Are Donks Really Unhealthy for this Game?

Card Slinger J

Aspiring Trainer
Member
I've been getting alot of complaints on Pojo from Pokemon players who are experiencing donks more often which leads me to the question with how to solve the problem in the first place.

They say that POP/PUI or "Play Pokemon!" needs to change the mulligan system to where it's not so bad. So instead of having to stick with just one Basic Pokemon in your starting hand you could mulligan until you get more than 1 Basic to make things fair.

What do you guys think?
 
It's luck of the draw. TPCi isn't going to change the rules so we can guarantee ourselves a better hand. Sometimes you get killer starting hands with one Basic. Sometimes, you start with the Unown Q. You can easily play more Basics to make donks less of a problem.
 
If you want to hear my opinion, I think pojo players are all noobs. They all probably play decks like Kingdra and Jumpluff. They are experiencing donks because they don't use decks based around the metagame. I have only experienced two donks in a tournament last season, and one of them was extremely unlikely. Basicly, good decks have low chances of getting donked.
 
Wrongo. Go ahead and play your SP deck with a huge number of basics and Call Energy. Have fun starting Lone Uxie and face a T1 Machamp/Kingdra/Jumpluff/etc etc. ANYTHING can get donked with a bit of bad luck, and therefore donks ARE bad for the game.
 
Someone at my league suggested that on your first turn, you can`t attack, instead you can only play trainers. Do you think that will work?[/quote]
 
I've thought donks were bad for the game since SF came out. It really drives me nuts when you go first, and have what you need to get more basics, but can't play them. And then you get donked.

When we play massive free-for-alls at league we institute a rule that if all of your pokemon get knocked out, you just keep playing by drawing at the start of every turn until you get a basic, or a card that lets you get a basic. This wouldn't work well in 2v2 play, but you could make a rule that every opponents turn that you don't have something active, they get a free prize. So this would work really well to take care of the situation in the first paragraph.

The other option would be to let the first player play supporters but not trainers or stadiums. Personally I think going first is horribly worse in the format than going second. If you let them play supporters, they can get more pokemon out, but can't evolve them. So its just about as hard for the first player to get the donk, but the second player is less likely to donk because you're more likely to have more pokemon.
 
My friend and I were discussing this yesterday.

I think the easiest solution would be the player that goes first gets to search his deck for 1 basic Pokemon and put it on the bench, which would then end your turn.
 
The last card game I played allowed for 1 free mulligan per game. So if you got a starting hand you didn't like, you could put it on the bottom of your deck and try again. I liked it.
 
stop whining is my opinion. If you up your basic count, you CAN still get donked, but its more unlikely. Also, NJPokedad- I think that's called call energy lol. I see what your talking about, but then people will abuse it somehow. There's no need for a rule change, especially since donks aren't as viable with viletomb becoming huge.
 
^How can viletomb be becoming huge if it hasn't won, or even been played in any tournements? Furthermore we're talking about DONK decks. Its a lot faster to get out a donphan than a vileplume. And you can do so with no trainers at all.
 
True, but its very hard. Im not saying that they don't happen, but they happen pretty rarely, if you play enough basics and call energy.
 
I think donking is just another way to win. I was only donked once this entire season on an Azelf start against SpeedPluff. If you're getting donked repeatedly, that really says something about your consistency.
 
@amisheskimoninja- vileplume has only been out for a month, so it's no wonder it hasn't won many tournaments! BRs are coming up and Viletomb will more popular
 
@amisheskimoninja: Sorry, but as you posted this, my GenPlume deck was getting ready to start the final round of my Battle Road after having defeated a DialgaChomp (which I just found out people use this deck a lot) and a Donphan/Flygon deck. I had to fight the same guy that had a Donphan/Flygon deck and beat him only with just a little difficulty and thanks to this deck, I got another shiny (bad) Battle Road card trophy. Besides, BRs have just started, so it might be a while before GenPlume is completely all out.
 
Rikko145 said:
I think donking is just another way to win. I was only donked once this entire season on an Azelf start against SpeedPluff. If you're getting donked repeatedly, that really says something about your consistency.

That's just like saying Mana Screw in Magic: The Gathering is another way to win but it's not. It's the result of the player who got Mana Screwed having a horrible starting hand regardless of how many times they mulliganed but drew one less card each time.
 
Donking is still a way of wining. Some decks focus on donking to the max and gets the donk at least 90% of the time. One example is a deck we will never be able to play competitive, porygon donk. That deck can use the supporter card hunter that lets both players take up a benched pokemon to their hand up to 5 (maybe more) times on it's first turn (if the opponent starts). That way the donk is ensured and nothing can really be done to prevent it.

(It is/was a japanese top deck using porygon 2 to use 1 more supporter and abusing this power.)

 
donk's make it more challenging to play against but if you play well enough you can reduce the amount of donk's in a game, adding a rule to stop donk's from happening makes the game less challenging, they may be annoying but it is a necessary evil. cya

(If I were to run a donk think luxray AR, oh yeah that so effective... not)
 
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