Note from Adam: This article was written before the announcement of the potential mid-season rotation to HGSS-on. Chris will address the news in the forums.
Alright everyone! With Regionals behind us, we are looking forward to a rather turbulent time in the world of the Pokemon Trading Card Game. If you have paid attention whatsoever on other message boards, people are in an uproar over the introduction of the Black and White rules into the game.
Now, everyone has been asking whether this is merely a chicken little “the sky is falling!” overreaction, or if it really is as bad as the doomsayers are preaching.
Well, put simply, it is bad. Put less simply, it is bad, but the game isn’t entirely crippled on the back of these changes. I’d like to liken the state of the game to what we had years ago in Unlimited. We dealt with the Trapper Combo (Imposter Professor Oak, Rockets Sneak Attack, and Team Rocket’s Trap).
IPO gave them a 4 card hand (And people complain about getting Judged! IPO was a one-sided Judge.) and then RSA plucks a Trainer from it, and TRT shuffles the remaining 3 cards into their hand. And yes, this was happening turn one too.
Remember, this was a world where Computer Search, Bill, Item Finder, and of course, Professor Oak, reigned unrestricted. The game didn’t wither up and die, even though the state of Unlimited at that point really did begin to push towards the introduction of rule sets such as Prop 15/3c, and eventually, our very first set of rotations with the first Wizards of the Coast Modified Format (Rocket onward).
Prop 15/3c, for those who didn’t play back then, was a rule that you could only run 15 trainers, and 3 copies of a card. Now, this kinda backfired, because the same 15 trainers hit every deck, and while some degree of “balance” was restored, the winning decks boiled down to the exact same combination of cards (Clefable, Rocket’s Zapdos, Hitmonchan, etc).
We can also relate this situation to the popular (required) Cleffa Lass interaction which defined Unlimited up until its last days. Cleffa helped to alleviate the Trapper Combo problem, but in turn, made Lass a mandatory inclusion. Both players got their hand stripped of Trainers, only the person who opened with Cleffa would then shuffle their hand in and get a new trainer filled 7 card hand.
Cleffa takes the exact same role that Sableye does. If you didn’t open with it, you were in really bad shape. If you went first, you got it out on your first turn. Same exactly scenario.
Now, keep in mind, this exact issue led to the creation of Modified. This was an acknowledgement by Wizards of the Coast (and likely had to go through some sort of OK by the higher ups) that sort of state of the format was NOT good for the game. We have a direct precedent for acknowledgement that what is happening now is bad for the game.
Let me also address something important when making that comparison. The damage output of cards during those days was drastically less than what it is now. Cards could not threaten first turn kills. They could not reliably take 6 prizes in 6 turns.
The “power creep” we’ve seen has enable decks to often take 6 prizes within 6 turns, REGARDLESS of interaction with an opponent. This didn’t happen in the old unlimited format. A card like Murkrow, which was extremely dominant, would have been terrible in a format with the relative attack strength we see now.
Now, ignore the obvious number jumps in damage and hit points. Look at the RATIO of damage to hit points. Damage has gotten SIGNIFICANTLY higher in ratio to average hit points on Pokemon. Pokemon get killed quicker, and this makes the window of opportunity for a player to recover from first turn disruption very narrow.
Going back to the “6 prizes in 6 turns” issue, this means that if a player gets up 2-3 prizes before a player “recovers” it is irrelevant, because they are still EFFECTIVELY out of the game.
I think a lot of the concerned players are not really focusing their worries correctly. They are worried about actual first turn kills. Despite the admitted higher chance of first turning with Sableye based Seeker kills, I wouldn’t want to be using a deck that effectively has no back up plan if their “donk” fails.
Even if a deck can donk 60% of its games regardless of matchup, remember, that’s a STRICT 60% that also means you lose 40% of your games, which, isn’t going to be getting you deep into Worlds, now is it? I expect that decks like this will show up, especially amongst players who acknowledge they can’t compete against the best players in regards to complex matchups.
Now, I don’t mean to degrade players. I’ve heard this exact argument used for why players use Machamp. Not “oh, player A is only using Machamp because they can’t win with a harder deck” but Player A CLAIMING they used Machamp because it gives them better odds to win due to skill and practice differences.
Players stand to gain quite a bit off of honesty regarding themselves. If you aren’t prepared to use certain decks, don’t have the mindset that you will play any deck flawlessly, because you are shooting yourself in the foot. Know what ability level you are at in any given format, and play the deck that gives you the best odds to win.
In Magic, they offer tournaments for multiple different formats. It is common knowledge that, regardless of skill level, if you are unfamiliar with a format, or have been inactive for a while, or even if you are just breaking into the competitive scene, don’t go with the most complex deck.
Go with the one with a clear-cut game plan, that’s simple, and you won’t mess up. There isn’t anything to be ashamed of in acknowledging that you are NOT prepared to be using the complex “best deck”. Don’t let anyone else try to rag on you for it either.
Use what gives YOU the most success, not what SHOULD give “flawless player X” the most success. Being able to step back and honestly evaluate where you stand in terms of preparedness for any event SHOULD influence your decision.
That was a bit of a tangent regarding the fact that, while I wouldn’t run any sort of dedicated “donk” deck, that I don’t blame a decent number of players who are going to. Uxie Donk has been known to do well at a number of tournaments, and with the new cards and rules, yes, the deck does get substantially better.
