Professor Cup "I Choose You!" rule

[losjackal]

I don't know if P!P is testing this concept for the future, but I'm fascinated by the "I choose you!" rule that was used for the Professor Cup.

For those of you that didn't play in the tournament, you get to select a Basic pokemon and make it your Active. Then you deal out six cards for your hand and proceed normally.

My observations:

1. No mulligans, so the opponent doesn't get an advantage drawing extra cards.
2. Does it increase or decrease your chances to pull another Basic in your opening hand? I don't know, maybe someone with better statistical skills can chime in.
3. It removes one element of luck.
4. It definitely adds a new skill aspect...predicting what your opponent is going to start with, and what you might do in response.
5. You can run a single copy of a tech starter in a deck.

Now, the Professor Cup had the additional constraint that all Pokemon in the deck had to be the same type, so I don't know if this "I choose you" rule would be as interesting/effective in Modified.

For instance, I ran a Grass deck. Most people might think Tropius to Green Call and put some Pokemon in your hand would be a good play. But I went with Roselia (I already ran a Roserade line) for the donk potential. It paid off too, because I donked a Mew with 3 heads, and a Relicanth with 2 heads hitting for weakness.

So I have two questions for the community to begin the discussion:

1. If you played in the Professor Cup, did you run an interesting starter? What was it and how did it work out for you?

2. If you didn't play, how do you think this rule would work out in the larger Modified game? And if you could choose any starter, what would it be and why?

 

[FincastlePokemon2]

I played a water deck with a Mantine starter. As long as I didn't get donked first turn, I could always get more Pokemon. I also played around with an electric deck with a Plusle starter - again, free Pokemon on the bench. (With the added benefit of not having to take damage from an Absol Prime since the Pokemon didn't come from my hand.)

 

[bullados]

Mew-based decks become incredibly powerful if you allow a player to choose his or her starter.

 

[Ninjask88]

I did not play in the Professor Cup, and I really like the idea of being to choose your starter, but there is one problem I foresee.

Wouldn't most people just add 1 Absol Prime to their decks then? That would mean every Pokemon gets the 2 damage if played from your hand. I don't really like that idea, and I am sure other counters would arise to prevent Absol. One such would could be the added fighting type to a deck to KO the Absol.

Overall I really like the idea and would like to see how it would play out in Modified. But... I think I would just stick to the current ruling as of now.

 

[losjackal]

Absol Prime is a good example of a single-card starter tech....spreading up to 100. Is it worth a sacrificial prize, though? Unless it has synergy with your deck, I think it's just begging to be KO'd. But yes I agree, some people would do this.

Anybody else? Is the idea of choosing a Starter in modified feasible, and what would you choose?

 

[Argyris]

In the Professor Cup, I played Blastoise/Floatzel with Manaphy as my starter (Losjackel, after reading your post, I'm 99% sure we played each other in the final round of swiss). The rule as well as the starter worked out very well for my deck (placed top 4) for a few reasons:
1. Instead of running 4 Manaphy, I was able to cut it to 2 Manaphy and 2 Copycat, therefore increasing consistency drastically.
2. Because I was guaranteed to start with it, I was guaranteed the constant drawpower without having to worry about retreating one of my other basics and waiting a turn.
3. With free retreat and Blastoise's power, I rarely had any water energy in my discard pile.
4. As a result of reason 2, my Professor Cup list had a significant amount more turn 2-3 setups than my Modified version.
Obviously, many of the luck factors that plagued the deck in Modified didn't apply here.

Here are some of my thoughts regarding using the rule in Modified:
1. Restricting decks to play only one type had a huge effect on the results of the "I Choose You!" rule.
* Some starters (notably Cleffa and Manaphy IMO) may have worked out better in some of the non-colorless, non-water decks seen at the cup.
* Phasing out certain Meta decks (like Stage 1 and Yanmega/Magnezone) gave other decks a chance to shine that would not have made it so far in Modified (like Blastoise/Floatzel).
* Some cards that are useless in the current Modified would suddenly become viable (like Numel UL, which a friend of mine used in his Professor Cup deck) as a single copy starter tech, as you mention.
* Zekrom/Pachirisu/Shaymin currently has to worry about starting with Pachirisu or Shaymin, which would all but kill any chance of T1 120. That risk is gone so it gets a higher chance of a T1 120.
2. You mention single card tech starters. While that is true, I could also go back to my first point about running two Manaphy instead of four. Decks that already run 4 of their starter gain 3 more spaces for consistency or techs.
3. I agree with you that it would increase the skill aspect. Be careful playing that Cleffa as your starter, your opponent might be running Tyrogue. Be careful running Tyrogue, it might be a dead card if your opponent doesn't play babies. That particular situation already comes up but it would be an even bigger deal.
4. This would have a huge impact on current Meta decks but this rule could make it easier for some new decks to compete at tier 1 level that wouldn't be able to under the current set up rules.
5. Currently, basics with high retreat, coming into play powers, dangerously low HP, etc are risky because starting with them might lead to a loss. This risk is almost completely negated with the ICY rule, opening up the possibility of playing high counts of said Pokemon.
6. While it has many positive effects, it does have negative ones as well.
* There is still a lot of emphasis on the first turn of the game. It's a different kind of emphasis but the player going first can get an unfair advantage nonetheless.
* See my comment about ZPS. The cards designed and printed for Modified would have to be designed with the ICY rule in mind.

Honestly, I love the idea of the ICY rule becoming a regular rule for the game. However, I think the change would have to come slowly, with the cardpool leading up to it.

 

[DarkStar20]

We've tried a couple of fun tournaments with the I Choose You rule, it's a lot of fun! But we've done lots of things that are little rules
changups before. It's just something different to keep things fresh.

Some of the other ideas tossed around:
Pokemon DICE ROLL: Each time you would normally do 10 damage to a pokemon, instead of doing the 10 damage, you roll a die at
their field, if it lands on a pokemon, they take the damage equal to the number rolled on the die! (I once used Supreme Blast, grabbed
20 Die, and threw them, a bunch of them bounced back and I actually KO'ed enough pokemon that we both drew all of our prize cards,
SUDDEN DEATH.)

Pokemon Sprint Cup: This one was simple, 7 minute rounds. For each prize card you take in each game again the 'gym leaders' you
got a point, and the one with the most points won, also the gym leaders with the most prizes taken won. My players were playing
slow when we first started, so this was a competition to help them improve that.

Pokemon Proxy Wars: We had this HUGE box of random terrible cards, like Pop pack cards and stuff banned commons we'd never use,
we each grabbed 60 and a pair of sharpies. We'd just play out the cards as whatever we wanted them to be, and write on the cards as
we went. And also write it on a sheet of paper, to make sure we only had 4 of each in the deck. It also had to be modified legal. At first
I went with Dragonite, the one that does draco metor for 50 to each of my opponent's pokemon, on a coin flip, and used Togekiss's Serine
grace, and when I revealed the top 10, what do you know?? All 10 were energy!!! Every time I ran out of cards, I'd bench a Uxie and use
Set up for 7 new cards! My oppoenent then rare candied to Rhypherior and discarded the last few cards in my deck to deck me. (Sad face.)
But it was quite fun all the same.

We've done tournaments where we rancomly announced round 1 that we'd all day people would be switching
decks with eachother. That way people didn't KNOW so they'd build a bad deck on purpose, but it was fun and
shocking for them.

Whatever keeps the league meetings fresh and fun u know?

 

[jogon]

I played a random Mismagius/Metagross/Jirachi deck to some decent success and used Jynx as my starter. Lick was awesome sometimes and Mimic helped me out a lot