Japan's XY9 Set: 'Rage of the Broken Sky,' New 'Battle Strengthening Sets'

It's funny how an unprecedented effect comes out of a non-EX which proves the cliche of EXs being OP is false.

I never really though Pokemon EX were overpowered. A few are, sure but they have other basics, stage 1 and stage 2 Pokemon that are just as or even more overpowered.
 
Seems unfair to me because say the other player is playing all the right cards well at the right time and is beating you with skill and a well-thought out deck. Then you pull this move at the last second and steal the win. But I don't play the card game so what do I know...

I think you're actually spot on with this, and are in the right to see this card as unfair: Because it absolutely is.

Most players only run 1 Lysandre in their deck, and VS Seekers. A Slowbro or two (Archie's ace in the hole is a thing, let's not forget that. ) So if someone pulls an unexpected Slowbro on you it could seriously twist your strategy around and make you attempt to play around it with what little turns you have left, all while avoiding the other threats of the deck.

I for one, have had countless wins stolen from me by Hypnotoxic Laser all because I lost the coin flip. Not all decks are built for/made to counter that. So when my opponent wins like that I get pretty salty and upset considering we were both 1 prize away and all they ever end up doing is snagging the sleep and hitting with the last attack. If it was the main tactic of the deck, I wouldn't mind. But Sleep and Poison in the form of a trainer card still bothers me and has me going "Well that's not very sporting."

In short: This can be a potential threat if played right, as sort of an "Exodia" situation. It could also bomb pretty bad but with a win condition like that, there are probably a few decks who will find a way to make this work, but they'd have to be pretty heavy hitters and tanks.

I never really though Pokemon EX were overpowered. A few are, sure but they have other basics, stage 1 and stage 2 Pokemon that are just as or even more overpowered.

They actually are. EX Pokemon are the most overpowered thing in the game right now. Because they're basic and outspeed Stage 2 Decks, Stage 2 Decks are pretty futile for the most part unless they're grass type. A lot of players don't like EXs, many want them gone because at the end of the day, they make 80% of the sets that come out useless. Let's also not forget that Slowbro seems to go hand in hand with them specifically. Not Stage 1 or Stage 2 decks.
A lot of the cards so far in this set seem more EX supportive, even the lower rarity cards. Which is actually kind of concerning.
 
Okay, did some brushing-up on the card game rules and turns out I had a game mechanic backwards. I thought that if you knock out an opponent's pokemon, THEY take one of THEIR prizes to replace it, and whoever runs out of prizes loses. I had that all kinds of backwards. How'd that happen? I feel so dumb now. :(

Knowing that, the attack's title "Miracle Home Run" indeed doesn't make any sense...How's it a miracle if you're winning?
You should totally play the TCG!!!! Or at least watch others play. You will learn the rules a lot better that way.
As for Slowbro's attack, if you are very close to winning, Wynaut just win? It's not intended as a revenge or "turn the tables" card.
 
Alright, so, assuming that we won't be seeing a Slowbro BREAK (not a 100% given, but probably likely), let's take a look at some possibilities, shall we? Slowbro is 014 and Gyarados-EX is 018, so there's 3 spaces in between, and a limited number of which Pokémon could fill those spaces. Almost all of the Water-type Pokémon in between Slowbro and Gyarados are 1 Stage evolutions: Seel/Dewgong, Shellder/Cloyster, Krabby/Kingler, (Horsea/Seadra, if Kingdra is a Dragon-type), Goldeen/Seaking, Staryu/Starmie.

So, here's what could fill those 3 spaces:
1) A Water-type Slowking followed by a Basic/Stage-1 Evolution line.
2) A Basic/Stage-1 Evolution line with a BREAK Pokémon for the Stage 1.
3) A Basic/Stage-1 Evolution line with no BREAK but a Magikarp, even though Gyarados is an EX in this version.
4) A Horsea/Seadra/Kingdra Evolution line with Kingdra as a Water-type.
5) ???

I might be missing something, but those are the 3 4 I thought up, and they're arranged roughly in the order of what I think would be most likely to least likely.

EDIT: Thanks to Metalizard for reminding me about Slowking. I actually considered that a possibility when first theory-crafting the post and forgot about it somewhere down the line. I've since added Slowking back in as the 1 spot (since I think it's the most likely) and bumped everything else down.
And...why not?

15 Slowking, 16 Slowking BREAK and 17 Jynx.

Or...

15 Seel, 16 Dewgong and 17 Dewgong BREAK and Psychic Slowking

Or mix both:

15 Seel, 16 Dewgong and 17 Dewgong BREAK and Psychic Slowking with Slowking BREAK.

Slowbro has a Mega, but Slowking nope :p
 
This will not make me popular but a lot of stuff came up while I couldn't take the time to get caught up on the thread that I want to address.

As much as a lot of people hated playing against that deck (including me) it was very satisfying to beat, and on top of that it reminds me of when my older brother and I used to play the TCG together.

Which just reminds me...

The main reason I (not sure if this applies to anyone else) find mill/control decks annoying is the same reason we find most competitive control decks annoying: a lot of cards that I think are too powerful for their own good in general. The short version is that the more it feels like solitaire, the less I enjoy the game. If that isn't a problem for someone else... then it isn't a problem for them. ;)

Or Poison. Or an unlucky Burn flip.

Ariados Ability is to inflict Poison. ;)

I call that a stall deck.

While there is an overlap, it isn't the same thing. Some wall decks still take Prizes, for example but the big difference is speed and focus: mill decks actively discard your cards forcing you through your deck at a far more rapid pace. A stall deck doesn't. Many stall decks include some mill and many mill decks include some control elements, with control elements also being a tool some stall decks use.

Clear as mud, I know. ;)

2 metal and 2 colorless energies for 120 and a coin flip who could damage your bench, not fast and absolutely not reliable. Rightly underplayed.

Not the same as "unplayable" though unless you're so prone to exaggeration your friends and family need to stage an intervention. ;)

Also by definition can something be "rightly underplayed", as the meaning of underplayed would be that it is not played as much as it deserved... so it cannot actually deserve to be played less than it deserves? @_@

Otherwise again I agree: M Aggron-EX doesn't deserve to see much (if any) use in competitive play, but when I've seen people use it for "casual" play it has performed a bit too well. That bittersweet middle ground, as it were.

Also how does a big fat Slowbro make a homerun? :p

Babe Ruth? If you're large and slow you basically have to hit a home run. Actually, it doesn't matter if you're small and slow; if you can't run the bases in a timely manner, your choice is to get a home run or be an out before you can make it back to home plate.

I think: not really a sports fan but I do have many memories of playing baseball in grade school where... yeah. =P

Knowing that, the attack's title "Miracle Home Run" indeed doesn't make any sense...How's it a miracle if you're winning?

The game's designers like to make jokes with Slowbro: this is one

Now they should print a Supporter card like:
"Ashs Final Showdown"
You can play this card only, when you have less pricecards left then your opponent.
Both player draw pricecards until 1 remaining.
You can't draw any more Price cards until the end of your opponents next turn.

Nope. Too easy to abuse especially right now. Best case scenario it ends up being worthless for competitive play. Worst case is that it actually proves worthwhile as people use it when the opponent has a huge lead to forcibly even things out. Sure the opponent might take a Prize and win but your odds are better than when your opponent was down to one Prize and you had six remaining.

It's funny how an unprecedented effect comes out of a non-EX which proves the cliche of EXs being OP is false.

Except it doesn't prove that Pokémon-EX are not overpowered: actually examining Pokémon-EX and other cards and realizing that the overpowered nature is a separate thing does! :)

If somehow the attack on Slowbro actually was overpowered except for Pokémon-EX making it difficult to get down to one Prize (as opposed to going from two to zero) it might create a balance between the two, but that isn't the same to most of us as a balanced format. You can have a metagame dominated by a few powerful cards as opposed to two powerful cards keeping things in check so that everything else gets a shot.

They actually are. EX Pokemon are the most overpowered thing in the game right now. Because they're basic and outspeed Stage 2 Decks, Stage 2 Decks are pretty futile for the most part unless they're grass type. A lot of players don't like EXs, many want them gone because at the end of the day, they make 80% of the sets that come out useless. Let's also not forget that Slowbro seems to go hand in hand with them specifically. Not Stage 1 or Stage 2 decks.
A lot of the cards so far in this set seem more EX supportive, even the lower rarity cards. Which is actually kind of concerning.

Nope. Been over this with a lot of folks before, guess it is your turn. The core mechanic of being a Pokémon-EX is not overpowered. They do not have to outpace Evolutions. The problem is with general design practices; the game's pacing is out of whack so that you don't have time to Evolve and even if you did, the designers insist on filler lower Stages that are nothing more than a vulnerable stepping stone to the final form, in other words a burden.

Get rid of Pokémon-EX and while the exact changes are hard to predict, based on the game pre-Pokémon-EX you'll still have the vast majority of cards (Basic or Evolution) outclassed by the cards that either hit hard and fast or disrupt hard and fast (while hitting at least adequately)... and historically that was mostly Basics, though Stage 2 Pokémon might be Bench-sitting backup.

Make sure fewer Pokémon (especially Basics) are capable of filling multiple roles in a deck (like both opener/early attacker and main attacker) and make Evolving Basics worth the effort, and you'll see a more balance between the Stages. Of course you also need to reign in early game damage in general, Energy acceleration, Evolution acceleration, massive early game draw power, etc. to really see a change.

Yeah that is why change is unlikely; I think we can deduce the proper design principles, like stop making things that can attack for damage on either players first turn so that we get first turn attacks back and can use them for set-up, but it clashes with modern design principle
 
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They actually are. EX Pokemon are the most overpowered thing in the game right now. Because they're basic and outspeed Stage 2 Decks, Stage 2 Decks are pretty futile for the most part unless they're grass type. A lot of players don't like EXs, many want them gone because at the end of the day, they make 80% of the sets that come out useless. Let's also not forget that Slowbro seems to go hand in hand with them specifically. Not Stage 1 or Stage 2 decks.
A lot of the cards so far in this set seem more EX supportive, even the lower rarity cards. Which is actually kind of concerning.

The "best" EX Pokemon in the game now are Pokemon that can do lots of damage for little cost and have some form of clutch factor. I'm not counting Mega Evolved Pokemon here. A lot of other EX Pokemon are really tame when compared to something like Manectric EX who is strong without the mega. Pokemon like Yveltal EX are strong as well because of its damage output. Skarmory EX is worst than a lot of other Stage 1 Pokemon. The only thing it has going for it is the fact it takes one deck spot and isn't seeing play given all the metal support out there. Raichu is better than a lot of EX Pokemon and stage 2 Pokemon have a lot of game breaking abilities. Even the new ones are a lot stronger than they were just a few sets ago.
 
It seems like "Wait a turn to take a hit" cards are going to be a running theme with this set. This artwork is pretty though. As for the card... ehhhhh.. I hope this doesn't get rarity bumped.

Knowing our luck it will though.
 
Not the same as "unplayable" though unless you're so prone to exaggeration your friends and family need to stage an intervention. ;)

Also by definition can something be "rightly underplayed", as the meaning of underplayed would be that it is not played as much as it deserved... so it cannot actually deserve to be played less than it deserves? @_@

Otherwise again I agree: M Aggron-EX doesn't deserve to see much (if any) use in competitive play, but when I've seen people use it for "casual" play it has performed a bit too well. That bittersweet middle ground, as it were.
Well, I meant "unplayable" as "unplayable in the competitive environment" ;) Sure, it could be fun for casual play but, of course, you can't rely on a coin flip for the final blow, after all this setup... and yeah, I meant that it doesn't deserve to see much use in competitive play :)
 
so with rock guard this has the 3rd highest recoil output of expanded, behind the other sigilyph with tool box, rock guard and 3 helmets, and in first is M Tyranitar EX with rock guard, a rocky helmet, and 4 dangerous energy being attacked by an EX
 
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