Pokémon TCG: Sword and Shield—Brilliant Stars

Format Change for Next Year - Possible Change for Nats and Worlds!

ShadowGuard said:
Great news for NA players, but unfortunally, it doesn't help Europe. Seem's like we can have this format only at Worlds, and the trip is given out in a luck-based format. =(

But anyway, I'm happy P!P once again listens to the voices of the players and does something about the issue.


Wait... you live in the US and complain?!
That's like... well, there's nothing to compare with.
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ha! you don't understand how someone from the US could be upset about this!
My league will die if this mid season rotation happens.
Players who have been in the game for a long period of time are already upset with the changes that are being made.
Donks were present before the rule change but didn't rule the format, with the rule change it only leaves two options, either do a mid season rotation were people who have been testing and perfecting their decks lose all that hard work money spent or let donks run nats and worlds. Unless p!p decides to do a ban(not gunna happen)
If you don't understand how this going to upset not only players but the parents of younger players, you need a reality check. There was absolutely no need for the rule change to go into effect with the release of b&w it should have waited for next year. New players who just spent all this money to get into the game building gdos, sp variants, vilegar(AKA the top decks of the format and their best choice if they want to be competitive) just lost all that money. I would be very upset if there was a rotation, I had to delete several profanities out of this because I can't help but say them over and over when I think about a mid season rotation. Thats not right. At all. I can understand where p!p is coming from but really the only solution is to ban JUST sableye should the donks rise out of hand. NO other card is so broken it would be worthy of a ban and this includes Luxray, uxie, and crobat. This is a healthy format, the top tables at each S/P/T and regional 's I went were filled with all kinds of different decks, Blaze/blaze, Magnrock, Chenlock, Luxchomp, Vilegar, ABC, Sablelock, gdos, D chomp. I would lose half my collection and a bunch of cards that should get to be played next format. I'm so mad I would have played arceus at regional if I had know I'm wouldn't get a chance to play it at a premier tournament ever again. Playing it at a single elimination tournament filled with donk decks is suicide and if that donk deck doesn't exist neither does arceus. And its gone next year for sure. I'm so mad right now.
 
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IF you seriously think this format is healthy...

And banning sableye would do nothing, it would still be "whoever goes first win"...
 
eriknance said:
It's not just about one card, it's about an entire format dominated by speed getting even faster with first turn trainers. Nowhere in the announcement does P!P mention anything about one card (Sableye). Without Sableye, we would still have issues with first turn donks (SP, Gyarados, Machamp, etc. are ALL crazy with 1st turn trainers).
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How can any of those donk first turn with the b&w rules cept sp? With the first turn trainers also comes the rule of NOT BEING ABLE TO EVOLVE YOUR FIRST TURN! Everyone is so stuck on the trainers your first turn they arn't paying attention to the other rules. How can machamp t1 me when it is stuck as a machomp?

@Yoshi you are a very skilled player and although we have never talked I have seen from you posts you are very intelligent, but I think you are completely wrong. This format is so fun, you never know what to expect every match is against a different deck and red face powders had a good shot at the most recent tournys. I for one think thats very healthy.
At the very least they could do RR-on THAT I accept, but not 6 freaking sets in the middle of your season. Congrats you built a very unique deck and you did great at your states but you can't play at worlds because you don't have the money to buy an all new deck and still pay to fly half way across the country.
 
The_Legend said:
How can any of those donk first turn with the b&w rules cept sp? With the first turn trainers also comes the rule of NOT BEING ABLE TO EVOLVE YOUR FIRST TURN! Everyone is so stuck on the trainers your first turn they arn't paying attention to the other rules. How can machamp t1 me when it is stuck as a machomp?
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There's no new rule about evolving on your first turn . . . you couldn't do that before the new rules.

Unless you had a card that broke that rule.

They errata'd Candy so it didn't break the rule, but Broken Time-Space would still be around to give you a T1 Gyarados, Machamp etc.

They didn't change the ruling on BTS because it was yet another card that was never intended to be in the same format as B&W rules (along with Sableye, Crobat, Uxie).

That's why banning ONE card would never be enough. That's why we need a format that is compatible with B&W rules.
 
baby mario said:
There's no new rule about evolving on your first turn . . . you couldn't do that before the new rules.

Unless you had a card that broke that rule.

They errata'd Candy so it didn't break the rule, but Broken Time-Space would still be around to give you a T1 Gyarados, Machamp etc.

They didn't change the ruling on BTS because it was yet another card that was never intended to be in the same format as B&W rules (along with Sableye, Crobat, Uxie).

That's why banning ONE card would never be enough. That's why we need a format that is compatible with B&W rules.
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"The player that goes first no longer has any restrictions on what cards he or she can play. This means the player can play Item, Supporter, and Stadium cards on the first turn. However, it is still the case that neither player may Evolve Pokémon on the first turn."

It says neither player may Evolve. There is no point to this rule if it could be broken by BTS because there is no way to evolve on your first turn without BTS, am I correct? If I'm wrong you have my sincere apologizes but I see no other way to evolve first turn EXCEPT BTS. So if BTS could break those rules why even bother to include them?
 
I too am very thankful for the announcement of the upcoming rotation. Since my recent return to the game, my goal is to be ready for the 2011-2012 season, so if the format is rotated early or not, makes little difference to me. I intend to play in at least one battle roads tournament, and hopefully will not get too owned. Lol. But just for fun.

I agree that a HeartGold SoulSilver and forward rotation was just plain obvious, the age of Lv. X's is done and its a relief that there are no more special uber powerful cards except the Legends of course. In any case I am very happy for the change. Most importantly, I am happy that the game is back in the same balance as it was (for the most part) when the game was first released, which is why I came back to the game.
 
Now now, let's not get hasty here. P!P's decision to rotate could be based on a whole number of things aside from Sableye. It could be its mere metagame impact that determines their decision...After all, what would happen if 75% of metagames were dominated by a combination of Sableye and Vilegar?

I'm glad this decision was made, but like Wayne C., I think it's too little. I'd rather not see the Battle Road season sacrfiiced if it's avoidable, which this totally seemed like...But eh, it's not Battle Roads that are making their bottom line. So be it.
 
I LOVE this.
This was actually very expected to me, and just feels correct.
As for Worlds, now that could be interesting if GS-on comes already by then, but who knows?
 
The_Legend said:
How can any of those donk first turn with the b&w rules cept sp? With the first turn trainers also comes the rule of NOT BEING ABLE TO EVOLVE YOUR FIRST TURN! Everyone is so stuck on the trainers your first turn they arn't paying attention to the other rules. How can machamp t1 me when it is stuck as a machomp?

@Yoshi you are a very skilled player and although we have never talked I have seen from you posts you are very intelligent, but I think you are completely wrong. This format is so fun, you never know what to expect every match is against a different deck and red face powders had a good shot at the most recent tournys. I for one think thats very healthy.
At the very least they could do RR-on THAT I accept, but not 6 freaking sets in the middle of your season. Congrats you built a very unique deck and you did great at your states but you can't play at worlds because you don't have the money to buy an all new deck and still pay to fly half way across the country.
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Here you go. BTS still works first turn. So yeah, no Rare Candy, but Gyarados doesn't use it and neither does SP or donk decks.

Also, I don't think rogue decks took any Regionals or States (other than the random "Arceus"). I faced two rogue-ish decks at Regionals (Machamp/Vileplume) and donked them both. It doesn't prove a point, but just from my end I don't see this variability to the format you're talking about. Every game I've played this season has been all about speed or trainer lock, first turn setups or first turn Spiritomb.
 
Noooooo! HGSS-on? Are they serious?

I traded 4 Spiritombs at Regionals! Now, I can forget them. They´re gone. Shi...

At least we know now, hope the rotation is going to affect Nats and Worlds.
 
Lucksray said:
...It would have been slightly better if they didn't make a reprint set this close to a serious decrease in cardpool size...
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I think the reprints in CoL were obviously in preparation for next year's format change, which would then be CoL-on. They wanted the reprint cards to still be playable after that rotation.
 
Now, I understand that the folks in P!P are working with the options they were given, as all departments in TPCi / TPC were probably involved in this discussion. I applaud them for doing what they can currently and leaving the door open for a format change before North American Nats happen.

I am also glad that they bosses do take the time to listen to their players, as well as the folks that put on the lower, local level events, not that States and Reg's are lower, but you get the point.

Over the last few years, TPCi / P!P / POP have gotten a bad rep for some of the things that they do, but I really hope everyone does give them credit for listening to the players as well.
 
The_Legend said:
It says neither player may Evolve. There is no point to this rule if it could be broken by BTS because there is no way to evolve on your first turn without BTS, am I correct? If I'm wrong you have my sincere apologizes but I see no other way to evolve first turn EXCEPT BTS. So if BTS could break those rules why even bother to include them?
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The BW rules were designed in Japan for the HGSS-on format.

BTS doesn't exist in that format, so there was no need to even consider how it would effect that ruling.

BTS is one more MD-on card that is incompatible with BW rules. That's why we needed more than just a Sableye ban.
 
A couple of thoughts.

I think that The_Legend shares something with a lot of players and league folks … not having played or tested good donk decks like Uxie, Sableye, etc in a competitive environment. It’s very easy to underestimate how terrible these decks, which don’t depend at all on evolution, are when you haven’t experienced them. Similarly leagues are more about fun than competitive wins, so there is less of an impact when someone gets donked. You just go play another game against someone else right away. Whereas in an event you might have driven hours and paid money for gas, hotel, & food only to have to sit through a 10 min game of solitaire by your opponent that ends any hope of you doing well for the day. Then you get to wait 30 minutes, doing nothing while you wait for the round to end. Literally one or two games like this can ruin your day. The impact of donks decks is very different in the different environments.

I want to stress again that Sableye isn’t the problem. The real issues are Uxie, Crobat G, and all the speed based trainers we have now. Sableye just makes all of those worse. Even if sableye vanished we would still have Uxie donk, and insanely fast SP decks. There are a whole pool of cards in our current format that frankly break with the B/W ruleset. If you got rid of PokeDrawer+, Uxie, Pokedex, Unown R, PokeBlower+, and Crobat G, then Sableye would become just a good card.

Finally I want to commend TPCi. This announcement is good in several respects. First HGSS-on is the best possible format response to the Black & White rule changes. Knowing that we will get that instead of RR-on is a huge deal. It shows that TPCi is NOT just blindly following the “rotate 4 sets” model of the last few years, but are attempting to keep the format healthy. This is born out even more by the consideration of an early format rotation. Further by waiting for BR results before making a final decision they get to see if the problems of the current format are real or if this is another case of Gym hype. This response to both the complaints and the facts is a balanced and reasonable one. I’m very impressed with TPCi at the moment.
 
This is fantastic for the game. This will give deck creativeness a whole new meaning. The game can finally return to the way it was. What it comes down to is people need to play SABLEDONK as much as humanly possible during Br's and the rest is history.
 
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