Whoa! For this week’s chat, if you missed
the first five minutes you missed something really special. This
week’s announcements covered some information about the STS and the
Australian “Pikachu promo set”, but most importantly a very detailed
“must read” description about WHY Prop15 and other restrictions
are being considered.
Chrisbo Note: It is VERY important to emphasize
that Prop15 is designed and intended for “Tournaments Only” and is not
currently being considered as a “Rules Change” for casual play.
So if you are not into the heavy tournament scene or if you are just
playing in the Pokemon League, then Prop15 will probably not affect you.
Read on, my friends...
EAST COAST STS QUALIFIERS & TOURNAMENT:
·Master_Trainer_Mike says, “Speaking of the East Coast STS,
the Mall Tour stops so far have been hitting capacity for the qualifying
tournaments. If you plan on going to one, make sure to get there early.
There is good prize support as well with the winner getting a game boy,
the TCG cartridge, a box of boosters, a jacket, a t-shirt, along with his
invitation to the STS.”
·Master_Trainer_Mike says, “If you do not win an invitation
in a qualifying event, then as long as you have earned at least 5 badges
through the league you can enter. Capacity has been doubled from the West
Coast STS but it is still limited. We are working on a pre-registration
program for the main tournament that will start 3 weeks before the STS. If
you plan on participating in the main tournament and have not won an
invitation, then watch our web site and the chat for details.”
·Master_Trainer_Mike says, “Also keep in mind that the
construction rules for the main tournament will be announced on Oct 9th
on both our web site and you will be able to call us here at customer
service for details as well. Make sure to find out what it will be before
you go to the event!”
PROP 15 & POSSIBLE RESTRICTIONS:
·Master_Trainer_Mike says, “We have also been receiving
lots of email and calls about the various tournament formats that are
being tested and considered. The 15 trainer limit is probably the one that
you have heard the most about. There seems to be lots of confusion about
this and the other formats being tested so I wanted to give a brief
explanation.”
·Master_Trainer_Mike says, “As we have said before, the
Pokemon TCG was never intended to be a truly competitive game. It was made
to be socially competitive (meaning friendly fun). The tournaments that
are held in Japan are few and infrequent with an emphasis on fun for all.
Here in North America we play our games a bit differently. Its all about
winning in our tournament scene and so we tend to play harder, quicker,
and much more cutthroat than the game was designed to be played. With that
in mind, it has become obvious that out of the 500+ cards that have been
released so far, roughly 20-30 of them are ever used in the must-win
tournament scene. This is a sign of a broken game. There have been many
discussions about the dominating Archetypes in Pokemon, mainly being
Wiggly decks, Haymaker variants, the new Trapper deck, with some other
deck types being occasionally played (Raindance, Stall, Sponge, etc.). In
the West Coast STS (the first main competitive event we have held) almost
90% of the decks play were almost identical. This is clearly a sign of an
out of balance tournament environment.”
·Master_Trainer_Mike says, “Since we do [not] own the card
game, bannings and restrictions are not really an allowable option. Nor is
changing the rules of the game (like only allowing 2 trainers played per
turn). That leaves us with constructed tournament formats to try out. We
have been playtesting various formats here in the offices and also reading
all of the results that you have sent in to us. Whatever format we come up
with (if any) might NOT be a final answer in an ever changing and growing
competitive environment. Keep in mind that we are looking at the overall
longevity of the game and the competitive scene which is remarkedly
different than the Japanese market, which the game was originally designed
for. Sort of fitting a square peg in a round hole.”
·Master_Trainer_Mike says, “The reasoning behind these
proposals is to promote diversity in the competitive environment. To help
players try other sorts of decks and have even a slight chance of
competing with these decks.Trainer
profusion, BBP’s, the relative slow speed of evolution decks, the rapid
spreading of any new deck tech through the internet and popular fan sites
are all issues we are aware of and are discussing with Creatures for our
different market than that of Japan. We are also talking with them about
becoming more involved in the creation and playtesting of Pokemon and
possibly even helping to design additional cards (like Dark Raichu) that
may help to bring balance to a “fun” game that we in North America
play so hard with.”
·Master_Trainer_Mike says, “Please feel free to keep
sending in your opinions and thoughts on the future of Pokemon, we do read
them, and listen on the phone. Understand though, that no matter how
strongly you may feel about a particular aspect, there will be lots of
others who feel the exact opposite :) Such is the spark that a democracy
gives us :)”
Q. On a poll at Pojos the question is Do you want
Prop15/Prop2T to pass?Many
many people (I haven’t checked recently, though) do not want it to pass.
What do you think of this?
A1. Master_Trainer_Mike says, “Look at the
announcements for our thoughts on this. Most every email that has been
against any changes has not given any other suggestions. Everyone is
allowed their own opinion but the game is broken my friends. At least in
the competitive environment. If you have other ideas, feel free to send
them in.”
A2. Master_Trainer_Pat says, “It does concern us,
but it seems to me that many people react that way just because they fear
change and do not want to use their experience to guide them through
making and experimenting with new deck types.”
Q. What is the main intention of Prop15? To weaken
Hay and Wiggly and Trap, or to even the playing field, or all of those?
A. Master_Trainer_Pat says, “To encourage
diversity in the tournament scene...to prevent the game from getting
stale.”
PROMOS & OTHER CARDS:
·Master_Trainer_Mike says, “I hope you have all heard about
the Pikachu Promtional set that is being sold at the Australian Olympics.
We have info about it on our web site. Check it out! Don’t worry though,
the unreleased cards in that set will be coming out in North America (and
the rest of the world) in your local language through various promotions
like the Pokemon League and movie releases.”
Q. I’ve seen the list of when the pikachus
will be distributed in english and they are quite spread out through next
year. Does that mean those will be the only promos distributed during that
time?
A. Master_Trainer_Pat says, “No it doesn’t”
Q. It says you get the non holo B-Day Pikachu at
Wizards Pokemon site in America-how would I get it from there?
A. Master_Trainer_Pat says, “There will be a
promotion set up later in November.”
[Chrisbo says “Cool!”]
Q. On your info site on when the pikachu cards will
be released in the US, it said that the non holo B-Day Pikachu will be
release Nov 2000, how is that going to happen?
A. Master_Trainer_Pat says, “No, we’re just
releasing the holo version here.”
[Chrisbo says “huh?”]
Q. Can you explain further how you would get the
birthday pikachu (BP) card on the website and explain if the BP card from
the 9 card pikachu set and one from the league will be different A.
Master_Trainer_Mike says, “The web promotion isn’t set up yet so no
info available. The birthday Pikachu in the set is non-holo and has a
special holo- pika tail stamp on it. Our card over here will be holo and
not have that stamp.”
[Chrisbo says “Ah, I see...”]
Q. Why did you make the 9-card pikachu set ONLY
available in Australia? That makes it really hard for everybody else to
get them...
A. Master_Trainer_Pat says, “Nintendo ‘asked’
us to do that for the Olympics
as a special deal. We will be releasing all of them
in the US in english at
a later date”
Q. Other than flying to Sydney in the next 2 weeks,
is there a way to obtain the 9 card Pikachu set?
A. Master_Trainer_Mike says, “Nope.”
[Chrisbo says, “Heh, they’re probably already
being sold on eBay...”]
Q. What issue of Nintendo Power is Sabrina’s Abra
coming in?A.
Master_Trainer_Mike says, “Not sure, I’ve heard it’s the December
issue which comes out before December.”
OTHER ANNOUNCEMENTS:
·Master_Trainer_Mike says, “Also, we are having our first
in-house Pokemon tournament tonight! MT Pat, Dark Master Trainer Mike, and
I wille competing with Mike Elliot from R&D, Kiernan Chase from the
DCI, and lots of other tough WOTC Pokemon Trainers. It is a 15 trainer
limit tournament and we will give you a report of how we did and what deck
types were used next week.”
·Master_Trainer_Mike says, “Lastly, I want to recommend
that you check out the Team Compendium web site at http://pokegym.thedojo.com/compendium/.
They do a great job of collecting our wisdom (and screw ups from the chat)
and put it into an easy form for you to research at. Check them out!”