Argh!
Alright, personally, this thread absolutely sickens me. I have not been this OFFENDED by one sides arguement in who knows how long. I can garuntee you that if you let the entire 10- division use their own decks that you'd see a bunch of random thrown together cards using their favorite Pokemon. Less than 5% of the 10- player base does not have the advanced understanding of the game to constructively build a strong deck. 95% of the 10- players do not use their own deck at tournaments. I think the fact someone is UPSET at this is laughable. I would say the same if it was about the 11-14 division, and even at 15+ it isn't even a problem!
The difficulty of a tournament is not in the deck building. With the existance of something known as COMMUNICATION, no one uses their " Own Deck ". There are such things known as Playtesting Groups. Groups of people who work together to test out decks against the field to find out what the best deck in the metagame is. BUT OOPS. Others helped them make their deck! THEY SHOULD BE BANNED! THEY SHOULD GO TO HELL, THOSE SINNERS! Now, your also telling me that someone should see the best decks in the format and opt NOT to use them, KNOWING they are handicapping themselves from winning prizes and an invite and or free trip? You would have to be an idiot or obscenely rich enough not to care to intentionally worsen your chances.
Its really funny to see this arguement as most strong players agree that it shows MORE skill to be able to recieve a new deck and use it skillfully and win. By just recieving a new deck you are actually HANDICAPPED as you are unfamilar with how it plays, and how it competes in certain match ups. That is what testing is for. Not so you can feel all warm and fuzzy inside for " Making Your Own Deck " but so you can give yourself an edge over the competition by knowing secret strategies you can only learn frome xperience. Giving someone a strong deck does not make them a favorite to win. If you want your child to win a competition based solely on the fact that you want him to face crappy decks, than fine, take that and be satisfied knowing he/she won because they fought weak decks. Take pride in knowing they won and EARNED their win against the BEST decks. I look at it this way. If you lost a tournament, your deck wasn't the best there. Live with it. I lost in the finals at the ECSC to Shiftry. It was hands down the better deck and I should not have beat it. Do I make some complaint that illegitimatizes my opponent or his deck? No. I should have done better, not that my opponent should have done worse. I'd rather expect the BEST of MYSELF over expecting FLAWS in my opponent. Look what that is trying to say. Your trying to say that your 10- player should win via opponents weakness not his/her own strength.
People borrow other decks because they are GOOD and better for a reason. This is a TRADING CARD GAME. Certain decks ARE the best. Usually about 3 are NOTICIBLY better than the others to the point where you are handicapping yourself by not using them or direct counters. The entire purpose of this style of game lends itself to the fact that not everyone can be original and win. Sure, if infinite viable decks exist, SURE, everyone can be winners, but when you look at it, that simply isn't true. Usually there are 10 or less VIABLE decks available to be played. What happens once all 10 have been discovered? EXACTLY. Its no longer possible to be original AND win. Deal with it.
Also, what is wrong with borrowing cards? The game is obviously doing fine right now. Not everyone has the money to support the game as much as they'd like to. OH I GUESS THAT EIGHT YEAR OLD SHOULD JUST GO GET A JOB THAN! Thats ridiculous. Yelling at someone for borrowing their parents or friends deck whent hey are 10- is HORRIBLE. You should be ASHAMED of yourself. There is not a single kid that age who should possibly own all those cards unless their parents buy them than. I guess the parents play too. That now means its the parents cards! OOPS. Where does said kid go there? The best they can do is buy a booster here and there when they save up any money they do get. I would be standing the same stance on this entire ( with different arguements ) if this were involving the 15+ division...BUT ITS KIDS. ITS FRIGGIN KIDS.
I am tired of EXCUSES as to why people lose. " ITS AN ARCHETYPE! THAT LOSS DOESNT COUNT! ". " HE BORROWED HIS DECK! " GIVE ME A BREAK. Why not stop looking for excuses to your loss and realize that maybe you DESERVED a loss here and there? " HE FLIPPED ALL HEADS! I HAD A CRAP DRAW! " IT HAPPENS. Until you play FLAWLESSLY, don't be upset at how good your opponent or his or her deck is. You should be striving to get to a point where you can BEAT those GOOD decks. Its funny to see someone upset that they lost because their opponent had A GOOD DECK. Thats what it comes down to. Your angry because this 10- player lost because he DIDNT use the best decks and someone else DID.
Now say you playtest all month before a tournament. You plan on using Blaziken. You know it inside and out. Your friend has a deck and you feel it is the better deck after playing vs it. WHAT in Gods name makes it so WRONG to switch decks because you think you have a better chance? NOTHING. This shouldn't even be an arguement.
As for supporting the company. By attending the events and giving them a large turn out you make the game appear stronger and more players will play. The bigger the tournament turn outs, the more people play. One person not buying a set does not even go registered by Nintendo. The money is not noticed. By supporting the game by playing is enough. As long as cards are in open circulation, AND THEY ARE, its fine. I'm done. Seriously, before I get upset, I'm done.
