<Twilight slumps into his swivel chair>
Recently, I believe that my greatest fear has come to be: a virtually
indestructible deck.
I know it may sound a little far-fetched (not the duck), and maybe utterly
insane, but the Psychic Element has become so powerful lately I had to look
into it.
In the beginning, there were but a few Psychics...Mewtwo, Alakazam,
Drowzee. Then came Mr. Mime. Followed by Gengar and Hypno.
Until the
Fossil Expansion, there weren't that many offensive, mono Psychic decks
around. Even then they didn't have a major effect, not like the Archetypes
(even though at one time Alakazam was a member of the Sponge family). Some
where around this time came the infamous L60 Mewtwo, which people began to
use more than Hitmonchan. The other Mewtwo Promo, while only having 60 HP,
could pull off a 30 Damage attack that ignored Resistance. Team Rocket
brought us Dark Alakazam, with its own Resistance ignorant technique.
While powerful, they were still not widely accepted...
<Perhaps it's the 60 HP>
Gym Heroes came and went, leaving us with Sabrina's Gengar, a powerful
addition to the Psychic family. It was at this point I began to worry.
I
knew that with the next Expansion would come Team Rocket's Mewtwo, the more
powerful Sabrina's Gengar, and her Alakazam. The new Abra have 40-50 HP,
maintaining their paralyses techniques. The one even has a first turn 20
Damage attack. Frightening...
People in my area were saying (and still say) "Psychic is too weak.
Snorlax could beat a mono Psi deck!" Well, Snorlax IS powerful...
But anywho, that isn't the point. In fact, it's barely even effective
anymore, with Resistance Gym now in circulation.
The now more annoying than effective Turbo 'Tuff decks will crumble to it's
knees soon when Neo comes out. Well, for a time. What I think will
happen
will be that everyone will be playing Bellsprout Tower Stadium Card (by the
way: all attacks done by Colorless Pokemon are reduced by 30) for fear of
Wigglytuff. Turbo 'Tuff will die down, and no one will worry about it for
a while. Then, someone will realize that no one is using Bellsprout Tower
too often, so they'll bring Turbo 'Tuff back up again. It's just a never
ending cycle.
And in that period of no 'Tuff will be Psychic's Golden Age. With the
correct combination of Mr. Mime, different Mewtwo, Sabrina's Alakazam,
several Gengar, and one must not forget Hypno ^_^ ...with the appropriate
Trainer cards, Psychic will be all but invincible from the opening shot to
the coupe de grace.
One can never truly prepare one's self for this sort of threat, with such a
variety of monsters to choose from. Think Colorless will do the trick?
Beware of the previously mentioned Resistance Gym, other Colorless Pokemon,
and possibly some Fight types that come somehow fit into a Psychic deck
(any one that can do a decent, all Colorless Energy attack). Planning to
just take them out with Ditto? Guess what...that won't work too well.
Ditto will share the Psychic Weakness and be knocked out just as quickly.
Psychic's greatest problem is it's weakness to itself. Confusion may play
some sort of a role in taking out this sort of "Armageddon" deck, but
don't
put an entire deck into it. Ghosts and the one called Kirinriki will do
well, since they have decent attacks, are considered Psychic Energy, and
aren't weak to Psychic. Nyuura and other Evil Pokemon will be useful.
But, once again, I bring up Resistance Gym. <sigh>
As I said before, this sounds far-fetched. I haven't even really
constructed this sort of deck yet. But I just wish to plant the seeds of
caution.
Twilight oo7
obraf@ptdprolog.net
"Swift like rock, agile like duck."