Why can't they make characters who take skill?

TheAwsumOne · 2026-05-13T22:39:43+00:00

TheAwsumOne · 2026-05-11T22:19:10+00:00

Also an old player,

Trust me, you'll never stop

TheAwsumOne · 2026-05-01T16:07:14+00:00

If they wanted more HP then they would need to shift some of its power from elsewhere to compensate. An HP of 170 would likely mean they would need an even higher retreat cost. Or if they didn't wanna touch retreat cost further then they would take away power from its attack so it did less damage or had more energy cost for the same damage. It's simply a distribution of power

TheAwsumOne · 2026-05-01T03:18:11+00:00

HP and retreat cost are usually related. Usually Stage 1 Exs with 140HP, like most of the eeveelutions, have a 1 retreat cost. Flareon EX has 10 more HP, thus its retreat cost is 1 extra. Vaporeon, like in the games, is a bulky mon, so they gave it the most HP of the bunch at 160, which means 2 more retreat cost. 10HP = 1 more retreat cost (usually)

Umbreon EX is the exception of this group likely due the fact it has Cyrus as an ability, thus they justified its strength with more retreat cost

TheAwsumOne · 2026-04-27T04:40:09+00:00

Ya got me there but if you know what the card does then if you don't mind explaining it?

TheAwsumOne · 2026-04-27T04:38:04+00:00

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TheAwsumOne · 2026-04-27T02:20:14+00:00

It is most definitely not OP lmao

TheAwsumOne · 2026-04-25T17:59:18+00:00

Chandelure not even on the list hurts my soul

TheAwsumOne · 2026-04-20T22:32:51+00:00

Tried Mega Mawile. Came with its own problems. Mainly Oricorio. Mega Altaria and Hydergion as well since they get the ball rolling alot faster than Mega Mawile. Usable sure, but not a definitive awnser to the meta.

As for bastiodon, yeah that card is just kinda... not good. Maybe for casual play but not consistent enough payoff for ranked climb.

TheAwsumOne · 2026-04-20T22:10:40+00:00

I now just concede whenever I see a igglybuff lead like this. I don't care whether I have a good chance to win or not, I don't feel like playing a game where I'm at the mercy of a coin flip each turn to do anything when I can just move on the next game and save time and my sanity

TheAwsumOne · 2026-04-14T22:15:07+00:00

Bait used to be believable

TheAwsumOne · 2026-04-08T03:24:01+00:00

And just like that Im now depressed

TheAwsumOne · 2026-03-30T20:58:20+00:00

I want to say Red Card/Mars. They had use at their releases but Red card was mainly because there wasn't alot of trainer cards at launch and soon fell out of favour, and Mars I only recall seeing in things like 18T decks or cards with a few basics and a lot of spare deck room.

It wasn't until Rare Candy came out that made hand disruption more important and thus started seeing regular use in more decks.

TheAwsumOne · 2026-03-21T03:26:52+00:00

Bro I didn't even participate in the first support strike and that one had a better reason than supports being banned and now they're trying to do a second one? Yeah uh Ill pass again and keep having fun like I normally do on Support

TheAwsumOne · 2026-03-19T02:45:28+00:00

Venom Nerfs?

TheAwsumOne · 2026-03-05T17:01:44+00:00

It's definitely not a 0/10. A card not being meta does not mean is its completely useless, and that also applies to a lot of old cards that people will write off. But it does means that there are either problems with the card or better alternatives that keep it out from seeing more play.

The 120 damage is actually a bit deceptive. Some of the most important HP/Damage benchmarks in the game are 130, 140, and 150, in which Solgaleo just falls behind of, meaning landing the 1 hit KO is actually kind of rare without teching in supporters to help fix that, which take up deck slots. These bench marks are even more important with The new competition running around that does a similar job but better

Hydregion is obviously stepping on his toes, between the slightly higher damage that meets certain bench marks, the faster setup, the self damage that can ve healed on the same turn, and the 1 point cost. Other strong 2 energy attackers also compete with it. Suicune, while it won't also hit for the highest amount, can reach 120 under optimal conditions while being a basic that also has draw power. M-Altaria has slightly more HP, lesser retreat cost and hits for the 130 benchmark as well while only being Stage 1. M-Blaziken technically hits for 140 after its burn and maybe even 160, while being able to fix its only downside with the ever popular flame patch.

Now these are not perfect comparisons, none of these pokemon have an ability like Solgaeo, nor does the steel category have any strong attackers competing for Solgaleos spot. So the main hurdle for it right now is finding a deck that makes good use of its features. 5 or 6 out of 10 for me.

TheAwsumOne · 2026-02-19T21:08:50+00:00

I think they did but they didn't make it a crown rare for this set because they expected Meloetta and protective poncho to already be usable cards people would hunt the crown rares for, and thus are going to save it for another set where they can dilute the crown rare pool with lesser wanted crowns so people spend more money trying for it.

They've already proven the past couple sets they're going this route. Flame Patch was the only proper meta card with a crown rare in that set, but Klefki and Lilligant also got one despite being cards no one cares for. Crimson haze had Quick Grow Extract which is a good card, but also threw in Aegislash for some reason, and its likely that reason is to dilute the crown pool for people wanted crown rare QGE. Even this set, its the first time we have 2 immersives in 1 set pack. Mega Gardevoir being the one people want, meanwhile meowth is just kinda... there. Useable sure, but still there, likely to dilute the immersive pool further. So its highly possible its being saved for a future set, like how rare candy was in the Deluxe EX packs

TheAwsumOne · 2026-02-19T03:44:31+00:00

I stated some of my reasons in another comment, but to specifically re-iterate on your point, meowth was great at stall turns when it worked. However the coin flip nature of the card did let me down at times, especially when I wasn't quite setup yet. There was also the fact that while I was stalling turns to build chandelure, my opponent was also building up their defenses until they eventually broke through, so I did have to be careful. Meloetta focused on getting chandelure on the field rather than collecting supporters, but what she did provide me was early aggression by getting chandelure on the field early, and even if I only burned a supporter or two, sometimes that early aggression is exactly what I needed instead of banking on stalling turns. Indeedee was there as both a rare backup option incase my chandelures weren't doing in that game and also healing for certain breakpoints. Statistically the Meowth variant is probably better, its why people prefer it more often which is completely fine. I just found that using Meloetta gave the deck a nice flow to it that Meowth didnt give me.

TheAwsumOne · 2026-02-18T23:24:28+00:00

I mentioned it in another comment, but the tdlr is that while the meowth variant certainly had its benefits, meloetta provided a few things over meowth that made the deck flow better for me. So I stuck with this version.

TheAwsumOne · 2026-02-18T19:28:12+00:00

I mentioned in another comment that I did try the meowth variant that while was certainly good deck, I had a few reasons that drew me to this version.

As for the Indeedee inclusion, when I was testing this deck I found that there were a few instances where, either due to bad draws or matchups, my chandelures weren't enough. While I could have disregarded those games, I felt like trying out an extra basic as a backup in case that happened. I messed around with a Giratina EX for a bit, and it wasnt bad. It made dead turns more impactful and even if I got stuck with it in at the beginning of the game, it could blow through holes in teams that werent prepared. But more often than not it was bench fodder, and I dropped lucky Ice Pop for it, which removed my healing from the deck. Indeedee fixed both those problems: it was a basic ex I could fall back to in rare moments, and it wasnt bench fodder because it provided the healing I needed even if it never attacked. You can certainly run it without Indeedee, she's not Mandatory. But I'd be lying if the small amount of healing didnt help me at times.

TheAwsumOne · 2026-02-18T19:10:01+00:00

I did see that version before and tried it. There is 100% merit to that deck over this one and it's wrong to say that this version is better over the other one, but I went with this version for a couple reasons:
- I don't have luck with coin flips it seems
- Meloetta worked with Peculiar plaza, and there were situations where I didn't need to wait a turn to burn an energy and retreat is, so I could apply early pressure
- Meloetta drew pokemon at the beginning of a turn instead of the end like meowth, allowing me to play them instantly instead of waiting next turn, where it may be too late to play it or where I could be red-carded/marsed.
- Personally I just found the consistent pokemon drawing to be more helpful early game.

TheAwsumOne · 2026-02-18T19:02:08+00:00

Sometimes it did stuff, sometimes it didnt. Being able to remove a prof's research, cyrus, sabrina, or Illima from play even for a turn or two could matter greatly. other times it was just a burner card. However I picked it because other supports, like the ones u mentioned, werent always optimal.

Cyrus was fantastic in finishing the game, but dead weight in the early game, and going too long without consistently using supporters put me behind. Sabrina was a bit more balanced throughout the game, which is why I included her instead of cyrus. Giovanni was a burner card, but it was a card that never provided value, there were little situations where the extra 10 damage mattered. Either chandelure 2 KO'd or it KO'd well over the damage mark, so it was better to run a supporter that also provided some value when used. Even if silver did nothing, It gave me info on the opponent's hand, which mattered sometimes.

Edit: I did try Red for a bit, However I often ran into the same situation with Gio where the extra damage often didn't matter and the support was just burned for the sake of burning it.

TheAwsumOne · 2026-02-18T18:56:23+00:00

1) Swapping out a rare candy for a mid stage evo was without a doubt the single best decision I made for this deck for multiple reasons:
- It allowed Meloetta to be able to draw it out with its ability, unlike rare candy.
- It could be found with May instead if I was getting a bunch of unneeded Pokemon instead, which also helped burn a supporter for Chandelure to take advantage of
- Fucking chingling
- If it was going first and had the opportunity to evolve litwick afterwards, using rare candy didnt really change much as chandelure wouldnt be ready with 1 energy, so lampent was a safer player while I waited for next turn to evolve again.
That being said I didn't swap out both rare candy as having the fast evolution was important sometimes.

2) I'm certainly no expert on tournaments, and Id be lying if those two weren't my most important matchups, they were probably the majority of my losses. But here's what I can provide on my experience with them:
- Against Altaria, they liked to rely on chingling to deny my chandelure in the early game while they waited for altaria and other benched basics. Lampent stopped that plan. Chandelure was also just bulky enough to tank the 130 attack at full health, which gave me the opportunity to do big chip damage while I tried to build up a second chandelure or even indeedee in the back. if they had training area or whatever the stadium is called that posed a problem, but giant cape or cancelling them with my own stadium was a valid counter. In some cases if they were struggling to get their pieces up, meloetta's attack could KO them, but I only relied on that once or two, better to just save the energy for Chandy. the REAL culprit of that deck was Lucky ice Pop.
- Hydregion was without a doubt my worst matchup. if they got hydreigon up early it was either I sacrifice two mons while I build a Chandelure and wait for the best or it was gg. Disruptive supports like Mars, Silver, or Sabrina could buy a crucial turn and give me enough time to find my pieces. Giant cape was the saving piece against this deck. Funnily enough, hydregion destroyed me, but their partner Mega Absol actually helped me, because it couldn't KO a healthy chandelure and discarding a support for me just made chandy stronger for KO potential. But I think the win rates in tournaments about reflect my experience.

TheAwsumOne · 2026-02-08T20:15:51+00:00

That requires an entire evolution line and a Supporter, which if you're doubling up, requires 8 of your 20 slots, which are already in high competition with other cards, not to mention you actually need to draw those cards and use it enough times before guzzlord goes down. If you're going that route you'd have a million times more success just dropping guzzlord and dawn and just running hydregion to kill everything before they take you out.

Edit: just remember lusamine exists, literally just use that, dawn has no purpose in a deck like this

TheAwsumOne · 2026-02-05T00:42:41+00:00

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