Could Sableye be the next banned card?

[Danglesmcjangles]

This is just simply speculation, but I have been hearing a fair amount of buzz about this topic. The reason for the potential ban is combining junk hunt Sableye (typically used with Garbodor) and the upcoming Puzzle of time card from Breakpoint. Essentially this would become problematic because it would increase the ability of Junk hunt to completely stifle your opponent by getting life dew (prize denial), hammers/grunt (energy denial), Head ringer (attack denial), Trick Shovel (mill). On top of being able to get the two cards back after your turn from junk hunting, you could potentially have two puzzle of time which would let you get two more back next turn without ending your turn. This could allow you to get teammates, an energy, a different supporter, or any of the items listed above back into your hand. If you have only one puzzle of time, you could get another using junk hunt, and then also get another item. Or if you have no puzzle of time, you could get two back from junk hunting, grab teammates, and then any two cards from your deck. Essentially when this card (puzzle of time) is added to the engine of the deck, it is far too easy to get any combination of cards that may be needed during a turn.

When this is combined with the ability shutdown of garbodor it can be very difficult to do anything at all, let alone take six prizes.

In my mind, it comes down to this, if you ban a card, is the card that gets banned sableye? Or is it life dew? Maybe puzzle of time? I think sableye would be the easiest choice because it doesn't have as big of a presence in other decks. Life dew isn't overly prevalent either, but it is effective in vespiquen/flareon, arguably the BDIF.

I don't necessarily believe a ban will ensue because it does not eliminate a win condition (like Lysandre's Trump Card) or never allow your opponent to take a turn (Shiftry). It would be extremely frustrating to play against, but Ghetsis might make it manageable. So what do you all think? To ban? Or not to ban?

 

[cardgjammer]

...I say Sableye DEX might be a candidate, but not really ban-certain. With Sacred Ash and Energy recycler, Sableye can use puzzle of time to draw one of the above, and N when down to anywhere from 1 to 3 prize cards both ways, to extend the game as long as he/she repeats the process until he/she is satisfied enough to get the desired cards from discard and resume the offensive, or until Sableye goes down, in which case, it's likely game over. Since pokemon cards are not as reliable as trainers, because they can be KO'd and ejected from play quickly at the cost of prizes, while Trainer cards do not involve opposing prize draws after use. And judging from Sableye's low HP as well as the current 1HKO meta, no wonder it's not ban-certain...

 

[Elbow]

I think it isn't too overpowered. It literally loses to Trevenant and Toad, which I expect to be tier 2 and 1 decks in expanded respectively. With those 2 keeping sableye in check, I don't think it will be like top 8 for 8 at a regionals. Don't get me wrong, it's a pretty good card with time puzzle, but by no means unbeatable.
I also people see the Shiftry and LTC ban as an excuse to ban any card they think was too overpowered. Do remember that the last time a card was banned before LTC was over 10 years ago. I think that these were just coincidences of 2 overpowered cards that PCL wasn't expecting to be as popular. Shiftry was just unhealthy for a T1 and LTC made the game extremely slow. Sableye only does this slightly, but not to the point of Shiftry and LTC.

 

[poke4trade]

Honestly, we won't know till after Regionals. If Sableye trolls consistently and allows the opponent to recycle the most powerful trainers out there + wins the top positions by doing so, I think it will have a strong chance of something getting banned. Pokemon has been pretty consistent to wait for tournaments to figure out if they need to ban anything.

But ya all know my opinion on it, if they fixed crushing hammer, or banned the card, non of the troll decks would be viable. They would be reasonable, but not completely viable.

I think anything that recycles an Ace Spec the whole game would get a strong look. The idea of the ace is that it's a one off card. It was never really meant to be played over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over....