I agree with your subsequent analysis. But I want to look at it from one level higher. Either via legal or illegal tactic, the purpose of stalling is to run out the clock as much as possible so that when the 40 minutes ends, you are ahead on prizes, and you win.
The introduction of +3 negated some that, because the opponent still had a couple of turns to even the score.
Oh and at the same time, they reduced the time to 30 minutes instead of 40.
Now, that was in a format where Broken Time Space was legal, you could Rare Candy the same turn, etc. The game was faster. I hear what you are saying.
In today's format, maybe more than 30 minutes are needed for regular game time. It's a smart and valid concern.
The problem is, the counterargument is what has been said, just play a faster deck. (Might not be what you want to hear, but it's a fact nonetheless. Some decks just might not have enough time to come from behind, given that Swiss and Best of 3 matches have different prescribed timeframes.)
But that is a problem, my choice to play mewlock was an excellent one. It had a favorable to even matchup against every deck I saw there and played against. Why should anyone's deck choice be limited based on time. Why not just ban Twins, Vileplume, and Reuniclus since they need so much time to work? Why isn't everyone playing ZPTS so that first to 6 catchers is the winner?
Because it makes the game boring and unskillful. Any deck using vileplume and reuniclus is slow yes, but in the end they have a tremendous matchup against those speed decks. Why should a rushing tactic be favored more than a setup one?
IMHO Rushing decks require no skill to play, are flippy, and boring. If we all played ZPTS it becomes not a game of who gets 6 prizes in 30 minutes, it becomes who flipped heads.d
Slow decks change that because they set up something powerful something that my opponent can't just say "herp herp bolt strike for KO". They reintroduce skill to the game, they make this game a challenge. But when you take them away for something as silly as a time limit then why bother playing a game based on the opening coin flip.
It's probably a safe bet that the 30+3 won't change this season. So the next season is 2012/2013, and likely BLW-on with a strong EX Pokemon flavor to it....e.g. take two prizes. Will 30+3 be sufficient then? Maybe some people who played in the older ex format can share their experience.
This however is not something I thought of. Maybe the format's pace will pick up in the future (it certainly is shaping up that way with all the big basicss and the new cards designed solely to help them). I never did expect the timelimit to change this year, frankly it takes to long to get something changed in this game, I was simply raising my concern on the issue.
Though I do believe now we should wait on the new rotation. Thanks for pointing that out.
At my Regionals, one of my opponents was rushing me from the very beginning, since I sat down at nearly the last minute and was shuffling a mulligan when the round began. Then prompted me several times during the game to make my move. I was ahead in prizes, and he was playing a Bearplume deck, so I guess he was making sure he had time to recover. But I took six prizes within 30 minutes anyway, so it didn't matter. Still, there pressure was there from him. I can imagine people would be up in arms too if the +3 was taken away.
What your opponent did there is something I was affraid I would have to do myself. I don't want to be that guy, I don't want to have to rush my opponent along. If I did I fear I would get called for "rushing" my opponent and earn myself a penalty.
As for the +3 I don't know how people would react, I can honestly see it both ways. I guess it just comes down to the players play styles. The speed deck players will want it back the old way, and the players who like to think out their plays and slower setup decks will want the +3 to stay. In the end though it is about what is most healthy for the Competitive TCG, because you can't please everyone.
Indeed TCGO does! But the computer controls it. As Ness said, many things should factor into the opponent's time, not yours, such as them reading a card you searched out, them shuffling your deck, etc. The TCGO computer controls this wonderfully, but it would be difficult to oversee in real life....particularly with 100+ simultaneous matches, as if the players need yet another thing to argue about to a Judge. Said clock works for chess because it's very clear when one person's turn is over and the other begins.
The players can monitor this themselves. Since you are in control of your own clock and any time wasted on your side is crucial just hit the button. For example:
Player May is searching her deck using the effect of Professor Elm's Training Method. She decides to pick Pidgeot from Call of Legends and puts it down on the mat.
Her opponent Drew has never seen nor knew there was a legal Pidgeot, and asks if he may read the card. May begins to shuffle her deck and hits the button so that the time is now subtracting from Drew's timer.
After Drew feels he has a satisfactory understanding of the card he gives it back to May cuts her deck and hits his button so the timer is on May again and so she resumes her turn.
Or at least something to that effect hopefully you get the idea. The problems as outlined above are easy enough to deal with, when you are waiting on your opponent simply hit the button and subtract time from them while you are waiting. As far in between turns goes you can set the clocks so that they have a delay in between starting the next players count down, its called Simple Delay (or at least that's what my app calls it).
