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The Current State of Pokemon

It's last Saturday, about 5:00 CST. I'm about to play in the top 10 tournament for pojo's league, which by the way is awesome, check out the page at www.pojo.com/league.html . It's standard, I'm all pumped up... I load apprentice. I look, and I don't see a standard deck. My simple reaction: "Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!"

I look into chat, and ask a question. "Is there actually a deck that works in standard that is fun to play with evolution?" And I got quite a few responses, going from "Uh... yeah right." to "Hey, there's clefable!" To that person I state, "Uh.. any others? Besides Wiggly?" they respond to "Well. =\. No. Not really."

So... I end up playing a steelix/sneasel, (they didn't mention steelix ^_^) which would lose first round... and I would lose. Ouch, I got 0wned by a chansey. Then I get flustered, wondering what happened to standard while I was gone playing modified. It is still heavily archetypical. I see these decks as the ones that can be played and won with.

Current Standard Decks:

- Chansey/Unown N/Babies: Played by a friend of mine named Alex Brosseau, VERY good deck.
- Chansey/Unown N/Steelix: A nice deck that can win if there isn't too much fire, which in today's standard environment, there isn't.
- Sneasel/Slowking/Murkrow: Still played, as it has been since genesis, and with lucky flips STILL can win. People have actually found uses for elekid against this deck.
- Wigglytuff/Muk: A complete anti-slowking/sneasel. Good deck, but loses to chansey.

The final answer?

Chansey with metals own the environment. Yes, energy removal can counter it, and does a good job. But energy removal alone doesn't have a pokemon that can support it. It is beatable, but only by a counter deck, which doesn't beat other archetypes. I keep seeing myself playing some fun typhlosion/blaine's arcanine, or a erika's victreebel deck in standard, and they always lose.

The fix? 

Wizards needs to create a all-around anti-chansey card, that has a major  weakness itself. Everyone knows Wizards refuses to ban cards, with the  exception of sneasel. But Chansey is a problem that needs to be dealt with.  Here would be an example of a card.

RaNd0m's Elite Machop 70 HP

Pokemon Power: "Die Chansey, Die!" Whenever a Chansey with a metal energy attached attacks, do 20 damage to Chansey. Ignore the metal's effect.
FCC Cross Chop 40. Ignore Resistance and Metal Energy effects.
Weak - Psy.
Resist - None.
Retreat - C

Yes, that sounds too good, but it could be countered! Psychic would become viable, and that could help the environment! Wizards NEEDS to do something like this, instead of something drastic.

I've looked at Neo 4, or Neo Destiny, and it looks to have some 
game-changing cards. Hopefully this set will help.

Now we go into Modified.

Current Modified Decks:

- Feraligatr/babies: Yes, this is a great deck. As anti-gatr as I was at the STS, thats changed. I've been playing this deck now quite a bit and its honestly a good deck.
- Crobat/babies: The Anti-Gatr. Great card in itself. I don't know why this wasn't played so extensively at the STS as I thought it would be... because I countered THIS deck first day, and never saw one! =/
- Typhlosion/Blaine's Arcanine: Still a great deck. The damage with these guys is enormous, and it's fast.
- Slowking/Espeon/Umbreon: This is unpredictable. Honestly I don't get it. I went 4-5 day one of the STS with this deck, doing horribly, and then my friend plays a carbon copy the second day and gets 3rd! It could be my horrible luck that day, and after counting my flips after 5th round, I had about a 20% heads average!
- Entei/Blaine's Magmar: I haven't tried this deck yet, and it's nice, but not quite able to be played and won with. The damage potential for turn 2 is very nice, but in Modified everyone plays like 6 babies. Babies 0wn this deck, and they 0wn rather bad.
- Brock's Ninetales: "What? You play THAT in there?" This deck is the best deck to play in Modified if you want to have fun. If you like TecH, you'll love this. I've surprised people with Koga's Beedrills, Umbreons, Tyranitars, Blaine's Charizards, Blaine's Arcanines, and even a Misty's poliwhirl! People honestly go nuts when they get beat by these things. The only problem is that once your Nine are gone, your beat.

The Final Answer?
Modified is in better shape than standard. It is very balanced, and 
evolution is a must. Thats something MANY people like. Also it's a great business plan by Wizards, because its promoting the later sets, and those are the sets we, the Pokemon People, buy!

Thats pretty much the end of my Environmental Survey. And the final report? 
Standard in my opinion gets the grade of: (Color D+ Red Please.)D+. Trust me, it's NOT as bad as it was back before genesis, or even during genesis, but it's not very good either. It just needs some nice counter cards, and I mean counter POKEMON. Modified gets the grade of: (Color B- Yellow Please.)B-. Feraligatr and Crobat are dominant, and it needs a bit of help. But Neo Destiny should fix the problems that are occuring.

Feel free to email me at rand0mlamer@hotmail.com . I don't like viruses... or junk. Please, if your going to email me, email me TEXT from you. Thanks.

~ RaNd0m