Pokémon TCG: Sword and Shield—Brilliant Stars

Scrub player syndrome

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Moss Factor

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So I haven't been to the boards in awhile and I come back to see some of the most sickening posts in my life! It would seem that the whole of the Gym has come down with a bad case of SPS, or "Scrub Player Syndrome."

SPS is a common, but fortunately curable affliction where a player creates an independent set of "rules" that one must satisfy outside of simply winning games of Pokemon.

Case in point: its not enough that Jason won worlds, with easily the hardest path to victory, but because he did it with a very common archetype his victory is discredited.

One with SPS cannot simply focus on how to win a tournament, they must focus on doing it with additional conditions that they apply for themselves, such as skipping over any deck that is good so as not to be labeled "cheap" or playing a "lame" deck.

Wake up people! I read an article on being a scrub vs. not being a scrub a long time ago. It dealt with video game play but can be applied to Pokemon just as easily. I reference it here and suggest a read: http://www.sirlin.net/Features/feature_PlayToWinPart1.htm

I don't understand how someone can like or hate a deck -- they're all just cards! Its nothing personal! Get over your hatred of GG and stop being irrational with deck choice and instead focus on how to simply win games of Pokemon: you'll win more!

Jason's GG is going to be on sale at your local Wal-Mart because he chose to play the deck that was the best, that he was most comfortable with, and that he thought had the best chance of success. He didn't add an additional criteria that it be a "rogue" or "non-archetype" deck onto there. So quit making winning harder on yourself by adding additional "rules" that only you have to follow when it comes to playing decks and stop being a scrub!

We can cure SPS one child at a time. This PSA was brought to you by Lafonte. *Cue "the more you know" music.*
 
Moss Factor said:
Case in point: its not enough that Jason won worlds, with easily the hardest path to victory, but because he did it with a very common archetype his victory is discredited.
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Lake Boundary + Jolteon * for a Gallade OHKO?
I'd like to see you do that with a rogue deck.
That was a GENIUS play, and it was the SINGLE play that jolteon * was put into jason's list for. It was really a solid piece of evidence on the point that what deck you play doesn't matter: how you play it does. The player is what wins games, the deck isn't.

I support moss's PSA 100%.
 
Ha, the lake boundary jolt* scramble psylock single handedly won me a game vs a guy from England.

But yeah, Moss is right. Theres a reason Jason won worlds,(twice) and it has less to do with Gardy and more with the amount of skill he possess .
 
I'll agree that him winning had nothing to do with GG. GG is in my opinion a cheap deck that anyonee can do well with. But when 50 people play the same cheap deck, the most skilled player still wins(excluding the cases of luck beatdown). What's more annoying than the deck itself to play against the same deck nearly all season. Not too fun.

Jason, as far as I know, is a fine player. And he earned a victory.
 
Well, I understand the desire to win the game. Ask anyone that knows me personally, they will tell you that winning is very, very important to me. What people hate about GG is that it wins everything, and also that it creates extremely long and boring mirror matches. It is natural to dislike a person that is more successful than you. It is human nature to be jealous sometimes. I don't know exactly how that can correspond to a deck, but there is some correlation there where it is natural to despise GG because it seems like it just can't be beat. Now as far as choosing the deck choice to win, of course the (in my opinion) irrationally competitive players will choose the deck best suited to win the tournament, but it is not just about the winning for many people. No, you can't discredit someone's victory based on that person's deck of choice, especially not on the world stage where deck choice only goes so far before the truly skilled players knock you down. Then again, choosing a deck solely for its ability to win, with nothing else factoring in to how you chose the deck besides its likelihood to win, is (in my opinion) not the way to go. Case in point: I like Electivire. I think the big yellow guy with the 120 super attack is just cool. But no one played it because there was no way it could beat GG. I tested an idea that came into my head by connecting the dots between the things used in Magmortar and the things Electivire could use. I made T8 at my States with it, beating down two GG's on the way there. And you know what happened? First round of T8 I got smothered by a good respectable Plox player. I don't really care though. I feel I succeeded in my attempt to simply take a Pokemon I like and make a successful deck out of it. I like the deck. I enjoy swarming those speed Electivires like they are Banettes or something. People are like "omg, I can't I can't believe my GG just lost to Electivire!" I get the satisfaction of knowing I created a winning deck every time I play it. I guess that is one reason a person can like a deck.
 
I completely agree.

No matter what, people are always going to complaining about one thing or another. I don't personally know Jason or much about him, but anybody who wins Worlds twice has to do a lot more than play pl0x; heck, to win Worlds once you need to have a lot more than an average pl0x list.


By the way, can someone please quickly explain what the Jolteon* and Lake Boundary was for? I don't really understand :(
 
AlanJLegend said:
I completely agree.

No matter what, people are always going to complaining about one thing or another. I don't personally know Jason or much about him, but anybody who wins Worlds twice has to do a lot more than play pl0x; heck, to win Worlds once you need to have a lot more than an average pl0x list.


By the way, can someone please quickly explain what the Jolteon* and Lake Boundary was for? I don't really understand :(
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In mirror matches, Jolteon* puts 10 on an active Gallade that doesn't have any damage while Lake Boundary sets Gardevoir's Psychic Lock up to double from 60 into 120. 10 + 120= 130= OHKO out of nowhere (Gardevoir would likely be attacking from behind with Scramble making this play all the more unpredictable).

The Jolteon* would have its other situational uses too outside of just that in the same way a PlusPower/Strength Charm would. The reason it is a lot better than either of those is it is searchable via Celio's/Bebe's/Roseanne's (which of course makes it Telepassable as well) so when you need it you can pull it out as opposed to having to wait to draw into one of those other extra damage options. I could even see using Jolteon* to purposefully get a KO on one of your own Pokemon just to get behind in prizes to activate a Scramble, although I don't know how often that kind of situation would/did arise if ever.

Lake Boundary also would obviously have its uses outside the Gallade/Jolteon* thing, as a counter stadium to get rid of Crystal Beach, to allow easy OHKOs on stuff like Blissey with Gallade requiring a single prize flip, etc..

Together though they were just a tech partnership aiding Gardevoir in its epic quest to OHKO a super fresh Gallade.
 
People just dislike seeing the same thing always win. It's like when the Braves and Yankees sweeped baseball for years. I'm not going to discredit Jason at all, fantastic job on his victories. However, I have to admit it would of been more thrilling if he had claimed victory with something other than GG.
 
I agree. Even though I was disappointed that gardy won instead of an uncommon deck(I love surprises when I'm not playing ha!) you would still need skill to carry you to win any major tournament, much more Worlds.

Furthermore, as such an archtype, a few counters would probably have been formulated since it's arrival(Case in point that jolteon* +lake boundary)
 
Moss Factor said:
So I haven't been to the boards in awhile and I come back to see some of the most sickening posts in my life! It would seem that the whole of the Gym has come down with a bad case of SPS, or "Scrub Player Syndrome."
Click to expand...

I was wondering when someone would repost that link and the associated info. I really liked that the first time I read it.

I think that everyone loves it when an "underdog" deck or unexpected creative new deck can take on a big contender like G&G. It's natural to be excited when a deck like that does well. I think that most good player aspire to be creative and come up with new ideas and combinations to win. That's fine, but it's no reason to justify any sort of G&G hate.
 
People just hate gg for 2 reasons. 1) Its too easy to get the t2 gardy/gallade and donk your limited setup. 2) You face it 8 times a tourny. Nobody likes to see the same exact deck over and over again, right? It gets pretty boring. I have no problem with archtypes as long as their is a good 8-10 of them.
 
If you want to win games, you need to play the strongest deck available. Right now, that's GG.

If you are playing for a reason other than winning (and there's nothing wrong with just playing for the fun of it), then play something else.

But don't complain when you come up against a GG and lose. You made a conscious decision NOT to play the best deck available.

Is the format stale because of the dominance of GG? Of course. I can't imagine anyone disagreeing with that. But doesn't this happen almost every couple of years - a single deck becomes so dominant that you either play it or you have to create something to play against it (Feraligatr, Blaziken, GG, ...)?

That's just the way it is.

If you want to win, play the strongest deck(s).

If you are playing for another reason, play whatever you want.

It's just that simple.
 
It not that we are discrediting Jason, congrats to him, we all know that he is probably one of the Three best players in the World. It's the fact that he won't it with GG though that everybody is upset. As you know, no one has liked GG other than those who play with it simply to win, and it is the fact that it can T2 you so easy and you play it AL THE TIME in every tournament, that nobody likes the deck anymore, and that is why people seem to discredit Jason's win.
 
PokePockets said:
It not that we are discrediting Jason, congrats to him, we all know that he is probably one of the Three best players in the World. It's the fact that he won't it with GG though that everybody is upset. As you know, no one has liked GG other than those who play with it simply to win, and it is the fact that it can T2 you so easy and you play it AL THE TIME in every tournament, that nobody likes the deck anymore, and that is why people seem to discredit Jason's win.
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Ah, but not everyone is upset.

I'm actually happy he won ... and happy with his deck choice. Also for the record I didn't play G&G at all during the second half of last season, so I don't fit into your catigorization of "those who play with it simply to win" either.
 
I don't get it. Everyone was saying that G&G had a great chance of winning World's - so much of a chance that PUI should have banned it.

Now G&G did win World's and people are bashing Ness for playing it? Sounds silly.

Moss Factor said:
he chose to play the deck that was the best, that he was most comfortable with, and that he thought had the best chance of success.
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I am pretty sure that is what most others do as well, I know that is what I look at that regarding deck choice. Why complain now?

Please don't hate the player because he is simply great and played better than the other 127 players in Masters this year. Don't hate the deck either, because Ness was not the only person to use the G&G idea, he just did it better.
 
What Moss Factor and some here seem not to understand is that most people out to win aren't afraid to play GG but also aren't afraid of experimentation. It's only through experimentation that you might find a deck that actually might be superior to GG, like for example Arithmetic or something.

When people complain, it's not about the deck itself, its about the game's DESIGN and how boring its become BECAUSE we are forced to play GG to be competitive.
 
I for one down right dislike GG and do think it doesn't take much to play vs anything else but GG. I give all the cridt and props in the world to Ness and think it has nothing to do with GG being why he won he earned world champ title TWICE and will not once say it was cuz he played GG but i will say i hate the deck yet again and wish he had won with something else but in the end a wins a win and it took skill for jason to do what he did and i'm sure he coulda done it with anything else.
 
What was up with the Blissey guy scooping in the first game when Dusknoir came out? It looked bad; but not horrible with all of GG's prizes flipped, 4-2, and no Gallades.
 
Hey Matt. Remember when Gatr ruled and you won an SBZ with one? Top players SHOULD play the best cards available.

I'm one of those players who dislikes unbalanced cards. I still think Gardy and Dusky are unbalanced, but as long as they are legal, play what wins.

The Gatr-trainer-engine was an amazing deck. I doubt anything will top it. A majority of the top players used it (probably about 80% plus) and no one complained then. GG isn't as good as Gatr was, fewer top players played it, yet more people complained about it.

Deck diversity is much better than back in the Gatr or Slowking-something days.

Nevertheless, for variety's sake, I hope next year GG is replaced. I anticipate it will be replaced.
 
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