Next Destinies Shiftry Banned!

[bbninjas]

We're now moving into a world where there are two different formats; Standard and Expanded. First up, they will want to keep the Standard environment fresh and competitive (and let's be honest, they print a ton of grass Pokemon every set that rarely see play, so FGP was a way to try and make them a bit more viable).

Secondary to that, the cards in Standard also become part of Expanded. If you take the approach of "don't print cards that will create broken combinations in Expanded", then you're actually crippling the Standard format as instead of only considering the most recent rotations, you have to consider all the way back to B&W, even when a lot of the time tournaments will be running Standard and don't care about the older cards.

So realistically, if TPCi are adamant about running both formats (and personally I don't like the idea of Expanded becoming a mainstream thing, as it sets a much higher cost of entry to the game for new players as they need to acquire the older cards to be competitive - but that's just my opinion), you need to have a ban list for Expanded to protect the Standard format.

Banning Shiftry in this case was the least intrusive way to fix the problem they had perceived. They clearly are happy to have other FGP based decks out there, and rather than cripple every deck based on that stadium, if they perceive a problem in the future (Forretress for example), they'll likely ban that card rather than FGP to ensure that they kill the specific problem deck rather than an entire subclass of decks.

I think there are other ways to make grass type Pokemon viable rather than printing another powerful card. Perhaps most notably EXs have sorta destroyed many grass types. Secondly, PCL hasn't really been making any decent grass types in the first place, at least worth playing competitively.

 

[Drusenija]

I think there are other ways to make grass type Pokemon viable rather than printing another powerful card. Perhaps most notably EXs have sorta destroyed many grass types. Secondly, PCL hasn't really been making any decent grass types in the first place, at least worth playing competitively.

That is true to a degree, and anything that has been halfway decent has been a stage 2 (with the notable exception of VirGen), and in an EX heavy format evolutions don't do so well. So, if you want grass to be more competitive, you either print up some more grass EX cards to stand toe to toe with the other EXs in format (i.e., grass becomes like everything else with big basic heavy hitters), or you provide a way to make the existing evolutions more viable.

Hence, FGP gets printed. Stage 1 and 2 grass types become instantly more viable due to the ability to quickly get them out, a whole class of cards that previously no one cared about may start getting looked at (they also may not of course) and it adds some interesting diversity to the current metagame. In the process of doing this, they also say "hey, we're also going to run Expanded!", and break it. Then they fix the cause of the break.

Whilst I'm not arguing the point there are other ways to make grass viable, within the Standard format it's an interesting approach. And by banning Shiftry in Expanded, TPCi have also shown a willingness to grow both formats independently and not break one in favour of the other. Again, I think that's a good outcome, even if I still wish Expanded wasn't a thing Thankfully it isn't coming to Australia this season!