NRG Manipulation. The wave of the future

[J. Bangle]

For the past few set's I've been confused and slightly miffed by PCl's tendency to create 'hard counters', or cards designed soley to stop a popular strategy. Looking at the last few sets (both in the US and in Japan), I've been amazed at the number of cards designed to nerf the staples of many good decks:

Battle Frontier EM
Medicham ex UF
Feraligator ex UF
Cursed Stone LM
Lunatone/Solrock LM
Latios/Latias HP
Pidgeot d HP
WP NRG

Pokemon is a smart company, and I seriously doubt that they would create cards just to screw with the metagame. So that leaves one question, why? Why, instead of creating new and better combos does PCL release card after card in an attempt to shut down the popular poke-powers and decks?

I've come to the conclusion that PCL is trying to 'push' the general metagame in a certain direction. One type of card/strategy that I have seen grow increasingly popular have been those that manipulate energy.

Energy Manipulation Cards:
Ampahros UF
Meganium ex UF
Holon's Magneton/Electrode DS
Dragonite d DS
Metagross d Ds
Starmie d DS
Gardevoir d Ds
Holon WP, FF, GL DS
Delcatty LM
Huntail/Gorybyss LM
Machamp/Gengar/Cradilly LM
Flygon d HP
Blastoise Ex RG
etc...

Don't get me wrong, wise energy placement and manipulation have been an integral part of the Pokemon TCG since the early days, but the of cards that utilize/move/attach additional energy have increased exponentially within the last few sets. PCl is releasing card after card aimed at destroying many Poke-Power Filled decks, which have dominated the format for the past few years (rock-lock, dragtrode, Ludicargo, Nidoqueen, ZRE). Dragtrode and ZRE are exceptions, as they all focus heavily on energy manipulation, but are overall a small part of the current metagame. It's also true that in order to manipulate energy many pokemon need to use poke-powers, a dilemma I'm still trying to figure out.

I believe that we will be seeing many Dragtrode style deck in the future. Maybe not identical decks, but ones so synchronized that do not need a searcher like Pidgeot or Magcargo. Look at the newer decks (LBS, Mewtric) the ones that are winning tournaments. Many of utilize new trainesr as well as a great deal of energy manipulation.

I remeber the good old days when you didn't have to worry about someone attaching more than one nrg per turn. That was fun.

Any questions or comments would be appreicated, thanks.

 

[Ignatious]

For the past few set's I've been confused and slightly miffed by PCl's tendency to create 'hard counters', or cards designed soley to stop a popular strategy. Looking at the last few sets (both in the US and in Japan), I've been amazed at the number of cards designed to nerf the staples of many good decks:

Battle Frontier EM
Medicham ex UF
Feraligator ex UF
Cursed Stone LM
Lunatone/Solrock LM
Latios/Latias HP
Pidgeot d HP
WP NRG

Pokemon is a smart company, and I seriously doubt that they would create cards just to screw with the metagame. So that leaves one question, why? Why, instead of creating new and better combos does PCL release card after card in an attempt to shut down the popular poke-powers and decks?

I've come to the conclusion that PCL is trying to 'push' the general metagame in a certain direction. One type of card/strategy that I have seen grow increasingly popular have been those that manipulate energy.

Energy Manipulation Cards:
Ampahros UF
Meganium ex UF
Holon's Magneton/Electrode DS
Dragonite d DS
Metagross d Ds
Starmie d DS
Gardevoir d Ds
Holon WP, FF, GL DS
Delcatty LM
Huntail/Gorybyss LM
Machamp/Gengar/Cradilly LM
Flygon d HP
Blastoise Ex RG
etc...

Don't get me wrong, wise energy placement and manipulation have been an integral part of the Pokemon TCG since the early days, but the of cards that utilize/move/attach additional energy have increased exponentially within the last few sets. PCl is releasing card after card aimed at destroying many Poke-Power Filled decks, which have dominated the format for the past few years (rock-lock, dragtrode, Ludicargo, Nidoqueen, ZRE). Dragtrode and ZRE are exceptions, as they all focus heavily on energy manipulation, but are overall a small part of the current metagame. It's also true that in order to manipulate energy many pokemon need to use poke-powers, a dilemma I'm still trying to figure out.

I believe that we will be seeing many Dragtrode style deck in the future. Maybe not identical decks, but ones so synchronized that do not need a searcher like Pidgeot or Magcargo. Look at the newer decks (LBS, Mewtric) the ones that are winning tournaments. Many of utilize new trainesr as well as a great deal of energy manipulation.

I remeber the good old days when you didn't have to worry about someone attaching more than one nrg per turn. That was fun.

Any questions or comments would be appreicated, thanks.

ive found out the hard way that Blastoise is better than any other card up there...

 

[sceptilerancher]

this goes over so many ppls heads on this forum lol

 

[Typhlosion ex fans]

For the past few set's I've been confused and slightly miffed by PCl's tendency to create 'hard counters', or cards designed soley to stop a popular strategy. Looking at the last few sets (both in the US and in Japan), I've been amazed at the number of cards designed to nerf the staples of many good decks:

Battle Frontier EM
Medicham ex UF
Feraligator ex UF
Cursed Stone LM
Lunatone/Solrock LM
Latios/Latias HP
Pidgeot d HP
WP NRG

Pokemon is a smart company, and I seriously doubt that they would create cards just to screw with the metagame. So that leaves one question, why? Why, instead of creating new and better combos does PCL release card after card in an attempt to shut down the popular poke-powers and decks?

I've come to the conclusion that PCL is trying to 'push' the general metagame in a certain direction. One type of card/strategy that I have seen grow increasingly popular have been those that manipulate energy.

Energy Manipulation Cards:
Ampahros UF
Meganium ex UF
Holon's Magneton/Electrode DS
Dragonite d DS
Metagross d Ds
Starmie d DS
Gardevoir d Ds
Holon WP, FF, GL DS
Delcatty LM
Huntail/Gorybyss LM
Machamp/Gengar/Cradilly LM
Flygon d HP
Blastoise Ex RG
etc...

Don't get me wrong, wise energy placement and manipulation have been an integral part of the Pokemon TCG since the early days, but the of cards that utilize/move/attach additional energy have increased exponentially within the last few sets. PCl is releasing card after card aimed at destroying many Poke-Power Filled decks, which have dominated the format for the past few years (rock-lock, dragtrode, Ludicargo, Nidoqueen, ZRE). Dragtrode and ZRE are exceptions, as they all focus heavily on energy manipulation, but are overall a small part of the current metagame. It's also true that in order to manipulate energy many pokemon need to use poke-powers, a dilemma I'm still trying to figure out.

I believe that we will be seeing many Dragtrode style deck in the future. Maybe not identical decks, but ones so synchronized that do not need a searcher like Pidgeot or Magcargo. Look at the newer decks (LBS, Mewtric) the ones that are winning tournaments. Many of utilize new trainesr as well as a great deal of energy manipulation.

I remeber the good old days when you didn't have to worry about someone attaching more than one nrg per turn. That was fun.

Any questions or comments would be appreicated, thanks.

Cards I think is good:

Medicham ex-Blocking all pokepowers and pokebodies. Combo with Espeon ex ~Espycham
Lunatone/Solrock-Need in T2 deck~T2 Arcanine
Holon Electrode/Magneton-Provide any 2 energy
Dragonite d-Search discard pile for 1 lightning energy~Metalnite
Metagross d-Draw 1 card from your deck top 4 cards & crush and burn~Metalnite

Sice when UF got medicham ex? Promo? Suppose to be EM right? Pigeot RG is better as it can search your deck for 1 card you need.