Hello, everyone. This is Tim. I had my Archetypes article all
ready to
send in, when I noticed Nite Owl's little article calling for some
type
of crusade against me. Now, I already had responded to the article
in
which she said she was some type of Agent 777 or something like that,
and
defended herself, while doing me injustice. So, I didn't think
there
would be any more anti- Tim stuff. Then, I came across another anti-
Tim
article, so I'll respond to that first, and then give you my Archtype
article.
First, the Iggly/ Wooper thing. The first response to her article was
a
little bashing, but not very. Then, she said it was, and I was
kinda
flattered, being put up into the ranks of Spike and Chipmunk. Thus,
this
statement. I would have normally said "However, when people go
around
saying that wooper is really good and Iggly is terrible, I must step
in
and inform the world that this is a fallacy (wrong)." or something
like
that. I just said bash because if she thought I was bashing, I
would
gladly accept the flattery. Also, it's not differing opinion. Iggly
is
good, wooper isn't the greatest. Nite Owl specificly admitted to me
that
she didn't even know what a DCI ranking is. I'm not saying this is
bad,
but really, without having gone to a DCI sanctioned tournament, or
some
other tournament with other good people, you can't go around
professing
that a good card is bad and a mediocre card is really great.
Now, her thing about bashing being against the rules. The Pojo
people
read these articles before posting them. (Hi Scott.) Obviously,
they
chose to post that one. They also posted my response to that
abomination
of a Nidoking deck, which was a full fleged bash. Look at Chipmunk
and
Spike's Bashes. Some of the funniest things to ever appear on Pojo.
Bashing is high quality entertainment. (Especially when there is a
Vulpix
or a spirit named Bob involved.) And, I don't just bash people
for the
heck of it. I have to have a reason. Nothing I send for the
first time
about people is a bash. Heh, you should see some of the stuff Nite
Owl
has sent me. However, I will not stoop down to the level of posting
it.
I don't hunt for potential victims. I just stumble across
articles that
don't make any sense, and reply. Then, when the author can't take
being
criticized, and repeatedly sends me annoying e- mail, I begin bashing.
Now, this:
"Wow, that's dumb. Anyone STUPID enough to take up space in their
deck
with Muks shouldn't be playing pokemon."
I never said that. Ever. Anyone who wants to play pokemon
should. I
never said that Muk is bad either. Muk is good. I said wow,
that's dumb
to her saying that sending up Slowking is a great way to counter Iggly.
I repeat, I never said this. Ever.
Now, my archtype article.
Since the
dawn of Haymaker, there have been people saying Archtypes are
bad and that people should use original decks. Well, before we
can
adress this, we must examine Archetypes, and original decks, and find
the
differences. First, a definition. I find a good archtype
definition to
be: "A good deck which lots of people use." There are
varying
definitions, of course, but I think this one is pretty good. To
better
understand archtypes, let's look at their history. (I started
playing
seriously about when Gym Challenge came out. Therefore, I have
no
firsthand experience as to the tournament scene before then. However,
I
have read many pojo articles from times before Challenge, so I have a
pretty good idea.)
When the
base set first came out, people had no idea what was good, and
how to build a deck. So, there was a rush on Charizards, a high HP
high
damage sparkly pokemon. Then, someone got the crazy idea that
speed,
rather than strentgh was the key to pokemon. Thus, the haymaker
was
born. People thought that their tough Charizards could easily beat
down
Hitmonchan and Electabuzz. They were shocked when Buzz and Chan beat
the
Charmanders before Charizard appeared. So, speed was recognized
as
extremely important, and the Haymaker was born. Hitmonchan beat
electabuzz, electabuzz beat Farfetched, and Farfetched beat Hitmonchan.
Another deck that was created becasue of its speed was Blastoise.
On
turn two, Blastiose could be up and dealing sixty a turn. To
counter
speed, stall decks, which won by decking the opponent, were
born. Then
came Jungle. The pokemon everyone was crazy about was Scyther.
An
improved Farfetched, without weakness to Electabuzz!!! This
replaced
Farfetched, and strengthened Haymaker. Wigglytuff and Clefable
made
quiet debuts, not noticed yet. Then came Fossil. Magmar was
great
against Scyther, and Hitmonchan grew stronger. Ranindance also
grew
stronger, with Lapras and Articuno, which didn't have weakness, and
had
resistance to fighting. Then came team rocket. Wigglytuff
busted out of
its cage, and took over. Sneak attack helped WIggly counter removal,
and
Nightly gargage run allowed it to be played faster than anytning
before,
and Pluspower gave it one hit KOs against almost everything.
Haymaker
was also helped by Sneak and Garbage run. Blastoise was weakened
by
Sneak, and began to lose power. The same was true of
Stall. People
thought Dark Vileplume was cool, but didn't really play it. Somewhere
in
here, MP Mewtwo is introduced, creating the sponge deck, which
weakens
Hitmonchan. Then came Gym Heroes. Enter Trapper. This deck
was
absolutely feared. Wigglytrappers could absolutely dominate.
Other
noteable cards included Rocket's Scyther, and Rocket's Hitmonchan,
which
were tried in Haymaker. Hitmonchan continues to lose power to
lose
power. Now Gym challenge. Rocket's Zapdos kills hitmonchan, and
turns
the game on its ear. It is great with and against removal/
Super
removal, and does the seventy damage that gets KOs. Wiggly/ Zapdos
decks
were by far the most popular, and were very difficult to beat. The
game
right now is about as fast as it ever gets. Then along comes Neo.
Cleffa is introduced, and everyone loves it. Then, there is Sneasel,
the
improved Wiggly, which immediatley becomes a trapper pokemon.
Slowking
is also used. Metal energy finds its way into many decks,
including
Rocket's Zapdos, and Steelix. Steelix is an absolute wall with
gold
berry, another card introduced in neo. People find the lass/
eeeeeeek
combo, which slows the game way down. Lass/ Eeeeeeeek gives rise to
Dark
Vileplume decks, which now absolutely rule, with nothing but magby to
stop them. The same is true of Slowking. Steelix also is widely
used.
Wiggly loses power. Then, neo discovery. The only real change
this
brings about is Igglybuff, which kills off Dark Vileplume, and
weakens
Slowking. Southern Islands didn't do much, except give another onix
to
Steelix decks. I haven't seen all that many tournaments since neo
three
has been out, but I don't think it will have a huge impact. I
am
forgetting a lot of things, but this is just an example of how decks
evolve. Really, there are so many things I'm forgetting it's not
even
funny.
So, you have
before you the history of archtypes, as best as I can
present it. A deck takes many steps to become an archtype.
First,
someone creates it. Then, someone else sees it, either by going on
the
internet or seeing them play it, likes the idea, and improves upon it.
This goes on until the deck is extremely good, and popular, and it
becomes an Archtype. Archtypes are continuously changing. I'll
give a
brief history of haymaker as an example. First, it was Buzz/
Chan/
Farfetched. Then it was Buzz/ Chan/ Scyther. Then it was Chan/
Magmar/
Scyther, or some other variation. MP Mewtwo could also be combined
with
the above as well, as could Electabuzz. Then it was Scyther/
Electabuzz/
Rocket's Zapdos, which it pretty much is today. People
continuously
found better combos and ideas, and the deck evolved. Slowking is
another
example. At first, people thought that it was a psychic type,
and
therefore should be in a psychic deck, with MP mewtwo. Then,
someone
else tried Slowking with Wiggly, which worked better. Then,
Sneasel
replaced Wiggly to make the deck even better. Finally, Murkrow was
added
to make the deck the great archtype it is today. Any archtype
is
considered original when it is first created. Slowking and Steelix
were
both original when they came out, but they were so good they became
archtypes. Blastoise was once an archtype, but has been weakened so
much
that (where I play at least) it is considered as original. When
Modified
came out, there were no archtypes. By the STS, Feraligatr and
Typhlosion/ Baline's Arcanine had established themselves as archetypes.
Therefore, archetypes come and go, archetypes are only around becasue
people think about what a good deck would be, see how others do with
a
certian deck, modify it to suit themselves, and play with it.
Then,
after playtesting, they have their deck. If it is a good modification
of
a current archtype, people will take this into account when building
their own version of this deck. This process repeats to make
decks
better and better.
My main
point here is that Archetypes are not bad. They could just be
considered really good really popular original decks. If you want to
use
a non archtype, fine by me. However, people, stop complaining
about
Archtypes. If they were bad, they wouldn't be archtypes. If you
play a
good original deck, good for you. However, if you are opposed
to
archetypes, don't make it too good. It might become an
one.
-Tim
e- mail me at Victreebel29@juno.com
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