Weekly TCG Discussion #3

[Nigel]

Hello there, PokéBeach. This is part three of a series of Portal Posts that I'd like to call the "Weekly TCG Discussion" series. The point of this series is to get players informed of Pokémon TCG related news as well as promote competitive observations of certain Japan-exclusive cards. In these Monday evening posts, you will also be informed of any news that will affect the TCG section of the forums. Without further ado, let us begin.

Important TCG Forum News!​

The TCG moderating team has started rolling out new changes and fresh coats of paint throughout the TCG forums. Take a quick look at some of the most important changes:

Deck Garage: This Forum is now for ONLY B/W-on decks. Any decklists posted from other formats will be moved to the Alternate Formats forum if we find them, but no warnings will be given out. We've also updated both stickies replacing anything old that referenced HG/SS-on with B/W-on terms and the new current Modified card list.

Also, as a quick notice concerning the Deck Garage and other forums where decklists are posted: We strongly recommend that you re-read the Deck Garage Rules even if you have in the past. We have seen many posts that are lacking in content like explanations for changes and other off-topic like posts. We don't want to have to crack down hard, so please remember to follow the rules and report any posts that you see breaking them in the Deck Garage!

Alternate Formats: We are branding this forum as the all inclusive non-Current format forum now. We've got a short Forum Rules thread that was written up by [smod]Vulpix Yolk[/smod] and the TCG mods. Anything not concerning B/W-on will be residing in this sub forum. (This includes decklists. You may already find that your thread has been moved.) To help with labeling threads there, we have added a variety of new prefixes to use to tell members which format your deck is in. We have also changed the stickied Speculation thread as including each Japanese release that we see come out before it's released in the States. Currently the discussion is concerning the recent Japanese Freeze Bolt and Cold Flare sets so jump on in the speculating!

New Player's Plaza: Previously, Unlimited decks were to be posted in this sub forum. Now all Unlimited decks will be going in the Alternate Formats sub forum. We've provided thread prefixes there for your convenience! The Rules sticky has also been slightly changed to be consistent with the new format.

We hope that these changes will help simplify a couple things in these forums and subsequently make them more successful. If you notice any inconsistencies or strange word choices that remain in the stickies, please notify [mod]dmaster[/mod] via PM.

Grains of Sand winners this past week!​

Spoiler

• [member]RogueChomp[/member] - 5
  
• [member]Celebi23[/member] - 2 (Observation of the Week Winner)
  
• [member]JPN Gallade[/member] - 1, 1
  
• [member]PumpedAaron[/member] - 1
  
• [member]Mora[/member] - 1

PokéBeach news/reminders!​

Spoiler

• See above for important TCG forum news!
• The Website Feedback forum still exists! It's times like these where we are in need of member feedback! Every single post of feedback will be considered.
• We are in need of TCG articles. If you are interested, please PM [smod]Nigel[/smod] with a topic you are interested in writing about and I will let you know if it is taken or available.

TCG News in a Nutshell:​

Spoiler

• Fall 2012 Tin Promo Scans. + DRX Blister Pack Promos
• Cubchoo and Beartic from Plasma Gale Revealed
• Articuno-EX and Giratina confirmed for Plasma Gale

Competitive Observation of the Week: ​

Jellicent from Freeze Bolt​

Spoiler: Translation

Jellicent – Water – HP100
Stage 1 – Evolves from Frillish

Ability: Sickness
While this Pokemon is in play, your opponent’s Pokemon must discard one extra Energy in order to retreat.

[W][C][C] Strange Light: 40 damage. Flip a coin. If heads, the Defending Pokemon is now Confused.

Weakness: Lightning (x2)
Resistance: none
Retreat: 3

1) If you could change this card for the better, what would you change?

2) If any, which archetypes do you see this card in?

Please PM all answers to the Observation of the Week to [smod]Nigel[/smod]. The most thorough answer will be featured in next week's Weekly TCG Discussion post and that member will be awarded 2 Grains of Sand!

Last week's winner:

Spoiler: Celebi23

1) If you could change this card for the better, what would you change?
This card is amazing as it is. We have the slightly-above-standard 180HP for an EX, Its attack leaves a little to be desired; the discard is especially costly but other than that it's basically a Blue Flare on an EX. Once we factor in Catcher and the Ability though, it's awesome. It can win the game in three turns by only taking Prize cards off of support Pokémon like Altaria!

Its Weakness and Retreat Cost aren't perfect, but they balance the card well. The Weakness forces it to be paired with something else, assuming Eelektrik remains good when this card is released, and it's not quite as splashable as it could be thanks to the double Retreat.

Now, imo this was done WAY too early as we don't know what all the cards Lugia will be released alongside are. But if it was just released with Colress Machine and Plasma Energy in the current format, it would be a little too good. So I really don't want to change anything to make it better, obviously. Fortunately the wording on the question isn't perfectly clear, so since I believe the card would be better for the game if it was slightly worse, assuming we don't get anything to balance it in the set it's released in, I can change the card for the "better" by making it slightly worse. (So long as we assume that we're interested in the good of the format, not in the good of Lugia-EX itself, anyway.)

The main thing I'd do is make the attack only do 100 - still enough to OHKO most support Pokémon, but not so devastating that it can make crazy plays with PlusPower or spreaders like Registeel-EX to OHKO attackers. However, I'd also allow it to do 10 damage to a Benched Pokémon to set up some really cool possibilities with its Ability to take 4-6 Prizes on rare occasion. It's so gimmicky that it wouldn't make the card any better, and the loss of base damage would make it slightly worse, but it allows for a little extra outplay room and maneuverability and makes the card more interesting overall. A vanilla 120 is kind of lame.

The other thing I'd do is remove the Resistance; Lugia isn't supposed to have the role of a counter-card. That's reserved for more plain cards like Tornadus-EX and Groudon-EX, so there's no good reason to have that there. It makes the card too good in specific situations.

Lastly, I'd cut out 10HP. It wouldn't actually make a difference in 99% of situations, but 170HP just feels better for a card as good as Lugia-EX; most of the better EX's we've seen have had sub-180HP, with Darkrai-EX being the exception. And he was a little too good also.

So we'd end up with this:

Lugia-EX - Colorless - HP170
Basic Pokemon (Team Plasma)

Ability: Overflow
For each of your opponent's Pokemon that is Knocked Out by damage from Lugia-EX's attacks, take 1 more Prize card.

[C][C][C][C] Plasma Gale: 100 damage. This attack does 10 damage to 1 of your opponent's Benched Pokémon. Discard 1 Plasma Energy attached to this Pokemon or this attack does nothing.

When Pokemon-EX has been Knocked Out, your opponent takes 2 Prize cards.

Weakness: Lightning (x2)
Resistance:
Retreat: 2

2) If any, which archetypes do you see this card in?
Again, since this was done so early, who knows? We don't know anything about half the Plasma Engine and we don't know what the new cards are. But currently, or in three months anyway, it could work well with Blastoise. It naturally pairs with spreaders like Kyogre-EX and Kyurem, so they could set up KOs for Lugia-EX, then Blastoise could charge it very quickly for Lugia to sweep. The only bad thing it that it's more Lightning weakness.

The card can work well with a lot of things since it only takes Colorless Energy; anything with room for Plasma + Energy Acceleration (could be Colress or something else) would want Lugia-EX. Odds are that its true calling will be in a Plasma deck that involved cards that haven't been released yet, though.

I'll refrain from making any decklists because we don't really know what cards will be in the English set alongside Lugia-EX.

This past week, I received a ton of Observation of the Week entries. Because of this, it was hard to choose a winner, but Celebi23's entry had the most content, and got to the point better than any other observation.