Hi. Yep, this is still a bare-bones update. Sorry.

I'd like to rant briefly on a number of things. First
of all is what seems to me to be the stagnation of the
Pokemon gaming environment. More and more it seems
like nothing new is happening, no competitive cards
are being released, Wigglytuff is becoming ever more
powerful, etc etc. There's a general sense of
despondency about the game, which is why I haven't
bought anything in a while and why I play a heck of a
lot of Magic these days. Not that I don't still enjoy
the game, but... I think a lot of you understand what
I mean.

What can Wizards do to combat this? I can think of a
few things...

1) Promote Pokemon. Stop treating it as a little kids'
game and give it the credit it deserves. Have a
WELL-ORGANIZED national tournament (as opposed to the
STS) and give the winner something better than a box
of Base 2.

2) Don't screw with the card sets. Stuff like making
new cards (a la Dark Raichu) is good, and we could
probably stand to see more of it, but don't do things
that make players wonder what sort of randomizer was
used to determine the contents of the set. (I speak,
of course, of Gym Heroes, which is a nice set but
could have been much better.) When you foul up (i.e.
non-holo dark Vileplume) issue errata that will make
the card work the way it's supposed to. You think we
can't understand errata? Is "D. Vileplume is supposed
to have Fire weakness" that much more complicated than
"You have to play Palinchron from your hand in order
to untap"?

3) Create some formats. Have the DCI get out their
magic banning stick (still bearing the marks of Time
Spiral and Lin Sivvi) and beat Wigglytuff over the
head with it. A sort of non-archetype format would be
best, but if you insist that it's too complicated
(insulting the intelligence of many players) then one
or two specific bannings would work wonders for the
environment. *DON'T* ban stuff like Oak or SER, or
apply Trainer restrictions. That's just stupid.

I think these are good ideas. They're certainly better
than what we have now, which is: Nothing. In
particular, it is my opinion that Wiggly needs to be
stopped dead in its tracks, immediately and without
hurting more deck types than absolutely neccessary.

Now, another topic. I and Vulpix recently recieved a
chain mailing from a person whom I have encountered
before in my Pokemon dealings. That person will not be
encountering me any more if I can help it. I hate
spam, I have an intense dislike for people who view my
address as one more to send huge chain letters with
miles of headings to, and I have a comparable dislike
for people who preach religion to me (which just
happens to have been the thrust of this particular
letter.) I won't let myself get baited into a public
discussion on that last point, so let me just say that
anyone who sends me spam of most any variety will have
their email permanently blocked and will probably have
to fake their identity to get me to acknowledge their
existence again in this lifetime. It's something I
don't like. Comprende?

At any rate, hope you all enjoy the update, and keep
sending your decks! All will be read, and a few lucky
ones will get fixed! I won't promise more than that,
not anymore, since I've broken enough of my promises
about fixing all decks...

SPIKE'S RANDOM THOUGHT FOR THE DAY:

Two interesting events are coming up pretty soon that
I thought I'd share with you.

First of all, it's been over a year since I started
playing this game. Hard to believe. Back then Jungle
was new, Mr. Mime was powerful tech, and Gym was this
Japanese set that you'd seen a couple of cards from
once.

Now... well, now is now.

Has the game improved? Almost certainly. It may be
because of these improvements that we've started to
hit some snags as strategies have become incredibly
refined and lethal. Pokemon already has a place in
card-game history, but its lasting power remains to be
seen and will probably be decided soon, if at all.
Just my opinion.

The second thing coming up soon is... Labor Day!!! =D

What, Labor Day isn't special to you? Well, it is to
me. So there.

-Spike
spike@pojo.com

Agree with me? Disagree with me? Hate my guts for no
real reason? Still want a mail-order Vulpix? Write to
me!










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