First impressions of Dragon Majesty

Dragon Majesty has not been a very hot topic so far; however, the mini set's release is approaching quickly and an English set list has finally leaked. So without further ado, I'd like to jump right into my thoughts on some of the more promising cards from the set.

The Trainers

Blaine’s Last Stand – Supporter Card

You can only play this card if it is the only card in your hand.

For each of your fire type Pokemon in play, draw 2 cards.

Blaine is a very cool card. I'm not a huge fan of it in standard because hand thinning isn't actually that easy to do in this format; however, considering the lack of good draw support, I think it is worth a spot in the binder as a consideration in future fire decks. In expanded this card has a lot more potential. In Volcanion EX decks playing a lot of item cards you may have many opportunities to use this card effectively. I think it is worth testing this card in expanded to see if it is worth playing over other explosive draw cards like Professor Sycamore/Juniper and Colress.

Fiery Flint - Item Card

Discard 2 cards from your hand in order to play this card.

Search your deck for up to 4 fire type Energy cards, reveal them, and put them into your hand. Then, shuffle your deck.

Fiery Flint is a card that has less potential than Blaine, but also has a much more obvious use. Now in explaining this concept I'm going to spoil Reshiram-GX because I think that is the card to combo Fiery Flint with. Reshiram-GX's GX attack allows you to do 180 damage and attach 5 fire energy to your Pokemon from your hand in any way you would like. The idea is to use Fiery Flint before attacking, then to use Reshiram to power up your other attackers (note - the best way to power up Reshiram itself is a turn 1 Kiawe). Another use for this card is in expanded, to be able to use Volcanion-EX's Steam Up ability to boost your damage as many times as you need to.

Lance - Prism Star Supporter Card

You can only play this card if 1 of your Pokemon was Knocked Out during your opponent’s last turn.

Search your deck for 2 dragon type Pokemon and put them onto your Bench. Then, shuffle your deck.

I think Lance is inherently a really good card. I'm not going to go into all of its potential uses because I think that the card has enough for an article of its own. The most obvious use for Lance is to use it during the set up stages of the game to make dragon type decks faster. If I'm playing a deck that relies on the damage boost from Altaria, I can search out two of those. If I'm playing a stage 2 dragon deck which is known for having trouble getting off the ground, I can use this to search out two of my main attacker, potentially jumping ahead many turns in the set up process.

Zinnia - Supporter Card

You can only play this card if 1 of your Pokemon was Knocked Out during your opponent’s last turn.

Attach up to 2 basic Energy cards from your hand to 1 of your dragon type Pokemon.

Zinnia is the last trainer card I'd like to talk about. Zinnia makes a lot of otherwise unplayable dragon type Pokemon a lot better. I don't think you can rely on Zinnia to stream attacks because that would require your opponent to be knocking you out a lot. On the contrary though, I do feel that, like Lance, Zinnia is a great early to mid game set up card for dragon type Pokemon that have a hefty attack cost. such as the new Dragonite-GX and Salamence-GX which both require 4 energy. Admittedly, I don't think we have the right partner for Zinnia at the moment as both of my examples require you to have two different types of basic energy and a Zinnia in hand the turn after your opponent knocked out one of your Pokemon and on a turn that you can afford to use Zinnia as your supporter for the turn to set up (It's likely that in this example you would also want an attachment for the turn. Regardless, I still think Zinnia is a card that players should keep an eye on, and I think it is worth testing with partners that are less obvious than the ones that I pointed out.

The Support Pokemon

Blaziken – Fire – HP 150 Stage 2 – Evolves from Combusken

Ability: Firestarter Once during your turn (before your attack), you may attach a fire type Energy card from your discard pile to 1 of your Benched Pokemon.

Fire Stream: 90 damage. Discard a fire type Energy card attached to this Pokemon, then do 20 damage to each of your opponent’s Benched Pokemon. (Don’t apply Weakness or Resistance for Benched Pokemon.)

Weakness: Water Resistance: none Retreat: 2

Blaziken is an interesting form of energy acceleration for sure. It shares its ability with cards like Bronzong and Malamar, but it has been weakened significantly because it's on stage 2 Pokemon. Unfortunately I think that the only deck right now that has the space for this card and has a need for this card, is Blaziken-GX. That said, Blaziken-GX hits very hard and could have a lot of potential with the addition of regular Blaziken to help it to stream attacks.

Quagsire – Water – HP 120 Stage 1 – Evolves from Wooper

Ability: Wash Out As often as you like during your turn (before your attack), you may move a water type Energy from 1 of your Benched Pokemon to your Active Pokemon.

Hydro Pump: 60+ damage. This attack does 20 more damage for each water type Energy attached to this Pokemon.

Weakness: Grass Resistance: none Retreat: 2

Quagsire is a great card, but like many of the cards that I've mentioned so far, it doesn't have many, if any good partners right now. In expanded you can flood your board with so many energy with the combination of Aqua Patch and Max Elixir (or Blastoise) that if you really want to move them around you'd probably be able to make better use of Energy Switch than Quagsire. In standard we really just don't have very good water type attacker at the moment. The best ones are probably Alolan Ninetales-GX and Greninja-GX, neither of which can take advantage of Quagsire very well. The best partner for Quagsire is probably Kingdra-GX, which I'm also going to talk about shortly; however, I think Zoroark-GX is probably a better partner for Kingdra than Quagsire is.

Altaria – Dragon – HP 80 Stage 1 – Evolves from Swablu

Ability: Fight Song Your dragon type Pokemon’s attacks do 20 more damage to your opponent’s Active Pokemon (before applying Weakness and Resistance).

Pierce: 20 damage.

Weakness: Fairy Resistance: none Retreat: 1

I'm pretty confident that Altaria is one of the best cards in this set. Having Altaria in the format (and being able to search it out quickly with Lance) makes all dragon type attackers printed now and in the future significantly better. The best use for it right now is probably to boost Noivern-GX's damage output as the speed at which Noivern-GX can deal with threats has always been a big problem for the deck. With 2 to 3 Altaria in play Noivern is now knocking out popular Pokemon like Zoroark-GX, Rayquaza-GX, and Necrozma-GX in two hits instead of 4. Additionally having multiple Altaria on the bench also makes Latios Prism Star a more effective attacker in the deck.

Reshiram-GX – Fire – HP 180 Basic Pokemon

Flame Charge: Search your deck for 2 basic fire type Energy cards and attach them to this Pokemon. Then, shuffle your deck.

Scorching Pillar: 110 damage. Your opponent’s Active Pokemon is now Burned.

Vermilion GX: 180 damage. You may attach up to 5 fire type Energy from your hand to your Pokemon in any way you like.

Weakness: Water Resistance: none Retreat: 2

I already delved into the strategy behind Reshiram-GX when I was talking about Fiery Flint, so I'll just go over some potential partners for Reshiram-GX here. Ho-Oh-GX is the most obvious, and the best choice for a partner Reshiram-GX. Your goal is to take a knockout on a Pokemon GX or EX with Vermillion GX, put 4 energy onto a Ho-Oh-GX, then use that Ho-Oh-GX to knock two more Pokemon GX or EX. You could definitely hit some road bumps along the way trying to steal games that way, but I think that is the best approach to Reshiram in the standard format. In expanded you could also try to use this to power up a couple of three energy attackers while taking two prizes, but with Blacksmith in the format this isn't likely to be a heavily utilized strategy.

Victini Prism Star – Fire – HP 90 Basic Pokemon

Infinity: 20x damage. This attack does 20 damage times the number of basic Energy cards in your discard pile. Then, shuffle those cards into your deck.

Weakness: Water Resistance: none Retreat: 1

Victini is definitely going to be a staple in decks that play a heavy count of fire energy. In the late game Victini can hit for huge numbers and/or get you back the energy cards you will need to seal up the game. The best deck to play Victini in will be Magcargo-GX when it comes out in November.

Drampa – Dragon – HP 120 Basic Pokemon

Dragon’s Wisdom: 20 damage. Attach a basic Energy card from your discard pile to 1 of your dragon type Pokemon.

Hyper Voice: 80 damage.

Weakness: Fairy Resistance: none Retreat: 1

Drampa should feel very familiar as it serves the same purpose as cards like Volcanion and Yveltal from past formats. Hyper Voice is not the strongest attack but could be used to finish a Pokemon off in a tight situation. The existence of Latias Prism Star means that this card is only going to see play as a backup when Latias is not accessible.

New Archetypes

White Kyurem-GX – Dragon – HP 190 Basic Pokemon

Shred: 40 damage. This attack’s damage isn’t affected by any effects on your opponent’s Active Pokemon.

Enraged Blade: 80+ damage. If this Pokemon has any damage counters on it, this attack does 80 more damage.

Dragon Nova GX: 200 damage. Your opponent’s Active Pokemon is now Burned and Paralyzed.

Weakness: Fairy Resistance: none Retreat: 3

In the standard format White Kyurem feels like a very underwhelming attacker. In expanded however, we have Double Dragon Energy, Team Magma's Secret Base, Max Elixir, and Breakpoint Garbodor. Being able to do 190 damage for just 2 attachments, or 1 attachment and a Max Elixir is really strong and aggressive. Partnering this with something like ability lock could allow you to take control of the game very quickly.

Kingdra-GX – Water – HP 230 Stage 2 – Evolves from Seadra

Hydro Pump: 10+ damage. This attack does 50 more damage for each [W] Energy attached to this Pokemon.

Reverse Thrust: 30 damage. Switch this Pokemon with 1 of your Benched Pokemon.

Maelstrom GX: This attack does 40 damage to each of your opponent’s Pokemon. (Don’t apply Weakness and Resistance for Benched Pokemon.)

Weakness: Grass Resistance: none Retreat: 2

Kingdra-GX doesn't stand out as a ridiculously good card, but it hits relevant numbers for low energy. For two water energy Kingdra is doing 110 base damage, which is enough to two shot a lot of strong Pokemon without a choice band. 230 HP is on the low side for stage 2 Pokemon GX but it's still nothing to scoff at and Kingdra can definitely follow up an attack with Max Potion or Acerola. Kingdra can also take advantage of Aqua Patch to be hitting the numbers it need to faster. If you can manage to get 3 water energy and a Choice Band onto Kingdra it does 190 damage which is pretty relevant, it allows you to take a one hit knockout on Pokemon like Buzzwole-GX, Ultra Necrozma-GX, Tapu Bulu-GX, Necrozma-GX, etc. Finally, Kingdra-GX's GX is also pretty strong, putting 40 damage everywhere will definitely soften up your opponents Pokemon for future knockouts, particularly if Zoroark-GX is your partner of choice. The biggest hurdle for Kingdra will be its weakness to grass, Golisopod-GX and Tapu Bulu-GX can both knock it out in one hit with ease.

Conclusion

Overall, Dragon Majesty is not a very good set. I think White Kyurem-GX could be a very good deck in expanded. However I do not see any of the cards in this set changing either format or bringing new top tier archetypes to the table. The best card in the set is definitely Victini Prism Star but I think most of the cards I mentioned do have a lot of potential to be good in combination with cards that we may get in the future. Keep these cards in the back of your mind until a strong partner comes out to keep them company. Thank you for reading.

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