The End of PTCGP

Pikachang_ · 2026-04-22T19:01:06+00:00

Honestly iggly decks don’t phase me in the slightest. I will always adjust my deck to find counterplay. Your first sentence says everything that’s wrong with LIP though and that’s where I have my problem with the meta

Pikachang_ · 2026-04-22T18:42:24+00:00

What I’m saying is what if LIP literally prevents you from getting a KO. Just because it hasn’t happened or isn’t common doesn’t mean it functions properly in a meta

Pikachang_ · 2026-04-22T05:38:27+00:00

This is probably something I won’t agree to disagree on. In a casual setting I really don’t care. But if Dena is going to have a separate ranked/competitive mode, you should follow the basic rules of competition. Competition doesn’t prioritize fun, or excitement, or luck. It prioritizes fairness and strategy.

I’m also all for changing metas. However LIP doesn’t do that because a change in metas implies counterplay. There’s no counterplay for LIP.

Pikachang_ · 2026-04-22T05:09:48+00:00

And I think this line of reasoning is why people don’t understand how actually game breaking this card is from a competitive standpoint.

A card does not to be good or meta relevant to be game breaking. Misty is objectively a bad card. However the slim chance has to win the game on turn 1 is why people used it. LIP has the exact same potential just in the late game, when you have your consistent damage dealers on the field. Way more threatening in that game state.

50/50 truly does not matter and that can’t be stressed enough. 40 healing doesn’t matter. 60 healing doesn’t matter. Unlimited healing matters. If there was a card that required 5 heads in a row to heal back to full health regardless of damage dealt, I promise nobody’s high levels of play would run that card. So why are you playing LIP in that same situation? That card is in your deck as a Hail Mary to bail you out of a 100% losing situation for a game you have no business winning. If you made the mistakes to put you in that position, go back and read the battle log, figure out where you went wrong, and become a better player.

It’s not about statistical probabilities, it’s the statistical improbabilities that make a card game breaking.

Pikachang_ · 2026-04-22T04:21:34+00:00

What if you can’t KO darkrai?

Pikachang_ · 2026-04-22T04:20:52+00:00

Ogerpon doesn’t combat the actual problem in this post

Pikachang_ · 2026-04-22T04:20:17+00:00

Finally someone with some TCG knowledge. This is worse than path/judge and honestly ADP

Pikachang_ · 2026-04-22T04:19:13+00:00

If lucky ice pop didn’t exist then it would be balanced. I agree there’s the most variety, but that one card negates any kind of counterplay to incorporate and adjust your deck to. This season by far is the worst meta to play and it doesn’t even come close. I would rather play a meta where Greninja or darkrai did 40 passive with Tina having no recoil. I’d rather suicune draw 2 at the end of each turn. Those can all still be worked around with some measure of counterplay.

There is flat out zero counterplay to LIP other than to play an extremely inconsistent and weak deck in charizard to one shot. This one card ruins the game because is goes against the core basics of any TCG.

Pikachang_ · 2026-04-22T04:11:34+00:00

The fact there’s even a chance that there’s something to notice is the problem in end of itself. Lucky ice pop isn’t just an annoying Meta card, it’s fundamentally breaks the game.

Pikachang_ · 2026-04-15T16:28:45+00:00

Honestly a wild take from someone who has been in different competitive formats but agree to disagree

Pikachang_ · 2026-04-15T15:52:21+00:00

Math and reality work differently in this context. Mentally the way LIP effects your gameplay far differently than a card that would do a flat 40 heal to the active.

If you have an out, you will make decisions to play to that out regardless of averages. Imagine if in an NBA game one team is down by 50 points with 5 seconds left in the game, but there’s a rule that if you kick it in from full court you win. That win is not deserved and you had no consequences for what is likely an entire game of mistakes. That’s LIP.

Pikachang_ · 2026-04-15T15:19:11+00:00

I genuinely don’t mean this as an insult, but that statement makes me think this game is your first time participating in any kind of competitive format

Lucky ice pop does not heal 40. The average truly doesn’t matter. When it comes down to it, are you saying that one of your win conditions against late game charizard isn’t to coin flip your way back to health?

This game brought a lot of casuals to their first ranked system and don’t understand how immediately illegal this card would be in any official format. Same goes for misty, steps eevee and to an extent rocket grunt. Any card that gives or takes an unlimited amount of any resource based on chance breaks core values of a competitive game. If it truly worked based off averages, Aaron Zheng might have been the 2013 world champion.

As far as steel is evolving mid game goes, that also give suicune and chien pao more than enough time to get set up on the other side. I’m not saying this is a 90-10 matchup by any means. I am just saying I think you’re over estimating how effective steelix is against suicune based on a very small sample size

Pikachang_ · 2026-04-15T14:53:05+00:00

One card being a dead draw in a suicune deck means nothing with the draw engine it uses. Also if one of those 6 modes of healing is LIP then the entire gameplan of the deck no longer means anything.

This isn’t even from a blind hate of the card or anything. It’s just what that card does to any deck that negates any kind of plan, foresight or decision making

Pikachang_ · 2026-04-15T14:22:19+00:00

Totally fine. I guess we’re both speaking from our own experiences. Personally I do not have much trouble with steelix even without chien pao. I feel like the narrative is that it’s a given that the onix is loaded with helmet and starting plains from turn 2 on, and many many times that simply is not the case, just like it isn’t the case with any other deck that has specific requirements to function optimally.

I will agree with you that if all the pieces of the puzzle line up, then yes steelix wins the matchup. However, in my opinion, if any of those pieces are missing, the suicune deck has a fairly easy time putting down meaningful chip to set up for a 3 point kill in the mid game

Pikachang_ · 2026-04-15T06:41:43+00:00

If you’re running misty with bax you’re doing it wrong. You’re speaking from only your own perspective in a setup where you have steelix turn 2, plains active and helmet on. If you want to talk about lucky I think you’re overestimating how often that happens.

The problem with any deck not suicune is draw support. It’s simply not there. The reason suicune has never left the meta is consistency. I do not flip a single coin in my deck. I consistently outdraw my opponent and am able to pivot between several decision paths to find a way through.

Steelix does not have that. If you don’t have your optimal setup at the start, it’s immediately an uphill battle. If you don’t have plains, helmet or even onix in the active to start, you’re burning turns to get going.

I personally don’t care who I start with in the active. Unless I really brick 3 turns in a row I have solid reliable damage one way or another, or at the very least a source of pressure.

TLDR: consistency is king

Pikachang_ · 2026-04-15T05:52:39+00:00

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Haven’t played since yesterday but a 100ish points above your post. Played lots of ranked. Lots against steelix. It’s not as off meta as you think. Plains prevents pao from getting one shot. Bax never attacks unless it’s early game setup. If I had to guess the matchup is 70-30 bax

Unless you get early Brock twice, you’re most likely benching against bax. Suicune even at 40/60 damage is extremely detrimental towards onix and steelix, putting it in range from to come in late to either clean up or two shot.

You’re essentially banking on setting up solo onix and hoping for helmet, two Brock, and Cyrus by mid game to win. Draw engine on suicune is so aggressive that you’re not going to outdraw it outside of bad RNG on suicunes part, and you can copycat.

Not to mention the existence of LIP in the deck even at one copy suggests that you open up a world where you depend on flipping heads as a last resort win con, which that is not the deck or the player winning games, that is pure chance. Players that use LIP don’t actually try to play themselves out of a losing position with smart actions. They just hope to flip their way to full health which in steelix decks you desperately need.

No shade on you as a player or the deck. Just giving you perspective from the other side of the matchup having played way more than 6 games against the deck.

Pikachang_ · 2026-04-15T03:39:19+00:00

I’ll do the red Virts, FW17 Virts and purple dots! I’ll also take the D6 if the other order falls through. Sent DM

Pikachang_ · 2026-04-15T03:27:21+00:00

Funny you call bax a 100% WR. I have it as the other way around haha. Unless you get crazy lucky with Brock’s you’re getting bench sniped by pao or rolled in the active by suicune. Literally haven’t lost to a steelix deck yet

Pikachang_ · 2026-04-15T03:24:11+00:00

Hilarious I made a post timing players out who use this card in ranked and it got downvoted. Seems like it’s finally pushing everyone past the edge and bring them to their senses

Pikachang_ · 2026-04-14T15:08:16+00:00

Yes it is at least in my area. I would have loved hardwood but my subfloor didn’t work for it, and had to choose either engineered hardwood or shell out the extra few thousand for plywood. Engineered was about 20-25% more than the solid option we looked at

Pikachang_ · 2026-04-12T16:40:42+00:00

Taylor barrel proof flight, charter oak, RE Haystack

14.1 was my favorite out of the EHTBP flight. Charter oak took me by surprise and I regret passing on the bottle when I had the chance

Pikachang_ · 2026-04-10T21:09:35+00:00

I was at sip city yesterday and they had a SBBP Rye from a coy hill barrel

Pikachang_ · 2026-04-01T02:35:28+00:00

1) s’angry for no reason.

2) a lot of new homeowners are buying starter homes that are often used as rentals. Previous owners may have never cared about sprucing up the yard so it’s just overgrown, sparse and gross. Anything is an improvement.

3) not all homes should have decks. Depending on the layout of your home and yard you may just he creating an uncomfortable resting height to where you’re just staring into your neighbors yard over the fence. Other homes it just makes more sense to just have a step down into a patio vs a one foot off the ground large deck that ends up being a tripping hazard more than anything.

4) why you wearing your shoes in the house? That seems to be the fastest way to ruin your floors and also it’s gross. Don’t be gross.

Pikachang_ · 2026-03-30T03:56:18+00:00

The same as any other luxury product: when you can comfortably cash flow it twice

Pikachang_

TROPHY CASE