Ok, at this point, I have NO IDEA who this thread is addressed to, but to all those who still may be listening/arguing/etc, here is what I have to say.
I personally love playing variants of Lunala/Solgaleo, others dont. I get that. We all wish certain cards turned out better, but wishing doesn't get us squat. The key to playing is making these apparently lackluster cards work not only well, but to your advantage. Before I continue my manifesto, I have a few questions to the maker of this thread, or whoever is looking for a decent deck to play.
1. Are you looking for Standard, or Expanded?
2. Why are you trying to play? For fun? Or competitively?
3. What do you like playing as far as a deck goes?
Honestly, I agree with this segment. After all, there's no point in playing a game if no enjoyment comes out of it. That said... The first two questions are already answered if you look hard enough at his original post. He goes in to a small amount of detail by describing that some of his cards are falling out of rotation and while his information is unfortunately incorrect to a fault (Blacksmith has been gone for a while), he follows up by describing that he's seen individuals use Decidueye/Vileplume in tournaments, has Steam Siege opened to him as a set, and is willing to pay a bit in to the game. Just from those bases, you can start to formulate a deduction that he wishes to continue along the path of playing Standard, though to fully answer that question, the OC says this:
I know other cards are not in the standard Aka why I'm happy to put this whole deck aside as I've been Battling mates but now I'm looking at playing others which will require a standard deck
So, we know he'll be going for a Standard deck. We can safely assume that he wants something that can stand up to others as a whole as well, since he's asking for advice of building a new and stronger deck. Because of that, we can shift our assumption towards a more competitive mentality, which is where we started getting in to the discussion of Solgaleo/Lunala as a budget deck and Volcanion EX as a good idea (considering he has Steam Siege cards). If anything, things are good to that point. Everything else more or less became a discussion of personal opinions. As you said, some like the idea of Solgaleo/Lunala, others do not.
The only thing I must say I disagree with is this...
I'm not 100% sure why you have this belief, more specifically the latter part. Complicated seems to be a fairly harsh word for a game like Pokemon TCG, where most of its technical functions come from understanding how tool box strategies work and mentally calculating numbers that fall in to RNG territory (which, ironically, go hand in hand). Most, if not, all major card games do this as well. If anything, Pokemon TCG is easier than games like MTG, for example, because in Pokemon TCG, there is some reliability on what should happen if you build accordingly. You will always have a Starting Pokemon. You have an incredible amount of draw power in comparison to other card games, meaning the odds of not drawing in to cards that you run as 4-ofs are pretty slim as a whole. Etc.This is a complicated game. Trying to win is like walking though a minefield blindfolded.
Also, I would say that Pokemon TCG as a whole is also a game that is based off of strong momentum and resource shifting. In other words, if you have more resources than your opponent, you're going to win. That can shift over the course of the game with things like Lysandre plays and Energy Denial and, quite frankly, the statement is rather redundant, but it plays true more to this game than other TCGs out there, IMO. It's not an overly complicated game if you understand a few basic concepts, that's all.
Regardless, the thread itself seems to be fairly dead at this point. I think the OC already has a deck in mind, so we can leave it at this.
-Asmer