Discussion Hot Techs for After Rotation
- Thread starter awesomeMSG
- Start date
Don't want to quote and tag everyone, but as long as everyone is paying attention, that shouldn't be an issue. 
Stadium wars have been important since the latter half of the BW-era, but yes I suspect they are going to become much more important again. It isn't so much that they were unimportant pre-rotation as much as certain decks just did not have room but were awesome in other ways, so they could get by making that cut. I am thinking we are also going to see a lot of mixed Stadium lines, because there are a lot of them that just make good TecH (like Silent Lab) while others are just great for a particular deck... except in the mirror, where getting rid of it can lead you to clever plays. Well, in some hypothetical cases. Anyway, at times when Stadium cards have been super-duper important, decks have actually run four or five as a common amount, with certain (competitive) decks going as high as eight. Exactly when is a bit hazy, but I'm talking like back in 2004, 2005, or 2006 (I think). So a 2-2 or 2-3 split might become the norm.
Or as we've been discussing, a Paint Roller or two, or a Delinquent or two. Then there are the decks that just can't use any Stadium well enough to bother, in which delinquent can still work as TecH thanks to VS Seeker, but if you have no Stadium cards in your deck, you'll probably need two or three Paint Roller. Personally I believe the two are pretty evenly matched up; I tried both when they were new and too often they were dead draws. Ignoring that it might reshape the entire format, if Battle Compressor were still legal, I believe Delinquent would have the ultimate advantage. Using it well is about timing; N is better for hand disruption largely because its N and you're often using it for draw power at the same time.
Stadium wars have been important since the latter half of the BW-era, but yes I suspect they are going to become much more important again. It isn't so much that they were unimportant pre-rotation as much as certain decks just did not have room but were awesome in other ways, so they could get by making that cut. I am thinking we are also going to see a lot of mixed Stadium lines, because there are a lot of them that just make good TecH (like Silent Lab) while others are just great for a particular deck... except in the mirror, where getting rid of it can lead you to clever plays. Well, in some hypothetical cases.
Anyway, at times when Stadium cards have been super-duper important, decks have actually run four or five as a common amount, with certain (competitive) decks going as high as eight. Exactly when is a bit hazy, but I'm talking like back in 2004, 2005, or 2006 (I think). So a 2-2 or 2-3 split might become the norm.Or as we've been discussing, a Paint Roller or two, or a Delinquent or two. Then there are the decks that just can't use any Stadium well enough to bother, in which delinquent can still work as TecH thanks to VS Seeker, but if you have no Stadium cards in your deck, you'll probably need two or three Paint Roller. Personally I believe the two are pretty evenly matched up; I tried both when they were new and too often they were dead draws. Ignoring that it might reshape the entire format, if Battle Compressor were still legal, I believe Delinquent would have the ultimate advantage. Using it well is about timing; N is better for hand disruption largely because its N and you're often using it for draw power at the same time.
This is why I feel Paint Roller will be the equalizer. Paint Roller is of a design I would like to see more of in Pokemon, though I would like to see a card that can discard any Trainer card in play, making a 4 of staple in any deck, with the same draw one card if you do discard anything. Because discard effects are so popular, players can discard extra stadium cards and Paint Roller lets me discard something so I dont need to play a Stadium I'm not ready to play yet and with deck space at a premium, most decks are playing 3-4 stadium cards and with me testing 3 Stadiums and 2 Paint Rollers, I technically have 5 spaces dedicated to the Stadium War.
Sadly I feel that evolution is a played out mechanic the way it exist and should be removed from the game. They just need to make everything a basic Pokemon or change how utility effects work in the game.
Sadly I feel that evolution is a played out mechanic the way it exist and should be removed from the game. They just need to make everything a basic Pokemon or change how utility effects work in the game.
Drawing one card is a good secondary effect when the primary is too weak to otherwise justify. Discarding a Stadium qualifies because of the high risk Paint Roller shows up at the wrong time, either too early or too late. That is part of why I gave up on it myself, but again that was shortly after it was introduced. The other part was lack of room for decks where it might have otherwise worked, like Fighting decks that could snag it via Korrina. I don't know yet whether or not it works now.
As for the Evolution mechanic in the TCG, it isn't so much "played out" as "never properly implemented".
We've discussed that several times on several message boards. I think I even have a few Private Conversations on this board that started but then died out, where I was explaining how it is a matter of properly pacing the game. Getting rid of most "short cuts" that are on cards which themselves can be played those first few turns of the game, be it Energy acceleration, Evolution acceleration. Even some of the draw/search power is a problem. Bulk up HP scores. Lower damage outputs on cards that can attack quickly. Stop making most Evolving Pokémon filler but instead let them contribute to the deck. Probably straying into "off topic" territory going into it deeper so yeah, anyone who cares fire off a PM. PC? Whatever it is called on this board. That or start a new thread. XD