Ironman131 said:
You will have dead draws against any deck not just against Seismitoad EX. If you are really worried about Seismitoad EX then make your deck so it dosnt need the items to function properly, dont start complaining and saying the card is broken and should be banned. When you play agianst a Toad deck you need to set yourself up to compete by getting your way around status conditions out quickly or playing your items as quickly as you can. Every time I have played against a Toad deck It has been a close game and almost every time I have been able to get the Seismitoad EX player to whiff on a DCE and have an explosive turn. Should Exegguter be banned because it shuts down the use of Supporters. No so why would a card that shuts down items be banned. If Seismitoad EX was such a broken card then every deck would be playing it and every deck that won tournamnets would have it in the deck. There were a lot of Seismitoad EX decks that did win tournamnets but what about the other decks that didnt have any toads how did they win? By playing smart and being paitient.
But that's the problem. You
can't get out of status quickly or play your items unless you get lucky in the first turn of the game. 5 out of the 7 decks I faced at the states I went to this weekend used Toad--I beat 3 of them. The games I won, I had a good opening hand, played my items turn one, and then was ahead of it for the rest of the game. The games I lost, I didn't hit an explosive hand turn 1, and I whiffed everything for the rest of the game due to item lock. Just because Toad doesn't win every tournament (although the decks that use toad dwarf the results table compared to other decks--I think week 1 something like 60+% of the decks used Toad), it's still stupid because the way you beat it isn't reliant on something within the player's control. When you get a Toad to whiff a DCE, you got lucky. Because Toad shuts off search cards, every deck must draw into what it needs, making it a luckfest.
And the problem isn't simply item lock, it's the ease at which that item lock is obtained. Gothitelle and Trevenant both require evolutions--and both require another attacker that can switch into them because their attack sucks. Both are slow and clunky--so despite item lock being extremely powerful, it was balanced out by the difficulty of using the card. Seismitoad can function on it's own and is a basic that can attack with a single energy card, so item lock can consistently start on turn 1 or 2 and can be kept up the entire game with little trouble.
Also, you cannot build your deck to function without items--because you need items to beat every other deck in the format. That's partially why it's so easy to dead draw against toad--because you are required to play VS Seeker so that you aren't at an inherent disadvantage against other decks, yet those VS Seekers make up a part of your supporter line that can't be played vs Toad.
I don't think this argument is going anywhere because it's not often people change their views on a given card, but I want to point that EVERY time a new card or mechanic is introduced, people defend it on the basis of "just be a better player and deal with it." It's a frustrating argument because it's almost obvious. Yeah, you have to learn how to deal with what the game throws at you to be a better player. But you don't have to accept that those cards or mechanics are good for the game. Learning how to deal with a card and analyzing whether it should exist are too entirely separate discussions. I mentioned earlier that I beat a majority of the Toad decks I faced this weekend--I said that because it points out that I'm well aware the card is beatable. That doesn't mean it's good for the game. I can complain about the card yet figure out the best way to play against it at the same time and not be contradicting myself.
