We can't really blame Pokemon for this imo.
Yes. Yes we can. They make this game. People are giving
Forest of Giant Plants nicknames like "Broken Vine Space" because this isn't a new mechanic; this is a Type specific version of the previous Stadium card
Broken Time-Space. While the designers could not specifically know that
Shiftry (DEX) could one day be overpowered they should (and probably did) know that if a future card made it hypothetically reliable to get off the effect first turn (either by spamming it and going with the odds or by improving the odds of getting a single
Shiftry into play), we'd have an issue.
Just looking at
Forest of Giant Plants this mess is just an example of what one should have expected; semi-obscure older cards comboing with the new stuff when we are already concerned
about the new stuff. I mean we just got a method to perform a T1 Item lock
from the Bench in a format where we have cards like
Professor Sycamore,
Ultra Ball and
Shaymin-EX (ROS). We need the game's pace to ease back quite a bit and instead? Pedal to the metal!
I do worry about "aggressive bans" because while they are needed, they also are unlikely to be properly applied. For example, this
Shiftry deck needs
Forest of Giant Plants to work. Even just issuing an erratum so that you have to also Evolve into a Grass-Type (and not just from a Grass-Type) would have shut it down. Other troublesome decks just need
Forest of Giant Plants gone. Other problem decks in general need cards like
Shaymin-EX (ROS) and
Professor Sycamore gone. It... actually can get really complex if we keep naming specific cards. The main thing is that all forms of acceleration (draw, search, Energy, Evolution, etc.) are out of control and the-powers-that-be really need a reset.
