Otaku
Active Member
Would that really have been any better?
Of course, as I don't understand the Pokémon Catcher "hate" I may be missing something. Under the current rules, Pokémon Catcher is not a problem; its rarity was, but not the card itself. All it does is allow you to burn an Item to force Active one of your opponent's Benched Pokémon.
The actual problem is what may still be a problem: big Basic Pokémon that are both fast and strong. Again, it isn't just big, Basic Pokémon that are an issue but a specific trend in the game design. We've had so much acceleration that it is easy for too many Pokémon to bring their "A game" first or second turn. Manually Evolving a Stage 2 can't happen until a player's third turn, and Rare Candy just bumps that up by one (while creating potential future balance issues).
I may not like the new first turn rule, but as a stop gap measure (I believe the real answer is card design and waiting for rotation) it solves the "problem" most people attribute to Pokémon Catcher; it buys time for the most potent Stage 2 Pokémon to get going and forces a slowdown on the most aggressive Basic Pokémon decks. Then the "other" major part of the real problem... well that too is a matter of waiting. Pokémon that Evolve and many of their final Stages are "filler"; never intended to be worth using in serious play, just there to pad out a set. Once you start looking at actual counts, you realize that plenty of big, Basic Pokémon (EX or otherwise) don't see play in addition to all those Evolutions.
