Just read the Lucario bit, pretty nice I really like how you touched on some cards that combo'd particularly well with that one Lucario in particular, and seeing a bit more of that synergistic talk in future Who's That Pokemon articles would be great!
PS: Is there any site where it's easy to view the cards, like a visual spoiler? Most of them I've found are very difficult to navigate. Maybe magiccards.info has just spoiled me...
URGImperial AnimarGRU BRGProssh, Tokenmaker of KherGRB WURNarset NostalgicRUW UBR"I like your deck better" JelevaRBU UBlue BraidsU GAzusa, Lost but RampingG
WUHanna, Pillowfort's NavigatorUW WBRAleshacratsBRW UBRGrixis Pew PewRBU URGYasova the ThreateningGRU BGGlissa the ArticiferGB WUSygg MerfolkUW RSquee, Value NabobR
Just read the Lucario bit, pretty nice I really like how you touched on some cards that combo'd particularly well with that one Lucario in particular, and seeing a bit more of that synergistic talk in future Who's That Pokemon articles would be great!
PS: Is there any site where it's easy to view the cards, like a visual spoiler? Most of them I've found are very difficult to navigate. Maybe magiccards.info has just spoiled me...
Glad you enjoyed it! I try to mention other cards they combo with, but this was the first time I included photos of those cards. I will try to include more pictures of the other cards in the future.
Sadly, there isn't really a nice visual list of Pokemon cards without having to look each individual one up. This is super awkward, especially since many cards have the same name! One thing that a friend and I have discussed is trying to put together a visual list of the Cube, that way people can read and see the cards without looking them up.
Glad you enjoyed it! I try to mention other cards they combo with, but this was the first time I included photos of those cards. I will try to include more pictures of the other cards in the future.
Sadly, there isn't really a nice visual list of Pokemon cards without having to look each individual one up. This is super awkward, especially since many cards have the same name! One thing that a friend and I have discussed is trying to put together a visual list of the Cube, that way people can read and see the cards without looking them up.
Glad you enjoyed it! I try to mention other cards they combo with, but this was the first time I included photos of those cards. I will try to include more pictures of the other cards in the future.
Sadly, there isn't really a nice visual list of Pokemon cards without having to look each individual one up. This is super awkward, especially since many cards have the same name! One thing that a friend and I have discussed is trying to put together a visual list of the Cube, that way people can read and see the cards without looking them up.
I'd love to see a visual spoiler so much, because not only do a lot of the cards share the same name, sometimes there's even 2 different versions of the same card in same set.
Confusing indeed.
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I'd love to see a visual spoiler so much, because not only do a lot of the cards share the same name, sometimes there's even 2 different versions of the same card in same set.
Confusing indeed.
I agree completely. There is something in the works, I don't know when it will be done. Visuals also help when there are 400 different cards in the Cube.
I will admit, I haven't played since Neo Revelations, or maybe a little into the first set after that (the first set that Nintendo produced on its own, when they changed up a number of rules including placing stricter limits on retreating and evolving), so I don't recognize like 95% of the cards on the Pokecube list, but it definitely intrigues me. Couple of comments/questions
1) Where is Computer Search? Back in my day, Computer Search was easily a top card, as Search into Professor Oak was ridiculous. Well, mostly Professor Oak is ridiculous all around, and ways to abuse/re-use it were super-ridiculous.
2) The only sample lists you have up are very heavy evolution-focused, with a very light emphasis on trainers. Have you seen many people try to go for a "Haymaker" strategy, running primarily powerful basics in 3ish colors and a very large contingent of trainers? If everyone else is squabbling over evolution lines, I could see someone pretty easily snapping up the big basics and trainers from each pack and going that route. Again back in my day, big/efficient basics like Hitmonchan (Base) and Sneasel (Neo Genesis) were king. I know things have changed with more recent evolutions being a lot more energy efficient, but this can't be completely a null strategy.
3) Have you tried at all regular drafting (where each player simultaneously has a facedown pack and passes it around the table, Magic-style)? The one time I recall drafting the Pokemon TCG I believe we did it that way and not Rochester.
4) How much did/would it cost to assemble this cube, would you estimate? Is there a site like tcgplayer/starcity where you could order all or most of it at once?
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4) How much did/would it cost to assemble this cube, would you estimate? Is there a site like tcgplayer/starcity where you could order all or most of it at once?
We touched on this a little while ago. Most everything besides the cards in the current rotation are dirt cheap, with some of those in the rotation also having dirt-cheap silver bordered versions.
Troll and Toad I think will have most of what is in the cube. Also, check out Pokegym. There are a lot of members there willing to straight-up sell cards.
I will admit, I haven't played since Neo Revelations, or maybe a little into the first set after that (the first set that Nintendo produced on its own, when they changed up a number of rules including placing stricter limits on retreating and evolving), so I don't recognize like 95% of the cards on the Pokecube list, but it definitely intrigues me. Couple of comments/questions
1) Where is Computer Search? Back in my day, Computer Search was easily a top card, as Search into Professor Oak was ridiculous. Well, mostly Professor Oak is ridiculous all around, and ways to abuse/re-use it were super-ridiculous.
2) The only sample lists you have up are very heavy evolution-focused, with a very light emphasis on trainers. Have you seen many people try to go for a "Haymaker" strategy, running primarily powerful basics in 3ish colors and a very large contingent of trainers? If everyone else is squabbling over evolution lines, I could see someone pretty easily snapping up the big basics and trainers from each pack and going that route. Again back in my day, big/efficient basics like Hitmonchan (Base) and Sneasel (Neo Genesis) were king. I know things have changed with more recent evolutions being a lot more energy efficient, but this can't be completely a null strategy.
3) Have you tried at all regular drafting (where each player simultaneously has a facedown pack and passes it around the table, Magic-style)? The one time I recall drafting the Pokemon TCG I believe we did it that way and not Rochester.
4) How much did/would it cost to assemble this cube, would you estimate? Is there a site like tcgplayer/starcity where you could order all or most of it at once?
I played when Base set came out, playing with neighborhood kids and at the local Toys-R-Us. I got out of it when Gym Challenge came out, picked it up for a summer when Diamond and Pearl came out then stopped. I was playing Magic throughout this whole time and had I Magic Cube I really enjoyed playing with. Due to nostalgia for the Pokemon TCG a friend and I came up with the idea for the Pokemon Cube and put it together. It is a great way to play the Pokemon TCG without having to keep up with current decks or go to events. Pokemon, just like Magic, has a power creep which is why there a so many cards from more recent sets. These cards tend to be better than the older stuff.
Answering your questions:
1. Computer Search was already planned to be added into the cube for the next update. It is a pretty strong card for the reasons you listed, plus a 3 for 1 in the game is not nearly as damaging as it is in Magic. Computer Search will still likely be added, despite a new errata for the card. It is now considered an "Ace-Spec" card, which means you can only play a single Ace-Spec card in your deck. While there will be a few more Ace-Spec cards that will most likely make it into the Cube, Computer Search will most likely still make it in even with a new rider that limits some of its function.
2. You are right about the sample decks. While most decks tend to be more evolution focus, there have been other strategies. One style is an all Eevee deck that plays around 10 Eevees and a bunch of Eevee evolutions and trainers. There have also been "Haymaker" style decks drafted that are almost all basics, but this style of deck is a bit harder to draft since trainers tend to be drafted highly. Since most of the basic Pokemon that are not part of chain are drafted by multiple players, it can sometimes be difficult to get a critical mass of these cards in the draft. It is not impossible, just less common.
3. We did one draft face down when we were building the Cube and it can be quite awkward. Signals are way worse than in Magic. Also, players can't tell if the reason why they aren't seeing Gengar is because they are hiding in pack three or if someone else is taking them. I know the Pokemon TCG has a drafting style similar to Magic, but that uses normal booster packs with a smaller card pool and a higher critical mass of certain Pokemon. Because of this it is still difficult to draft Stage 2 lines. Since the way the Cube is set up now with an emphasis on evolutions, this drafting style does not work nearly as well as Rochester.
4. Troll and Toad is the best site we have found/used so far. They have most Pokemon cards that are in the Cube for mostly reasonable prices. If something seems too pricey there, you can always try a local store or the electronic bay. As for the price of the Cube, I don't have a good number to give you since some cards have dropped in price since this was built a year ago. For example, Dark Energy used to be about a $1 a piece, but now has dropped to be about the same price as the rest of the Energy, which saves some money. Also, we bought cards that ended up getting cut and have change some Pokemon lines and used our own previous collections to help supplement it. Overall I would say you might have a couple hundred to invest, if that, which is way cheaper than a Magic Cube. Plus, the nice thing about a Cube is once it is built it doesn't cost you anymore money besides updating with new cards.
The Cube is super fun to play. It can be a nice break from Magic and well as a way to play with cards that you haven't touched in years. We have also taught people to play who had never played the Pokemon TCG before and they also enjoy it. It's not just for the old or current Pokemon players.
I played when Base set came out, playing with neighborhood kids and at the local Toys-R-Us. I got out of it when Gym Challenge came out, picked it up for a summer when Diamond and Pearl came out then stopped. I was playing Magic throughout this whole time and had I Magic Cube I really enjoyed playing with. Due to nostalgia for the Pokemon TCG a friend and I came up with the idea for the Pokemon Cube and put it together. It is a great way to play the Pokemon TCG without having to keep up with current decks or go to events. Pokemon, just like Magic, has a power creep which is why there a so many cards from more recent sets. These cards tend to be better than the older stuff.
Answering your questions:
1. Computer Search was already planned to be added into the cube for the next update. It is a pretty strong card for the reasons you listed, plus a 3 for 1 in the game is not nearly as damaging as it is in Magic. Computer Search will still likely be added, despite a new errata for the card. It is now considered an "Ace-Spec" card, which means you can only play a single Ace-Spec card in your deck. While there will be a few more Ace-Spec cards that will most likely make it into the Cube, Computer Search will most likely still make it in even with a new rider that limits some of its function.
2. You are right about the sample decks. While most decks tend to be more evolution focus, there have been other strategies. One style is an all Eevee deck that plays around 10 Eevees and a bunch of Eevee evolutions and trainers. There have also been "Haymaker" style decks drafted that are almost all basics, but this style of deck is a bit harder to draft since trainers tend to be drafted highly. Since most of the basic Pokemon that are not part of chain are drafted by multiple players, it can sometimes be difficult to get a critical mass of these cards in the draft. It is not impossible, just less common.
3. We did one draft face down when we were building the Cube and it can be quite awkward. Signals are way worse than in Magic. Also, players can't tell if the reason why they aren't seeing Gengar is because they are hiding in pack three or if someone else is taking them. I know the Pokemon TCG has a drafting style similar to Magic, but that uses normal booster packs with a smaller card pool and a higher critical mass of certain Pokemon. Because of this it is still difficult to draft Stage 2 lines. Since the way the Cube is set up now with an emphasis on evolutions, this drafting style does not work nearly as well as Rochester.
4. Troll and Toad is the best site we have found/used so far. They have most Pokemon cards that are in the Cube for mostly reasonable prices. If something seems too pricey there, you can always try a local store or the electronic bay. As for the price of the Cube, I don't have a good number to give you since some cards have dropped in price since this was built a year ago. For example, Dark Energy used to be about a $1 a piece, but now has dropped to be about the same price as the rest of the Energy, which saves some money. Also, we bought cards that ended up getting cut and have change some Pokemon lines and used our own previous collections to help supplement it. Overall I would say you might have a couple hundred to invest, if that, which is way cheaper than a Magic Cube. Plus, the nice thing about a Cube is once it is built it doesn't cost you anymore money besides updating with new cards.
The Cube is super fun to play. It can be a nice break from Magic and well as a way to play with cards that you haven't touched in years. We have also taught people to play who had never played the Pokemon TCG before and they also enjoy it. It's not just for the old or current Pokemon players.
Man, the game has sure changed quite a bit. I know the Pokes have been power creeped considerably, particularly evolutions, but it was really necessary to tone down their energy requirements given the card disadvantage already inherent in playing evolutions, plus the difficulty of assembling the right pieces in the right order and the disadvantage of having to play often very low health/low impact basics.
I feel like at the point at which I quit, though, Trainers had been getting weaker. Professor Oak was replaced by Professor Elm, which shut you out from trainers for the rest of the turn (getting rid of Oak/Comp Search/Item Finder chaining to drop multiple Pluspowers, Energy Removals, and Gust of Winds to really disrupt your opponents). Energy Removal and Super Energy Removal had been phased out and replaced with less reliable substitutes. Gust of Wind had even been replaced with a weaker version. I don't really know what happened with Trainers beyond Revelations though, besides the introduction of the Supporter type - but even those were still weaker than the Base Set trainers at that point.
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Man, the game has sure changed quite a bit. I know the Pokes have been power creeped considerably, particularly evolutions, but it was really necessary to tone down their energy requirements given the card disadvantage already inherent in playing evolutions, plus the difficulty of assembling the right pieces in the right order and the disadvantage of having to play often very low health/low impact basics.
I feel like at the point at which I quit, though, Trainers had been getting weaker. Professor Oak was replaced by Professor Elm, which shut you out from trainers for the rest of the turn (getting rid of Oak/Comp Search/Item Finder chaining to drop multiple Pluspowers, Energy Removals, and Gust of Winds to really disrupt your opponents). Energy Removal and Super Energy Removal had been phased out and replaced with less reliable substitutes. Gust of Wind had even been replaced with a weaker version. I don't really know what happened with Trainers beyond Revelations though, besides the introduction of the Supporter type - but even those were still weaker than the Base Set trainers at that point.
All those trainers you just talked about were really OP back when I played. I remember a deck called haymaker that just ran scyther, hitmonchan, and electabuzz, (maybe magmar, can't remember). And those trainers let you knock out pokemon on benches way to easily with low energy. Professor oak and computer search made every deck so consistent it wasn't even fair.
Though if I were to build a pokemon cube it would with all the original cards because those haymaker decks were awesome!
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All those trainers you just talked about were really OP back when I played. I remember a deck called haymaker that just ran scyther, hitmonchan, and electabuzz, (maybe magmar, can't remember). And those trainers let you knock out pokemon on benches way to easily with low energy. Professor oak and computer search made every deck so consistent it wasn't even fair.
Though if I were to build a pokemon cube it would with all the original cards because those haymaker decks were awesome!
Besides some of the Trainers, most of the original cards just aren't good enough. I like loving the original Red Sleigh deck from Magic's early beginnings and putting Ironclaw Orcs in a Cube.
Besides some of the Trainers, most of the original cards just aren't good enough. I like loving the original Red Sleigh deck from Magic's early beginnings and putting Ironclaw Orcs in a Cube.
Electabuzz and Hitmonchan aren't good anymore? They used to be sooo much better than anything else it wasn't even funny. It wasn't until sneasel (and slowking) that I ever switched decks.
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Electabuzz and Hitmonchan aren't good anymore? They used to be sooo much better than anything else it wasn't even funny. It wasn't until sneasel (and slowking) that I ever switched decks.
The basics got better as well. Just look at these type of guys:
From what I understand, these big basics have been so powerful that the format is a lot like the old haymaker one: Very few evolution decks.
From what I've heard and seen it's a bit more balanced now - the big basics may be powerful but they generally take more than one energy to make attacks. Meanwhile, Stage 2's can often make their attacks for a single energy. If your basic takes 3 energies for it's most powerful attack, that's 4 cards to start consistently knocking out Pokemon. If my Stage 2 takes 1 energy, that's also 4 cards (basic - stage 1 - stage 2 - energy), and it takes the same number of turns to get there (at one evolution per turn and can't evolve the turn it comes down).
The reason why Haymaker was so ridiculous back in the day is that the three Haymaker pokemon (base Hitmonchan, base Electabuzz, Jungle Scyther) could operate at very low numbers of energies, in addition to not requiring evolutions. Most evolutions had attacks for 3-4 energies, or often only at 4. With powerful disruption cards like Gust of Wind and the Energy Removals, it's basically impossible to play like this - you play a low HP basic to evolve it, they Gust it out and KO it. You manage to get one evolved, they strip it of energies and make it worthless. The only Evolutions that were good in the early sets were Blastoise (who could dump all of its energies into play, bypassing the energy removal problem), Wigglytuff (who could use Double Colorless energy to get by on two energies, and would deal 60 consistently), and Muk (who would be used only for his ability to shut off Pokemon powers).
Now, the "Modified" format was an attempt to address this. It was played only with cards from Team Rocket, Gym Heroes and Challenge, and the Neo sets, plus the cards from the first three sets that were reprinted in Base 2, which did not include Gust, the Energy Removals, Professor Oak, and I'm fairly certain a few other cards like Computer Search and Pluspower were left out as well.
The problem with Neo was Sneasel and Slowking.
Sneasel was a straight-up power mistake. The equation for a balanced attack back in those days was a colorless energy ~= 10 damage, a colored energy ~= 15. So Sneasel's Beat Up attack, at two Dark Energies, should be around 30 damage. And that's true, IF we assume that the average number of Pokemon a player will have in play is only 3 out of the possible 6 - you then flip 3 coins for 20 damage per heads, averaging 30. However, even without Oak, there were plenty of draw 7's (Professor Elm, Cleffa), which made it trivially easy to stock your bench, making its average damage 60 (this is the reason why Wigglytuff was also very good). The other element that was supposed to balance him was the fact that Dark Energy at the time was non-basic, meaning you only got four in the deck, and in return they increased all of your damage by 10 and basically poisoned you if you weren't Dark type or "Dark" in the name. However, again, Draw 7's, trivially easy - most Haymaker decks would only run 4-6 of each colored energy anyways, and he could supplement with Rainbow Energy, so all this amounted to was giving Sneasel free permanent Pluspowers so his attack would average 70-80 damage instead of 60. Add this to the fact that the other Dark Pokemon at the time was Murkrow, who could mercilessly rip a bench apart if you could Mean Look a vulnerable Pokemon (like a Baby or Slowking), and the fact that both of these Pokemon had no weakness, a decent resistance, and no retreat cost, and Dark was obviously overpowered.
And then we had Slowking. Slowking had a Pokemon Power, whenever an opponent plays a trainer card, flip a coin, if heads, put it on top of their library with no effect. Now, in his original Japanese printing, this power only worked while Slowking was your ACTIVE Pokemon. As his stats are pretty terrible (if I recall his attack did 20, plus 20 and confusion if you flipped heads on a coin, for 3 psychic energies), this made him pretty much worthless. But he was printed in the US without this text, meaning A) he didn't ever have to tangle in combat, and B) you could stack multiple of them, making it nearly impossible for your opponent to resolve trainer cards. As trainer cards were so necessary at the time, and there were very few other ways to interact with them (besides Lass and Dark Vileplume, which were symmetrical, and Rocket's Sneak Attack and Noctowl which were minor), this was ridiculously oppressive.
Once those two were banned though, the format really opened up. Feraligatr decks were very powerful (he allowed you to discard water energies whenever you wanted, and then for 3 water did 10 + 10 per water in the discard pile, which then shuffled in. You'd dig through your deck and pitch energies to dish out massive damage every turn), but I distinctly recall Dark Gengar and Crobat decks being good as well.
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With all the Trainers being restricted to 1 per Cube, does cut down on some of the ridiculousness of Trainers. This doesn't mean that Trainers are still not powerful, and after a decade of cards being printed, there are some redundancies. For example, Gust of Wind and Pokemon Catcher are the same card, which gives you the chance to have two in the Cube. Professor Oak, Professor Elm, and Professor Juniper are all Draw 7s, plus Cynthia's Feelings can be a draw 8, you get some very powerful draw cards.
I really like how much more attention this gets now that it's on the main board. Travy's put in a lot of work and this Cube seems like a blast to play.
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I have played Travy's pokecube (one f the advantages of being his friend) and it is awesome. Pokemon is a nice break from Magic. I like the lack of instants, it really simplifies a game, and not in a bad way.
My biggest issue would be the psychic chains. Unlike the video game, the pokemon tcg has decided psychic is a weak color for damage. Sadly, if you don't have an easy way to kill stuff, you tend to lose too much tempo.
I have played Travy's pokecube (one f the advantages of being his friend) and it is awesome. Pokemon is a nice break from Magic. I like the lack of instants, it really simplifies a game, and not in a bad way.
My biggest issue would be the psychic chains. Unlike the video game, the pokemon tcg has decided psychic is a weak color for damage. Sadly, if you don't have an easy way to kill stuff, you tend to lose too much tempo.
I mean, Psychic was absurd in the first generation as it only had two weaknesses, and neither of those weaknesses really had any attacks that did damage (Bug had Pin Missile and Twinneedle, the first of which was only on Jolteon and Beedrill, and the second of which was only on Beedrill, Ghost only had Lick and it was bugged not to damage Psychic types). Additionally, only one type resisted it, and that was Psychic itself. Add in the fact that the "Special" stat increased both Special Attack and Special Defense, and most Psychic types had high Special, and many of them had access to Amnesia which increased Special 2 stages (effectively doubling it on the first use), plus the attack "Psychic" had a high chance of reducing the target's Special (in addition to a high damage and perfect Accuracy), and you definitely had a recipe for problems.
The next few generations went a long way towards balancing Psychic. Ghost and Bug got some actual attacks (Shadow Ball, Mega Horn, etc) as well as more Pokemon of those types. Of the two newly added types, Steel resists Psychic and Dark is flat-out Immune, plus adds an additional weakness. The Special Attack/Special Defense split also hurt Psychic immensely, as Psychic types no longer were incredibly specially bulky in addition to having huge attack power, and Amnesia only raised SpecDef (the later-added Calm Mind increased both, but only by one stage each).
In the card game, Psychics have never had it very easy. All of the "Normal" colorless types besides "Flying" ones had an innate Resistance to Psychic of -30 (because of Normals being immune to Ghost), which was one of the few common resistances in the early sets (the others being Ground-type Fightings having a Lightning Resistance and Flying types of all sorts plus Ghost-typed Psychics) having a Fighting Resistance. And when Dark types were released, they had a Psychic resistance too.
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Psychic has never been a heavy hitter since Gen 1, which can be awkward at times. For the Cube Psychic doesn't quite play the same as many of the other types, which isn't a bad thing. It is just different and right now it seems to be the best it can be given the circumstances.
Finally a new post up! This post explores the Metal line Metagross in the Cube, which I know at least one person was interested in. Let me know your thoughts about it.
PS: Is there any site where it's easy to view the cards, like a visual spoiler? Most of them I've found are very difficult to navigate. Maybe magiccards.info has just spoiled me...
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Glad you enjoyed it! I try to mention other cards they combo with, but this was the first time I included photos of those cards. I will try to include more pictures of the other cards in the future.
Sadly, there isn't really a nice visual list of Pokemon cards without having to look each individual one up. This is super awkward, especially since many cards have the same name! One thing that a friend and I have discussed is trying to put together a visual list of the Cube, that way people can read and see the cards without looking them up.
My Cube
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That would also be nice. Maybe something similar to this webite: http://blog.magicplayer.org/2011/12/04/2nd-highlander-grand-prix-trial-berlin-03-12-11/, where they have the cards picture displayed, but if you wave your mouse over it it becomes bigger.
I'd love to see a visual spoiler so much, because not only do a lot of the cards share the same name, sometimes there's even 2 different versions of the same card in same set.
Confusing indeed.
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I agree completely. There is something in the works, I don't know when it will be done. Visuals also help when there are 400 different cards in the Cube.
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1) Where is Computer Search? Back in my day, Computer Search was easily a top card, as Search into Professor Oak was ridiculous. Well, mostly Professor Oak is ridiculous all around, and ways to abuse/re-use it were super-ridiculous.
2) The only sample lists you have up are very heavy evolution-focused, with a very light emphasis on trainers. Have you seen many people try to go for a "Haymaker" strategy, running primarily powerful basics in 3ish colors and a very large contingent of trainers? If everyone else is squabbling over evolution lines, I could see someone pretty easily snapping up the big basics and trainers from each pack and going that route. Again back in my day, big/efficient basics like Hitmonchan (Base) and Sneasel (Neo Genesis) were king. I know things have changed with more recent evolutions being a lot more energy efficient, but this can't be completely a null strategy.
3) Have you tried at all regular drafting (where each player simultaneously has a facedown pack and passes it around the table, Magic-style)? The one time I recall drafting the Pokemon TCG I believe we did it that way and not Rochester.
4) How much did/would it cost to assemble this cube, would you estimate? Is there a site like tcgplayer/starcity where you could order all or most of it at once?
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We touched on this a little while ago. Most everything besides the cards in the current rotation are dirt cheap, with some of those in the rotation also having dirt-cheap silver bordered versions.
Troll and Toad I think will have most of what is in the cube. Also, check out Pokegym. There are a lot of members there willing to straight-up sell cards.
I played when Base set came out, playing with neighborhood kids and at the local Toys-R-Us. I got out of it when Gym Challenge came out, picked it up for a summer when Diamond and Pearl came out then stopped. I was playing Magic throughout this whole time and had I Magic Cube I really enjoyed playing with. Due to nostalgia for the Pokemon TCG a friend and I came up with the idea for the Pokemon Cube and put it together. It is a great way to play the Pokemon TCG without having to keep up with current decks or go to events. Pokemon, just like Magic, has a power creep which is why there a so many cards from more recent sets. These cards tend to be better than the older stuff.
Answering your questions:
1. Computer Search was already planned to be added into the cube for the next update. It is a pretty strong card for the reasons you listed, plus a 3 for 1 in the game is not nearly as damaging as it is in Magic. Computer Search will still likely be added, despite a new errata for the card. It is now considered an "Ace-Spec" card, which means you can only play a single Ace-Spec card in your deck. While there will be a few more Ace-Spec cards that will most likely make it into the Cube, Computer Search will most likely still make it in even with a new rider that limits some of its function.
2. You are right about the sample decks. While most decks tend to be more evolution focus, there have been other strategies. One style is an all Eevee deck that plays around 10 Eevees and a bunch of Eevee evolutions and trainers. There have also been "Haymaker" style decks drafted that are almost all basics, but this style of deck is a bit harder to draft since trainers tend to be drafted highly. Since most of the basic Pokemon that are not part of chain are drafted by multiple players, it can sometimes be difficult to get a critical mass of these cards in the draft. It is not impossible, just less common.
3. We did one draft face down when we were building the Cube and it can be quite awkward. Signals are way worse than in Magic. Also, players can't tell if the reason why they aren't seeing Gengar is because they are hiding in pack three or if someone else is taking them. I know the Pokemon TCG has a drafting style similar to Magic, but that uses normal booster packs with a smaller card pool and a higher critical mass of certain Pokemon. Because of this it is still difficult to draft Stage 2 lines. Since the way the Cube is set up now with an emphasis on evolutions, this drafting style does not work nearly as well as Rochester.
4. Troll and Toad is the best site we have found/used so far. They have most Pokemon cards that are in the Cube for mostly reasonable prices. If something seems too pricey there, you can always try a local store or the electronic bay. As for the price of the Cube, I don't have a good number to give you since some cards have dropped in price since this was built a year ago. For example, Dark Energy used to be about a $1 a piece, but now has dropped to be about the same price as the rest of the Energy, which saves some money. Also, we bought cards that ended up getting cut and have change some Pokemon lines and used our own previous collections to help supplement it. Overall I would say you might have a couple hundred to invest, if that, which is way cheaper than a Magic Cube. Plus, the nice thing about a Cube is once it is built it doesn't cost you anymore money besides updating with new cards.
The Cube is super fun to play. It can be a nice break from Magic and well as a way to play with cards that you haven't touched in years. We have also taught people to play who had never played the Pokemon TCG before and they also enjoy it. It's not just for the old or current Pokemon players.
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Man, the game has sure changed quite a bit. I know the Pokes have been power creeped considerably, particularly evolutions, but it was really necessary to tone down their energy requirements given the card disadvantage already inherent in playing evolutions, plus the difficulty of assembling the right pieces in the right order and the disadvantage of having to play often very low health/low impact basics.
I feel like at the point at which I quit, though, Trainers had been getting weaker. Professor Oak was replaced by Professor Elm, which shut you out from trainers for the rest of the turn (getting rid of Oak/Comp Search/Item Finder chaining to drop multiple Pluspowers, Energy Removals, and Gust of Winds to really disrupt your opponents). Energy Removal and Super Energy Removal had been phased out and replaced with less reliable substitutes. Gust of Wind had even been replaced with a weaker version. I don't really know what happened with Trainers beyond Revelations though, besides the introduction of the Supporter type - but even those were still weaker than the Base Set trainers at that point.
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All those trainers you just talked about were really OP back when I played. I remember a deck called haymaker that just ran scyther, hitmonchan, and electabuzz, (maybe magmar, can't remember). And those trainers let you knock out pokemon on benches way to easily with low energy. Professor oak and computer search made every deck so consistent it wasn't even fair.
Though if I were to build a pokemon cube it would with all the original cards because those haymaker decks were awesome!
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It's like a powered cube haha. But with an even higher amount of broken stuff.
However, like the cube, the lack of having a high density of these cards evens it out still.
Besides some of the Trainers, most of the original cards just aren't good enough. I like loving the original Red Sleigh deck from Magic's early beginnings and putting Ironclaw Orcs in a Cube.
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Electabuzz and Hitmonchan aren't good anymore? They used to be sooo much better than anything else it wasn't even funny. It wasn't until sneasel (and slowking) that I ever switched decks.
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The basics got better as well. Just look at these type of guys:
http://cdn.bulbagarden.net/media/upload/d/d0/MewtwoEXNextDestinies54.jpg
http://pokebeach.com/scans/noble-victories/73-terrakion.jpg
It's like look between Dwarven Pony and Goblin Guide.
From what I understand, these big basics have been so powerful that the format is a lot like the old haymaker one: Very few evolution decks.
From what I've heard and seen it's a bit more balanced now - the big basics may be powerful but they generally take more than one energy to make attacks. Meanwhile, Stage 2's can often make their attacks for a single energy. If your basic takes 3 energies for it's most powerful attack, that's 4 cards to start consistently knocking out Pokemon. If my Stage 2 takes 1 energy, that's also 4 cards (basic - stage 1 - stage 2 - energy), and it takes the same number of turns to get there (at one evolution per turn and can't evolve the turn it comes down).
The reason why Haymaker was so ridiculous back in the day is that the three Haymaker pokemon (base Hitmonchan, base Electabuzz, Jungle Scyther) could operate at very low numbers of energies, in addition to not requiring evolutions. Most evolutions had attacks for 3-4 energies, or often only at 4. With powerful disruption cards like Gust of Wind and the Energy Removals, it's basically impossible to play like this - you play a low HP basic to evolve it, they Gust it out and KO it. You manage to get one evolved, they strip it of energies and make it worthless. The only Evolutions that were good in the early sets were Blastoise (who could dump all of its energies into play, bypassing the energy removal problem), Wigglytuff (who could use Double Colorless energy to get by on two energies, and would deal 60 consistently), and Muk (who would be used only for his ability to shut off Pokemon powers).
Now, the "Modified" format was an attempt to address this. It was played only with cards from Team Rocket, Gym Heroes and Challenge, and the Neo sets, plus the cards from the first three sets that were reprinted in Base 2, which did not include Gust, the Energy Removals, Professor Oak, and I'm fairly certain a few other cards like Computer Search and Pluspower were left out as well.
The problem with Neo was Sneasel and Slowking.
Sneasel was a straight-up power mistake. The equation for a balanced attack back in those days was a colorless energy ~= 10 damage, a colored energy ~= 15. So Sneasel's Beat Up attack, at two Dark Energies, should be around 30 damage. And that's true, IF we assume that the average number of Pokemon a player will have in play is only 3 out of the possible 6 - you then flip 3 coins for 20 damage per heads, averaging 30. However, even without Oak, there were plenty of draw 7's (Professor Elm, Cleffa), which made it trivially easy to stock your bench, making its average damage 60 (this is the reason why Wigglytuff was also very good). The other element that was supposed to balance him was the fact that Dark Energy at the time was non-basic, meaning you only got four in the deck, and in return they increased all of your damage by 10 and basically poisoned you if you weren't Dark type or "Dark" in the name. However, again, Draw 7's, trivially easy - most Haymaker decks would only run 4-6 of each colored energy anyways, and he could supplement with Rainbow Energy, so all this amounted to was giving Sneasel free permanent Pluspowers so his attack would average 70-80 damage instead of 60. Add this to the fact that the other Dark Pokemon at the time was Murkrow, who could mercilessly rip a bench apart if you could Mean Look a vulnerable Pokemon (like a Baby or Slowking), and the fact that both of these Pokemon had no weakness, a decent resistance, and no retreat cost, and Dark was obviously overpowered.
And then we had Slowking. Slowking had a Pokemon Power, whenever an opponent plays a trainer card, flip a coin, if heads, put it on top of their library with no effect. Now, in his original Japanese printing, this power only worked while Slowking was your ACTIVE Pokemon. As his stats are pretty terrible (if I recall his attack did 20, plus 20 and confusion if you flipped heads on a coin, for 3 psychic energies), this made him pretty much worthless. But he was printed in the US without this text, meaning A) he didn't ever have to tangle in combat, and B) you could stack multiple of them, making it nearly impossible for your opponent to resolve trainer cards. As trainer cards were so necessary at the time, and there were very few other ways to interact with them (besides Lass and Dark Vileplume, which were symmetrical, and Rocket's Sneak Attack and Noctowl which were minor), this was ridiculously oppressive.
Once those two were banned though, the format really opened up. Feraligatr decks were very powerful (he allowed you to discard water energies whenever you wanted, and then for 3 water did 10 + 10 per water in the discard pile, which then shuffled in. You'd dig through your deck and pitch energies to dish out massive damage every turn), but I distinctly recall Dark Gengar and Crobat decks being good as well.
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It could be solid in constructed, but probably isn't too good in the Cube since is basically just cycles a card.
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That's true, but it does dig for evolution lines. I'm not sure how much of a problem that is, but it's an idea
I do appreciate the suggestions though.
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My biggest issue would be the psychic chains. Unlike the video game, the pokemon tcg has decided psychic is a weak color for damage. Sadly, if you don't have an easy way to kill stuff, you tend to lose too much tempo.
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I mean, Psychic was absurd in the first generation as it only had two weaknesses, and neither of those weaknesses really had any attacks that did damage (Bug had Pin Missile and Twinneedle, the first of which was only on Jolteon and Beedrill, and the second of which was only on Beedrill, Ghost only had Lick and it was bugged not to damage Psychic types). Additionally, only one type resisted it, and that was Psychic itself. Add in the fact that the "Special" stat increased both Special Attack and Special Defense, and most Psychic types had high Special, and many of them had access to Amnesia which increased Special 2 stages (effectively doubling it on the first use), plus the attack "Psychic" had a high chance of reducing the target's Special (in addition to a high damage and perfect Accuracy), and you definitely had a recipe for problems.
The next few generations went a long way towards balancing Psychic. Ghost and Bug got some actual attacks (Shadow Ball, Mega Horn, etc) as well as more Pokemon of those types. Of the two newly added types, Steel resists Psychic and Dark is flat-out Immune, plus adds an additional weakness. The Special Attack/Special Defense split also hurt Psychic immensely, as Psychic types no longer were incredibly specially bulky in addition to having huge attack power, and Amnesia only raised SpecDef (the later-added Calm Mind increased both, but only by one stage each).
In the card game, Psychics have never had it very easy. All of the "Normal" colorless types besides "Flying" ones had an innate Resistance to Psychic of -30 (because of Normals being immune to Ghost), which was one of the few common resistances in the early sets (the others being Ground-type Fightings having a Lightning Resistance and Flying types of all sorts plus Ghost-typed Psychics) having a Fighting Resistance. And when Dark types were released, they had a Psychic resistance too.
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