imo there is no broken card, there is broken combinations that offer a level of what seems like broken synergy, shaymin/acrobike/trainers mail, exeggcutor/vileplume, etc. but a card is not broken if played by itself against another single card that can counter it, on top of having a limited deck size and a limited amount of times you can play x card means that you run the risk of limiting the number of cards you can use in total making it possible to lose even if you have a broken card doesn't mean you have a broken strategy. So for everyone out there defending the right of saying that there is nothing broken in this game because we have x cards that counters x cards keep it coming because if feel like your right. For those that feel like some strategies are hopelessly broken, I think you should just have fun with the card game and not play competitively, why because the actual card is only as good as the player.
I can't really agree with you on this. I mean, I can agree that many cards like, for starters, Seismitoad EX, aren't really broken, but have a good, solid strategy behind them. However, once you dig much, much deeper, going beyond the face value of things, you would find that there are cards which are indeed broken. Double Colorless Energy is one of the biggest, Hypnotoxic Laser is another. Muscle Band and Strong Energy are fairly broken, and Shaymin EX is straddling the line at best (having gone over it when LTC was still around), if not over it. Yes, we have a lot less broken cards out there, but they are still there. We can ignore them, or we can take a look at them and learn from them.
Also, just having a counter or two or ten doesn't make a card balanced. If it dissolves the format to the point where you either run it, or run a counter for it with no middle ground at all, then there is something wrong. Something is just not balanced. Luckily, this does not occur too often, but it did occur only just recently. Lysandre's Trump Card was banned because as tolerant as TPC is of broken cards, as resilient the game against the presence of broken cards, LTC did indeed break things. It dissolved the format to ToadMin or its counters until they had to step in and ban it.
Limited deck space doesn't really back up your point. If anything, it weakens it. Why? Because we can run the counter to something that is broken, but in the end we have limited space to run them. Because in the end, all counters which are techs rather than a central strategy serves to make a deck less consistent, which end up hurting a decks ability to perform. In a format with lots of broken cards, many decks end up dying outright because they can't survive with so many broken cards around, especially those with no real counter. The best precedence for this is probably Base Set era, where we had a grand total of 3 viable decks, being Haymaker variants, Do the Wave variants and Rain Dance variants. Hardly a healthy format.
Playing competitively does require you to put aside your feelings and use what wins. Yes, I agree with you. What I cannot agree is with the notion that if something indeed is broken, you can't discuss it. You should be able to, even if you do play competitvely, or only on PTCGO, or casually with friends and family.
To be honest the format as far as I can see it is the healthiest it has been in the two years since I started playing again after many years away from the game, since the Trump Card ban there have been a HUGE amount of viable decks, many of which are not focused around EX's and have the ability to walk all over said EX's (raichu/bats, flareon and now vespiquen, night march although it has Mew-EX I guess). I include the non EX decks because I find people saying "EX's are broken" to be silly, non EX decks end up with a huge advantage because who cares if an EX's is more powerful than your non EX? So long as two of your evolutions can take out one EX you're likely to be in the lead, that two prize loss will always balance the game out. The only one I find has caused some unhealthiness is Seismitoad, simply because it has reduced the viability of stage two decks because it is so hard to make use of Rare Candy. I sometimes find myself wishing the energy cost was WC instead of CC to give a turn of set up for stage two decks to lay down their Rare Candy's before item lock nerfs the deck. Even then however there are still some stage two's that make it into play in decks, and broken vine space promises to have some creative new grass stage 2 decks.
Stepping way from the "EX's are broken" part of the topic though the only one thing I have found broken is Shiftry/GPF, it just takes all fun out of the games and in expanded on TCGO every other deck I come across is one, laying down its entire deck and shuffling all my pokemon back in while i sit there for 10 minutes and go "well this is pointless", and even that isn't broken in reality since it will never win a single tournament, it is horrendously inconsistent and is not far off an auto loss if it goes second assuming their opponent understands what deck is being played.
But no, cards are not broken, I have found them very balanced, Metal Ray is speedy and can be teriffying but with those low HP bench sitters waiting to be sniped can be picked apart, and if they can't keep hitting their skyfields the damage output doesnt quite reach high enough. Shaymin helps to draw, but since LTC banning it can't be abused and is a liability on the bench with Lysandre in the format. Seismitoad is irritating and locks down a whole portion of peoples decks but is woefully low on damage output and can get rolled so long as you can keep a few energy attachments on your pokemon to hit big enough damage, or cause sleep/paralyze/confusion since the high retreat cost will send them digging for a switch over and over. Hoopa is a spot on the bench that could be better filled with a useful pokemon, and getting 3 pokemon ex is not relevant to a lot of decks or worth the space in the deck or the bench so will never be that OP, and with a 2 retreat cost will send people digging for switch again if lysandre'd and can put them in a tricky spot since it is useless offensively and lacks shaymins ability to return to the hand.
I could go on and on but I'll leave it there, every card that people call "broken" has a counter and so long as you learn how to play with those cards in the format they suddenly seem a whole lot less broken...
I guess it depends on one's definition of 'broken'. For me broken is not the same as format defining, overcentralizing, overpowered, etc. It's more towards the overall health of the game in terms of viability of decks and so on. I do agree with you, that this is one of the more varied formats (considering how relatively few broken cards there are), but it could still be better given how Stage 2s (except Crobat and Klingklang, and a few Archie/Maxie techs) are left in the dust. I agree that EXs are for the most part not broken, because they aren't. They are made broken by all the broken cards sitting around them.
For me one of the most broken cards in the format is DCE, because while +2 Colorless seems innocent enough, the fact is that it makes the game have huge jumps in speed early on, making it harder for the more time requiring cards to cope. It can be said to be one of the main reasons for Stage 2s not being very successful through Seismitoad and a score of other fast attacking Pokemon, and hell, from the very moment it got reprinted bumped off Salamence LVL.X out of ever seeing competitve play (along with some other decks) thanks to Garchomp C being able to power up Dragon Rush in a single turn. DCE is to date the only card in existence to grant 2 energy at the cost of a single deck slot with no other drawback besides the innate weaknesses behind Special Energies as a whole. Every other forms of Energy acceleration needs at least 2 to get you [C][C], or comes with a drawback like reducing the damage you deal, being discarded at the end of your turn or being attach-able to only certain Pokemon. Something like this could work if attacks that cost [C][C] aren't all that good while a lot of decent Pokemon could use it slightly later to power up their bigger attacks (look at Donphan as an example), but right now a lot of cards can do plenty of impact for only those 2 Energy.
Hypnotoxic laser is another card that is fairly broken. With Virbank in play it is a free Triple Pluspower that continues to deal damage going into your turn for +6 damage. Even without Virbank it is a card that can put damage on you without you needing to 'activate' it with an offensive attack, and even comes with a chance to Sleep, to boot. It really hurts lower HP Pokemon, and plus, it is poison damage. Killing with it does not trigger a whole lot of effects like Teammates, Retaliation and Revenge. The biggest problem with this card lies in how accessible it is. For comparison's sake, Ariados, who gives a similar effect, needs a minimum of 2 cards with it being harder to get into play T1, has the drawback of poisoning your non-Grass Pokemon (or not poisoning your opponent's Grass Pokemon), can be Lysandre'd out and does not come with sleep. Outside of the ability to be used continuously or under Item lock, Ariados loses out to Laser or many fronts, especially in speed.
As for Muscle Band and Strong Energy, the problem with them lies in the fact that they let you build out damage too quickly. We all know Landorus EX's famous 100 damage (overall) T1, hitting for 70 active with Band + Strong and 30 to the Bench. While Landorus has its own issues, both Strong Energy and Muscle Band has theirs as well. When we talk about game speed and game pacing, it is necessary to note not just how they are overall, but also how they are at each certain point. Muscle Band and Strong Energy, for the cost of a slot each, makes an attack jump from a damage tier of a 1 Energy attack to something that needs 2 or more Energies. To bring back the Hammerhead example, for 1 Strong and 1 Band you have the damage output of Xerneas EX's Break Through, a 3 Energy attack!
I'll end it here, since I'm pretty exhausted from having to get up at 3am to catch the Worlds live stream.
