Discussion Battle Arena Deck balance

[Nidogod]

Hi there. I've been dabbling very casually in Pokemon TCG for the past year. My kids are finally old enough to play, so we're getting some games in. When I heard about the Battle Arena Decks, I was very excited. I love the idea of an out-of-the-box, 2-player experience that everyone can enjoy. The first one (and the only one so far) that I have purchased is the Xerneas vs. Yveltal decks.

The Xerneas vs. Yveltal Battle Arena Decks were a horrible experience for me. The Yveltal deck is just too slow to ever get a leg-up on the Fairy deck. Right away, it's an uphill battle for Yveltal because of the fairy resistance to dark-types. They gave some good tools to the Yveltal deck, but then gave the Xerneas deck counters to those. For example, Magnetic Storm negates the darkness resistance, but then Xerneas can kick it out with Fairy Garden. The Yveltal deck has Muscle Band, but Xerneas counters that with Hard Charm. The Yveltal deck has a bunch of status conditions, but the Xerneas deck has Full Heal AND can retreat at will with Fairy Garden.

This awful experience has kept me from exploring other Battle Arena Decks, but I really want to know how balanced the other deck pairs are and most "reviews" just talk about whether the cards are good for building other decks, not about how balanced the pre-cons are.

So, here's what I'm hoping to hear from the community.

1. If you've played a Battle Arena Decks product for several games, how balanced do you feel that product is?

2. If you've played multiple Battle Arena Decks, how would you rank each product on balance?

3. If there are balance problems with other Battle Arena Decks, feel free to articulate those issues here.

 

[Nidogod]

So I take it most people are using Battle Arena Decks for parts rather than as a ready-to-play Pokémon experience. Disappointing.

 

[Pikachu6319]

For many people that is exactly what Battle Arena decks are; parts. Some use it to fill any holes they may have for expanded stuff or where relevant standards. I myself only got Xerneas vs. Yveltal for the new cards. Most long term players are playing decks far more individually built than these pre cone ones, let alone theme decks.

 

[Luxray]

I personally have only used the Keldeo vs Rayquaza and B. Kyurem vs W. Kyurem decks. However, I love them. (keldeo v ray especially). Keldeo vs Rayquaza is pretty well balanced in my opinion, and if you disagree then they each have a few "useless" cards you can switch out to even things up (kind of like the potions in theme decks. They each have some alternate attackers who I very rarely use due to high energy costs.) The Kyurems are less exciting to play and so I don't use that set as much, but they also seemed pretty well balanced to me.