Everyone probably knows by now that unlike the West Super
Trainer Showdown, the East STS has been declared Prop15, and not only
that, you are not allowed to play more than 3 of non-basic energy cards in
your deck. Ouch. Take that, Wigglytuff.
This really changes a lot
of things, and most importantly, speed.
Energy denial, an important part of many tournament-level decks, must be
slimmed down with the 15 trainer limit, but it is still
an important part of the game.
Card-drawing a.k.a. Oak
is stole a necessity, but
Bill loses significance.
With room for 15 trainers, the simple Bill just isn't worth it. The big
stuff, Computer Search, Oak, and Item Finder, still, should be important
parts of the game still. With 15 trainers, Wigglytuff
can waste almost all of it's trainer spots for card drawing, and it can
get away with it. An
example is 4 Oak / 3 Comp Search / 3 Rocket's Sneak Attack / 2 Item Finder
/ 2 Super Energy Removal / 1 Gust of Wind. You see the PlusPower and Bill
disappear.. however, with 15 trainers, stadium
cards gain more power,
actually it's more of a stadium card: Chaos Gym.
Chaos Gym will be a very important part of the game if it gets out, it
makes all trainers almost not worth playing. If someone manages to get a
Chaos Gym out, against a deck that plays no stadiums, it can be trouble.
Your Oak could be useless, and also give your opponent a new hand to work
with.
Another interesting strategy is 4 No
Removal Gym, or 2 No Removal Gym / 2 Narrow, or pretty much 4 of any
stadium card besides Chaos Gym, and then 4 Chaos Gym. Chaos Gym cannot
stop stadiums. Play Chaos, and after a few turns when you have a large
hand of trainers, play No Removal, Narrow, Minefield, Rocket's Training
etc, then you can Oak, Super, Gust, whatever you need to, then get the
Chaos Gym out again. It's just like the strategy of letting your Dark
Vileplume getting knocked out, then next turn after playing a large amount
of trainers, evolve again!
I think many people may
overlook the necessity of certain trainers,
this includes Gust of Wind. I think a couple decks might go without it,
which can be trouble.
I already see the most powerful cards in
Prop15 as Wigglytuff,
Clefable, Scyther, Rocket's Scyther, Rocket's Hitmonchan, Arcanine, Ditto,
Dark Gloom, Venusaur, Slowbro, Dark Weezing, Magmar, Electabuzz, Scyther,
Hitmonchan, Blastoise, Rocket's Zapdos, Rocket's Mewtwo, Muk, Promo Mewtwo.
You will still see
Haymaker traits in Prop15 decks,
I guarantee it, but you will see more variety. Watch out for some nice
Sabrina's Pokémon combos, also.
Since Wiggly decks still can focus on
Wigglytuff, get some help from your bench! (Muk) Dark Gloom and Wiggly are
nice, since you can evolve Jiggly to get rid of confusion. I am working on
a Clefable/Wigglytuff/R's Zapdos/Muk deck now, and I think I am saying
bye-bye to Wigglytuff or Clefable for Electabuzz. Electabuzz is too strong
to pass up, even in Prop15. It's Thundershock is slightly stronger, it's
punch is slightly weaker, either way, it's still good. Blaine's Rapidash
is a nice version of Buzz, too, and fire will do better in this
environment than lightning, because of a lot of grass, but Buzz is stage 1
and can paralyze, so Buzz can still rank a little better in most
situations.
The 3 max on non-basic
energy also slows decks down more, but not much.
It does stop 4 Oaks, and 4 Jiggly, but this won't have a huge effect on
speed, although it will have an effect. In Prop15, you must rely on more
than one thing for your deck to succeed.
Prop15
What's stronger, what's weaker?
MORE
ADVANTAGEOUS IN PROP15 Status effects to your
opponent's Pokémon!
Less Scoop Up and Switch
will be played, which used to eliminate any chance to buy yourself losses
as people are forced to play a few turns.
LESS ADVANTAGEOUS IN PROP15 Going first.
There will be way less
first turn more basic and less PlusPower because of a 15 Trainer limit.
MORE ADVANTAGEOUS
IN PROP15 Speed 15 Trainer does really reduce speed, but if you can stay fast and
manage to Oak one, two times on your first few turns, you can really set
your opponent up in a bad situation. This combined with the next advantage
in Prop15, is still deadly.
LESS ADVANTAGEOUS
IN PROP15 Energy Recovering
Trainers Since they take up a
spot for the 15 trainer limit, and all decks should have more than enough
energy
with the limit of 15 trainers, why bother?
MORE ADVANTAGEOUS
IN PROP15 Trainer Denial A first, second turn Rocket's Sneak Attack can be deadly. Stealing the
single Oak or Comp Search is easy with 15 trainers, plus you can get it
easier because no one wants to Oak first turn and get rid of their
evolution in Prop15, since recovery trainers won't be in there, most of
the time. That gives you a couple turns to RSA then go for any speed you
can get, yes, we're talking about Doing the Wave for 60.. (is the
PlusPower worth it?)
LESS ADVANTAGEOUS
IN PROP15 Small card drawers Bill, for example, is
a small card drawer. Why bother wasting a trainer spot for the two cards?
MORE ADVANTAGEOUS
IN PROP15 Stadium Cards No one has room for many, if even one, Stadium Card in their deck.
Your stadiums can dominate, and Chaos Gym can dominate too, watch out for
it; if it's put out and you play No Stadiums, you'll be.. in trouble. :P
LESS ADVANTAGEOUS
IN PROP15 Aerodactyl You'd think more advantageous.. everyone plays evolution.. Nope. The
Scythers are still there to Gust for an easy knockout, although Gust could
be overlooked, like I said before. Doesn't matter though, you need your
evolution, too. Pokémon Powers will be stopped by Muk, too. Muk will be
more popular in Prop15.
MORE ADVANTAGEOUS
IN PROP15 Clefable It's just beautiful against Rocket's Zapdos, Arcanine, Wiggly...
LESS ADVANTAGEOUS
IN PROP15 Erika's
Dratini What a shame.. it was just getting popular. Let's just put it this
way: No one's going to play a Haymaker, Dratinis almost useless against
evolution decks, which all these decks will rely on, Pokémon Powers are
shutdown easily by Muk, and her Dragonair, although decent, won't be worth
it with the Dratini.
EQUAL Pokémon
Powers(all, in general) You'll want some since you'll have such a large variety of Pokémon,
but Muk will be there.