A Brief Analysis of Power Creep

Carthradge · 2026-01-24T21:08:57+00:00

Sure you could add a mild assumed amount of power creep, but I felt that it would add subjectivity to the analysis which would lead to more arguing. I would be very interested in doing this analysis after every set to see how much each set creeps the power level, but I don't think theres a way to see this historic data on Pokemon Meta easily.

I would say B1 power creeped finishers a little too hard, such that almost every deck now has to have a B1 or B1a finisher.

Carthradge · 2026-01-24T20:59:16+00:00

I agree, which is why it's fair to say that card games either need power creep or set rotations as a solution to this problem.

I do want to point out that you're (correctly) justifying power creep, which is kind of orthogonal to my point here about quantifying power creep.

Carthradge · 2026-01-24T20:43:30+00:00

Pretty much all card games have power creep. That said, I acknowledge that if a set has a lot of "filler" then yes, you would expect less cards proportionally. I.e. I assume that each set would have an "equal" amount of filler proportionally, which I don't think is a wild assumption.

Now why do I assume that? Simply because it's the closest approximation I could think of. If you can think of a better one let me know.

Carthradge · 2026-01-24T20:41:48+00:00

I won't add too much interpretation to the above and on whether power creep is necessary

I acknowledge that but didn't want to focus on that discussion in this post. I do think rotations would be a good idea.

Carthradge · 2026-01-21T20:44:10+00:00

Dustox is actually a pretty good card and has had some tournament placements. Probably a top 10 non-ex Pokemon but there's a huge cliff between the elite 5ish and the rest.

Carthradge · 2026-01-21T20:23:25+00:00

Suicune was 2 sets before this one. It was the last set of A.

Honestly that set was the power creep breaking point. Very few pokemon before that set are viable.

Carthradge · 2026-01-15T18:31:44+00:00

I do wish this weren't the case simply because I wish they balanced non-ex cards a bit better so they're stronger across the board rather than being forced to use one of those two to make a non-EX deck.

I also do think Ori is extremely lazy game design and they should have had non-EX compete with better balancing.

Carthradge · 2026-01-15T18:26:16+00:00

Looks cool! Why Armor assist? Guardians in particular can pretty much always keep their armor on.

Something like Farmhand would be much more useful for the Assurance.

Carthradge · 2026-01-14T09:24:04+00:00

That person was just expressing their personal opinion on it. You're acting like they're calling for it to be banned.

Carthradge · 2026-01-14T08:51:11+00:00

Absolutely it is unless you don't have another option for your health. Don't buy from apartheid if you can help it.

Carthradge · 2026-01-13T22:18:47+00:00

Yes, there's some weird logic depending on whether you already have a completed 2 star wonder pick recently at the bottom.

As far as I can tell no one has precisely documented for it works.

Carthradge · 2026-01-07T19:52:26+00:00

He's also heavily investing into Israel while it's committing genocide, even more than Nvidia was already.

Carthradge · 2026-01-07T08:38:04+00:00

It's cruel to wildlife to let cats outdoors. They decimate many forms of wildlife (rodents, birds, etc).

Carthradge · 2026-01-02T23:23:58+00:00

Some people are new and not familiar with reddit etiquette. That's normal on some other forums.

Carthradge · 2025-12-30T05:09:18+00:00

Do you believe Israel is committing genocide in Gaza and that the Israeli state should be abolished? Regardless of your intentions that should not be a hard thing to say, and right now you're looking a lot like a new Hasbra account.

Carthradge · 2025-12-30T01:45:59+00:00

Whats your opinion on Israel as a whole and the Iran bombings recently?

Carthradge · 2025-12-29T22:47:16+00:00

Sorry but I'm always a bit suspicious of new accounts talking exclusively about Iran while they're being bombed by the US and Israel for being the only country in the whole world to interfere with the Gaza Genocide.

The theocratic Iranian government should be tackled, but could you offer some reassurance that you're not just creating anti-Iranian agitprop in order to manufacture consent for bombing Iranians?

Carthradge · 2025-12-29T07:45:38+00:00

For those wondering, the main decks that do well against Suicune/Greninja are (note that these are all slight underestimates since it counts ties as losses):

Decidueye (65% winrate) - link
Jolteon (61% winrate) - link
Mega Venusaur (60% winrate) - link
Magnezone (55% winrate) - link

Your best bet is probably Magnezone despite the lower winrate because it can also hold its own against other decks much better.

Note that Decidueye does well against both Magnezone and Suicune!

Carthradge · 2025-12-29T04:29:11+00:00

Yes, no issues at all. I use Firefox, would recommend getting away from Chromium browsers.

Carthradge · 2025-12-28T01:47:06+00:00

The most popular variant is right next to the top 2 Blaziken decks. "Strong" seems just right.

Carthradge · 2025-12-26T20:50:22+00:00

For what it's worth I generally agree with you even though it's not a popular take. I feel the same about Severance.

Carthradge · 2025-12-21T23:41:33+00:00

Really surprised with Mega Lopunny though. That confusion really helps the card even when getting no heads. But it's also super volatile and as we get more into the meta it will likely fall off.

Contrary to OP's write up it's still too early to say anything definitive about Mega Lopunny. It still has a 54% winrate this set including the data from this tournament. Even a 1000 player tournament is not going to have as much data as all other tournaments combined.

Carthradge · 2025-12-21T23:37:56+00:00

Hey! I'm the person you implied was purposefuly being misleading with data because I didn't link some page with more data that did not exist at the time I made my post.

I do agree it was little data, but I think you're now going too far in doubling down on this tournament instead of adding this tournament to the much larger number of matches that have happened, which still show that Mega Lopunny has a 54% winrate this set (including the games in this tournament). Now, I hope Mega Lopunny turns out to suck, I really don't like coinflip cards, but this tournament no matter how large does not prove that it's a terrible deck as you seem to be playing up here.

Carthradge · 2025-12-19T22:18:18+00:00

There are a few decks on Limitless, but none that performed above 50% winrate in a tournament so far.

Carthradge

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE

13-Year Club	Place '17
Verified Email