In the TCG, Weakness began as x2, Resistance as -30. This was when damage output and HP scores were lower as well. HP and damage began creeping up, Weakness and Resistance shifted to +/- 10 to 40, but x2 Weakness eventually returned, and soon the norm became x2 Weakness and -20 Resistance. Weakness is far more potent in the TCG than Resistance and I think that is a problem, but I do
not want Resistance to become stronger, I want Weakness to itself become weaker. Giving an attacker a "free" Muscle Band in a particular match up seems like a good enough bonus to me.
Part of the balance issue between the Stages is that Evolving Pokémon tend to either be useless, or so oddly strong they don't need their Evolutions (see Night March). Every now and then, though, we get Evolving Basics and/or Stage 1 Pokémon that work together. Another is the HP scores. People complain they're too high now... but it is the
opposite problem. I did say that the video games are not the TCG and vice versa, but in this case, the differences make having higher HP scores
more important to the TCG, not less. The video games currently have scores that range from what, 1 to over 700? The TCG has 30 ranging to 300
except it doesn't.
The TCG handles everything in units of 10, so when it comes to game design, it is really more like a range of 3 to 30!
HP in the TCG isn't just HP from the video games, either; there are no Defense or Special Defense stats. Certain Abilities and even abundant Resistance are likely all factored into HP scores. Further exacerbating these differences is the single or multiplayer video game experience versus the purely multiplayer TCG. In the video games, you're expected to grind your way through the single player game, and even in multiplayer, you're only going to send a Level 5 whatever up against a Level 100 Pokémon because you're goofing off, have a weird strategy, etc. Because Evolving Basics and Stage 1 Pokémon have to dance with non-Evolving Basics right away, and pretty quickly with fully Evolved Stage 1 and 2 Pokémon, Evolution lines need their HP "front loaded". Using
current HP scores, the Basic of an Evolution line that ends with a 150 HP Stage 2 should have more like 100 HP, and the Stage 1 120 or even 130.
They've shuffled around what video game Types the TCG Types represent before
and they've added new Types before. I wouldn't mind seeing a
Type crunch simplifying the game's Types
but that probably ain't happening. The opposite extreme, finally making a 1-to-1 Type conversion from video games to the TCG's also seems unlikely; sets struggle with having so many Types in them as is, though that might justify the size of modern sets.
Let us assume no video game-only Types are being spun off and no wholly new Types are being added. Even then, we're long overdue for Type redistribution.
I understand why certain Types are paired up in the TCG
but that's just it... they need to be
pairs, not triples.
Before the Fairy Type released, somewhere I worked out on some spread sheets what Type combinations would result in the most faithful preservation of Weakness/Resistance interactions, also adjusted for how the TCG handles Weakness and Resistance. Sadly, I cannot find that file anymore, and I haven't been able to start from scratch to do it again. The main principle I discovered was "No more than 2 Types in a group!" So,
just guessing, but here is how I'd split things out with what we currently have:
- Colorless = Flying and Normal (No Change)
- Darkness = Dark and Poison
- Dragon = Dragon (No Change)
- Fairy = Fairy (No Change)
- Fighting = Fighting and Ground
- Fire = Fire (No Change)
- Grass = Grass and Bug (No Change)
- Lightning = Electric
- Metal = Steel and Rock
- Psychic = Ghost and Psychic
- Water = Water and Ice (No Change)
A few of the singles could even be paired up, if we actually did need to reduce how many TCG Types there were: Dragon + Fairy could become a "Mystic Type", while Fire and Lightning could become an "Energy" Type. Except that name is confusing, and I doubt the powers-that-be think we need to reduced Types. XD
So, my proposed changes are Poison migrating to the Darkness Type and Rock falling under the Metal Type. It may seem odd, but at least
before the Fairy Type came along, these had good overlap in Weakness/Resistance relationships and flavor. Especially in a fair fight, Poison is seen as "underhanded" or even "evil", so it works well enough with the Darkness theme, and
better than it does with Psychic. Rock thematically works out okay with Metal, so the surprise is that mechanically they make a decent pair. I worried about splitting Rock and Ground from each other because they have so much overlap as well, but I was surprised at how much Fighting and Ground overlapped, and appreciated that it might be nice that anything Rock/Ground could be represented as Fighting or Metal under this system.
Whew! Yeah, that was a lot. Thanks for reading!
