What are people's opinions now that they have played at States?
A friend of mine played Mismagius/Grumpig in order to metagame Gardevoir, primarily, and to have a decent match versus Magmortar. It worked, and he made the top cut with a 5-1 record.
The winner of our State Championship on Saturday played a 1-0-1 Salamence ex into his Magmortar list to resist Magmortar and Gallade, and his strategy must have worked, because he took the tournament, even with 3 GGs and 2 other Mortars in the top cut.
I played a fantastic Magmortar mirror at States. My list was only three or four cards different from my opponent's, but it was a great experience to see how those differences affected the outcome of the match.
Little things like these can make the game fun to play, even when the metagame is stagnant. Attendance is really healthy from the numbers I'm seeing, so obviously this problem isn't severe enough to make people stay home. All this doom and gloom about Great Encounters not changing the metagame... What's the big deal? It might be tough to break through the sea of Gardy and Mortar, but I'd prefer to look forward to Majestic Dawn as a potential solution, or even look to the sets we already have, than to wallow in self-pity. Those of us who have been playing for longer than just a couple years know what a
really stale format looks like. This isn't the end of the world.
It's also important to remember that a sure way to keep the format uninteresting and bland is to tell yourself that you won't win unless you play uninteresting and bland decks. True or not, it doesn't help a thing to be a negative nancy about it in lieu of suggesting alternatives.
JMO.