Pokémon TCG: Sword and Shield—Brilliant Stars

Is the TCG going downhill?

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The Phenom1993 said:
In terms of Players and the Money Nintendo is making, no it's not going downhill.
But in terms of fun, yes it is.

Really, Pokemon is now becoming more Casual, everybody's game. You don't need a strategy to win, just Luck.
I find it kinda boring to play these days.
Older cards are much less powerful, and you can't donk. that why they require strategy to play.
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ow

Winning is fun. No its not going downhill, we just recovered from a horrible format in G&G dominance. Donks have always been in mostly any tcG game like pokemon or yugioh, it happens.and the reason they make more powerful cards now so it will be a wide variety of cards to play instead of just one broken card that everyone plays with the same deck and we have another slowking or GG format.

Why do people complain so much about it, You can win either way even if someone gets a GOD hand, Im so tired of this complaining about something in the game, because if they reduce donks, then someone will complain about how slow the game is, if they fix this, then someone will complain about that. I mean really, the kids in the lower age groups don't complain and gripe, they go to tournaments and compete.

If you can't even handle the little flaws of the game, then just stop playing.
 
Seriously everyone needs to grow up. Last year you guys were comlpaining about how much GG takes up time and how they need to add more time to the clock. The year before I am guessing you guys were getting mad about Riolu vs Castform Donks. Next year you will be complaining about how there will be 13 legal sets and how there will be no format. The following year because there is no broken cards like Uxie and Claydol. And so on and so on

There is always something the bad players want to gripe about to come up with an excuse for why they are losing. I have not been donked in a while, and I mean a long while. I have not been donked since NY states, donks aren't the problem. I find this game still very fun, so I don't know why you guys are complaining.
 
I'm still standing by what I've said all season: if you're getting donked consistently, you're doing something wrong.
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So far, this is the most true statement I have seen in this entire thread. I've looked back at a literal crap ton of games that I've played this season, and I think I've only truly been donked once. (Kingdra donk, his god hand versus my call-less, supporter-less hand, and this was at a FALL BR.)

Now, I can understand where a ton of you are coming from, having probably been donked quite a number of times over the season, and I feel your pain. The luck of this game is brutal sometimes (This coming from a guy who goes 0-4 on SSU flips on a regular basis), and donks DO happen to all of us. But truly, are the ones making the donks (as auto-pilot decks only) the ones winning? You see some people going around claiming they're going to win by donking every opponent they come by (I think there was a video on someone doing that and his group had under .500 records) and it just doesn't happen. I will admit I have played some decks and have donked some opponents using said decks (I did it with Champ at a cities, I did it with Gengar at regionals), however I knew these donks would cease to exist towards the higher tables where people played much more consistent decks that could set up before donks existed, so I knew I had to have a late game, and lo and behold, I did. I went 7-2 at the cities, losing in Top 2 to Chris Fulop in very close games (And only one of those games in Top cut did I donk anybody out of like.. 6-7 games), and 7-2 at Regionals with losses to SP decks that also were very close fights. Honestly, if you are losing consistently to donks and you aren't DOING anything about it (Increasing the probability of getting pokemon, improving the consistency and speed of your decks, etc), you will continue to get donked. I haven't seen this problem and not to be arrogant, I don't think I will see the problem carrying into next season (seeing as how Kingdra is rare now, Mother Gengar got shut up at nationals, and Machamp just plain out sucks) anyways.

Onto the SP situation. I think the SP decks are a load of fun, personally. Its a more amusing sort of mirror match which requires a ton of skill to play and remains fun to play while at it, and I would not be complaining if they were to continue, nor would I complain if they were to abruptly end it either (Personally, I'm drooling over Advent Charizard here...), but I'm not seeing the problems with it. Its not forcing a dozen people to play the deck, it will have a psuedo-answer to it in Supreme Victors (Relicanth), and other decks are still going to remain viable despite the SP power creep. Also, I doubt SP's will exist in HG/SS, at least not immediatly. They'll probably do what they did in the DP arc and start fresh. I'd expect to see a Meganium, Typhlosion and Feraligatr LX before anything, and they certainly will not be SP. Then move on to legends in later sets.

So now I'll answer the OP's question. Is the TCG going downhill? Hex no. With numbers that massive and a load of people at nationals having fun, I'm not seeing the "downhill" of this game. Some people might have a few bad experiences with whats gone on this format, and a lot of complaining has ensued, but is anyone really going to leave from it? TCG's are like this no matter where you look. This game is by far one of the most fun and most respectable CG's I've ever had the opportunity to play and some minor thing (that seldom if ever happens to me) will not prevent me from continuing. I'm sorry if it happens to you, but all you can do is suck it up and move on.
 
G-Dog4377 said:
Yes, thank you. I am glad to see someone who sees how lousy SP Pokemon were.
The way I see it, the format for DP-on was the best format I have ever seen in this game. That was at its inception with the release of Legends Awakened. I had my Magnezone deck which I had literally started drawing up right after Regionals last year had ended. Playing that deck is the most fun I have ever had in this game, and seeing the other ideas being put together and tried out. It wasn't like you were wasting your time to put something together to see how good it was. That is what I liked the most. The wealth of ideas that you could try. At Cities I would get excited just to see what people were doing. I would see an idea I liked that maybe I had wanted to try but just hadn't because it was farther down my list of things to try. I would think "cool, I want to watch that person play and see what that deck looks like in action." Win or lose, I didn't really care all that much simply because it was so invigorating to see so many cool ideas around, and a lot of them, and I mean a lot of them were working just as well as any of the others. I was excited for a truly open metagame, where you could take any card out of the available pool of cards that you liked, and if you worked hard enough at your list and practiced to get good at playing it, you could make absolutely any card you wanted into the center of a tournament-winning deck.

As soon as I saw Platinum with all of the SP Pokemon and all of the stupidly cheap Trainers they would get, I knew it was all going to end. I knew unless the set also contained something else ridiculously over-powered to counter them or at least something new and powerful that I could work into my Magnezone deck, it was all but history. With my hopes high, I tried Manectric. While it does have some pretty nice perks, it simply doesn't have the offensive power I need. My list of ideas to try out was all but completely obliterated, as those who know me know I am a thinking player, and I prefer to play setup decks with deep strategies over rushing decks with simple objectives. Inevitably, the SP Pokemon took over the format, and while those that favor the rushing decks got a lot of nice things to work with in addition to what they already had, those like me who prefer setup decks were left with very little to work with. Since the release of Platinum my interest in Pokemon has decreased dramatically as there just isn't anything I feel like playing. I certainly doubt I will ever want to play an SP deck. They just aren't right for me. Sure there are some ideas out there worth trying, but it's nothing compared to that huge wealth of ideas that were once worth trying out and exploring. It isn't a format anymore where if you work on an idea enough you can make it something worthy of winning tournaments. So yes, I think Pokemon tcg has been going downhill since the release of Platinum.

However, I read that there are only three SP Pokemon in that Advent of Arceus set, so it looks like these dark times (for me at least) are going to pass eventually. This idea of retaining the format for a year is indeed fascinating and I am glad I will at least be able to continue my work with Magnezone DP. And recently, I gained a new reason to put Project Paralyze back in the think tank and try to redevelop it.:wink: But for now, I'm out of the game, at least until the start of next season. Maybe now's about the time to start drawing up a totally new idea up for next season.:wink:
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QFT, read this!

Its the same for me but I still play on, I played Legos for Nats which was definitly the play in dp-pt and I still test SP decks, its just that its absolutly no fun.
I dont enjoy playing a game where on player never gets setup and you just beat up basics before they can do anything.
I really just play for prices and for the community right now, the game itself is just no fun :/
I'm not even a winer who says "i wont play this because its cheap", I played legos for nats and I'm testing it for worlds, but I really dont enjoy it.
I'm preparing for worlds but I get no testing done because its a pain to test in this format, everything is so random, everything depends on opening hands on topdecks etc.
Usually I enjoy testing different decks, right now I can hardly get myself together and start testing, I mostly end up doing nothing instead. Testing feels more like a homework you push back more and more and not like something thats supposed to be fun :/

e:/

http://pokegym.net/forums/showpost.php?p=1428724&postcount=26
QFT²
 
ArmoredMewtwo said:
But in the case of decks such as Machamp, it's true. Some decks are auto-pilot decks, no question about it.

And we do have quite a few auto-pilot decks in the format, at the moment.
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There have ALWAYS been autopilot decks, always. Just because they are like that doesn't mean it is bad for the game.
 
nardd said:
But the HP has also risen significantly, which balances out the damage increase. The game has changed, and I think for the better. Referencing old cards from 4+ years ago doesn't really matter in terms of the current gamestate
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This!

I mean, I just started playing again with the release of RR after dropping the game during Neo Genesis, and at first, I was really shocked by the SP Pokemon and the huge attack output. But nardd is completely right. In PL, for instance, Ralts's line HP-wise is 60/80/120. Heck, if that was in base/jungle/fossil (like the Fearow comparison) it would be more like 30/50/80. Back then, Charizard had the highest base HP forever, and look at HP now, in RR you've got at least 6 Pokemon with 120HP or more and that's not counting LvXs or SPs that are in the 100-110 range.
 
haha wow theres alot of long msgs in this i think its the players that lose in the far tourneys from home get mad write a letter up send it to them and then the ppl who win are like that was worth my money it was fun
its just ppl who dont have pride LOL
 
Yes. HP has gone up a lot. Stage 2 Pokemon now almost always have 100 HP or more. But the Basics in my deck still have only 40 or 50 HP. It's very easy for a Stage 2 with ultra low attack cost to OHKO a Basic Pokemon. That is a problem for me - Stage 2s are so much better than Stage 1s and Basics. Just look at Tyranitar!
 
Qwachansey said:
Yes. HP has gone up a lot. Stage 2 Pokemon now almost always have 100 HP or more. But the Basics in my deck still have only 40 or 50 HP. It's very easy for a Stage 2 with ultra low attack cost to OHKO a Basic Pokemon. That is a problem for me - Stage 2s are so much better than Stage 1s and Basics. Just look at Tyranitar!
Click to expand...

You know, that reminded me of the old donks that I used to experience. You know, back in base when you'd have out a 40HP Pikachu and they'd have Hitmonchan or Machop...BAM!

I think that's one thing that's helping the situation you mentioned, though, is getting rid of automatic double weakness. In regards to the SP Pokemon, they're still at double...while that doesn't fix EVERYTHING, I think it's really overlooked when talking about the balance issues.

But then again, when comparing the newer cards to older cards, it is SO much easier to get to the Stage 2 on your first or second turn. Rare Candies are so much better than Breeders, and BTS doesn't hurt either.

Overall, I have to agree with the people saying that there ARE plenty of counters out there.
 
Yoshi- said:
QFT, read this!

Its the same for me but I still play on, I played Legos for Nats which was definitly the play in dp-pt and I still test SP decks, its just that its absolutly no fun.
I dont enjoy playing a game where on player never gets setup and you just beat up basics before they can do anything.
I really just play for prices and for the community right now, the game itself is just no fun :/
I'm not even a winer who says "i wont play this because its cheap", I played legos for nats and I'm testing it for worlds, but I really dont enjoy it.
I'm preparing for worlds but I get no testing done because its a pain to test in this format, everything is so random, everything depends on opening hands on topdecks etc.
Usually I enjoy testing different decks, right now I can hardly get myself together and start testing, I mostly end up doing nothing instead. Testing feels more like a homework you push back more and more and not like something thats supposed to be fun :/

e:/

http://pokegym.net/forums/showpost.php?p=1428724&postcount=26
QFT²
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Perhaps you need to reexamine why you are playing the game. It sounds like once upon a time, you could have fun playing a deck and also feel you had a chance of winning. Now it sounds as if you feel the only chance you have of winning is to play a deck you don't enjoy. Maybe you should try playing a deck you enjoy, and want to test. It may not be the best deck, you may not think it will win, but at least you will enjoy it. And if you do win with it, imagine the how good that will feel. Just some thoughts - please don't take offense as I am not trying to dismiss your current feelings.
 
drtomoe123 said:
You know, that reminded me of the old donks that I used to experience. You know, back in base when you'd have out a 40HP Pikachu and they'd have Hitmonchan or Machop...BAM!

I think that's one thing that's helping the situation you mentioned, though, is getting rid of automatic double weakness. In regards to the SP Pokemon, they're still at double...while that doesn't fix EVERYTHING, I think it's really overlooked when talking about the balance issues.

But then again, when comparing the newer cards to older cards, it is SO much easier to get to the Stage 2 on your first or second turn. Rare Candies are so much better than Breeders, and BTS doesn't hurt either.

Overall, I have to agree with the people saying that there ARE plenty of counters out there.
Click to expand...

The Weakness Adjustment does help.
 
Qwachansey said:
Yes. HP has gone up a lot. Stage 2 Pokemon now almost always have 100 HP or more. But the Basics in my deck still have only 40 or 50 HP. It's very easy for a Stage 2 with ultra low attack cost to OHKO a Basic Pokemon. That is a problem for me - Stage 2s are so much better than Stage 1s and Basics. Just look at Tyranitar!
Click to expand...

And shouldn't a ST2 be much better than a S1 or Basic? :/
 
hueglin said:
Perhaps you need to reexamine why you are playing the game. It sounds like once upon a time, you could have fun playing a deck and also feel you had a chance of winning. Now it sounds as if you feel the only chance you have of winning is to play a deck you don't enjoy. Maybe you should try playing a deck you enjoy, and want to test. It may not be the best deck, you may not think it will win, but at least you will enjoy it. And if you do win with it, imagine the how good that will feel. Just some thoughts - please don't take offense as I am not trying to dismiss your current feelings.
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Beliebe my I tried and I'm still trying (still have iPlox build and testing it, at least it kicks Gengars back :lol: )
But if you build a deck you truly like and see it beaten by the ridiculus cheapness of todays format it just makes you even sadder :/
 
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