Discussion They Took our Balls!!!

Willie

Willie

Aspiring Trainer
Member
Pokemon TCG Standard 2020 opening thoughts.

They took our Balls and I'm pretty sad about it. With Unified Minds coming out with only Cherish Ball our current standard Balls cards are wack in my opinion, I mean all we have is as I previously mentioned Cherish Ball, Beast Ball, Friend Ball, and Net Ball. None of these balls will even see competitive play except of course Cherish Ball and Net Ball. So with the loss of Ultra Ball and Nest Ball this is hitting our set up game hard. Of course there are other options such as Pokemon Fan Club and Pokemon Communication but this will cripple alot of early supporting after set up with balls. So we have to choose between first turn Lillie or First turn Pokemon Fan Club. These are just my opening thoughts please share with me your opinions on this subject!
 
Willie said:
Pokemon TCG Standard 2020 opening thoughts.

They took our Balls and I'm pretty sad about it. With Unified Minds coming out with only Cherish Ball our current standard Balls cards are wack in my opinion, I mean all we have is as I previously mentioned Cherish Ball, Beast Ball, Friend Ball, and Net Ball. None of these balls will even see competitive play except of course Cherish Ball and Net Ball. So with the loss of Ultra Ball and Nest Ball this is hitting our set up game hard. Of course there are other options such as Pokemon Fan Club and Pokemon Communication but this will cripple alot of early supporting after set up with balls. So we have to choose between first turn Lillie or First turn Pokemon Fan Club. These are just my opening thoughts please share with me your opinions on this subject!
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I unfortunately have to agree, as there is the issue of only cherish ball being applicable in all decks. The rest are specific to their own archetype, so that’s sad. One deck I know will shine post rotation will be malamar decks, a they have mysterious treasures. Any other deck with 60 hp Pokémon can also use prof. Elm observations.
 
Yeah professor elm is good im just hoping we get some ball reprints soon because the current set up for meta game is geared to specific psychic or grass and the third option pokemon fan club so we are still lacking a good search for evolution pokemon with just pokemon communication our options are very limited.
 
Pokemon TCG is an incredibly variable spot right now.

If I'm not mistaken, this is the first time, potentially ever if not just in a really long time, that a rotation happened before not after Worlds. I expect the prices of Unified Minds singles to be incredibly high for the first 1-2 weeks while people get everything for Worlds because of this. And then whatever deck wins Worlds will stay expensive for another week or two after Worlds.

Not only that, but with our upcoming November set most likely being the last of our Sun & Moon era sets, that means the next set in February 2020 might feature a new type of Pokemon card for the Sword & Shield Era (I'm currently tentatively thinking they'll print "DX" cards for DynamaX and they'll reintroduce something like the BREAK mechanic to make it match the video games, and then they'll print a "DX" counter just like our current GX counter to mark when you've used your Dynamax for the match), in which case Cherish Ball will become a niche card too only for Sun & Moon era decks.

I anticipate that the first half of the 2020 season is going to be real expensive for competitive play since there are going to be some major changes with upcoming sets, and the amount of times the meta is going to shift because of new Tag Teams and a new generation of Pokemon is going to be more frequent than ever, I think.

That being said, I'm actually okay with the removal of universal balls like Ultra Ball and Nest Ball. With or without them, certain decks still dominate the meta because they just work better all things considered. Ultra Ball isn't the reason why PikaRom is in a higher tier than Rayquaza GX, for example. Pokemon search is just one aspect of what makes a really good deck after all.

The only critique I really have is that if they're going to go down the direction of themed Pokemon search balls and cards like EM Radar and Mysterious Treasure, then they need to print some for every type by the time Sword & Shield expansions come out.
 
Duo said:
Pokemon TCG is an incredibly variable spot right now.

If I'm not mistaken, this is the first time, potentially ever if not just in a really long time, that a rotation happened before not after Worlds. I expect the prices of Unified Minds singles to be incredibly high for the first 1-2 weeks while people get everything for Worlds because of this. And then whatever deck wins Worlds will stay expensive for another week or two after Worlds.

Not only that, but with our upcoming November set most likely being the last of our Sun & Moon era sets, that means the next set in February 2020 might feature a new type of Pokemon card for the Sword & Shield Era (I'm currently tentatively thinking they'll print "DX" cards for DynamaX and they'll reintroduce something like the BREAK mechanic to make it match the video games, and then they'll print a "DX" counter just like our current GX counter to mark when you've used your Dynamax for the match), in which case Cherish Ball will become a niche card too only for Sun & Moon era decks.

I anticipate that the first half of the 2020 season is going to be real expensive for competitive play since there are going to be some major changes with upcoming sets, and the amount of times the meta is going to shift because of new Tag Teams and a new generation of Pokemon is going to be more frequent than ever, I think.

That being said, I'm actually okay with the removal of universal balls like Ultra Ball and Nest Ball. With or without them, certain decks still dominate the meta because they just work better all things considered. Ultra Ball isn't the reason why PikaRom is in a higher tier than Rayquaza GX, for example. Pokemon search is just one aspect of what makes a really good deck after all.

The only critique I really have is that if they're going to go down the direction of themed Pokemon search balls and cards like EM Radar and Mysterious Treasure, then they need to print some for every type by the time Sword & Shield expansions come out.
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I agree. The only issue I have is how expensive this season might be. It’s going to be an issue for smaller players, and a problem for everyone in general.
 
It reminds me of back when Tapu Lele GX was over 40 dollars for a regular print, and most decks were very interested in running 2-3 of them, but I feel like this is going to get even more out of control.

Jirachi that digs 5 for a trainer card is incredibly expensive, Custom Catchers are incredibly over priced already, ReshiZard already hit 30 bucks and beyond several times. Dedenne GX is going to become a standard feature card...unless Sword & Shield makes GXs somewhat obsolete or difficult to run with Sword & Shield theme decks, so I don't even feel like investing in Dedenne GX unless you're going to worlds.

I expect Mewtwo & Mew GX to be at least 30, probably closer to 45 USD per copy for a regular. Any of the Tag Teams in Unified Mind should go for at least 15 to 25 USD for normal prints.

For the time being I'm playing/playtesting strictly with proxies until I see the market settle down, that or buy booster boxes. I'm going to have to be real patient with this upcoming format myself, because I don't want to invest $300 on a deck that gets replaced in November anyway. I don't play often enough to justify that expense. Even updating my Ray GX deck with a Mewtwo & Mew GX, Dedenne, and some item cards is looking to be a costly investment for a deck that's probably still only tier 2 at best.
 
Duo said:
It reminds me of back when Tapu Lele GX was over 40 dollars for a regular print, and most decks were very interested in running 2-3 of them, but I feel like this is going to get even more out of control.

Jirachi that digs 5 for a trainer card is incredibly expensive, Custom Catchers are incredibly over priced already, ReshiZard already hit 30 bucks and beyond several times. Dedenne GX is going to become a standard feature card...unless Sword & Shield makes GXs somewhat obsolete or difficult to run with Sword & Shield theme decks, so I don't even feel like investing in Dedenne GX unless you're going to worlds.

I expect Mewtwo & Mew GX to be at least 30, probably closer to 45 USD per copy for a regular. Any of the Tag Teams in Unified Mind should go for at least 15 to 25 USD for normal prints.

For the time being I'm playing/playtesting strictly with proxies until I see the market settle down, that or buy booster boxes. I'm going to have to be real patient with this upcoming format myself, because I don't want to invest $300 on a deck that gets replaced in November anyway. I don't play often enough to justify that expense. Even updating my Ray GX deck with a Mewtwo & Mew GX, Dedenne, and some item cards is looking to be a costly investment for a deck that's probably still only tier 2 at best.
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I agree. I’m only planning to play tinachomp since I know the main features, like malamar, have a good chance of staying powerful. I mean, 240 damage on t2? That’s good!
 
i laughed a lot at the tittle :) South Park reference :)

the loss of the balls will make the games more slow and GX heavy.
 
It definitely seems to be trying to make non gx decks harder to play so that more people play gx or tag team decks
 
Willie said:
Pokemon TCG Standard 2020 opening thoughts.

They took our Balls and I'm pretty sad about it. With Unified Minds coming out with only Cherish Ball our current standard Balls cards are wack in my opinion, I mean all we have is as I previously mentioned Cherish Ball, Beast Ball, Friend Ball, and Net Ball. None of these balls will even see competitive play except of course Cherish Ball and Net Ball. So with the loss of Ultra Ball and Nest Ball this is hitting our set up game hard. Of course there are other options such as Pokemon Fan Club and Pokemon Communication but this will cripple alot of early supporting after set up with balls. So we have to choose between first turn Lillie or First turn Pokemon Fan Club. These are just my opening thoughts please share with me your opinions on this subject!
Click to expand...
I was talking with a card shop owner about this who runs Pokemon events, and I theorized that this was also connected to the fact that Pokemon in general is moving towards attack-based gameplay rather than relying as much on Trainer cards. All you need to do is look at the "Family Fun Pack" decks that were released. I enjoyed seeing your comments and @Duo 's helpful insight. What's your take on this in relation to the entire direction of TCGI in the future meta?
 
DragonFang101 said:
I was talking with a card shop owner about this who runs Pokemon events, and I theorized that this was also connected to the fact that Pokemon in general is moving towards attack-based gameplay rather than relying as much on Trainer cards. All you need to do is look at the "Family Fun Pack" decks that were released. I enjoyed seeing your comments and @Duo 's helpful insight. What's your take on this in relation to the entire direction of TCGI in the future meta?
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I think you kind of called it right here: pokemon is beginning it’s shift away from a trainer-based meta, and this is the starting sign of it.
 
How has no one mentioned Nidoqueen? Sure, it's a stage 2 line, but it's searchable with Mysterious Treasure and then it lets you get pokemon of your choice out every turn, as an ability on a non-GX.
 
I always enjoy when the format is slowed, it adds an competitive edge. Taking more thought into deck building and synergising every build to keep up with one another using different cards you don't see in every single deck like the ball cards/auto search engines that used the same exact cards in every type of deck. I personally hope it stays this way where we get very limited search options throughout and have more type specific synergy cards used instead of the same old thing like previous formats.
 
CrownAxe said:
What you said makes no sense
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I’ll try to phrase it better: since there are less ammounts of useful trainer cards, players now are having to use the few that are still good in different ways to make them more effective. Players now have to also look at the different ways in which the Pokémon themselves interact, and find which set of interactions works best. Case in point: Mally with tinachomp. Using viridian forest for energy, tinachomp uses malamar to get the psychic energy, Giratina LOT for damage spread, and other techs for certain occasions. It also uses jirachi and dedenne for item search efficiency, allowing for the trainer cards the deck runs to be found easier.
Basically: less good trainers = more Pokémon
 
Mysticvulpix said:
I’ll try to phrase it better: since there are less ammounts of useful trainer cards, players now are having to use the few that are still good in different ways to make them more effective. Players now have to also look at the different ways in which the Pokémon themselves interact, and find which set of interactions works best. Case in point: Mally with tinachomp. Using viridian forest for energy, tinachomp uses malamar to get the psychic energy, Giratina LOT for damage spread, and other techs for certain occasions. It also uses jirachi and dedenne for item search efficiency, allowing for the trainer cards the deck runs to be found easier.
Basically: less good trainers = more Pokémon
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ah, that makes sense. also means there is a new problem i thought we had finally fixed - Bench Space!
 
Deathfinch said:
ah, that makes sense. also means there is a new problem i thought we had finally fixed - Bench Space!
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Yeah, that’s what I’m nervous about. With some decks running tons of techs, and with minimal gusting, bench priority will become an interesting matter.
 
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