First off, you people are idiots saying it made Donphan good...OBVIOUSLY. Donphan had an overabundance of synergy with Slowking. So did Dark Gatr. Some cards click for combos. Your trying to say that one card is TOO good just because it made another card viable...no. Its viable because a new combo arrived. Its just like Entei Magcargo. No one ran Magcargo before Entei. " OH GOD! ENTEIS SO BROKEN! IT MADE A CRAPPY CARD SO GOOD! " Oh no! The Trapper combo is INSANE! IOR must be broken as it turned crappy cards like RSA and TRT into being viable ! BAN IOR! BAN IOR!
You have to understand that the donphan issue is an issue of strong synergy and a combo. You can't take an equally bad card, or even one slightly better than it, toss it in Slowking, and win. Why not toss in an Ursaring? Its still going to suck. Toss in Vaporeon. Yep, still bad. Toss in NEO 3 Suicune ( Holo , with the ruling as it was at the time ) OH WAIT! SYNERGY! IT CLICKS! Therefore it works. It has nothing to do with the fact that the card in question makes any card good as much as it is that some weaker cards comboed with it well.
Also, the sole reason it did well at Worlds is because it recieved no internet attention. Seeing how at the time I followed the message boards religiously, I know what was and wasnt posted. Decks unprepared did not do well against it. Slowking was used to slow down threats like Kingdra, who needed Pokemon Center to win. It also prevented Kabulix from getting access to healing, or the fossils, and also made it hard for them to attach to Steelix metals without draw. Slowking was a smart metagaming choice, plan and simple. No one had used slowking at the prof championship yet, and no one mentioned that Slowking was so good. Therefore many decks were caught off guard. This was a VERY rare occurance, as after Worlds, people ran a bit of TecH. Slowking became HORRIBLE in MMF. Where I played, not a single Slowking deck was played. Also note, one Kingdra deck ( at least ) t8ed at Worlds...it ran Igglybuff, 2 I believe, at the last second upon seeing so many Slowkings. Yes, 2 cards made what is a near impossible match into a very easy one.
So yes, while Slowking is very strong and very effective, it requires a large portion of your deck being focused around it to get it going effectively, thus making your energy count low. That means that only certain attackers can fit into the deck. They also must almost always be basics, except in Steelix and Scizors case, because a 4-4 Slowking line is very demanding poke-slot wise. Also, a high trainer count is needed for consistancy at swarming with stage 1s, so while yes, Slowking is VERY good, it cannot effectively be thrown with any card in the least. Slowking, realistically, is a single archetype. There are a very finite number of combonations that work with it. Sneasel, Murkrow or Metal. Those are the three real ways to go with it. Its no more dominant than Gatr was in MF, or Gatr Sect, Entei Cargo and Scizor Furret Muk were in MMF. Those were the decks to beat. Its not like you could toss Gatr and Sects into any deck and win. While some people exclaim you can with Slowking, your wrong. Slowking, while good, can be fragile. There are many counters, and almost everyone runs them. While REALISTICALLY you CAN run 4-4 slowking in any deck, the deck would lose to most non Slowking decks , unless the Slowking deck runs one of the three proven effective combonations.
Yes, alot of weaker decks will lose to Slowking unless they run counters...so we ban slowking..fair enough...alot of weaker decks will still lose to ANYTHING. The top decks are top decks because they are BETTER. Merely look at the premise behind TCGs. You will ALWAYS have top decks, and most decks cannot compete vs them. The best you can do is rotate cards out, and OOPS! Your back to complaining about some new threat. It happened with Prop 15/3c. " OH NO! TRAINER MON! BAD! ( btw, Trainermon is the dumbest term I have EVER seen in my life ) " and what happened? OOPS! HITMONCHAN ZAPPY FABLE! BOO! BAD! BAN THEM! Format dead. Than MF. OOPS. Gatr. NEXT FORMAT! OOPS! Gatr Sect Cargo and SFM. NEXT FORMAT! Eon...looking like its Blaziken, Azumarril, Sceptile and Gardevoir EX so far, too early to tell, give it a few months. Every time something gets " Fixed " Something else pops up. Its blanant facts people. You cannot ignore them. In order to compete with the best decks, you run a deck that has a chance against it. If this means tossing in a few cards like Igglybuff, go for it! ITS NO BIG DEAL. If you merely want to run your Venusaurs and Aggrons, than play for fun. NO GAME IN TCG HISTORY ALLOWS AN EVEN PLAYING FIELD FOR ALL DECKS. You cannot take any deck you want into a tournement and stand a chance against the best decks. No matter what you do, some cards will always dominate the field. Ban Slowking...all decks run 4/4 ERs now. There ya go. Now any deck with more than 2 energy cost cant compete. Ban ER? OOPS! Sneasel cant lose, and Metals ridiculous. Ban Sneasel? Ok, Metal cant lose! Watch out for Scizor! You cannot ban an entire Type either...so Metal will be insane...usually with Water back up just in case. I can go ON AND ON about how broken the game will get no matter what you ban...banning does not work. The Pokemon online community just cannot seem to understand this though. I do not know if it is the fact that the game is advertised as more of a fun game and alot of the players play it for that or what, but when your playing competitively, one deck is always better. Otherwise its merely " I flipped better/drew better hands ". The idea behind a CUSTOMIZABLE card game is that you make the BEST deck. Yes, BEST, as in, you know, better than others? So some decks eventually are the better decks...its the basis behind the game genre. Otherwise its all 50-50. Who would play that? Seriously...yes...while we all hate the " Cheesy " decks, when you think about it...they are more a symbol of beauty, or perfection, than of lack of skill. Whoever made those decks took the game and made the best decks possible. While yes, it takes skill to "Play " the game, deck building, and metagaming is much more of an art if you ask me. Before we scream " BAN SOMETHING! CHANGE ITS WORDING! BLA BLA BAL! " realize that no game has ever came close to achieving " Balance". Yes, Slowking is too strong....remove Slowking and we find a new " TOO STRONG " card. And yes, I DO mean to the same level of power that Slowking currently has. Deal with it.
okeball: 