PokeBeach Podcast: Upcoming Mystery Promos and “Crimson Haze” Secret Rares!
- Thread starter Water Pokémon Master
- Start date
I think my argument in this episode was presented pretty poorly - I also don't think it was done out of malice, so I will reinstate it very simply.
It is true that the numbers in the game were objectively powercreeped. However, that was not my main concern. Numbers in the TCG are somewhat arbitrary - if you scale them up or down fairly and equally, nothing about the gameplay should change. Of course in the case of Pokemon, it did cause a bunch of issues, like making Poison and Burn laughably useless. The main issue with the raising numbers was, however, how unfairly high they got on multi-prize cards, while barely rising on the single-prize ones.
All of the above was not in discussion, though. The discussion was Ogerpon ex's power level, which consists both of numbers, its Ability, and the support cards it has. Ogerpon doesn't have access to Electric Generator, doesn't have auto-KO attacks, doesn't attach energies from the deck to itself, or from the discard in an infinite fashion. To be viable, it would need to powercreep in at least some aspect, and all of these spots are currently maxed out and occupied.
Instead, it is a card that - as far as the last ~5 years are concerned - is relatively balanced and respectful of the game's rules. That's something that should be celebrated.
As for the concern of "players all leaving" - currently the players aren't joining, because they download Live, they bash together a deck, they get matched with Charizard ex five times, they get wiped before getting off one attack and they leave. The subset of players that enjoy purely competitive play, that understand and go with "here's an Approved(tm) deck for you to play" is just that - a subset.
It is true that the numbers in the game were objectively powercreeped. However, that was not my main concern. Numbers in the TCG are somewhat arbitrary - if you scale them up or down fairly and equally, nothing about the gameplay should change. Of course in the case of Pokemon, it did cause a bunch of issues, like making Poison and Burn laughably useless. The main issue with the raising numbers was, however, how unfairly high they got on multi-prize cards, while barely rising on the single-prize ones.
All of the above was not in discussion, though. The discussion was Ogerpon ex's power level, which consists both of numbers, its Ability, and the support cards it has. Ogerpon doesn't have access to Electric Generator, doesn't have auto-KO attacks, doesn't attach energies from the deck to itself, or from the discard in an infinite fashion. To be viable, it would need to powercreep in at least some aspect, and all of these spots are currently maxed out and occupied.
Instead, it is a card that - as far as the last ~5 years are concerned - is relatively balanced and respectful of the game's rules. That's something that should be celebrated.
As for the concern of "players all leaving" - currently the players aren't joining, because they download Live, they bash together a deck, they get matched with Charizard ex five times, they get wiped before getting off one attack and they leave. The subset of players that enjoy purely competitive play, that understand and go with "here's an Approved(tm) deck for you to play" is just that - a subset.
Sandslash! Another great episode this week! Really enjoyed listening as always. Imo I don't really like any of the arts in this set, so I'm hoping they reveal something super awesome in mask of change. It's also very possible they don't print anything more for ogerpon, and she may just suck, but maybe she'll be good as well only time will tell, keep up the great work and have a good week!