hi, i want to respond to dave's article on disruption posted 11/2 in the tcg
strategy section.

i guess that this article was written partly tongue in cheek whining about
the disruption aspects of the game.  but i want to bring up the fact that
disruption is a viable aspect of the game.  i play a lot of chess and there
are some moves that are part of the game that sometimes i wish weren't there,
like a knight (or other piece) being able to attack two pieces at the same
time.  i think that what dave says about disruption is basically, well for
lack of a better term, baloney.

i would guess that dave would like to be able to implement his plan without
opposition most of the time without being disrupted (he did say that some
energy removal is okay).  but how boring would that be?  i've played guys
with raindance decks that wiped me out in two turns because of my bad draw
and three bills (theirs) and oaks.  this is a viable strategy, i didn't whine
about not being able to implement my plan.  i've been er'd and ser'd enough
times to know what it feels like to not be able to power my pokes, i live
with it and find out ways to minimize my loss (like using pokes that don't
use so much energy and using energy retrievals -- wotc made that card too you
know :) ).

what do you mean aerodactyl and muck destroy chances of bring raindance to a
tourney?  if you're running raindance then you've better have tuned it to
respond to these threats -- good raindance decks should be tuned to be able
to maximize the chances of bringing out the blastoise within three turns and
getting good water pokes out there to deal with muk and aerodactyl.  i
absolutely hate the proclamations of non-thinkers who believe that the mere
existence of a card limits the choices of the player!  man you're either not
thinking or not thinking creatively.

accusing WotC of thinking about money only when they made the energy removal
cards is silly.  i believe that ser is a balanced card, you take away two of
your opponent's energy, but you have to discard one of your own.  aerodactyl
has to evolve from mysterious fossil -- you can see him coming from a mile
away -- with any decent poke and gust of wind (and even some of the pokes
with bench damaging attacks -- i.e. jungle pikachu among others) you can get
rid of aerodactyl before he comes out, muk is also a stage 1 poke, there are
ways of dealing with this.

complaining about coin flips?  really?  WotC wanted to make luck part of the
game.  if you're skilled you minimize the amount of luck required, but
there's still the element of chance -- so let me get you straight, you're
complaining about the part of the game that incorporates chance right?  then
why not complain about the "card" part of the game?  drawing cards is
probably the part of the game that incorporates the most chance.  how about
one basic starting hands?  do you want to get rid of those too?  i was at a
tourney there this guy accused a girl of cheating because her coin kept
flipping heads, i guarantee you that it was the first time that deck was able
to last so long because of coin flips (i know because i built that deck). 
this guy was winning and he had the nerve to ask a judge to test this coin
(it was a big metal coin btw)!  what unsportsmanlike conduct.  you never let
something like affect you, it reflects basically on your character.  so you
sayt this guy comes out and flips his way to victory in the tourney you were
in -- it's unlikely he'll be able to do it again, at least not by flipping
heads like that so many times in a row.  a good deck is able to deal with
luck and magnify skill.  and a good trainer is prepared to deal with winning
and losing on luck.

sheesh -- i think that your losses come more from a basic misunderstanding of
the game than from how much WotC wants to make money.

flame me --  Jae Lim (mrjae@aol.com)