Sideboards

[AyameHikaru]

^Wait, so only the loser is sideboarding?

When it gets down to it, I also feel it's just too complicated for Juniors particularly. Can you really explain to a 5 year old that in between matches she needs to switch cards? That would require her building her deck herself... and a lot of children don't, if they've got a Pokédad. That Junior wouldn't have a CLUE about the finer strategies and counter-counter-countering the counter-counter your opponent is sure to put in. Sure you can go through them and say "If you fight Gengar, put in this. If you fight Machamp, put in this." But the first rogue deck she sees, she's going to flub.

Also, I think sideboards should definitely wait until SP is rotated out, It just favors them so heavily. Even if you restrict it to 1/10 the deck, or 6 cards, that can HUGELY change an SP deck. Stage 2 deck, not so much. They're putting in 4 new techs, you can just play with the trainer line a bit. :/

I don't wonder why Pokémon doesn't 'reduce the mediocrity.' What you call mediocrity is a fragile balance of simplicity and complication. Sideboards would throw the simple side completely and you'd be left with a mess of what used to be a fun game to play. When in doubt, KISS. If it's worked for over a decade with only minor changes, adding in a major change now wouldn't be good.

 

[rokman]

While it may not necessarily be canon to the Pokemon universe

Actually, it's kind of like the pokecenter's pokemon box. You can "deposit" pokemon cards from your deck and "withdraw" other cards.

^Wait, so only the loser is sideboarding?

No, the winner and loser can access their sideboard between battles in a match.

When it gets down to it, I also feel it's just too complicated for Juniors particularly. Can you really explain to a 5 year old that in between matches she needs to switch cards?

The beauty of sideboarding? You don't HAVE to do it...

 

[Raen]

The beauty of sideboarding? You don't HAVE to do it...

And yet, you do have to if you want to be competitive. So, you really do have to, honestly.

 

[Kayle]

Most players would prefer best two out of three swiss even if that means longer tournaments.

I would like to know why you think this, because I cannot go to a tournament that is longer than a day without a travel award. And given the length of tournaments already, states and regionals would probably end up as two-day events. I think many parents who have to drive their kids a really long ways to get to these tournaments would agree.

As fun as sideboarding would be for masters, I don't really see it for juniors.

 

[Rogue Archetype]

ABSOLUTELY NOT!!!!

Pokemon TCG is STILL supposed to target young children (aka Juniors). Remember them ? ?? ? ? ?

OMG @ the grown folks trying to turn fun little Pokemon into intense and complex MTG

Maybe you could have fun with sideboards at a SIDE EVENT, but I'm abolutely opposed to adding this kind of tournament-intensive approach to the Pokemon TCG where a large percentage of players don't even play in tournaments!

We're having serious issues right now with kid-friendliness in this game as it is.

The game is as complex as it should be. Pokemon TCG is an entry-level game. If you want more complexity, there's always Yugioh and MTG. Don't change this one ==> go over there and dabble.

I hope to GOD that this concept gets zero consideration and never moves forward.

 

[Yoshi-]

ABSOLUTELY NOT!!!!
where a large percentage of players don't even play in tournaments!

You dont want the tournament rules to be changes cause its to complicated for kids that dont play tournaments? And it would be topcut only anyway and I'd expect juniors that topcut to be hable to handle this somehow. Just give them an easy sideboard and tell them what they should board against which deck, doesnt sound to hard IMO.

And IMO you underestimate the number of grown up players, sure more kids buy the cards but Im pretty sure that most tournamt players are masters so, while I understand that this is a kid friendly tcg, I think that masters should be considered as well. Same with the entry fee argument, we yhould have "easy" events like BRs but I think some big shonen jump like tournaments / states with entry fees would be good as well.

 

[Jaeger]

ABSOLUTELY NOT!!!!

Pokemon TCG is STILL supposed to target young children (aka Juniors). Remember them ? ?? ? ? ?

OMG @ the grown folks trying to turn fun little Pokemon into intense and complex MTG

Maybe you could have fun with sideboards at a SIDE EVENT, but I'm abolutely opposed to adding this kind of tournament-intensive approach to the Pokemon TCG where a large percentage of players don't even play in tournaments!

We're having serious issues right now with kid-friendliness in this game as it is.

The game is as complex as it should be. Pokemon TCG is an entry-level game. If you want more complexity, there's always Yugioh and MTG. Don't change this one ==> go over there and dabble.

I hope to GOD that this concept gets zero consideration and never moves forward.

Yea your right adding skill to a game is always a bad idea.

 

[cloud_runner]

the game of pokemon is already skillful enough. some ygo player refuse to play pokemon specifically cause theres no sideboard. i see it as a sign of fear. techs and everything needed to be put into the deck already within your limit is challenging already,i have played ygo and done well but i find pokemon much more challenging plus they limit sets which will always create new strategies and decks to be played and created. i think the game is fine as it is. plus the game is long enough playing one game rounds in tourneys, then best 2 of 3 in top cuts....
I personally dont agree on the sideboards at all. the skill point isnt the sideboard, its the way youll fit everything you think you need into 1-60 card deck and that enough shows the strategy. period

 

[Muk Man]

Sideboards only work with Top Cut! but why we SHOULDN'T HAVE SIDE DECKS

Honestly THIS format would be horrible with sidboards

Luxray Garchomp+ sideboard=unbeatable

Oh You Run Dialgia Sideboard Blaze, oh you run mewtwo sideboard dialgia/whatever


Pokemon USUALLY comes down to-2-3 decks, allowing those decks to specifically tech for individual matchups...

Imagine Psychic Lock with a sideboard....
Jumpluff with a sideboard

Side boards would ONLY strengthen the already Powerful decks and actually ELIMINATE the small diversity we have now

 

[Skytso]

If it's worked for over a decade with only minor changes, adding in a major change now wouldn't be good.

Wasn't sideboarding in the game back in DCI days? I was actually surprised coming back to the game and finding out that having a sideboard was out. I'm going to have to double check my old Tournament Organizer info, but I could have SWORN sideboarding was in the game back in the day.

As for the "sideboarding destroys diversity" argument. I really don't see that happening too much. In pokemon you get rogue decks winning tournaments all the time. I mean, isn't that what the boys in FL do all the time? Wasn't Sablelock a rogue deck like 3 months ago? Now it's Tier 1. Sideboarding would make rogue decks more fun. I could play something like AttackQueen with 2 techs I could add to deal with a hard matchup, like Steelix.

The best point so far has been the reoccurring theme that Pokemon is geared towards the younger crowd. That's who really drives the sales of Pokemon and that's who Nintendo as a company is aiming for. The younger kids and families. They're never going to put something into the game's fundamentals that can't be explained to an 8 year old. (I think 5 is pushing it... maybe a really smart 5 year old, but they have to be reading or have a pokedad)

All told, love the article and would love to have some sideboarding events. But I don't see it going sanctioned.

 

[SD PokeMom]

there has never been sideboarding in the pokemon tcg, even during the wotc days.

'mom

 

[The Dark Toxicroak]

An sp deck with a sideboarded mewtwo counter and machamp counter beats everything? Honestly trying it for battle roads or something would be cool but I wouldn't want to see it always implemented.

Maybe its something worth trying in the professor cup though.

 

[TheGeneral]

ABSOLUTELY NOT!!!!

Pokemon TCG is STILL supposed to target young children (aka Juniors). Remember them ? ?? ? ? ?

Yet Masters normally double/triple the amount of juniors in most or all of the tournaments....little kids that have mommy and daddy buy them cards to just mess around don't worry about "sideboards." And if they want to play in a tournament, TEACH them to use a sideboard just how they got TAUGHT how to play in the first place.

OMG @ the grown folks trying to turn fun little Pokemon into intense and complex MTG

Yeah....getting creative is much worse than falling behind other TCG's and keeping our game typical and boring.

Maybe you could have fun with sideboards at a SIDE EVENT, but I'm abolutely opposed to adding this kind of tournament-intensive approach to the Pokemon TCG where a large percentage of players don't even play in tournaments!

Then why would doing sideboards even matter for those who don't play?!?! If most of the players don't play tournaments, then WHAT is the issue?

We're having serious issues right now with kid-friendliness in this game as it is.

What do you expect from a game where 50-75%+ of the game are teenagers and adults?

The game is as complex as it should be. Pokemon TCG is an entry-level game. If you want more complexity, there's always Yugioh and MTG. Don't change this one ==> go over there and dabble.

Entry-level? So because you think our game is "entry-level" and "less complex" means we shouldn't try doing anything different to move our game forward?

I hope to GOD that this concept gets zero consideration and never moves forward.

Yeah, let's not consider different game mechanics that can move the game forward instead of keeping it STALE and BORING. :thumb:

Answers in bold...

 

[King of Japan]

DialgaChomp side boarding 1 skuntank g 2 toxicroak g 1-1 blaze fb 1 fire energy would be insane. Plus you still have room for 4 more cards

 

[TheGeneral]

DialgaChomp side boarding 1 skuntank g 2 toxicroak g 1-1 blaze fb 1 fire energy would be insane. Plus you still have room for 4 more cards

Hmm....auto-loss to Machamp, or be able to have a better chance against it?

 

[Muk Man]

sideboards only work with top cut! But why we shouldn't have side decks

honestly this format would be horrible with sidboards

luxray garchomp+ sideboard=unbeatable

oh you run dialgia sideboard blaze, oh you run mewtwo sideboard dialgia/whatever


pokemon usually comes down to-2-3 decks, allowing those decks to specifically tech for individual matchups...

Imagine psychic lock with a sideboard....
Jumpluff with a sideboard

side boards would only strengthen the already powerful decks and actually eliminate the small diversity we have now

thats what i said!!!

 

[Redados1]

liked u better as larvitar, rokman.
hypno is not as cool

 

[LINX009]

I would actually really enjoy having a sideboard in Pokemon I have played pokemon basically since the release of fossil and seen this game change in a huge number of ways including all of the rule changes that have come about I also play Magic the Gathering and have found side decking in magic to add a good deal of strategy to MTG I actually think that side boarding combined with the slowing of the game to be a huge plus for this game. When I started seeing the release of HGSS and later sets I was really happy to see that they are slowing the game down but not super drastically they are doing it over time which IMO is the best thing for this game I remember when you rarely had a game end in the first couple turns which if it did was usually due to really poor setups or lucky flips I actually had a player come up to me during the regionals tournament on the Queen Mary this past season so pleased with himself because he kept getting donks and I was getting annoyed at this this should be a strategy based card game not the "let's see who I can make waste a 1-2+ hour trip because I made them loose either before they got to do anything or with them only getting 1 turn in then losing" Game sorry for the rant I just thought this should also be put out there in case any one else feels the same

 

[AydennWardle]

sideboard is bad news

I've played magic for around 4 years on a tournament and social level and a sideboard would kill pokemon. The reason why it works in magic is because you can change your deck to counter or disrupt your opponent. THIS WOULD NOT WORK in pokemon. If we are talking a 15 card sideboard for pokemon that's a new line of pokemon. This would be stupid. If your opponent is running sp and your running kingdra for example you could just switch to machamp. Good game

 

[Jaeger]

I've played magic for around 4 years on a tournament and social level and a sideboard would kill pokemon. The reason why it works in magic is because you can change your deck to counter or disrupt your opponent. THIS WOULD NOT WORK in pokemon. If we are talking a 15 card sideboard for pokemon that's a new line of pokemon. This would be stupid. If your opponent is running sp and your running kingdra for example you could just switch to machamp. Good game

Who said 15? How about 10? or 5? Still as broke?