An Idea for an Alternate Format

[Shiny Shinx]

So, as I'm sure you're all aware, Unlimited is probably the worst format in existence, where the game is usually decided by the opening flip. Now, I'd love to be able to play in a format with cards of any age, but the truth of the matter is, as long as you have a pool of cards that big, some unbelievably broken combos will pop up. An alternative that I've thought of is cutting out anything released by Wizards, but even in RS-on, there's just too many cards, and decks like Shiftry donk and Forretress FLF donk will still run rampant.

That's where I came up with my latest idea. Ten sets seems to be the average size of a Standard format at any time (with nine being the low and fourteen being the high, during the Nintendo era).

What I suggest, is a format in which someone, at the start of each season (a season being a year at most, depending on the amount of people involved, it could just be six months, or even four months), randomly selects ten sets from the post-Wizards era. In an effort to keep things balanced, allowing the older sets in the random selection to remain viable, some sort of quota would have to exist, so that the ten sets would be comprised of one XY-block set, two BW-block sets, three DPPt/HGSS block sets, and four ex-Series sets. This way, the newer, power-crept cards would be outnumbered by the older, less OP cards.

Would anyone be interested in playing such a format? I imagine proxies would be very prevalent, as some of the older cards can be rather tricky to obtain. If enough people are interested, I'd love to begin setting this format up! (and coming up with a name for it)

~SS

 

[Otaku]

Sounds like a bad idea, to be honest. Selecting 10 random sets will most likely result in a lot of cards either lacking intended combo partners or counters. Another issue is how the rules have changed over the years as well; this also will likely cause problems.

Might just be better to revive older formats, possibly with ban lists if in hindsight the format was fairly stagnant. For example I tested Base Set through Fossil with no Energy Removal or Super Energy Removal and it made a sizable difference. Haymaker was still the best established deck, but now it and some of the other famous, long successful decks of that era (Rain Dance, WigglyMuk, etc.) were on more or less even footing with it or even had an edge, while newer (or less used older) decks emerged. Since I was testing most of this solo, maybe I'm wrong on the specifics, but that is the concept.

 

[DmightyB]

Remember that each generations has certain advantages over the other , while for example: Diamond and Pearl are longer than EX and XY series due to no exes taking 2 prizes, and also the power of the attack has greatly changed throughout the years .

 

[Rusery]

Sounds like a fun idea, until someone figures out theres only 1 viable deck archetype and then we are back to square one. A better idea would be to print new cards that push new and interesting playstyles. Currently we seem to be dominated by only 2 types of decks and i think if they work at not re-printing obviously OP cards the meta might actually evolve into something fun.