Good decision and a happy retirement.

^ Very good point.

I don't think Luck is the central problem . Rather it is how that luck manifests in a format obsessed with speed. Speed emphasises and exaggerates luck's impact upon game outcome. I'm not a fan of speed, I want games to last long enough for skill to have a chance to shine.

I'd like the gap between the good cards and the rest to be less than the chasm it currently is. I'd like the strengths of the cards to be shared out so that when you choose a different card some features get better but some get worse. I know that we have a little of that now but I'd like to see more of it. I'd like more cards to be viable and not binder fodder: they don't have to be great just playable would be a start.

Just Pokemon seems more complex, tis all.

Ahh I can relate...

I play YUGIOH but collect POKEMON :)
Playing POKEMON seems really complicated...
Sad to see you go though :(

You bring up a lot of good points. I hate it how they 'forced' Vileplume and Junk Arm to work with BW rules but could not make a errata to Umbreon to make it work against Abilities.

A Trainer on a Item are 2 different things, yet Junk Arm can grab trainers. HGSS had their own thing. A Stadium was a stadium, a supporter was a supporter and a trainer was just that, a trainer. Junk arm could grab trainers, not item so why force it to grab items when they, by design are not meant to work.

Umbreon, who at the time stopped damage from pokemon with a Pokemon power, pokepower and pokebody not be allowed to stop abilities. At the time, umbreon stopped ALL available powers at the time.

If you want to get technical, there is a HUGE different between a Pokemon Power a Poke body and a Poke Power. A poke power is an activated ability and a poke body is a ability thats always in play with no player interactions.

A Pokemon Power, just like a Ability is a combination of both activated and static abilities so why make different when there is a CLEAR difference between a Pokemon Power (Ability) and a poke power and poke body.

What if the format changes to COL on, now we are stuck with a Umbreon who can't even fight back. You know Umbreon would be the ultimate Goth counter?

I have to admit, that is pretty rigged. I lost to an Octillery once in Swiss, even though I had Unown E (Mysterious Treasures) teched in the deck. I am also not into Pokemon as much, but it's fun to play once in a while.

thank you i could not have said it better myself that and the game has become to competitive

I trade all the time.

Your elekid example is extreme, though proves your point. When luck defies probability, you can chalk it up to luck. When luck falls within probability, you can't really chalk it up to luck. Hitting tails/heads 15 times in a row is ridiculous and only cost you one game in a season, that seems a bit ridiculous to want to quit because of that.

As for top decking, claiming you "have no control" is ridiculous. If you find yourself with Candies/Collectors and no need for them, your deck is built wrong, its a deck building issue, not luck, 2 Candy/4 Junk Arm go a long way. My prefered builds as of late are 4 Sage/4 Juniper, that pretty much being the extent of my drawing. With deck thinning options like that and that much raw draw, its hard to miss what you need. The only problem that engine has is, when you have both in hand, if you Juniper your Sage's away, you have no draw power late game. If you Sage instead of Juniper, you probably wiff on what you need. But, my point is, relying on that top deck sure becomes less probable when you run Junk Arm/Pokegear and 4 Juniper. Honestly, I have whiffed on the Juniper's late game, but I also have hit way more than I've missed. The greatest feeling in the world is having one prize left and a Juniper in hand with 5 cards left in the deck, knowing I have one more DCE/Catcher/whatever in my deck and there is nothing my opponent can do about it.

Oh, and don't forget, that luck goes both ways. Both players have to rely drawing those cards and winning those flips. But, it never fails, the same guys keep winning. Are you trying to convince the Pokemon community that, every year at Nationals, Pooka's "luck" sky rockets? I find that hard to believe.

The game boils down to a few simple concepts:

Knowing your matchups
Deck building
Your ability to access the meta

If you continually fail where others find success, you are not doing those three things as well as the other person.

I heard a man say once, "It's easy to find reasons not to excel."

If you are looking for a game like chess, its already well known, this isn't it. It never was and never will be.

Honestly, I feel like you are kicking a dead horse and whining about your individual plight as opposed to real problems of the game. Yes, there is a limited card pool, but the reason for that is due to the deep rotation, which you complained about last blog. A rotation that an overwhelming majority of people supported as they felt it was best for the game. You complaining about it because it hurt you personally is just selfish...and understandable. But, then you come back and have the same complaint in this blog (the limited card pool is because of the rotation). Common sense says that gets fixed with time. I doubt there will be a rotation next year and we will have a very diverse format. yes, the number of decks are limited, but that has always been the case in Pokemon, its not like its a new problem that gives you a ligitimate reason to whine. But, there are more viable decks now than ever.

That's generally why I play Magby (CoL) as a Baby counter over Tyrogue, because then they have to flip for sleep and burn. If you have crazy draw power, a few search cards, it should not be an issue.
They should reprint something like Scott, that would add skill to the game.

Joe, one of the reasons why Pokemon does not have a diverse card pool is because the sets are way too small. I would love to see a set with over 200 cards!