[R]Visitor;861845 said:
Because Pokemon Organized Greed, or whatever they prefer to call themselves, are in charge here in America, and in America, big buisness = screwing over your consumers.
We're taking the bullet here so they can make a quicker buck, it's simple. I was curious why the soon-to-be legal sets were becoming more expensive, while older sets, like Delta Species, stayed the same price. POP is basically going to force you to buy new cards and at a higher price. This is why the announcement was so sudden, to make sure that the average consumer panics and buys up lots of packs at jacked up prices before thinking things through.
The rules of this game should be the same everywhere, but they're not. You think it's bad here? Try Europe. I hear things are quite a cesspool over there when it comes to how well the players are treated. This is a huge step backward from where we were, and POG/POP is turning this game into another magic.
Make up all the excuses you want, Holon Engine this and that, it's all pish posh. Most of the new DP enabled decks MURDER the holon engine. Electanite was going to completely nullify decks like Raieggs.
This is just greed at it's most predictable and understandable level. That's ALL this is folks, is greed. I'll be seeing the rest of you on ebay, selling those cards we all bought like, 3 months ago, which are suddenly illegal already.
Personally, i'd laugh in the face of the guys at PUI/POP/etc. I could run their shady buisness better than they could, in a flash, doesn't take much more than a degree in marketing. :nonono: Shameful buisness is shameful buisness.
This announcement, from what I understand, isn't too far off from when they made the set rotation announcement last year. Just from personal observation, I honestly don't think that POP is acting out from greed. Let's consider the new player to the game for just a second. This player decided just today that he wants to play the Pokemon TCG. His name is Derrick Pants, heh.
Derrick Pants goes to a Battle Roads with his awesome Wildfire Moltres deck. When he gets there, he realizes that his cards are illegal for the tournament, so he hangs around to see what people are playing and takes notes on what he needs to get. After watching some of the games from the topcut, he realizes that the Holon Engine is a must. He also sees a few interesting decks including Mew ex, Banette ex, DS Metagross, and some Diamond & Pearl cards. He talks to a friend who makes the comment that "Flariados would probably beat them all." He checks out some unbelievably good shining Pokemon that he happens to like (Latios*, Latias*, Rayquaza*, and Mew*). He leaves the tournament, hopeful that he can get those cards to play in next week's tournament.
Derrick Pants comes back next week with a very sub-par DS Eeveelutions deck, not the Bandoom, Destiny, Mewtric, Flariados, MetaNite, or Metalix deck he wanted to build. In fact, it will take Derrick a long time to ever acquire those Holon Transceivers, Mew ex's, Banette ex's, etc. that he needs for a tournament-winning deck. Thinking that he would get something good from packs he bought at a nearby store, he only got some random Eeveelutions and a single Armaldo ex. He was happy to pull one Holon Transceiver, but he quickly realized that it wouldn't be enough. After looking on card-selling websites online, he doesn't really feel like buying a Mew ex for $45, and he can't even find Holon Transceivers to buy until he goes to Ebay, where they sell for about $11 each. He mutters under his breath, "For an uncmmon???"
This, however, isn't the worst of it. The worst part occurs at the tournament that Derrick's been so excited about. He truly feels that he's made the best deck he can with his limited resources, so when he sits down to play his first opponent, he doesn't even know what happened until his opponent is circling "win" on the match-slip. Derrick's opponent went first, and he had a Holon Castform active and benched a Pikachu. Derrick got a good start with the "Energy Evolution" Eevee and proceeded to evolve to Flareon and pull his one Holon Energy FF out of his deck. His opponent played a Holon Transceiver, got a Holon Mentor, benched three delta basics, and drew four cards. Derrick knocked out the Castform, and then got knocked out with a Raichu with a Scramble Energy (both being cards his opponent drew from Delta Draw).
The rest of the tournament isn't much fun for Derrick. He can't believe that MetaNite sets up so fast, that Raieggs sets up so fast, that Flygon sets up so fast, etc. etc. etc. He thought he had a decent list, but soon realizes that without the Holon Engine, he's lost the game before he even sits down.
Things get worse when he tries to trade for the Holon Engine. Nobody seems to have any Transceivers for trade, and it's only when he pulls out his Armaldo ex that people are willing to give them up. Derrick doesn't want to give up his only ex at this point! What's worse, he can't get hold of any of the ex's he saw the week before. Choosing to build MetaNite as a last resort, he finds out that a "good list" uses "techs" that he can't find anywhere (Lugia ex, Latios*, Groudon ex, Mew*, Mew ex, etc.* ex).
The story for Derrick Pants is kind of hopeless at this point. Not only is he unable to get certain cards for a deck he'd like to build, he's put at an extreme disadvantage because he can't get the components he needs for the Holon Engine, one of the most used and abused set of cards this game has ever had.
Thing is, to those people who have been saying, "I just finally finally FINALLY got my 4 Transceivers," I do feel sorry for you. But consider the other people who are in your shoes at this point right now. They have a journey ahead of them in getting playable cards, and until they do they probably will not win a tournament. Though things seem frustrating to you, consider those people who are like you were months ago. This decision will make things so much easier on them.
Thank God for this decision. Seriously. I completely agree with Mike. Transceiver and the Holon Engine had such a large stranglehold on this game. I love how all the current archetypes are either gone or severely crippled. This decision will force those who cannot think creatively and not simply metagame/rip decks from the Internet (at least for a time).
This game was for awhile more about luck and matchups and less and less and less and less about skill. That type of game is not fun. For everyone freaking out, there's going to be new cards, have you looked at the DP2 Spoilers? There's some pretty good cards in that set.
I wanted to personally thank POP/PUI for this marvelous decision and making the game fun again. The game isn't so bad when you have to deal with broken Pokemon, those you can counter. But when you have a broken Trainer Engine and have to play your Trainers a certain way, every time AND cut out non-Delta Pokemon, that's when you have a problem.
Looks like I'll be starting this game back up in the Fall after all,
~Jim
YES YES YES!!! Oh man, this is the best. Jim, I actually told my brother last night that next year's format looks like it will be a bit more "Jim-ified." Little did I know...
Let me be the first to welcome you back. :smile: x 50 bajillion.
