This is a lot to cover so bare with me for a sec.
Every card requires specific cards to "work", that is the very nature of synergy itself, which is what you must truly be referring to when you say that. Now, one think I hope you'll learn when it comes to this, is to not be greedy when it comes to synergy. Sometimes, it can be really hard to pick and choose between cards and their effects, wanting to reserve the potential of all of them, accompanied by the fact that each of their best potential is only had when the suite surrounding them is especially tailored to support them specifically. Trying to throw too many cards into the mix adulterates this proficiency, and ultimately detracts from their greatest potential.
Sure, that is what I mean.
With that said, if I may quote a famous Magic card, "It takes great sacrifice to make it to the top." This principal is very relevant here. Intelligible deck structuring can take great sacrifice, and you will have to pick and choose between very specific cards and/or suites if you truly wish to take into any alpha potential at all. Learning to be resolute, and let go of your sentimentality, is the key to mastering this technique. You might think that some cards are essential to the deck, but their potential is really general, offered by many other cards, which potentially would boast an even greater resource strategy for your deck.
This is a fair point. You have to sacrifice a lot to play Pidgeot. Luckily for me this isn't a problem. Pidgeot can't OHKO threats and its damage output is decent at best without help from things like Professor Kukui but what is a weakness works for Pidgeot. Its mega has 220 HP, free Retreat cost and synergy with Max Potion and Shrine of Memories because of Mirror Move on Pidgeot. That alone is seven to eight cards you can't afford to lose, maybe more if you opt for Puzzle of Time, which I argue you should be playing with it.
This is not really a simple technique to adapt. You have to always start from scratch, analyze the synergy between specific cards, and familiarize yourself with various suites consisting of like-effect cards (or contrast pairs) that boost the effectiveness of one another. From this, you can more intelligibly pair of specific cards like Puzzle of Time with Supporters that specifically benefit it (such as Professor Juniper/Misty's Determination), without including cards that detract from its potential (such a Judge).
I have been playing Pidgeot now for about 5 months exclusively and I learned a lot of the deck since I wrote the article. I weigh all the benefits a card can give against any negatives. I've given Shaymin-EX a
lot of though and while its early game draw
can be good, I found Octillery to be good because its less likely to be targeted than Shaymin-EX is. Pidgeot's biggest weakness is players going around it to KO Shaymins to take the lead. If they KO two Shaymin, all they need to do is KO a Pidgeot and they win whereas they can't do this with Octillery.
The same is true with Professor Juniper/Sycamore. If I max out these in the deck, chances are I lose more than I would gain. What if I'm forced to discard many copies of Max Potion and Shrine of Memories? This comes up more often than not with my
one copy of Professor Sycamore in my deck. I like it at one because it isn't intrusive enough to worry about it showing up at the wrong time, though it can and has happened. Misty's Determination is worst that Skyla for this deck. Why risk missing what I need on the top eight when I can just look for it. The only thing Misty can do for me is find a Energy card where as Skyla can find me things like Puzzle of Time, which can find me clutch card. Since most of the time I'd need a Trainer card, Skyla works better.
[/QUOTE]
Many times over, you should be able to discern that there is a prominent need for your deck above all else, based on the specific strategy you're entertaining, and what challenging aspects it faces that must be compensated for and reinforced against. Considering this here, I would discern the most prominent aspect for the Pidgeot deck is disruption, so the inclusion of Judge has a far higher priority than Puzzle of Time. Puzzle of Time itself shouldn't even be needed if a more intelligible draw strategy is implemented anyways. You should be able to easily conserve core card instead of waste them, so there's no need to just hopefully get a chance at recycling just 2 of them. [/QUOTE]
I agree that Pidgeot needs disruption but I think that should be just for things like Energy. Pidgeot's new goal should be to just be
fast enough since if it can hit turn two as the mega, you add 130 of pressure, which can force your opponent to do things they don't want to. Hand disruption is great, which is while I play N but things like Judge hurt you if you aren't playing Octillery and since you never know what your opponent has in their hand, its harder to try to disrupt them when you have eight cards that you
must run so forcing yourself to four cards in hand isn't the best idea if you can't combo off it.
It's like you said above, you need to make cuts to play this deck. You
have to play Max Potion and Shrine of Memories, thus making your deck slower than your opponent's deck, which doesn't run these card and because of that, your goals to winning are different. Things like Puzzle of Time let Pidgeot stick around longer and can turn your four Max Potions into Eight Max Potion or X amount of Max Potions and Energy. It's just the perfect card for it since it lets Pidgeot say around. It's hard to save core cards (Puzzle of Time, Max Potion and Shrine of Memories, which I believe are the best options for the deck) when you Sycamore them all away. You can't control what you draw so you may get a good Sycamore or you might get a bad one.
I'm just not sure what Judge does for Pidgeot if you're not running Octillery. If you go to a low hand size, you are forced into top deck mode, which is what Pidgeot doesn't want to do.It wants to have access to Max Potion and Energy and Octillery makes these things easier.
Afterall, that is a play you'll only be lucky to make once a game—and just the same as Octillery—takes up 4 spots in your deck. That's a heavy amount of space to waste. Can you image how much better 2 copies of Trainers' Mail and 2 copies of Misty's Determination or Teammates would be? Their potential is more stand-alone, their range is greater, and their nature is far more conservative as well. I personally can't think of any reason why this deck would need Puzzle of Time. What was its best potential for you if you don't mind me asking?
If this is talking about Puzzle of Time, then I'll have you know I play it every match I need it. Its a win more card and it helps me cheese out games. As for Octillery, I don't consider it a waste. If Oranguru let you draw up to 5 cards, then Octillery would be gone - quick fast but its the best option for Pidgeot since it allows constant draw.
Trainers' Mail isn't consistent since I could either miss a card altogether or not get the one I need, the same being true for Misty's. Skyla will get me what I want is most cases. Teammates is a harder addition since it doesn't really do much if you take a KO. Getting any two cards you want is nice but it feels like it's a turn too slow whereas Skyla will at least find a Max Potion. I suppose Teammates can find things to complete a Mega Pidgeot but Mallow solves that when it's released.
Puzzle of time on the other hand is a card that will give you back resources you need. It's always nice to get back a Max Potion and Energy. Puzzle is always a nice card because it can complete combos for you.
This definitely falls in line with much of the aforementioned details. You might think it's some great resource, but consider the final paragraph of my last statement. Octillery takes up 4 spots in your deck, provokes you to a potentially heavy investment with a slow and closed-ranged profit margin. Those 4 spots can be brutally out-sourced by copies of other resourcing cards with more stand-alone potential, greater ranges of reach, and more conservative natures to them.
Yeah, it does take four slots and is slow but Pidgeot is already a slower deck because of what you
have to run to make it work so having cards to keep Pidgeot around longer is a must have, though I agree it needs to be sped up.
That's not true—[Mirror Move] is basically a watered down
[Outrage] type attack. It's also a counter-time lapse version of [Right Back at You], effectively designating it as a Slugger style attack, that you need to reinforce around with effects that support the challenging aspect of Slugger style combat (such as the damage stack, Special Condition vulnerability, mobility, and Type-disadvantage). Sometimes, you may not be able to accommodate for each challenging factor. Space is limited, and consistency is important to reliably secure any of that potential at all. Akin to this, you have to pick and choose between them, and roll with the punches elsewhere. One good example of this that I've personally experiencing is having to sacrifice mobility to reinforce a Slugger strategy against the damage stack factor and Special Condition vulnerability. This sees me replacing cards like Float Stone with Fighting Fury Belt and Pokémon Center Lady—accompanying the greater synergy with the Slugger style combat of cards like [Outrage] Dragons or Tauros-GX.
The goal here IMO is to make the opponent do something they don't want to. Unlike Outrage and Tauros-GX, you don't have to have any damage on you, just that you took some last time.
That's not at all true. M Pidgeot is a very universal card...moreso than most M Pokémon. It's needs are rather simple. An energy, a Stadium as a bracer, a Max Potion, a Spirit Link. Between an intelligible bulk and cut draw strategy, its basic needs should be very easy to resource. However, that's not to say that some Supporters are counter-intuitive to M Pidgeot, because I discern that some definitely are. Professor Birch's Observations is definitely one of them. Although Pidgeot/M Pidgeot have simple needs, the deck abroad embodies a far greater overhead to secure your perimeters, and put together a powerful follow-up behind your lead offensive. Considering this, one has to evaluate how vulnerable their Active Pokémon is, or how much time they can spare, before being able to decide how much potential Professor Birch's Observations offers to their deck.
The needs aren't that simple though. You
need to have access to
four cards at all times, which is way more demanding than some of the popular decks in the format now. Things like Octillery helps you find them and Birch at least keeps them around at the expense of a tails flip. The problem is Pidgeot doesn't work well with the supporter lines out now and even a turbo Pidgeot build requires at least Max Potion and Shrine of Memories.
Typically, if you're going to go down, you mine as well take your opponent with you. And that's the main ideology behind Judge—over Professor Birch's Observations. Judge is actually a lot more synergistic with Pidgeot itself, as the card advantage disruption hopes to bide for time by cutting the opponent off from a majority of their resources. Once again, by reinforcing the deck structure to suite the lower end of Judge (such as full playsets of Professor Juniper/Misty's Determination/Lillie/Professor Kukui), you're going to best your chances of hitting the ground running instead of getting caught up for nothing. As an initial investment itself, and no disruption against the opponent, the small synergy between Octillery and Professor Birch's Observations doesn't even begin to measure up to what can be had by a stronger pair between Judge and a heavily reinforced Supporter base.
I can understand the judge play but N works just as well here, without putting you at a lower hand size. If I have to feed a Pidgeot to something, I at least know I did a Mirror Move and I can N next turn to remove any advantage my opponent may have got. I like Octillery and Birch because it keeps resources around and Octillery is a good rebound of a bad Birch but I at least didn't have to discard a hand of resources to maybe get something going. Pidgeot is better played at "stand my ground" than it is at being fast.
