At worlds this year there was obviously an abundance of players from all over the country open to trade and battle. I found myself in need of a couple of cards so I went around trading anyone and everyone I could find. I must say it was truly disappointing to hear almost everyone that traded with me say "Where is your new stuff? Do you have any of the new stuff? I am only looking for new stuff." So I found myself trying to trade for new cards from the set "Legends Awakened" in order to get cards from the older sets and actually get some trades going, however, that was pretty much impossible due to the fact that I had no new cards to trade for the new cards lol. Let me get to the point, with Gardevior and Gallade not being legit at all next season the format will be wide open for almost anything to win. What is sad though is all people focus on is what is upcoming and not what is already here.
To me this is mainly the gyms fault, for some odd reason we love to speculate the playability of cards before they even come out. As soon as a spoiler hits pokebeach there is a new thread to discuss how the cards will "change the format". All kinds of users get on here and post misleading comments about cards, that are not even good, or mediocre at best. From what occured and is still occuring at Worlds, there is an idea that, whenever a new set comes out, all older cards become obsolete. The only card that anyone would look at that was not Legends Awakened was Claydol and that is pretty much because Claydol is the best card in the format. Due to hype of "what is going to be good" no one could see past the idea of having a playset of Kingdra or Frostlass. This just shows the lack of originality to be found here amoung many players. Am I going to jump off of a bridge just because everyone else did so as well? Am I going to play a deck just because everyone claims for it to be good? No. To make it worst, the next season has not even started yet! How can we possibly say that one particular deck will be the best without first looking at what we already have. It is not like the format is going to shift to Legends Awakened on, but with the way that people were trading you would have thought it was going to.
With all of that said let me do a quick review of some of the cards that have claimed to be upcoming "it" decks...
Azelf, Mespirit, and Uxie Lv. X- Just in selling alone these cards may have brought in well over a thousand dollars themselves. As far as trading goes, the people who were unfortunate enough to have them might as well as hid them somewhere deep in their bags because they certainly were not trading them. Why? This is all because of the gym, people hyping it any and everywhere. Is it the insanely good powers or the 200 damage that makes players believe these cards to be good in a deck? There were many people testing this deck and they really did not seem happy with the results. A deck I built for next season that mainly consisted of cards from LA that are not hyped moped the floor with AMU 3-0. Now when you were trying to save your pixies you could have been picking up REAL lv.X's like Leafeon, Cresselia, Gliscor, or even Magnezone.
Kingdra-I will admit when I first saw Kingdra I believed it to be insanely good, now not so much. This card is now on my list right under the pixies. Kingdra might as well had been a lv.X almost no one could obtain a playset because no one wanted to get rid of one. Kingdra won't have enough support at the start of the season to win consistently. It has great attacks HP and retreat but there are just better cards out there especially in DP-on. The resistance to trade kingdra and the desire to want kingdra again was mainly fueled by the posts on this site.
Froslass-I traded a claydol for this just to in turn trade this for a Luxray and I never got my Luxray! Now I have a Frostlass, who too, has been getting a large amount of attention that is undeserved. Now it is not too bad if you are just comparing it to the other cards in LA. But if you are looking at DP-on, Frostlass just does not cut it. 40 I put you to sleep and 10 to your bench is pretty epic still, if you look at the big picture you will find so many viable deck ideas that make froslass out to look like another holo rare card.
Groudon- All I have to say is, think about it...really hard.
If I did not mention any other hyped cards from LA that means they are pretty much okay in the upcoming format. There were many other cards from previous sets that could be optional now that gallade can't be scrambled or Double Rainbowed. Leafeon and Sceptile seem like a good option to try out as well as Torterra; Empoleon did not lose much to the new season; Gyarados with unknown P may be able to take a BR or two. Blissy, if one focuses on its high HP while keeping it alive and not the lost of boost, can turn out to be all right; Garchomp can win a few matches even if it is kind of slow; Exploud who has an amazingly awesome first attack but was never thought of due to gallade can now be considered; In a format with not much energy accel Mr. Mime should be used in almost everything, especially if people plan on playing against the pixies, gliscor, or kingdra; Evolutionator now can speed up your start and increase your chances of that turn two claydol, with that new found speed opprotunities (including energy pickup) can open up for many other overlooked cards. Basically now one should go back and think of every deck they wanted to play, but couldn't because GG was just too good.
The point I am trying to get across is, when you are trading (especially around the time of a new set) don't always overlook everything with your eyes on the prize. When I was trading today many people asked me "What are you looking for?" Sure there were specific cards but still I like to see EVERYTHING that way I won't miss anything. The Gym gets players caught up into these fake scenarios and theoretical match-ups that do not prove anything except failure to those who believe it. It is also important to know that one mans trash is another mans treasure... If someone wants one of your 6 gyarados and they are willing to trade you something decent for it even if you might not neccessarily need the card it is always nice to help them out as long as the trade is fair. I just hope that the next time anyone looks through another persons tradebook they are looking at every card, not for the lv. X, not for the Kingdra, not for the claydol, but at every card.
To me this is mainly the gyms fault, for some odd reason we love to speculate the playability of cards before they even come out. As soon as a spoiler hits pokebeach there is a new thread to discuss how the cards will "change the format". All kinds of users get on here and post misleading comments about cards, that are not even good, or mediocre at best. From what occured and is still occuring at Worlds, there is an idea that, whenever a new set comes out, all older cards become obsolete. The only card that anyone would look at that was not Legends Awakened was Claydol and that is pretty much because Claydol is the best card in the format. Due to hype of "what is going to be good" no one could see past the idea of having a playset of Kingdra or Frostlass. This just shows the lack of originality to be found here amoung many players. Am I going to jump off of a bridge just because everyone else did so as well? Am I going to play a deck just because everyone claims for it to be good? No. To make it worst, the next season has not even started yet! How can we possibly say that one particular deck will be the best without first looking at what we already have. It is not like the format is going to shift to Legends Awakened on, but with the way that people were trading you would have thought it was going to.
With all of that said let me do a quick review of some of the cards that have claimed to be upcoming "it" decks...
Azelf, Mespirit, and Uxie Lv. X- Just in selling alone these cards may have brought in well over a thousand dollars themselves. As far as trading goes, the people who were unfortunate enough to have them might as well as hid them somewhere deep in their bags because they certainly were not trading them. Why? This is all because of the gym, people hyping it any and everywhere. Is it the insanely good powers or the 200 damage that makes players believe these cards to be good in a deck? There were many people testing this deck and they really did not seem happy with the results. A deck I built for next season that mainly consisted of cards from LA that are not hyped moped the floor with AMU 3-0. Now when you were trying to save your pixies you could have been picking up REAL lv.X's like Leafeon, Cresselia, Gliscor, or even Magnezone.
Kingdra-I will admit when I first saw Kingdra I believed it to be insanely good, now not so much. This card is now on my list right under the pixies. Kingdra might as well had been a lv.X almost no one could obtain a playset because no one wanted to get rid of one. Kingdra won't have enough support at the start of the season to win consistently. It has great attacks HP and retreat but there are just better cards out there especially in DP-on. The resistance to trade kingdra and the desire to want kingdra again was mainly fueled by the posts on this site.
Froslass-I traded a claydol for this just to in turn trade this for a Luxray and I never got my Luxray! Now I have a Frostlass, who too, has been getting a large amount of attention that is undeserved. Now it is not too bad if you are just comparing it to the other cards in LA. But if you are looking at DP-on, Frostlass just does not cut it. 40 I put you to sleep and 10 to your bench is pretty epic still, if you look at the big picture you will find so many viable deck ideas that make froslass out to look like another holo rare card.
Groudon- All I have to say is, think about it...really hard.
If I did not mention any other hyped cards from LA that means they are pretty much okay in the upcoming format. There were many other cards from previous sets that could be optional now that gallade can't be scrambled or Double Rainbowed. Leafeon and Sceptile seem like a good option to try out as well as Torterra; Empoleon did not lose much to the new season; Gyarados with unknown P may be able to take a BR or two. Blissy, if one focuses on its high HP while keeping it alive and not the lost of boost, can turn out to be all right; Garchomp can win a few matches even if it is kind of slow; Exploud who has an amazingly awesome first attack but was never thought of due to gallade can now be considered; In a format with not much energy accel Mr. Mime should be used in almost everything, especially if people plan on playing against the pixies, gliscor, or kingdra; Evolutionator now can speed up your start and increase your chances of that turn two claydol, with that new found speed opprotunities (including energy pickup) can open up for many other overlooked cards. Basically now one should go back and think of every deck they wanted to play, but couldn't because GG was just too good.
The point I am trying to get across is, when you are trading (especially around the time of a new set) don't always overlook everything with your eyes on the prize. When I was trading today many people asked me "What are you looking for?" Sure there were specific cards but still I like to see EVERYTHING that way I won't miss anything. The Gym gets players caught up into these fake scenarios and theoretical match-ups that do not prove anything except failure to those who believe it. It is also important to know that one mans trash is another mans treasure... If someone wants one of your 6 gyarados and they are willing to trade you something decent for it even if you might not neccessarily need the card it is always nice to help them out as long as the trade is fair. I just hope that the next time anyone looks through another persons tradebook they are looking at every card, not for the lv. X, not for the Kingdra, not for the claydol, but at every card.
