Flip Effects

shadoworganoid

shadoworganoid

"Crimson Dance, Yugetsu!"
Member
For a while now the matter of cards with "flip" effects has been bugging me.

There are countless cards in the game that require a coin flip as part of an attack, power, body, or Trainer effect.

Ive heard lots of bad about these types of cards though...

For example, we have SP flips such as Absol G Lv X. Its pokepower is very good, but you flip 3 coins. As long as you get at least 1 heads, you gain somthing awesome from that power.
-But many people dont like it because its too flippy.
I say, "so what?" You can easily poketurn it after all and try again. With 4 poketurns in most/all SP decks, you can spam that power up to 5 or 6 times. (depending on how many of the X you have)
For this card, the flippy risk is outweighed by the possible gain.

Now we have Normal pokemon flips such as Drapion Lv X.
Its power is a coin flip too, with yet again, an awesome effect.
-Again, people say that because its a coin flip abiltiy, its not worth it.
I still say "so what?". The better the effect, the more costly it is expected to be. (needs to be fair)
However, unlike absol G, its not as easy to just scoop up and retry.
The plus here is that you can use it every turn.

Lastly we have Trainer Flips such as Super Scoop Up.
Many trainer cards are good, but involve a coin flip.
I myself dislike these types of cards the most as they cant be scooped up and for a retry. Its a all or nothing card. 1 shot.
-While cards like this ARE just as likely/unlikly to work, people use them still.
Yet these are the hardest types of effects to work or rely on.


All of these coin flips have 1 thing in common; The odds of flipping heads is the same.
Weather its 3 coin flips, or 1.


The older AMU deck was very popular and very good right? I know for a fact it uses Super Scoop up. As mentioned, that trainer card requires heads to work, yet despite the odds, its played as a very key card.

Same for other effects across the board.

which brings me to my point; Why are some coin flip cards accepted as ok, while others are just plain avoided?
-Its not like the odds of flipping heads for Absol is any lower then flipping heads for SSU.

What are YOUR thoughts and opinions people?


PS: If I rambled a bit, sorry.
 
Flippy cards are interesting, to say the very least. Yes, you do bring up a good point that SSU is a flippy card, but is used in most decks. That's because the flip is worth it. You have a 50-50 chance to wipe the slate clean on your pokemon's damage. That is what is awesome about it. People use Gengar a lot, mainly because of Fainting spell. A 50-50 chance for a prize exchange? Sounds good to me.

However, remember that most of the things you mentioned are powers. That is, victims of Power Spray or Power Lock. While this might not make so much sense against Drapion, let me continue.

While Drapion's power is flippy, I'm sure that anybody who uses Drapion uses that power at some point or another. Poison for 30 damage a turn is just beastly. However, this is Drapion we're talking about. It takes too long to set up, even with Upper or Weavile SW to help it. So the power isn't used because the card isn't.

As far as Absol? People who use Absol will use that power. But completely relying on that power is stupid. Sure, if you use everything you can to maximize the number of times you use it, you can send about half of your opponent's deck to the Lost Zone. The problem is that you're relying too much on luck. And that's where the deck fails.

The point is that flippy powers are used...they just aren't completely relied on. No rants for you.
 
You have good points too. Yeah I know, some effects or more needed then others so we take the risk.

But using Absol as the example again, dont you think its worth the risk to send up to 3 cards to the lost zone? Especially if you get lucky and send away their lv x card.


Let me ask you this, if Luxray Lv X's power was a flip effect, would everyone still love luxray?
 
shadoworganoid said:
You have good points too. Yeah I know, some effects or more needed then others so we take the risk.

But using Absol as the example again, don't you think its worth the risk to send up to 3 cards to the lost zone? Especially if you get lucky and send away their lv x card.


Let me ask you this, if Luxray Lv X's power was a flip effect, would everyone still love luxray?
Click to expand...

I don't have to think it's worth it. All the people who tried it during CCs and BRs this season have already proved that it isn't worth it. When I first saw the translation, I thought it was godly. But now I know differently. It's decent, but not something to rely on.

And not as much, but to an extent they might use it. As far as I know, people used Pokemon Reversal when it was legal, and it was the same effect as Luxray's (with a flip of course). Of course Luxray use would go down if it was a flip effect, with power spray on the loose it just isn't worth wasting space over a flippy power.
 
I guess it all boils down to what you are getting for you flip effect. Drapion's flippy effect can easily be removed by retreating, warping, poketurning, or even scooping. The ends don't necessarily justify the means there. However, with super scoop up say, you have a chance of healing EVERYTHING off. I mean think about it. You have a Gyrados w/ 120 damage on it, poison, and burn.(Just a scenario). Obviously, flipping that crucial heads on SSU makes it much more valuable then flipping a heads for triple poison.
 
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