It’s a rare occasion for me to post anything on the pokegym largely due to my blunt nature getting me in trouble but I feel this is a topic that must be discussed. I have played this game since EX Dragon and never have I seen a format in a worse state than it is now. In a game kept alive in terms of competitiveness by rewarding skill in play and deck building we are now experience the most luck-based system since the takeover.
In the game of pokemon most people consider luck to be coin flips. In recent years Pokemon Reversal and Energy Removal 2 kept that a factor in most games but luckily skill based decks like Medicham EX and Speed Spread let the best player win in most situations. This year luck has dominated Regionals and appears poised to dominate Nationals too. This time instead of lucky coin flips its all about the luck of the draw allowing turn 1 wins or complete domination of the board early in the game, many call these 2 scenarios a donk. Nearly all decent deck choices in this format are either solely based on donking or have a decent chance of getting it. Later in this article I will discuss why these donks are not good for the competitive nature of the game and allows inexperienced players to beat seasoned veterans who have put their soul into deck perfection and playtesting.
Lets look at the current top decks. I don’t know the exact numbers but these 6 decks are generally considered to be decks you might run into at a tournament and are widely used as playtesting staples. In no particular order the decks are SP, Machamp, Gengar, Rampardos, Kingdra, and Regigigas.
I know I’m being vague in clumping SP decks together but hey laziness is a virtue. Dialga G is not your standard donk deck. It lacks the ability to kill a pokemon turn 1 but it makes up for it by having devastating lockdown turn 1. With just 1 supporter you can get Energy Gain and a basic metal allowing you to achieve a turn 1 deafen. Couple that with Power Sprays and you stop any set up deck in its tracks. For example I ran Plox for Regionals. I played 28 trainers and 9 of those were supporters. That’s 19 useless cards in my deck. That’s not counting the evolutions that cant be used because I cant candy or set down a Broken Time Space. Even if I did have a Roseannes or Bebes in my hand and drop an Uxie there’s decent odds that they will drop a power spray thus leaving me with a bunch of basics while they get out a Dialga G Lv.X with multiple special metal energies. Even if you do manage to set up they can just poke turn the beast right back up. This kind of lockdown is bad for the game when the only counter is a donk deck.
Machamp is the epitome of the donk deck. He basically guarantees a kill turn one if you get him out. Of course you can state that getting a turn 1 second stage out is not easy task but you must realize this isn’t 2008. With the release of Broken Time Space decks don’t rely on getting Rare Candy to be able to donk. Now with the help of Uxies and cards like Pokedex, Pokeball, Pokeradar, Unown R, Great Ball, Pokemon Rescue, and other things you can basically draw half the deck in the first turn. Now you don’t really have to be lucky anymore to get the turn 1 Machamp. The biggest problem with Machamp though is that it’s incredibly easy to play. My cousin is in the senior age division and attended the Midwest Regionals. The only other tournament he played in was states where he went 2-4. For Regionals I made him a Machamp deck with 2 tech Mesprits in it. He had a light playtesting regiment but that was all he needed to be able to play the deck well. He started the tournament 5-0 before losing his last round and getting the 2nd seed for top cut. Although he did lose to his auto loss in top 8 the fact that he was in a position like that is ridiculous. It shouldn’t be that easy to get the 2nd seed in swiss regardless of age group.
Gengar is also being clumped together for this article. Gengar is difficult to classify as a donk deck because it’s really not based around killing anything turn 1. The crobats and poketurns make it a very good possibility but it’s nowhere near the guarantee of machamp. Don’t think for a second though that Gengar isn’t a luck based deck just because it doesn’t donk like machamp. Gengars entire strategy for beating decks like Tyranitar and Dialga revolves around flipping heads on its Power. It’s easy to make a case for Gengar being the worse offender because not only does it have luck in a drawing sense but it also has it in a flipping sense.
Rampardos is basically the same thing as Machamp. Get it out turn 1 and donk. It just involves even less strategy because theres not Machamp Lv.X.
Kingdra is probably next to Dialga as the most difficult donk deck to play. Its true that thick lines of Claydol and Kingdra coupled with pluspowers make it easy to donk basics but mid-late game it does take some skill to know where to place damage and when to hit for the big damage. Regardless it’s still a donk-based deck.
Regigigas doesn’t turn-1 KO. But if you manage to sacrifice turn 2 and get the 4 energies on him you now have a basically unbeatable monster discarding your hand and deck all the while dealing big damage and its nearly impossible to kill. Well impossible that is unless there’s Machamp and Rampardos running around. He’s more of a board domination donk similar to Dialga than a literal donk.
Lets pretend for a moment all these decks didn’t exist. The format would still be wide open because of decks like Plox, Beedrill, Tyranitar, Empoleon, etc. Spread decks would actually be playable because they would now have time to set up. It’s hard to win a game when you’re spreading 20 to all turn 3 and they have already taken 2 prizes and can 1 or 2 hit KO you. So many high-energy cards are deemed useless now because there isn’t time anymore to power pokemon up and because it’s so difficult to get set up when you cant use powers or are deafen-locked.
So honestly I’m not sure what point is being implied with this thread. Maybe im just venting because of a case of sour grapes. I just want to know if I’m alone in hating this format even more than the uncreative one last year. I apologize for any spelling or grammatical errors; I was in a rush because I wanted to finish it before heading to work. Comments?
In the game of pokemon most people consider luck to be coin flips. In recent years Pokemon Reversal and Energy Removal 2 kept that a factor in most games but luckily skill based decks like Medicham EX and Speed Spread let the best player win in most situations. This year luck has dominated Regionals and appears poised to dominate Nationals too. This time instead of lucky coin flips its all about the luck of the draw allowing turn 1 wins or complete domination of the board early in the game, many call these 2 scenarios a donk. Nearly all decent deck choices in this format are either solely based on donking or have a decent chance of getting it. Later in this article I will discuss why these donks are not good for the competitive nature of the game and allows inexperienced players to beat seasoned veterans who have put their soul into deck perfection and playtesting.
Lets look at the current top decks. I don’t know the exact numbers but these 6 decks are generally considered to be decks you might run into at a tournament and are widely used as playtesting staples. In no particular order the decks are SP, Machamp, Gengar, Rampardos, Kingdra, and Regigigas.
I know I’m being vague in clumping SP decks together but hey laziness is a virtue. Dialga G is not your standard donk deck. It lacks the ability to kill a pokemon turn 1 but it makes up for it by having devastating lockdown turn 1. With just 1 supporter you can get Energy Gain and a basic metal allowing you to achieve a turn 1 deafen. Couple that with Power Sprays and you stop any set up deck in its tracks. For example I ran Plox for Regionals. I played 28 trainers and 9 of those were supporters. That’s 19 useless cards in my deck. That’s not counting the evolutions that cant be used because I cant candy or set down a Broken Time Space. Even if I did have a Roseannes or Bebes in my hand and drop an Uxie there’s decent odds that they will drop a power spray thus leaving me with a bunch of basics while they get out a Dialga G Lv.X with multiple special metal energies. Even if you do manage to set up they can just poke turn the beast right back up. This kind of lockdown is bad for the game when the only counter is a donk deck.
Machamp is the epitome of the donk deck. He basically guarantees a kill turn one if you get him out. Of course you can state that getting a turn 1 second stage out is not easy task but you must realize this isn’t 2008. With the release of Broken Time Space decks don’t rely on getting Rare Candy to be able to donk. Now with the help of Uxies and cards like Pokedex, Pokeball, Pokeradar, Unown R, Great Ball, Pokemon Rescue, and other things you can basically draw half the deck in the first turn. Now you don’t really have to be lucky anymore to get the turn 1 Machamp. The biggest problem with Machamp though is that it’s incredibly easy to play. My cousin is in the senior age division and attended the Midwest Regionals. The only other tournament he played in was states where he went 2-4. For Regionals I made him a Machamp deck with 2 tech Mesprits in it. He had a light playtesting regiment but that was all he needed to be able to play the deck well. He started the tournament 5-0 before losing his last round and getting the 2nd seed for top cut. Although he did lose to his auto loss in top 8 the fact that he was in a position like that is ridiculous. It shouldn’t be that easy to get the 2nd seed in swiss regardless of age group.
Gengar is also being clumped together for this article. Gengar is difficult to classify as a donk deck because it’s really not based around killing anything turn 1. The crobats and poketurns make it a very good possibility but it’s nowhere near the guarantee of machamp. Don’t think for a second though that Gengar isn’t a luck based deck just because it doesn’t donk like machamp. Gengars entire strategy for beating decks like Tyranitar and Dialga revolves around flipping heads on its Power. It’s easy to make a case for Gengar being the worse offender because not only does it have luck in a drawing sense but it also has it in a flipping sense.
Rampardos is basically the same thing as Machamp. Get it out turn 1 and donk. It just involves even less strategy because theres not Machamp Lv.X.
Kingdra is probably next to Dialga as the most difficult donk deck to play. Its true that thick lines of Claydol and Kingdra coupled with pluspowers make it easy to donk basics but mid-late game it does take some skill to know where to place damage and when to hit for the big damage. Regardless it’s still a donk-based deck.
Regigigas doesn’t turn-1 KO. But if you manage to sacrifice turn 2 and get the 4 energies on him you now have a basically unbeatable monster discarding your hand and deck all the while dealing big damage and its nearly impossible to kill. Well impossible that is unless there’s Machamp and Rampardos running around. He’s more of a board domination donk similar to Dialga than a literal donk.
Lets pretend for a moment all these decks didn’t exist. The format would still be wide open because of decks like Plox, Beedrill, Tyranitar, Empoleon, etc. Spread decks would actually be playable because they would now have time to set up. It’s hard to win a game when you’re spreading 20 to all turn 3 and they have already taken 2 prizes and can 1 or 2 hit KO you. So many high-energy cards are deemed useless now because there isn’t time anymore to power pokemon up and because it’s so difficult to get set up when you cant use powers or are deafen-locked.
So honestly I’m not sure what point is being implied with this thread. Maybe im just venting because of a case of sour grapes. I just want to know if I’m alone in hating this format even more than the uncreative one last year. I apologize for any spelling or grammatical errors; I was in a rush because I wanted to finish it before heading to work. Comments?
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