I agree that the Supporter remaining in play made it harder to cheat by playing two Supporters a turn but... seriously, it shouldn't make it that much harder. I mean, what about once-per-turn Poke-Powers? By that logic we need a tapping mechanic a la Magic so that people "can't" cheat with them.
People who want to cheat with Supporters already try to cheat with Supporters. I am one of those types who honestly slips and discards his Supporter early. It isn't because I want to cheat, it's because it (was and soon again) will be a Trainer and as an old, old player I am used to most Trainers hitting the board, then leaving the board. I don't suffer so much from Stadiums, but then again maybe I do an just never noticed. XD
Seriously though: cheating player right now plays Supporter, tries to distract you with another effect and subtly discards it (preferably under another card so that it isn't on top). Cheating player now discards it... claims to have to search their discard and tries to shuffle that Supporter farther down, or else has to burn a few cards to bury it for a plausible cheating technique. If they just go to play two in a row, you look at their discard and go "but you have a Supporter right on top!" Can't be anymore awkward than the number of times I've seen a player forget to discard their Supporter.
How about Juniors who can't keep track of if they have played a Supporter or not. I'm not a fan of the changes at all.
The game (if anyone has noticed) since 2007 season has gotten progresively worse every year. The game which had some balance, now has none and it is really bad. I mean granted Transceiver was responsible for most of the balance, but they game wasn't filled with donks or with one deck that was way more powerful than any other. (GG in 2008 & LuxChomp in 2010, SP in 2011)
I'm not saying that the "sky is falling" as someone earlier stated, but more of a warning. No changes can be bad for a game, but the thing is we have some change. They rotate sets to influence change which to me is enough, but if they want to add a new card type (Legends/Stars/Ex/Shinings) (Primes to me aren't really anything at all other then they get a nice shiny border and are easy to get) that's fine, but to change the rules when they aren't needed isn't a good idea.
Here is my thought on some old rule changes.
Confusion - They changed it from 20 damage and you had to discard your energy to TRY to retreat to you can retreat and 3 damage counters. Nothing huge and the discarding your energy and having to flip was annoying when you got tails.
Stadium - Can replace a stadium with the same name. Explaination they gave made sense to me. You don't say, let's leave Stark Mountain to go to Stark Mountain.
Retreat - Retreating only once per turn makes the game faster and use more strategy. I don't have an issue with that change either when they did it.
No Trainers first turn - I'm not sure if being able to not play trainers is a good one or not, but with SP in the format it is something that is good. However saying that at of all the new rule changes this one bothers me the least.
Supporters - I think that new rule is stupid. The rule was to help you remember, removing it only hurts as now it is harder for people to remember if they played a supporter. I know people who are good players but sometimes mess up on the supporter bit. I'd also like to point out that figuring out if someone played one or two during a turn might be hard to figure out for judges.
Card Changes -
I'm not a fan of changing cards that are fine to begin with or things on cards that are fine. Abilites take the place (IMO) of Poke-Powers/Poke-Bodies is silly. I mean Powers/Bodies are fine, no reason to change it.
Rare Candy - Why? I really don't have to say more. :nonono:
Potion, Great Ball, PlusPower - Same as above, more so to PlusPower/Great Ball than Potion.
The way we do KOs and take prizes to me isn't a be deal, it is a procedural thing. I know I never focused on what my opponent brought up. Save for when I use Azelf (or have seen my prizes some other way), I always take them in the same order. So this change isn't too big.
I not sold that changing this to go back to what they are is a good thing, but I guess will we see. However, I'm not a fan of most of them.
Drew