If you haven’t heard of Fifteen and Three (15&3) by now, then I don’t know how you found this page, but back up a few links and look around some more! 15&3 is the format for the East Coast Super Trainer Showdown. It means you can only have fifteen Trainer type cards total in your deck, and instead of having four copies of a “name,” you are only permitted three, excluding Basic Energy. Only three cards named “Professor Oak,” only three cards named “Mewtwo.” I’m likely going to repeat a lot of what has been said before, but I’m trying to keep most of my comments original!

I agree with Scott and the majority of other Pojo fanatics. 15&3 is stupid. I hope that the person who came up with this idiotic notion never reveals his (or her) identity; it’s a sure way to get hate mail!

So why, exactly does 15&3 stink? Well, I’ve read several articles on it already, and most of the opinions are as follows:
“It takes the skill out of the game.”
“It cripples the decks it was meant to help.”
“The whole game will be based on luck.”
“Experienced players have no advantage over amateurs.”
“...a mistake of galactic proportions!” (oops, that’s a B5 quote...still applies though!)
“The relative strengths of Pokemon do not change. Electabuzz is still better than Ponyta.”

Fifteen and three does not seriously inhibit the most popular archetypes. Hitmonchan still takes out a Rattata with one Jab. Movie Mewtwo still stands a good chance of doing 40 damage on turn two. 3 Computer Search, 3 Professor Oak, 3 Item Finder, they’re all a Wigglytuff deck really needs to tear through itself hunting down DCE, Basics, and Plus Power.

When I first heard of 15&3, it felt like I’d been socked in the stomach. I had been looking forward to attending the Qualifier in Highpoint ever since I had heard of it, possibly the STS as well, and with only a few weeks to go, Wizards very nearly soured my entire interest in the game. It was later clarified that this would only apply to the East Coast STS, which made me feel better. I knew my chances of actually qualifying were small, and with only 200 stamps in my League Book, my chances of being able to participate were small. I’m a mediocre player in that I usually play because I like to play and not just to win.

But mediocre player or not, 15&3 still angers me. Wizards is making us, the Pokémon Card Game Community, into a group of guinea pigs! They’ve had a bunch of little experimental tournaments internally and got possibly bogus results*, so they dropped this bombshell on us to see if it would improve the general environment. Fat chance. I’m GLAD that I’m not going now.

So what now? I went to the Highpoint Qualifier. But, being disillusioned with Wizards’ sorry attempt to “fix” the game, I took my favorite deck. Fondly called “Gengang;” my favorite deck is a Fossil Gengar deck, a modified version of the “classic” version I used on the Gameboy TCG. I knew there would be Wigglytuff decks. I did not care. After all of my insane attempts to counteract Wigglytuff in the past (like Brock’s Lv. 12 Mankey), I took the deck I liked and stood around all day and waited all day. Then finally my flight started. In the very first round I met an “older” player with a Raindance, and it was the best damn game of my life. I’m sorry about the language, but that’s the ONLY to describe it. I lost, but it was a good loss. This battle restored my enjoyment of the game, and reminded me of why I started playing in the first place. I registered for a later tournament and made it to round 3. Won 4 booster packs and no Invitation, which suited me per! fectly.

Of course, the Qualifiers were not in the 15&3 format. I couldn’t take Gengang to the STS, it would not survive the transition to 15&3 and still be true to the initial concept of the deck. And that is what really irritates me. Gengang is an original deck; sure, there are other Curse-based decks out there, but I didn’t go hunt one down and copy what I saw in a Deck Report. I weighed each card in the deck, included cards that I liked, cards that I’ve found useful, and cards to keep as backup. It is an original deck, and 15&3 cripples it. Cuts Gengar right at the foundation. I’ve tried 3-Gastly versions of the deck many times, it DOES NOT WORK.

Gengang, like most of my better decks, runs about 18-22 Trainer Cards, depending on my mood whenever it is re-constructed, but except for minor count variations—two Oaks one week, three the next—the Trainers are very stable. I’ve even cut cards that some people consider “Standard” (i.e. Energy Removal, Bill, and Item Finder). Being a “ponderous” evolution deck, Gengang needs a reasonably high Trainer count to keep it competitive. I’ve included a Flow-Center combo which has worked almost perfectly for me (except that time when I got both Flows in my opening hand, and had to Oak them!) as a defensive element—most big evolution decks need something like this to hold out long enough to get evolved—it has saved me too many times in the early game, stalling a bit to pull off a mid-to-late game win.

I know I’ve said it before, but I’m saying it again. I am SO glad that I am not going to the East Coast STS. I have trouble just building a 15&3 deck; the ones I’ve tried flop miserably. Additionally, almost nobody wants to play in a non-mandatory 15&3 environment, sometimes not even to test out their deck.

So what can we do about it? One person I know is using a blatantly unoriginal deck at New Jersey in the hopes to prove that Wizards’ new rule accomplished absolutely nothing. And Scott Gerhardt, one of the most highly-respected players of the game, is very likely NOT GOING. It’s going to be a huge tournament, many of the notable players expected to be there, and Scott is boycotting it. With someone so well-known taking such a stand against 15&3, perhaps Wizards will notice something.

I don’t know the staff of Wizards personally. I don’t know if they’re prideful enough to think that removing 15&3 will make them look like idiots. But so far they’re proving themselves blind by ignoring the mass outrage displayed by the TRUE diehard fans of the game! I honestly can not understand why or how some people feel that 15&3 will be good for the environment. Maybe they don’t understand what it really means. One of my friends—when asked for a quote for this—told me that “..... Prop15 is a farce, a charade, an act by people powerless to do anything but desperate to do something. Call it what you like. Just don't call it good for the game." I don’t entirely agree with that comment, mainly the “powerless” part, because Wizards does have the power to fix the game. They just refuse to do so.

Wizards knows what they can do to fix the game. They know exactly how to fix the game. But they will not. Cards were banned in Japan, but they won’t ban those cards here, under the frail excuse that kids won’t understand it. American kids are not dumb. Sure, they have lower standardized test scores than the kids in Japan get, but then the average 7-year-old would certainly understand what it means when they are told “The people who made this card decided that it isn’t very fair, so you can’t use it for this tournament.” I don’t know any kids under 7 who actually understand how to play the game.

As a final comment, I wonder if Wizards will count how many Invitations they issued, and then count how many people used their Invitations to actually attend the STS. If I had Qualified, I would want to take the same deck that won me the Invitation. I’m still glad that I am not going; the experience would likely shatter what enjoyment I have in the game.

--RainStrom the Disgruntled Furry Blue Mock-Dragon
~~Rayinte@yahoo.com