I've become curious on how many players think the way I do as far as what makes them a good player. There are many examples, and one of the examples being the way I look at the game is going over card games in general. I would like to start with the king of all card games, Poker. Many "good" Poker players use a lot of logic when playing the game. As a result I like to keep track of my opponent's hand size, cards in the opponent's deck, and cards in the opponent's discard pile and if it's someone I've played before with the exact same deck, I could get a great understanding of what my percentage of knowing whether or not the opponent has another one in his hand that he/she can play or that how many of a card they run in the deck. Now the greatest difference between card games like Poker, and card games like Pokemon is the fact that not everyone's deck is the exact same like Poker is. However, once you've played the deck before, and know the cards that are in them, you have a huge advantage over the opponent if you're using logic. However, even going against someone you've never faced before, if you know the deck they're using is something that's popular in the meta, then you can get a good idea of what's in it. Thus, I see many decks that win big tournaments are not just the decks that are considered what's "really good" now, but are decks that take people by surprise with either one or no particular main strategy. For no matter how you look at it, you can make a deck that seems "perfect", and still end up losing because the main factor with Pokemon is luck. In order to fix this, I really wish organized play in Pokemon would make each match in a tournament a "best out of three" and possibly include a "sideboard", much like in the TCG, Magic: The Gathering. This could help a little bit more as far as increasing the logic used in the game more.
I do realize however, that Pokemon is a TCG aimed towards a younger audience, so in order to increase the number of products sold they intend to try and keep the game as simple as possible, and have the younger audience use luck more than logic. However, I disagree with this aspect of the game, considering the game is complicated enough in tournament play that they could use a way, more aimed at logic, rather than luck.
Now before I'm through with my ranting, I'm going to summarize what I'd like people to ask themselves and discuss about in this thread:
1. Do you keep track (mentally) of how many cards are in your's and your opponent's discard pile, hand, deck, in play, etc.?
2. Do you agree that there's too much luck involved in the game?
3. Could the game be improved?
Opinions and comments about the above is much appreciated, and thanks in advance!
I do realize however, that Pokemon is a TCG aimed towards a younger audience, so in order to increase the number of products sold they intend to try and keep the game as simple as possible, and have the younger audience use luck more than logic. However, I disagree with this aspect of the game, considering the game is complicated enough in tournament play that they could use a way, more aimed at logic, rather than luck.
Now before I'm through with my ranting, I'm going to summarize what I'd like people to ask themselves and discuss about in this thread:
1. Do you keep track (mentally) of how many cards are in your's and your opponent's discard pile, hand, deck, in play, etc.?
2. Do you agree that there's too much luck involved in the game?
3. Could the game be improved?
Opinions and comments about the above is much appreciated, and thanks in advance!
