Black Belt's Training Falls as Festival Lead Adjusts to Pitch Black
Black Belt's Training fell from 94.3% to 7.8% of Festival Lead lists as the deck moved to Pitch Black's Gladion's Final Battle.
Black Belt's Training was in 94.3% of Festival Lead lists before Pitch Black released. Four weeks later, it was in just 7.8%. What replaced it? Gladion's Final Battle from the newest Pitch Black set. When we first covered the card's debut, it showed up in 46.4% of lists for the week ending July 20. That was an big change, but we attributed to people simply trying it.
After that first week, Gladion's Final Battle rose to 89.8% the following week and stayed above 95% in every snapshot since. Black Belt's Training moved in the opposite direction, falling from 94.3% to 49.4%, then 17.8%, and finally settling just under 8%.
Festival Lead changed substantially around the set release, with roughly 10 different cards when compared to how it was before Pitch Black. Black Belt's Training did not become a one-copy card in the lists that kept it, either. Its average copies stayed close to the old range before dipping to 1.1 this week. The bigger change was that it stopped appearing in most Festival Lead lists at all.
| Week ending | Lists | In lists | Avg copies |
|---|---|---|---|
| 07-13 | 158 | 94.3% | 1.5 |
| 07-20 | 166 | 49.4% | 1.3 |
| 07-27 | 381 | 17.8% | 1.3 |
| 08-03 | 391 | 7.7% | 1.1 |
| 08-10 | 408 | 7.8% | 1.1 |
At this point, it is safe to say the card is no longer part of the deck. Gladion's Final Battle is the clear and better replacement.
Elsewhere, Slowking has been leaning harder on Annihilape. It climbed from 48.6% usage in last week's analysis to 73.6% this week, with average copies going up from 1.2 to 1.4. That is a smaller move than the Festival Lead swap, but with 314 lists in the current week, it is still a real trend worth watching.
Source:
- Play Limitless data.