I think the 3-prizers are the problem. Removing gusting wouldn't have that much of an effect. It would just mean two less things to play around.
Shiny Zacian V and Zamazenta V Facing Off Against Eternatus in Special Deck Set!
- Thread starter Water Pokémon Master
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I agree 3-prizers are the larger cause, but the ultimate problem is that the game is too fast which was Xander's point. Removing gust would slow down the game.
I personally don't think it would slow it down enough to improve the game or really even affect how people play much.
Meanwhile, it would mean that there's no longer any punishment for playing basic V support Pokemon, and that's something that I believe would hurt the game.
That said, I'd be fine with it if we get a new Great Catcher but for all rule box Pokemon. I did like the format where we basic only had Custom Catcher and Great Catcher. The best way to slow down the format is to punish Vs and reward/protect single-prize Pokemon. Removing consistent, generic gust doesn't really have an effect. Saying, "it slows it down so it's better" is an oversimplification of the problem with the format.
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It is an oversimplification if we want to completely fix the format, but that's unachievable without removing 3-prizers from the game. Slowing the game down by only a few turns has the effect of making it 1.5x+ longer which means ~1.5x the room for skill expression. Increasing a game from 10 turns to 13 turns doesn't have much of a difference, but increasing a game from 6 turns to 9 turns does.
The most powerful support Pokémon in the format are Drizzile and Inteleon. Most decks aren't even running Crobat anymore because it's just not needed when there aren't combo decks anymore. A VMAX deck just needs to hit 1-2 cards every turn and searching them out directly is more efficient. I seriously doubt that we'd see any increase in the usage of multi-prize support Pokémon when gusting is removed, and in fact I think we'd see less of it because the value of turn-and-burn support like Crobat decreases as the length of games increase.
I think you're drastically overestimating how much longer the games will be. It you want really long games, you should be advocating for Crushing Hammer to lose its coin flip.
I believe it would increase the average number of turn by 2-3, which is enough to be a significant difference. 1HKO decks like Rayquaza VMAX require those extra turns to setup, and everything else could swap between damaged attackers to push the time up to that limit.
No flip Hammer would increase the length of the game, but it would have the side effect of reducing creativity because many less strategies would be viable.
Those shiny cards look gorgeous! This is definitely a box set I am going to try and track down when it releases next month, hopefully can find it at a somewhat decent price lol.