Um, not to sound like a flamer, but Hay and Wiggly do ruin the
atmosphere. I do agree that people want to win, but Wiggy and Hay just
go overboard. You see, a Wigglytuff Deck or a Haymaker, which are
essentially the same thing, are designed to do one thing. Kill your
opponent and fast as humanly possible. Some games are decided by the
second turn, and this is killing the environment and driving all the
younger/less experienced players away.

Even in Magic, the First Turn kill is a very rare thing, and Wizards
goes out of their way to make sure that the game is as balanced and fun
as possible, by banning and restricting overpowering cards, or modifying
them to make them decidedly less overpowering, because it's just that. A
game. Something that is designed to be fun. If you don't make the game
fun or make it too unbalanced, and you drive away all the new players,
which in the end is going to *HURT* the game in the long run. With
Pokemon, Wizards isn't doing a thing.

As for all Haymakers being the same, I think many people mean the same
generically. Sure, you switch out a few cards here and there, but in
general, Haymakers feature the same cards, merely rearranged in a
semi-original way.

Proof of my statement? What Hay doesn't feature 4 Bills, 4 P. Oaks, and
4 Pluspowers? How many of them feature Item Finders to get these
overpowering cards back? How many have Computer Searches? Almost all.
Although the Pokemon is different, the general idea is exactly the same,
and facing the exact same sort of deck with different pokemon is just
the same as facing the exact same deck anyway.

I'm not saying that Haymakers are evil or anything, but if Pokemon is
going to continue to survive against such goliaths as Magic, then
someone is going to have to do something to take a lot of power out of
the Haymaker.

Personally, I see one way of doing so. Ban Professor Oak. Haymakers and
Wigglytuff decks would lose a lot of power if they were forced to draw
regularly, assisted only by the occassional Bill.

Well, enough ranting. Those who wish to take it up with me, my name is
Ken Leveille and my email address is lleveille@sympatico.ca

PS: All flames will be laughed at and mocked before being send to the
firey doom of the Trash Bin, so don't bother. :)