The guy I played isn't a bad player - did you make it to worlds the last 2 years?
Indeed...
The reality is a lot of Gengars don't run Nidoqueen these days. Maybe they're all bad, I don't know, but doesn't change the fact that's what's happening. Did Gengar totally sweep BR's? Not at all!
I don't know what Neo-gengar is... What I'm saying doesn't take Gengar Lv X into account. That card isn't out yet - I don't see a reason to test its potential/annoyance/brokenness.
Its just my opinion but I dont think that Gengar/Gross is even worth discussing, without Nidoqueen Gengar cant stand up to Uxie and once your opponent gets any kind of setup you loose.
Nidoqueen really is perfect for Gengar.
On the FS issue, the reason why it never made a big impact during worlds/br is, at least thats what I think, that Gengar is onesided. You can outplay him and render him useless, Flygon can deck him and other decks can find other ways to beat it without getting too much pressure.
Gengars power always was completly beyond anything but thanks to the metagame and Gengars onesidedness it never mattered that much.
But with AoA I expect this to change since Gengar now can attack in a pretty brutal manner and has even more tricks. I also expect the metagame to shift more towards decks with bigger hitters and higher attack costs etc. And now tell me, if you use something like Salamence, Magnezone, Sceptile, Gardevoir, Tangrowth, etc, how will you play around FS?
I'm doing "calculations" all the time to find some way to outplay Gengar with some Shuppet/Uxie & Belt & whatever tricks, but these are all so shaky and whatnot >_>
I tested a new Gengar against Sceptile and Salamence yesterday.
Now both Salamence and Sceptile have affordable attack costs and since they dont have another way to do it they have to risk the flip at some point. And guess what these games often came down too? At some point you just have to slam that Sceptile into Gengar and hope for the best, but do you really want to play like this? And what can decks like Magnezone or Gardevoir do?
Last year states I played against Gengar in T8 of the biggest city I attended, I got ab ad setup but still somehow managed to play it down to 1:1 prices. I slammed my Mewtwo into her Gengar, guess what... Then we played Sudden Death, she went first, Pitch Dark, Poltergeist, ~9000 dmg... So I was behind and had to hurry, do you know how it feels to hurry against Gengar? Basically I had no choice, I kinda rushed her and got a big Magnezone setup, just slammed it into her only Gengar in hope for the best...
This year BR, I got a bad setup against Gengar, I managed to pull it out, I poltergeisted his Gengar with my Ditto for about 150 dmg, guess what the game came down to in the end
?
And the worst story, last year at our nationals. A friend of mine (seniors) played Legos and had to play against Gengar in T8. (T3 gets free flights, since they're REALLY expensive from europe this is the big goal...) He got a bad start and had no real way to outplay FS. Still he played it good and the other kid was a newbie (
he was playing Gengar and didnt know what Unown G did)
So he managed to pull it off and outplayed the other kid.
He lost because his opponent went 3/3 on FS....
After the game he just scooped his cards, smashed his bag into the corner where we were sittign and ran out of the room, he looked liek he was borderline between crying and just loosing it completly) . I was about to follow him but I really couldnt come up with anything to chear him up... I guess I would have considered quiting after loosing like this, can it get any more frustating?
I could go on like this forever.
And you wonder why I despise this card?
~~~
@Baby Mario
You're actually right, about a year or 2 ago I felt the same way, I loved testing on shark against a friend of mine, long epic games with sick decks (often way over the top but it was fun
), lots of techs resulting in lots of unexpected turnarounds etc. Games often lasted for over an hour when we took the time to play it flawless and to the end.
Nowadays games just come down to a flip to often, or one player cant get a setup since the other guy is ripping his setup apart every time he tries to come back etc.
Before our nats I tested every deck I could come up with against Legos, originally I tried to find a counter to it. But there are just so many games that you can play that go "Mesprit, Lock, Cyclone, beating up random basic, rince and repeat" before it gets old. The result was that in the end we really had to force us to really test anything. Its just a bother when most of the games give you no result, dont go anywhere since one side is just dominating etc.
Right now you just get the feeling It just depends on pairings and opening hands etc.
If I were to start pokemon right now I definitly wouldnt, but I've already got my friends there and I know what this game can be, so I'm trying to last through the platinum aera.
I know I am complaining alot but I'm just pointing out what I'm experiencing.
Right now I fjust always sit down with the uncomfording feeling that the result of the game just isnt in my hands. If its either getting donked, loosing on a flip (fainting Spell, Hurricane Punch, Key SSU) or just getting T2 Luxray with Mesprit and Power Spray (read: a kind of hand I cant fight back against or just if I get a good opening hand. (Power lock just lets you get stuck with your hand and that what it often dcomes down too.)
At times it just feels liek It doesnt really matter what I do anyway. And that is beyond frustrating. Last BR I played against Luxray/Palkia, I just sat down their and prayed to get a good opening hand, because I felt liek this was as much as I could do. (I got a somewhat good one and lost because I'm an idiot, I have no problem with admitting this and I can take a loss if it was clearly because of me... )
I dont even want to write novels, it just hapens
