Article Trumping Trump Card: Implications of a Change and a New Format

[themiraclemeat]

"In conclusion, some decks will die upon the ban of Trump Card, and others will wither, but hold on, as a mere shadow of their former glory. Still others will rise to new heights upon the winds of this breathtaking change."

Could you elaborate on this conclusion? Like which decks die and which decks rise to new heights?

 

[Liriane]

"In conclusion, some decks will die upon the ban of Trump Card, and others will wither, but hold on, as a mere shadow of their former glory. Still others will rise to new heights upon the winds of this breathtaking change."

Could you elaborate on this conclusion? Like which decks die and which decks rise to new heights?

Well, I believe there will be an article coming from one of my fellow authors on this topic, but I'm happy to explain my personal beliefs!

Trump Card being banned basically kills the build of ShayTrev seen at regionals. I would know, I played it; I prized LTC once and that alone cost me a game. The deck needs to cycle. Same with Turbo MRay.

Now, that's not to say these decks cannot be restructured more conservatively, but it will be difficult to do so seeing as their only goal was to run through early game cards.

As for withering, Toad is the best example here. While still playable, as it was playable before PHF, it no longer has the ability to spam hammers, lasers, etc to infinity. This, along with a cap of 4 DCE, has wounded the deck greatly. However, Items are still strong enough to ensure Item lock is powerful.

As for strengthen, this basically leaves the decks not hurt too greatly. Whatever doesn't kill you, right? Groudon, Flareon, and even Night March jump to mind, each because they were either unaffected by trump card or previously hurt by it.

Also to consider are decks with Empoleon, as they can use the ability fossil Pokémon such as Archen or Lileep to prevent deck outs, so don't be surprised if we see more of that in the future in decks like MRay or maybe even ShayTrev.

Well, that's my opinion on the decks anyway. like I said, watch out for new articles by my fellow writers on the topic!

 

[TheStrictNein]

LTC going means we need junk arm back in the format. Discard recycling is a fundamental part of the TCG in my mind, but controlled means would be the best way to go about it.

Also, when are we going to get this card in an English set:

Energy Recycle: Shuffle 5 Basic Energy cards from your discard pile into your deck

 

[Luispipe8]

Amazing article, Christina, I really enjoyed it! Now I know what to read after I exit Physics class like today, because those jokes cheered me up indeed.

I've been playing Toad/Bats for a while now, and it was nice to be able to throw everything through the window and Sycamore every turn because you had a Trump Card, but it was indeed broken. I even got to hate Seismitoad myself when a Toad/Shaymin deck literally rolled over my Gallade deck in the TCGO. Dx I feel this ban will be certainly good in the long run. And as TheStrictNein said, we might get something similar to Junk Arm sometime soon, specially with Dowsing Machine getting rotated.

 

[Solothorn_TCG]

And trust me i've been compaining about Learn From the past from the moment the card was announced as a spoiler in Dragons Of Tarkir. THat is my point exactly. This card is virtually unplayable in all tier 1 decks right now. Still it removes the ability to lose via staying out of cards and thus it should not exist (although with the existence of the counter mechanic this is not necessarily a problem for ebery single deck in the format).

Lysandre's Trump Card also exists in MTG standard right now. Learn From the Past. Play two and you would never deck out. It only shuffles in your discard pile.

 

[Wolfgirl90]

Also, I'm questioning whether people even care whats best for the game. So much salt over having to give up the herpderp draw spam. It's like people care more about their decks than the game as a whole.

I think some of the frustration stems from the fact that TPCi is trying to reign in a monster of their own creation right before Nationals. This ban effects virtually every major deck archetype in some way (TastyToads gets weaker, Night March gets stronger). The timing of the ban is weird because we JUST got cards like Mega Turbo and Shaymin-EX and we know that Hoopa-EX is coming and what it does. It seemed as if the game was getting faster and faster (Japan even had commercials showing how fast Shaymin-EX and Hoopa-EX could burn through a deck for Rayquaza) and then TPCi decided to slam on the brakes upon realizing the madness of it all.

I will admit that I took full advantage of this blatant oversight in the rules. However, if TPCi had been paying the slightest bit of attention over the last 2-3 sets (or the game as whole in the last few years), we probably wouldn't be having this discussion.

 

[Solothorn_TCG]

You are absolutely right, TPCi somehow managed to miss something so obvious. But as far as the commercials ''burning'' the whole deck i believe things won't be affected that badly. Every respected tcg has aggro decks and that was a demonstration of aggro, turn 1:set a M-rayquaza EX to 220 damage, turn 2(or even 1 with the miracle hand): power up with energy and prepare a second M-Rayquaza, turn 3-5: try to win,turn 6+ : If you have failed most likely a control oriented deck will overcome you (either by it's disruprion/combo nature or by having you on a clock as far os your remaining cards go). To sum up i believe aggros will still be a viable choice but we will get rid of the ''Toad or Aggro'' logic.

I think some of the frustration stems from the fact that TPCi is trying to reign in a monster of their own creation right before Nationals

 

[TheStrictNein]

You are absolutely right, TPCi somehow managed to miss something so obvious. But as far as the commercials ''burning'' the whole deck i believe things won't be affected that badly. Every respected tcg has aggro decks and that was a demonstration of aggro, turn 1:set a M-rayquaza EX to 220 damage, turn 2(or even 1 with the miracle hand): power up with energy and prepare a second M-Rayquaza, turn 3-5: try to win,turn 6+ : If you have failed most likely a control oriented deck will overcome you (either by it's disruprion/combo nature or by having you on a clock as far os your remaining cards go). To sum up i believe aggros will still be a viable choice but we will get rid of the ''Toad or Aggro'' logic.

I don't think Aggro decks will ever be the viable tournament choice, just due to sheer inconsistency. You have to do 7-8 or more rounds for a big tournament on day one alone, more if you get into the Top Cut. Each round is three games, so that's 21 or more games. An aggro deck that works 50/50 is not good enough for that.

Speed Rayquaza will get lucky, but it won't win tournaments. LTC ban makes slower more consistent decks the format favourites.

 

[Solothorn_TCG]

I don't think Aggro decks will ever be the viable tournament choice

It is not consistent sure. But that is what aggro decks are. Speed and simplicity over conistancy. I still believe we can see some of them.

 

[Frost Mage]

I honestly don't even use LTC in any of my decks. Yeah it was a great tool to prevent you from decking out essentially, but that's all I used it for - Not decking out. I never used it in the sense that I burned through my deck then LTC'ed everything back in to rinse and repeat. This ban doesn't really affect me or any of the decks I play. For those of you looking for alternatives, there is Sacred Ash and Energy Retrieval for Standard and Super Rod for Expanded. I've personally been experimenting a lot with Battle Compressor and I can say it combos nicely with many cards such as Energy Retrieval, Revive and Max Revive. And as others have stated, this ban was a great decision by TPCi. The whole "YOLO" draw power was ridiculously out of hand, and now it's been balanced. Not to mention, us Flareon players can finally come out again and give one last hurrah before the next rotation

What decks did you play that didn't play it?

 

[Domo Csogi]

Well I think in bandit ring or break evloution gonna replace ltc and trying to change format it by alot

 

[thood]

What decks did you play that didn't play it?

Flareon, Night March, Yveltal, Primal Kyogre, and my new current deck which is a Raichu XY/Sky Field deck. I just never really found a need to shuffle back all my cards, especially since it's for BOTH players.

 

[Wolfgirl90]

Flareon, Night March, Yveltal, Primal Kyogre, and my new current deck which is a Raichu XY/Sky Field deck. I just never really found a need to shuffle back all my cards, especially since it's for BOTH players.

I use Primal Kyogre as well, however, I run (well, ran, I guess) one copy of LTC in my deck because my local metagame is just lousy with Night March. I has saved me many, many times.

 

[Otaku]

Might as well just make it a list instead of trying to quote all of the stuff; if people are no longer paying attention I'm sure someone else will refute me if I am mistaken:

1) I enjoyed the article.

2) TPCi is not that "powerful". Unfortunately between previous misunderstandings, name changes/reorganizing throughout the years I don't know who officially designs the cards, who officially "okays" them, how much those who market the game or make the decisions will influence card design, etc. So for ease of discussion, "the-powers-that-be" in Japan are the ones to both blame for the creation of Lysandre's Trump Card and credit for its banning. At best TPCi had input enough to say "I do/don't think we should ban Lysandre's Trump Card."

3) This ban does seem to be the overall best solution for improving the game right now; there are many cards I think are unhealthy for the game but they also are cards people enjoy and even if not, are both too numerous and too likely to rotate out soon to bother banning. Don't want the "cure" to be worse than the "disease", so I usually agree with the "just wait for it to rotate" approach.

4) "Slow" is apparently quite relative. The game will slow down now from "White knuckle thrill ride" to "breakneck speed" =P I miss when you had a few turns of building and then things got frenetic unless one or both players were indeed using a slower strategy.

5a) Yeah, three annoying, closely related ones. While other games have "discard purge" effects, most of those games aren't Pokémon. I don't mean that they don't affect me because I don't play them, but rather that the mechanics are different. In some games, you can't lose via deck out, in others its the only win condition.

5b) Likely more relevant given the Magic: The Gathering talk is the different mechanics: Mana costs, more control/counters including ones you activate on an opponent's turn, likely "removed from play" is still seen there, side decks, etc... and even then that doesn't mean the "discard purge" effect is truly balanced, just better handled. I don't know Magic: The Gathering apart from the most basic elements of play and Deranged Hermit because Squirrel Tokens are funny and I used to read InQuest.

5c) I also learned in Yu-Gi-Oh (and should have learned in Pokémon) that often times people just love broken cards and especially when said cards are helping them win, will be adamant that they are totally "skill cards" and "balanced". If you don't play Yu-Gi-Oh the examples won't make sense but I'm talking people that would defend the likes of Raigeki, Harpie's Feather Duster, etc. and not just the more nuanced or complicated but still broken ones.

6a) Junk Arm was broken in its own right; in a format with Ace Spec cards, VS Seeker and the current control decks, it would be even more broken...

6b) ...yes there is more than just "broken" (unbalanced) and "not broken" (balanced). Crazy though it may sound at first, "broken" cards don't even have to actually be currently part of the metagame. How does that work? Consider the Ace Spec mechanic; even if you think all of the current Ace Spec cards are perfectly balanced, just pretend there was one you considered completely broken. Great, now consider another that is also broken. Whichever one is better than the other, it doesn't make the other one balanced, even if everyone chooses to just use the best of the two.