2013 Season Modified Format Announced: BW-on

[eriknance]

Changes to the Play! Pokémon Modified format for the 2013 tournament season have been announced.

Effective: 9/1/2012

In the interest of maintaining a healthy tournament environment, Pokémon Organized Play removes older sets from the Modified format at the beginning of each new tournament season. Each rotation challenges existing players to create new strategies while enabling new players to get into Organized Play with a minimal investment.

The 2013 season will be starting on July 9th so that players can get an early start on working towards the 2013 Pokémon World Championships, but in order to avoid confusion we will rotate sets on the more familiar date of September 1st.

The 2012 Pokémon World Championships being held on August 10th–12th in Waikoloa, Hawaii, will use the 2012 format and rules as are currently listed.

The Modified format for the 2013 season will consist of the following expansions:

Black & White
Black & White—Emerging Powers
Black & White—Noble Victories
Black & White—Next Destinies
Black & White—Dark Explorers
Black & White Trainer KitBW Trainer Kit
McDonald’s Collection
Black Star Promo Cards BW01 and higher.

In addition, future Pokémon TCG sets will become legal as they are released, per the Pokémon Organized Play Tournament Rules.

Announcement here:

http://www.pokemon.com/us/pokemon-ne...on-2012-06-15/

Great decision!

[pokemonrocks777]

great now the special Dark and Special Metals are both gone

and a lot of other stuff

[Yoshi-]

Thank god that abomination junk arm is gone.. If worlds is somewhere affordable I might actually start to play a bit more seriously :D

[CFOURCOLTSFAN]

yeah and apparently the 2013 season starts june 9th, so now we know why there are cp for worlds, any events for non- worlds atteendees?

[SMP88]

While this was pretty much assumed to be occurring, I think another big thing is that the new season starts in July. That means that any cp earned at worlds will count for qualifying at next year's worlds.

[Vulpix Yolk]

Ah. Looks like I shouldn't have invested in Dual Ball. Would have much rather seen CoL-On, much more balanced IMO, but this should work fine.

[baby mario]

The right decision was made.

Good job TPCI.

[treyh37]

good this is what i expected no real crazyness to it, course this leaves us with a lot slower deck with 6 supporters and mostly various pokeballs to get things out of our decks.

also only dce, prism the upcoming blend and regular energies

[z-man]

I'm predicting many epic high fives at league this weekend. This is easily the best rotation IMO... can't wait to get owned by Darkrai... WAIT! That's already happening :(

[Durant Eats Children]

Originally Posted by CFOURCOLTSFAN

yeah and apparently the 2013 season starts june 9th, so now we know why there are cp for worlds, any events for non- worlds atteendees?

New season starts July 9th. Just wanted to clarify to prevent further confusion.

[QD4U]

Is anyone surprised?

[baby mario]

Originally Posted by QD4U

Is anyone surprised?

I think 'relieved' is more the word.

[Glaceon]

I wonder if there are going to be side events at Worlds for CP...

[solo59486]

No more Junk Arms!!!!!!!!!!! :) No more Smeargle. :(

[honchvire]

I'll miss you Vileplume and Shaymin.

But I am still happy, and excited that Junk Arm is gone.
Long Live Sableye and Excadrill!

[Pikajew1213]

cool time to make my RAYQUAZA BOAR list possible i am so ready for a no synergy format

[Mystery Thing]

Ding dong the Junk Arm's dead

[Vablakes]

The biggest loss: Leafeon UD. My favorite Pokemon is no longer even Semi-Viable.. :( RIP Leafeon!

And search in BW-on is going to take a lot of balls. (lol). Level, Heavy (maybe), Ultra and maybe even Great Balls will be used.

[peadawg14]

No more Tornadus EX knocking out Terrakion w/ PP, PP, Junk Arm, PP. Yay!!!

[JPN Gallade]

All I can say is, "Thumbs Up *does that very action as well*!" That's the format I wanted to see for next year. BW-on, so far, is looking to be one very good format. Just look at the Japanese metagame for proof; there is a lot of nice diversity in this format. Also, no more Junk Arm! Finally, the day has come for Junk Arm to leave. Now I just hope they don't reprint it anytime soon.

The two problems with BW-on though:

1) Lack of Supporters - I'm sure we all knew about this for a while, and now, it looks we are going to get ready to face this ordeal. The only real good supporters we'll have so far are Juniper, N, and Bianca (and to a small extent, Cheren). Thus, you can imagine the counts for each of those cards in decks. Juniper will be the only real effective way to draw now, and you have to be careful with what your discard from your hand as well. There is also no real way to refresh the hand other than N. Hopefully, we'll get more better draw supporters as the year progresses, and maybe some search supporters too (a reprint of Roseanne's Research, Bebe's Search, and Steven's Advice would be pretty cool).

2) 2012 Worlds CP applying for the 2012-2013 year - This problem kind of bugs me. The winner of worlds gets a huge head start already at 25 Championship Points, and the points can be pretty big as it can be seen in this link here (scroll all the way down to see the Worlds' Championship Points). I kind of don't like how only a few players can get a huge point lead already, nor do I like the fact that there will be quite the minority (because it is an exclusive tournament) that will have such an opportunity (unlike BRs, for say, where the fact that these tournaments are for everyone in that many can walk out with championship points). I'm guessing for some people, it is not such a problem, but that's just me. I just think it isn't really that fair to start off the championship points with worlds because there only be a few that can actually have this opportunity.

Also, a few ideas for the 2012-2013 year that should be considered (all ready looking good b/c of BW-on, so let's continue to make things good):
-Lower the CP amount for Cities and States
-Improve the kicker in tournaments (a.k.a, do not make the kicker at 64 to allow only the top 8 to receive CP in Battle Roads. That way, we won't have to deal with disappointing bubbles)
-If the previous option won't be, than just expand the top cut limit in tournaments (a top 8 in Battle Roads and a top 32 in States as good examples).

In these ways, the BW-on format will be an awesome year for Pokemon.

[solo59486]

They kinda did reprint junk arm in the form of an attack on sableye DEX.

[baby mario]

Originally Posted by JPN Gallade

2) 2012 Worlds CP applying for the 2012-2013 year - This problem kind of bugs me. The winner of worlds gets a huge head start already at 25 Championship Points, and the points can be pretty big as it can be seen in this link here (scroll all the way down to see the Worlds' Championship Points). I kind of don't like how only a few players can get a huge point lead already, nor do I like the fact that there will be quite the minority (because it is an exclusive tournament) that will have such an opportunity (unlike BRs, for say, where the fact that these tournaments are for everyone in that many can walk out with championship points). I'm guessing for some people, it is not such a problem, but that's just me. I just think it isn't really that fair to start off the championship points with worlds because there only be a few that can actually have this opportunity.

The top 4 at Worlds always had an invite to the next one anyway. The points after the top 4 aren't really a 'huge' point lead. Making top 16 at Worlds is like 3 BR wins.

[vaporeon]

The right move was made. Great job TCP.

[vaporeon]

Originally Posted by solo59486

They kinda did reprint junk arm in the form of an attack on sableye DEX.

That adds a degree of skill to the game. You risk giving up a prize and being N. Without PONT in the format, 4 N in a deck becomes a staple. Hand Disruption becomes huge.

[Raen]

This is really awesome! I was desperately hoping for BLW-on, because it is by far the best rotation we could have gotten. Yes, we will have to get used to not having the same kind of draw as we have had this past year, but who cares? What that does is slow the game down. CoL-on would have been a disaster, with the likes of Pachi and Smeargle potentially causing MAJOR issues going forward, particularly in the case of Smeargle (on of my least favorite cards, as it causes any format it's heavily used in to be far, far too fast paced, particularly with Darkrai and Skyarrow Bridge around).

Basically, I'm really excited to have what seems like a great rotation and a great upcoming BR and fall Regionals format.