Turbo Blastoise
New Member
Following is my Proposal for a new format:
Currently, the Pokemon TCG has 3 Major formats-2 Constructed formats: Modified and Unlimited and then Draft more commonly known as Limited. For a while, the game and its players were contented with just Unlimited then just simply known as Constructed and Draft. Then, soon after about the 8th set (Neo Discovery I believe), the game was growing so large that it was beginning to become impractical to have just one constructed format. So as you all know, Modified was created. Modified was inspired mostly by other card sets primarily Magic: The Gathering and has become easily the most common format played in this game.
For a while, Modified and Unlimited each served this great game well-really they still do. But, there is an increasing amount of people(that I’ve seen) that would like to see more from this game and new fresh ideas. Let’s face it, they’re right! We’ve had the same basic “gaming” setup with regards to formats for what over 3 years? A lot has happened since then. We’ve gone through some ups and lows-WotC lost the license then we got setup with Nintendo which has gone well for the most part. We’ve also had over 10 new sets released since then. Not only has the amount of cards and decks grown but we’ve seen a rather large increase in the game as a whole with 100+ events becoming less and less uncommon. Pokemon TCG has really grown from the “underdog” of gaming to becoming a solid game.
But, in the midst of all these, we need to grow with the game and help this game to mature. Really this involves two basic principles. First, we need to have more events and attract more people into the game. And second, we need to have different ways (i.e. formats) to continue to keep people attracted and interested in this game. For the most part, we’ve done the first quite well with the various City and State Tournaments and the Challenges. We are even looking forward to the world championships pretty soon and beyond. The 2nd though, we’ve haven’t had quite the success. Why? Because to put it bluntly, We’ve had the SAME DARN FORMATS FOR OVER 3 YEARS!!! Now, don’t get me wrong, modified and unlimited are nice formats and they are fun to play, really and we need to still have them. But we need something else; at least 1 other format. Why? Because simply the game is growing and we could use some diversity.
Now, you might be wondering. How did I come up with this idea? Well, I’ve thought about it and I’ve also looked a lot at the current formats and other games too for inspiration. And what I’ve seen is that there is a growing GAP between modified and unlimited. Really, to play either format, you have to assume a totally different mindset. Unlimited for what I’ve seen focuses on Speed and Disruption and Modified assumes more of a slower pace by comparison with primary themes relying on big Card-drawing and big ex’s or Stage 2 Pokemon for OHKO’s. Really, we need something to bridge that gap and have a sort of “in between”. A new format would accomplish that.
Here below is my idea for the “extended” format. Now, before you read this, please don’t nitpick. Try to see everything as a whole and how the rules would affect deck-building/construction. I’ve tried to anticipate broken decks and as a result taken “appropriate” measures to ensure either that they aren’t even playable or that their power is significantly reduced.
So without further delay here is my proposal:
Extended Format- Playable sets are as followed:
Base Set 1&2
Jungle
Fossil
TR
Gym Heroes
Gym Challenge
EX: Ruby Sapphire forward
All Promos WotC and Nintendo are playable
Banned Sets are as followed:
All the Neo sets
Expedition
Aquapolis
Skyridge
Southern Islands
Best of WotC Promos (unless they are in Base-GC)
Cards banned from Extended are only:
1) Energy Removal- from Base Set
2) Super Energy Removal- from Base Set
Following are the “SPECIAL” Rules for the Extended Format:
1) Only 1 EX Pokemon allowed per 60-card deck (if EX is rare it also counts towards rare/holo restrictions)
2) Rares and Rare-Holos are restricted to 2 per deck per type/name(The "EX" tag on a poke doesn't count as a separate type/name so only 2 period even if 1 is an EX of the same type For example only 1 Blastoise/1 Blastoise EX or 2 Blastoise but not 2 Blastoise/1 Blastoise EX)
3) Each deck is restricted to 3 of one particular type of trainer per deck
I call it the 1-2-3 rule for short or 3-2-1 if you like.
I endeavored not to bog this format down with tons of rules since I want it to be simple but unique and refreshingly different. So since you’ve read the rules through and through maybe some of it you don’t understand. Well, let me explain a bit why I came up with what I came up with.
First of all, why I decided to keep what I wanted to keep and ban what I decided to ban. Simply put, Neo has some of the most broken pokemon cards in the game and the e-sets have some of the most relied on trainers in the game EVEN WITH the supporter rule. Why do I say that? Well, I don’t want to get into a discussion about how certain cards changed modified and unlimited and all that but I’ll say this: I wanted to make this format a format that encourages diversity and when I thought about what sets to keep and what sets to ditch with this format, I thought about what possible decks would emerge. Basically had I kept Neo I would have been rehashing some of the same issues that came up when NEO was still in modified. Basically Gatr, Typhlosion, Crobat, and of course the Babies (not to mention Elm, Focus Band and others). Not to say that wasn’t bad for the game. It’s just that those broken cards belong in Unlimited and should stay only in unlimited, the format of “brokenness”. Also, with the e-sets you have the issue with supporters and people using them as a crutch. Now granted people will use certain cards as crutches especially from cards in the earlier sets in this format but that’s necessary. Why? Because you need some kind of balanced and consistent card-drawing since this is what this game and most decks need to get setup. But while, supporters are indeed balanced for their cost, they aren’t consistent. For example, how many times have you gotten a hand of only supporter trainers? Yeah, while each of the cards themselves aren’t overpowered, you can only play one a turn which really cramps your game. That’s what I mean by consistent. Those are the problems of unlimited and modified respectively. It would be best, and I’m sure most players would agree, to leave those problems where they are and try to keep it out of this format if all possible.
Speaking of banned cards, I decided to ban only 2 cards. I didn’t want to get into the habit of arbitrarily banning cards like other games do (primarily M:TG). But, despite that thought, I felt that the Energy Removals just had to go. I think it’s obvious to most of you but I’ll explain why anyway just to be safe. Two reasons basically. First, only one or two energy removals played at a inopportune time can mess up about 90% of decks in Unlimited. This is a strategy game or suppose to be anyway so topdecking one or two cards like that just isn’t fun. Second, EVERY deck has to have something in order to counter it. Why do you think Slowking was and still is so popular in Unlimited? Because, for the most part it got around ER and SER where most decks couldn’t. Other decks that ran Dark Vileplume+Chaos Gym could also stop it. But since I wanted to avoid a ER vs. Anti-ER format issue like you have in Unlimited, I simply felt that for those reasons, it wasn’t in the best interests to have those cards in Extended.
And Lastly, the Special Rules or the 1-2-3 rule as I now call it. Basically, these rules are necessary, because I thought in certain areas banning was too excessive and leaving certain cards and mechanics alone wasn’t enough either. So I opted for a “middle ground”. Let me explain them briefly one-by-one. First of all, the EX Rule. I’ve heard this complaint many times that in Modified EX’s are simply too powerful and play too much of a role in the metagame. While, I’m not here to talk about that, I thought about that for extended. Banning them would be too harsh and leave the format I feel a bit stale. But leaving them alone would make this format practically just another version of modified. So I decided on a 1 EX per deck rule since I envision EX’s in this format to be used primarily as tech or maybe even as a supporting attacker. But I wanted to avoid EX’s being the overwhelming force that they are in other formats.
Nextly, we come to the 2 Rare and Rare-Holo Rule. Basically, this is used to supplement a bit rule #1. Before the hay-day of EX’s, decks were primarily built of nearly all rares. While, this was fine for a while, it quickly got to be excessive. Also, nearly all the powerhouse pokemon, Blastoise, Venusaur, Wigglytuff, the haymaker decks, were all made solely of rares and dominated totally the metagame. In order to curb the power a bit of these cards especially from the earlier sets and even some of the newer sets, I decided on a 2 rare and rare-holo rule. You can still run those decks but it comes at a bit of a price and as a result there is a bit of an incentive to go “beyond the beaten path” and try something new, something this format tries to encourage.
Last but certainly not least is the 3-trainer rule. This applies to ALL trainers(Stadiums, supporters, tools etc.) by the way just in case you were wondering. I thought of this rule last actually but when it came up, it just made plain sense. While I’ve eliminated the Neo sets and e-sets, there are still a considerable number of cards and combos that can be easily manipulated due to weak rules. Also, so-called Trainermon the use of excessive card-drawing trainers and other trainer cards, could still be a damaging force if it were allowed to go unchecked in this format. So, in order for decks not to become too too dependent on trainers so as to “disrupt” the format, this rule is actually quite necessary.
So there you have it. I’m sure you don’t agree with everything here so if you have any questions or concerns please e-mail me or PM and we’ll talk about. And since I never admit to knowing everything if you got a thought or a couple of better ideas, I’d like to hear them. I even welcome so-called constructive criticism. So I’m just an e-mail away. So, PM or e-mail or post here on this thread and we’ll talk about it. Oh, my e-mail is at [email protected]. Thanks for reading this and I hope this game through this gets one step closer to being the best TCG on the block!!!
Currently, the Pokemon TCG has 3 Major formats-2 Constructed formats: Modified and Unlimited and then Draft more commonly known as Limited. For a while, the game and its players were contented with just Unlimited then just simply known as Constructed and Draft. Then, soon after about the 8th set (Neo Discovery I believe), the game was growing so large that it was beginning to become impractical to have just one constructed format. So as you all know, Modified was created. Modified was inspired mostly by other card sets primarily Magic: The Gathering and has become easily the most common format played in this game.
For a while, Modified and Unlimited each served this great game well-really they still do. But, there is an increasing amount of people(that I’ve seen) that would like to see more from this game and new fresh ideas. Let’s face it, they’re right! We’ve had the same basic “gaming” setup with regards to formats for what over 3 years? A lot has happened since then. We’ve gone through some ups and lows-WotC lost the license then we got setup with Nintendo which has gone well for the most part. We’ve also had over 10 new sets released since then. Not only has the amount of cards and decks grown but we’ve seen a rather large increase in the game as a whole with 100+ events becoming less and less uncommon. Pokemon TCG has really grown from the “underdog” of gaming to becoming a solid game.
But, in the midst of all these, we need to grow with the game and help this game to mature. Really this involves two basic principles. First, we need to have more events and attract more people into the game. And second, we need to have different ways (i.e. formats) to continue to keep people attracted and interested in this game. For the most part, we’ve done the first quite well with the various City and State Tournaments and the Challenges. We are even looking forward to the world championships pretty soon and beyond. The 2nd though, we’ve haven’t had quite the success. Why? Because to put it bluntly, We’ve had the SAME DARN FORMATS FOR OVER 3 YEARS!!! Now, don’t get me wrong, modified and unlimited are nice formats and they are fun to play, really and we need to still have them. But we need something else; at least 1 other format. Why? Because simply the game is growing and we could use some diversity.
Now, you might be wondering. How did I come up with this idea? Well, I’ve thought about it and I’ve also looked a lot at the current formats and other games too for inspiration. And what I’ve seen is that there is a growing GAP between modified and unlimited. Really, to play either format, you have to assume a totally different mindset. Unlimited for what I’ve seen focuses on Speed and Disruption and Modified assumes more of a slower pace by comparison with primary themes relying on big Card-drawing and big ex’s or Stage 2 Pokemon for OHKO’s. Really, we need something to bridge that gap and have a sort of “in between”. A new format would accomplish that.
Here below is my idea for the “extended” format. Now, before you read this, please don’t nitpick. Try to see everything as a whole and how the rules would affect deck-building/construction. I’ve tried to anticipate broken decks and as a result taken “appropriate” measures to ensure either that they aren’t even playable or that their power is significantly reduced.
So without further delay here is my proposal:
Extended Format- Playable sets are as followed:
Base Set 1&2
Jungle
Fossil
TR
Gym Heroes
Gym Challenge
EX: Ruby Sapphire forward
All Promos WotC and Nintendo are playable
Banned Sets are as followed:
All the Neo sets
Expedition
Aquapolis
Skyridge
Southern Islands
Best of WotC Promos (unless they are in Base-GC)
Cards banned from Extended are only:
1) Energy Removal- from Base Set
2) Super Energy Removal- from Base Set
Following are the “SPECIAL” Rules for the Extended Format:
1) Only 1 EX Pokemon allowed per 60-card deck (if EX is rare it also counts towards rare/holo restrictions)
2) Rares and Rare-Holos are restricted to 2 per deck per type/name(The "EX" tag on a poke doesn't count as a separate type/name so only 2 period even if 1 is an EX of the same type For example only 1 Blastoise/1 Blastoise EX or 2 Blastoise but not 2 Blastoise/1 Blastoise EX)
3) Each deck is restricted to 3 of one particular type of trainer per deck
I call it the 1-2-3 rule for short or 3-2-1 if you like.
I endeavored not to bog this format down with tons of rules since I want it to be simple but unique and refreshingly different. So since you’ve read the rules through and through maybe some of it you don’t understand. Well, let me explain a bit why I came up with what I came up with.
First of all, why I decided to keep what I wanted to keep and ban what I decided to ban. Simply put, Neo has some of the most broken pokemon cards in the game and the e-sets have some of the most relied on trainers in the game EVEN WITH the supporter rule. Why do I say that? Well, I don’t want to get into a discussion about how certain cards changed modified and unlimited and all that but I’ll say this: I wanted to make this format a format that encourages diversity and when I thought about what sets to keep and what sets to ditch with this format, I thought about what possible decks would emerge. Basically had I kept Neo I would have been rehashing some of the same issues that came up when NEO was still in modified. Basically Gatr, Typhlosion, Crobat, and of course the Babies (not to mention Elm, Focus Band and others). Not to say that wasn’t bad for the game. It’s just that those broken cards belong in Unlimited and should stay only in unlimited, the format of “brokenness”. Also, with the e-sets you have the issue with supporters and people using them as a crutch. Now granted people will use certain cards as crutches especially from cards in the earlier sets in this format but that’s necessary. Why? Because you need some kind of balanced and consistent card-drawing since this is what this game and most decks need to get setup. But while, supporters are indeed balanced for their cost, they aren’t consistent. For example, how many times have you gotten a hand of only supporter trainers? Yeah, while each of the cards themselves aren’t overpowered, you can only play one a turn which really cramps your game. That’s what I mean by consistent. Those are the problems of unlimited and modified respectively. It would be best, and I’m sure most players would agree, to leave those problems where they are and try to keep it out of this format if all possible.
Speaking of banned cards, I decided to ban only 2 cards. I didn’t want to get into the habit of arbitrarily banning cards like other games do (primarily M:TG). But, despite that thought, I felt that the Energy Removals just had to go. I think it’s obvious to most of you but I’ll explain why anyway just to be safe. Two reasons basically. First, only one or two energy removals played at a inopportune time can mess up about 90% of decks in Unlimited. This is a strategy game or suppose to be anyway so topdecking one or two cards like that just isn’t fun. Second, EVERY deck has to have something in order to counter it. Why do you think Slowking was and still is so popular in Unlimited? Because, for the most part it got around ER and SER where most decks couldn’t. Other decks that ran Dark Vileplume+Chaos Gym could also stop it. But since I wanted to avoid a ER vs. Anti-ER format issue like you have in Unlimited, I simply felt that for those reasons, it wasn’t in the best interests to have those cards in Extended.
And Lastly, the Special Rules or the 1-2-3 rule as I now call it. Basically, these rules are necessary, because I thought in certain areas banning was too excessive and leaving certain cards and mechanics alone wasn’t enough either. So I opted for a “middle ground”. Let me explain them briefly one-by-one. First of all, the EX Rule. I’ve heard this complaint many times that in Modified EX’s are simply too powerful and play too much of a role in the metagame. While, I’m not here to talk about that, I thought about that for extended. Banning them would be too harsh and leave the format I feel a bit stale. But leaving them alone would make this format practically just another version of modified. So I decided on a 1 EX per deck rule since I envision EX’s in this format to be used primarily as tech or maybe even as a supporting attacker. But I wanted to avoid EX’s being the overwhelming force that they are in other formats.
Nextly, we come to the 2 Rare and Rare-Holo Rule. Basically, this is used to supplement a bit rule #1. Before the hay-day of EX’s, decks were primarily built of nearly all rares. While, this was fine for a while, it quickly got to be excessive. Also, nearly all the powerhouse pokemon, Blastoise, Venusaur, Wigglytuff, the haymaker decks, were all made solely of rares and dominated totally the metagame. In order to curb the power a bit of these cards especially from the earlier sets and even some of the newer sets, I decided on a 2 rare and rare-holo rule. You can still run those decks but it comes at a bit of a price and as a result there is a bit of an incentive to go “beyond the beaten path” and try something new, something this format tries to encourage.
Last but certainly not least is the 3-trainer rule. This applies to ALL trainers(Stadiums, supporters, tools etc.) by the way just in case you were wondering. I thought of this rule last actually but when it came up, it just made plain sense. While I’ve eliminated the Neo sets and e-sets, there are still a considerable number of cards and combos that can be easily manipulated due to weak rules. Also, so-called Trainermon the use of excessive card-drawing trainers and other trainer cards, could still be a damaging force if it were allowed to go unchecked in this format. So, in order for decks not to become too too dependent on trainers so as to “disrupt” the format, this rule is actually quite necessary.
So there you have it. I’m sure you don’t agree with everything here so if you have any questions or concerns please e-mail me or PM and we’ll talk about. And since I never admit to knowing everything if you got a thought or a couple of better ideas, I’d like to hear them. I even welcome so-called constructive criticism. So I’m just an e-mail away. So, PM or e-mail or post here on this thread and we’ll talk about it. Oh, my e-mail is at [email protected]. Thanks for reading this and I hope this game through this gets one step closer to being the best TCG on the block!!!
Last edited:
