Pokémon TCG: Sword and Shield—Brilliant Stars

Why does Gengar break every format he's printed in?

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The only good Gengar before SF was the one from LM which was played sometimes but there were many other decks which you could play.
 
ShadowGuard said:
I can't remember that a Gengar deck ever was BDIF in the DP era. Yes, there were a lot of archtypes with Gengar, most of them came down to the SF Gengar which indeed is overpowered because of the unpredictable Poké-Power. Cursegar is good, but in no way broken. LostGar, yes, it's strong with Lost World, but it doesn't seem to be unbeatable. Gengar DP and the other Gengar from AR were almost unplayable. In the ex era, Gengar ex wasn't that good - can't remember any other Gengars there.


Pidgeot broke a format. Gengar didn't.


You mean, like Dialga which can stop trainers and PokéBodies or Palkia which can snipe around and send Pokémon to the Lost Zone? Oh wait... Uxie, Azelf and Mesprit are legends, too. Guess they also had a little more influence to the format than Gengar ever will have.


If we get RR-on rotation, you'll see your Arceus soon enough on the battlefield.
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True Pidgeot had a powerful effect but its was no more powerful they say Claydol and Uxie, plus Pidgeot was out during the time of Rockets Admin and we all know how stupid that card was...

I just mean I would like to see them in a role other then support. Even at least have some other take the spotlight for once.
 
Sabrina's Gengar, she has 2, really aren't that great either. Her Gastly, the one that increases its HP and the one with Fade Out, and one of the Haunter, are better than the 2 Gengar.
 
Oh that's right, the second cursegar was Arceus, not SW. Why do I keep thinking it was released in Wonders and already rotated? Probably because NOBODY plays it anymore. :p
 
vaporeon said:
True Pidgeot had a powerful effect but its was no more powerful they say Claydol and Uxie, plus Pidgeot was out during the time of Rockets Admin and we all know how stupid that card was...
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Rocket's Admin wasn't "stupid", it was better than Wager or Judge or whatever we have now. And where was the problem? You could search for a shuffle supporter or whatever you want with Pidgeot.
 
ShadowGuard said:
Rocket's Admin wasn't "stupid", it was better than Wager or Judge or whatever we have now. And where was the problem? You could search for a shuffle supporter or whatever you want with Pidgeot.
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I mean stupid in a good way. That card broke games. I've seen it happen but you could always search I guess.
 
vaporeon said:
I mean stupid in a good way. That card broke games. I've seen it happen but you could always search I guess.
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Believe me. I lost a trip to Worlds because of that card once. *shudder* Fantastic balancing card right there, better than almost anything else I've ever seen, including Looker and Judge. Helped evolution/setup decks so much it wasn't even funny.
 
Aron Figaro said:
You know, Luxchomp sounds a lot like "skullclamp" for those who get the reference...
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Oh heck yea, quoted, nice! too bad they didn't do the same thing that was done to that to luxchomp. oh well.

On topic: I love gengar, and am enjoying it being a good deck right now. I'm sure it won't be much longer till he's not any good.
 
I think making a skullclamp analogy which most people won't benefit from isn't helpful. Especially when it doesn't carry over so well.

Fossil Haunter was better than Fossil Gengar. Shadowcard made the same point about the Sabrina ghosts.

If in Base Set someone cried out against all the fighting basics being broken for having 1 energy 20 damage, it would be equivalent to what this is: silly.
 
Although, as you guys have already pointed out, the statement isn't completely true when one looks at the Pokémon TCG's complete history, it's safe to say that the folks over at Creatures have been remarkably biased to this character for the past couple of years. I mean, releasing SF Gengar already secured the character a place in a top-metagame deck (damage spreading Gengar). Then they released a new great Gengar in Platinum, paving the way for a new top-metagame deck with a completely different strategy (hit and run Gengar), and towards the end of the same block a great lv.X for him AND then shortly after a new premium-style version of him (this time Prime) as soon as in the next block, with yet another completely different and top-metagame strategy (lost world win condition Gengar). It's quite remarkable. Maybe their costumer surveys / feedback is just telling them that Gengar is one of the most popular characters?

Cyrus said:
Or maybe PCL realized how cruel they were to Gengar? I mean, Fossil Gengar was a HORRIBLE card, as was Base Set Gastly.
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Hey, I considered playing Fossil Gengar for the East Coast Super Trainer Showdown 2000. :( (I ended up getting myself some Rocket's Zapdoses like everyone else, though)
 
ShadowGuard said:
You mean, like Dialga which can stop trainers and PokéBodies or Palkia which can snipe around and send Pokémon to the Lost Zone? Oh wait... Uxie, Azelf and Mesprit are legends, too. Guess they also had a little more influence to the format than Gengar ever will have.
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Regigigas was a popular deck, too, during an entire set of Cities or Battle Roads (I forget which) here in Florida not too long ago.

As mentioned before, Gengar didn't really alter the flow of the format too much. Gardy/Gallade (2008) was something that forced me to specifically build my deck to not allow the use of certain supporters by its pokepower. As for the past couple of years, the SPs pretty much dictate the flow of the format. When a new deck comes up, the player always has to think "How will I handle SPs?" Cursegar never got that big, probably due to its energy cost, and Lostgar doesn't really require players to build their decks specifically to beat it, just to play more carefully. Even SF Gengar only really caused a single major addition to decks, being Unown G, but that was still a very minor change.
 
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Tego said:
it's safe to say that the folks over at Creatures have been remarkably biased to this character for the past couple of years. ... Maybe their costumer surveys / feedback is just telling them that Gengar is one of the most popular characters?
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Not just Gengar but Machamp too. There seems to be a Gengar vs Machamp dynamic since Stormfront.
 
yoyofsho16 said:
...technically since Diamond&Pearl, since they both had a version there, too. Every version of Machamp was paired with Gengar in-set.
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Really, it kind of makes sense since in the original generation of the games they were two of the only four Pokemon which evolved through trading, and the Fighting Dojo was right next to Saffron City Gym and Sabrina with her Psychic and Ghost Pokemon.

Back on topic, my big question is, what consists of "breaking" a format. Yes, a lot of the Gengars released have been very powerful cards, but when I think of cards that "break" the format usually my mind goes to trainers which are splashable in lots of different deck archetypes. I don't think that Gengar necessarily breaks the format, it's mostly that he combos with other cards that in effect make a super effect.
 
When I hear the word "broken" I hear "unhealthy for the game" and I don't think Gengar is that, not at all.

However, it is true that Gengar has been released multiple times in the past few years and all of those cards have been powerful and relevant to the modified metagame.
 
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