Borrowing from the Past to Improve the Future of Pokemon TCG

Hello readers. In this article, I will be deviating from my usual meta analysis and deck building in favor of a topic I hope you will find equally as interesting - older era cards and card functions. I often talk about the Delta Species and the Diamond and Pearl eras of the card game with high regard when asked by relatively newer players about older formats and older sets. While I was not a Worlds level competitor during these formats, I played casually very frequently and when Dragon Frontiers came out (Winter 2006-2007) I began playing in the championship series at the Battle Road, Cities, States, and the occasional Regionals levels (Top 16 @ 2010 Philly regionals with Luxchomp). Throughout this article, I will be discussing attributes of older cards and also rules that I would love to see reintroduced to the Pokémon TCG through new cards for the Standard Format. 

Interactive Gameplay

The Pokémon TCG is often criticized for its lack of interaction between players. Magic the Gathering is the best example of interaction between players, since it has instant speed cards that can be played during your turn or your opponent’s turn. These instant speed cards are not limited to, but often will result in countering or cancelling an opponent’s card. Magic the Gathering is a more complex game than the Pokémon TCG on many levels, but they also function very differently in card mechanics, win conditions, cost to play cards - virtually everything. I’m not saying I wish Pokémon would become Magic at all since they are very different games, but interactive gameplay and counterplay would bring back a certain depth to the game that PTCG actually once had. 

Alakazam - Mysterious Treasures 

Yes, there is a set called Mysterious Treasure and yes, there is an Alakazam with a built in power spray (we’ll get to power spray shortly)! Before going further, note that abilities used to be separated between Poke-powers and Poke-bodies. Poke-powers were normally on play effects or once a turn effects and Poke-bodies were constant or recurring under the required circumstances. Alakazam’s Poke-Power reads “Once during your opponent's turn, when your opponent's Pokémon uses any Poké-Power, you may discard 2 cards from your hand and prevent all effects of that Poké-Power. (This counts as that Pokémon using its Poké-Power.) This power can't be used if Alakazam is affected by a Special Condition”. This card wasn’t seen in competitive play and I suspect that is because it was overshadowed by Dusknoir from Diamond & Pearl which was a very strong stage 2 tech.

Stage 2 techs were often found in decks as 1-0-1 lines or 2-1-2 lines during this era of the game for their powerful Poke-powers, and this was easier and more effective than it might sound since Rare Candy could be used the turn a basic Pokémon came into play. More on Alakazam’s Power Cancel, this kind of counter to an opponent’s Poke-Power did two things: 1. It added potential player interaction by both players having possible actions regardless of who’s turn it was and 2. It added more skill to a game where Alakazam was being used since the player would need to decide which abilities were most worth cancelling while also managing the resources needed to cancel the abilities. I feel that Alakazam MT is often forgotten when discussing past instances of player interaction in the game, and I am very happy to bring some spotlight to one of my favorite cards from over a decade ago. I would love to see a similar mechanic brought into our Standard format today, but there would definitely be difficulties since abilities are no longer separated between Powers and Bodies. I think the best way to do it would be to make a card or ability that could “cancel” any ability of your opponent’s that has the text “once during your turn” since that would effectively rule out constant abilities like Vileplume BUS’s disgusting pollen and Garbodor BKP’s Garbotoxin. 

If I were to design a modern adaptation of this card, I would like to see the ability given to a stage 1 non-GX Pokémon and also include the specified types of abilities you could cancel, as I mentioned above. 

Power Spray - Platinum

Team Galactic's Invention G-103 Power Spray was an amazing card for the game since it sometimes controlled the pace of drawing through abilities and made both players think more critically and value their resources more. Power Spray reads “You may play this card during your opponent's turn when your opponent's Pokémon uses any Poké-Power. Prevent all effects of that Poké-Power. (This counts as that Pokémon using its Poké-Power.) If you have 2 or less Pokémon SP in play, you can't play this card”. Pokémon SP were Team Galactic Pokémon and these Pokémon did not have evolution stages (Crobat SP was a basic Pokémon, as was Toxicroak SP). A card like this that instilled a fear in your opponent just by your board having more than 2 Pokémon SP and gave you options to control your opponent’s board was an invaluable asset to the competitive experience. 

If I were to design a modern adaptation of this card, I actually have two ideas for what I would do. My first idea is to replace the Pokémon SP stipulation with the same stipulation that Green’s Exploration has: “you can play this card only if you have no Pokémon with abilities in play”. Just take a second to imagine the depth of planning and resource value this would add to a deck like Green’s Reshizard. My second idea is to replace the Pokémon SP stipulation with “you can only play this card if you have no Pokémon GX in play”. Perhaps this would also include Pokémon V in the near future, but my goal for this would be to strengthen non-gx decks while also adding interaction to the game. Regardless of which of these I picked, I would use the text  “cancel any ability of your opponent’s that has the text “once during your turn”’ to guide which abilities could be cancelled. 

More Supporters to Choose From

For a while now I have felt that the Supporters that get included into decks are based on which ones are the most generally usable, rather than which ones specifically help a certain deck. We will see Supporters like Cynthia and Lillie widespread throughout decks, with exceptions being Volkner and Welder which have inherent type requirements which restrict their use. Luckily, I do think this problem has been diminishing with cards like Green’s Exploration and soon-to-be released Cosmic Eclipse Supporters like Red & Blue and Cynthia & Caitlin. Red & Blue reads “Search your deck for an Evolution Pokemon-GX that evolves from 1 of your Pokemon in play and put it on that Pokemon to evolve it. Then, shuffle your deck. (You can’t use this card during your first turn or on a Pokemon that was put into play this turn.)

Additionally, you may discard 2 cards from your hand. If you do, search your deck for 2 basic Energy cards and attach them to the Pokemon you evolved” and Cynthia & Caitlin reads “Put a Supporter card from your discard pile into your hand. You can't choose Cynthia & Caitlin or a card you discarded with the effect of this card.

When you play this card, you may discard another card from your hand. If you do, draw 3 cards”. This Supporters are fairly vague and introduce unique utility to our current pool of supporters. Below are a few supporters from the past that I would like to see re-imagined into our current day Standard Format.

I would like to see Mary’s Request re-imagined with a power boost. Something like “draw 2 cards, if you don’t have any Pokémon-GX in play, draw 2 more cards”. 

For something like Cyrus’s conspiracy to come back, we would need “team” Pokémon or Delta Species Pokémon - some special type of Pokémon and tools for them. I’m really all about delta species or the evil team of the Galar region getting their own powerful type of Pokémon cards. Maybe we would get something like a Cyrus’ Conspiracy?

This one is a double-whammy - I like it both because it involves “team” Pokémon and because it is a supporter that guarantees you to have important cards for your setup ie: basic Pokémon and Basic Energy. I understand that the game has gone in a faster paced direction, but I enjoy the certainty of cards like this. 

First Turn Supporters / Attacks

As you may or may not know, Japan PTCG is implementing the new rule of no supporter on your first turn going first once the Sword and Shield set releases. I have mixed feelings on this because this means the player going first can neither play a supporter or attack. Playing Pokémon that you’d like to start to use early, especially going first, was one of my favorite parts of the older rules.

Take Stormfront Farfetch’d for example: if you went first and were able to attack with Farfetch’d you would set up your following turn to be stronger and this would be a good trade for not being able to use a supporter on that first turn. There have also been a plethora of “call for family” Pokémon that were used for their attacks which helped your early board set up. Even if a rule for attacking going first was not implemented, I’d like to see “starter” Pokémon that could attack going first. 

Sableye would be fantastic in this “can attack / can’t supporter” going first scenario. 

Closing

While I am not a fan of the boisterous HP and absurd attacks on the big basic Pokémon we have today, Pokémon goes through these big basics phases and I’m sure we’ll get out of it eventually. What I am a fan of is the improvement of Supporters that we have been getting, like Green’s, Red & Blue, and Cynthia & Caitlin. I’m excited for new Tag Team Supporters as well as the mystery of V Max Pokémon which I hope to bring back some relevance to evolving in Standard. It’s always nice to reminisce on some old favorites and cards I took for granted in past formats, and the possibility for spiritual reprints is more possible than ever since we have seen plenty of spiritual reprints of older cards in the past year or so. Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed this relaxing break from meta talk!