find myself eagerly looking forward to the release of each new set.
