Yo Pojo

Yeah right. This combination is of course, Imposter Oak's Revenge, followed by Rocket's Sneak Attack,
and then finished with The Rocket's Trap. In this order, your opponent will be left with no cards
in their hand, provided that the Trap flips heads. But this combination does NOT have to be played
in this order to be effective. Even an RSA on a solitary Oak or CPU in your opponent's hand can
seriously damage them, even to the point where they may not recover, unless they get lucky and draw
an Oak/CPU or other card drawing on their next few turns. Of course, a trap played at ANY time is
damaging, you are getting rid of 3 cards from their hand, which they will have to recover to get back.
If a trap is followed by an RSA, there is a small chance that they will be left with anything useful, or
that will help them get back in the game. I know from experience how damaging a first turn RSA can be,
and the trap or IOR is often not necessary to severely disadvantage your opponent.

Again I repeat, yeah right. Perhaps when trap first came out, these were the popular trapper pokemon, but let's be realistic. Every trapper deck now plays wiggly, and the haymaker pokemon just can't keep up with that speed. First turn trap/RSA and second turn wiggly is devastating, especially since most decks play low basic pokemon (12 or less), and will only draw one or two in theri starting hand. This means that if you can get a Wiggly the turn after removing some or all of your opponent's hand, they only have one or two turns on which to pick up an Oak/CPU etc. And wiggly is easy to get with the usual horrific amounts of card drawing in trapper decks. That leaves your opponent 1-3 turns usually on which to pick up something useful. And knowing my luck, when I need a basic pokemon or Oak/CPU, I will get energy, more energy, and perhaps something useless like a pluspower. Wiggly rules in trapper decks, for its speed and power.

Admittedly, trapper is far more effective unless you win the coin flip, and if your opponent starts they have the opportunity to RSA or even counter-trap you. But even so, like I have already said, a trap and/or RSA is still damaging at most points in the game. And if you can reduce their hand to very little even on the third or fifth turn, you will still have the advantage. If your opponent starts, they will have the opportunity to bench more basics, and this can hold up a trapper, but with RSA and trap, even IOR after they have oaked, you can still severely hurt your opponent, even if you do not start.

True. I would have to agree that Cleffa is trap's main enemy. The ability to get a new hand for only one energy can undo all your hard work very quickly. Of course though, if you start, and your opponent is lucky enough to draw a cleffa, then you can always gust and hope for heads. But really, this doesn't look very likely, and it looks like trapper may be over thanks to a little pink blob called cleffa. Of course, not every deck is going to have one of these pint-sized clefairy wannabes, so then you can move on in with your trap.

Ok, now that is about all I have to say about trapper, and I think it is time to begin talking about the main reason that I have written this article. And that is that the game of pokemon has become boring and dull.
A lot of this can be contributed to one set of cards. or more specifically Rocket's Sneak Attack. Not only is this card part of the trapper combo but it is also often used by itself in a lot of decks such as wiggly. In my opinion, RSA killed the game of pokemon, so let me explain. With the release of the Team Rocket set, there came a new wave of hand manipulation cards, and this brought a whole revolution of the game. Before TR the game was simpler, and more enjoyable. Sure you got annoyed at the Super Energy Removals and Haymakers, but at least you got a CHANCE. When TR was released, it brought seveal new cards into the playing field, the most obvious of which being RSA. Now how many times have you played a match and lost the flip. You drew a good hand, with say 2 basics, a Computer Search and an Oak. Your opponent RSA's you on the first turn, and then proceeds to go through half their deck to get another one to remove both your Oak and CPU. You are left stranded while they easily ko your two basic pokemon, and that is game. I can say that this has happened to me very often, and I am sick of it. Of course, it is fine when YOU play the RSA, because then you can get an easy win, within the first five turns. I mean, it is perfectly fair when YOU play it (sarcasm check) but it is not so nice when you are on the receiving end and lose within the first fuve turns, having been given no chance to recover. This is NOT good for the game of pokemon! Games should not be decided by who wins the coin flip, but with RSA so common now, it seems that that is what the level of play is often reduced to - a lottery. RSA has reduced the skill element of the game, and increased the amount of luck that is needed.
But this is not the only thing about the TR set that makes it the worst set released. IOR is another hand manipulation card that the game could have done without. Nightly Garbage Run just made haymaker and wiggly decks even stronger, by taking away their one main weakness - decking. Apart from that, the new energies were quite useful, and most of the pokemon were useless, except for a few exceptions such as Dark Plume, Dark Blastoise in raindance, and Dark Golbat being useful with Sabrina's Kababra.

But of course, those cards have all been released, and there is very little except banning cards that will stop these cards which are harmint the game begin played. I single out RSA as being the main culprit here, because it is what started the era of hand manipulation. I can't think of any other game where you can lose as fast as you can in pokemon, and RSA effectively gives your opponent no (or very little) chance. The whole point of a TCG is that both players get an equal chance to win, but when games are being decided on the beginning coin flip, then something is clearly wrong, and both players do not get a fair chance.

One other thing I would like to comment on is first turn losses. This happens when the player who loses the coin flip only draws one basic pokemon, and their opponent uses am erika's jigglypuff or hitmonchan, then searches their deck for the appropriate pluspowers to score a ko on their helpless opponent's only basic. Well, I don't think there is much that can be done about this problem, and it is really the player's pwn fault for not playing enough basics. Of course you can always get unlucky, but this is less likely when you have 14 or more basic pokemon in your deck. So if you play decks low in basics and then get beaten on the first turn as described above, then don't complain.

I am fortunate enough to live somewhere (New Zealand) where the power of trap and RSA has not reached. Although we only get one tournament a month (and I am not complaining too loudly, just mentioning it), it is great to see original decks being played. Victories within the first five turns are rare, and although there are just as many kids using charmander/dewgong/tangela as there are good wiggly decks, most games go the distance and are decided by someone taking their final prize. It is more enjoyable, both players get a fair chance, and the better deck usually wins (not the one that wins the starting flip). That is how the game should be played....

Now, I am not one of those people who just complains about stuff without offering solutions, so here is what I propose to help the game of pokemon survive, and remain enjoyable to be played. First of all, banning may work, but it is not seriously going to happen. Wizards are too scared to ban cards, because there would be such an outcry and protest from all the players who do not support banning, although many do. So we need to look at alternative methods. To reduce the effect of hand manipulation, and decrease the importance of the starting coin flip, I propose the following: Both players draw 7 cards at the beginning. Then the coin isflipped, and the winner can choose to "Play or draw", like in Magic the Gathering. If they choose to play, then they do not draw a card on their first turn, and must make do with what they have in their starting hand. If they choose to draw, then their opponent starts, and that player does not draw a card. Then on the second player's turn, that player draws two cards instead of one on their first turn. After this, play continues as normal. This means that if they get RSA'd or trapped on the first turn, then they have more chance of picking up something useful, and the starting player has less power. Another variation would be to make it thta both players draw 6 cards instead of 7 at the start, and play follows as outlined above. However this would reduce the probability of both players getting more than one basic, so might actually be counter-productive.

Another option would be to restrict cards, such as allowing only three RSA per deck, and also restricting other cards to a maximum of three. Restricting the maximum number to two would not work, because most decks would just not use that card unless they could have three of it. Another way, which I read somewhere on pojo is to say that players may have up to a certain amount total of certain cards in their deck, so they would have to choose. EG: A player may have no more than eight total out of all these cards combined: RSA, Item Finder, Computer Search, Super Energy Removal. That would mean that players would have to make choices and not be able to use everything, although they can still use their favourite cards at the expense of others.

The release of Neo has certainely helped the game, and Cleffa is the main counter for hand manipulation cards. It is good that the power of RSA and trap has been somewhat reduced, and Bellsprout Temple has helped to reduce the power of wiggly, although it also inadvertently harmed Chansey, Clefable, Erika's Dratini and some other colourless pokemon. Perhaps with Neo we will see the beginning of a new era in pokemon, where more than two types of decks make the top eight at the STS......

If you want to contact me, you can reach me at drg@xtra.co.nz
But please, even if you disagree with my views, be nice when sending me e-mails, and don't be rude just because I said something that may have offended you. Remember, I have never even SEEN a real Trap in my life, and have only based my opinions on what I have heard and experienced in my online play (Props to Pojo's Apprentice League). So this is just one small voice from Down Under saying peace out, and pokemon onwards!!!