Pokemon's Most HATED Mechanic (2008-2024) 

Salamence pilot, Guy Bennett here. Can't believe my deck got it's own segment 😭😍 completely honored and grateful for the shout out. That small window of post-Arceus release to pre-HGSS was the only span of time where the deck was amazing. It took fantastic matchups into Flygon, Beedrill, Machamp, and actually Gardevoir Gallade, as silly as it sounds. When I won that City I took out one in Swiss, one in t4, and one in finals. I honestly couldn't tell you *why* it was a great matchup since it's been so long 😅 but my opponent in the finals was (and still is) a great friend of mine and we tested that matchup extensively. The real killers of the deck were the rise of GDos and SP like you said. I actually managed to beat an SP in swiss, but only bc they had a lone Garchomp C and I donked it with an expert belted Skitty 😂. Anyway, thanks for the awesome shoutout! I still have the deck sleeved up since it meant so much to me back then as my first tournament win ❤

Coin flips? Edit: ahh of course. Agreed.

I wish the Pokemon TCG made one adjustment to the game and it's just a simple one to balance all the decks: - Weakness not being 2X. Make it similar to resistance damage (+20 / +30 / +40 more damage if it's weak to it, not a whopping DOUBLE DAMAGE.)

I think the title of the video should be changed to "Jake Gearhart's most hated mechanic"

Does anyone else remember when the highest HP was only 120 and only one of the cards with that value was actually good?

Seeing Plasma Genesect EX takes me back. I wanted to build a deck for it back in the day but didn't know anyone else that played. Bought an ETB and pulled the Genesect as well as the gold Rare Candy and traded for a full art Genesect from someone else. Loving seeing the history of the TCG in your videos!

That Tapu-lele 😂 Nice look back at this hated feature (that still haunts me) though I did have fun with the new-ish Clefable that takes an extra prize at 50 damage for 3 psychic. Not good, but a mean surprise.

Ah yes, the bane of my existence in the TCG! I typically tend to gravitate towards single-prize decks and counter-meta strategies, so decks like these which can take multiple prize cards from a single one-prize knockout have always been public enemy #1 for me. They do make the card game very interesting, though! Anyways, thanks so much for making these videos! I always love to study the history of the TCG, and videos like these help to immortalize it!

YOU FORGOT ABOUT RIBOMBEE! It lets you take 2 more prize cards if the defending Pokémon is KO'd next turn!

I was totally expecting item or ability lock, but extra prizes is a pretty hated mechanic

Loving the flood of video's man

I hate ADP with all my being. All my homies hate ADP. The only reason this card exists was to invalidate non-gx decks it feels like. They 100% knew what they were doing when they printed that card. It's so duuuuumb. I only played centiskorch vmax for like 2 years straight because of this card.

Great video! Its too bad you made this before the broken cards came out though. Now crobat has access to reversal energy, counter catcher, janine (plus the new crobat for draw). I have a list with dusclops that's so broken. Legit, if you have the critical bite poisoned with the binding mochi, youre hitting active for 70. Counter catcher for manaphy for 3 prizes is so nice. And the dusclops fixes the math. Thoughts?

Out of curiosity do you pronounce Lysandre differently on purpose? If so I love the vibes! So much so that I've started using it in my playgroup xD

“Let’s get back to the video” *video ends*

as someone who doesn't play this tcg but plays a lot of OU and past gens DOU on simulators my hated mechanic is not including the actual types as in the show and the games

I used the Crobat at a Prof Cup where Stage 1s were considered basics. I used that with Xatu from Paldean Fates, Cofagrigus ex and Raticate from 151. Also had Weezing from Cosmic Eclipse to help with the damage spreading. Called it the Haunted House deck and had fun with it and got 10th place with it out of 43 players.

Taking extra prizes helps speed up the game since nowadays, a matchup can be done within 10 turns

Blooming villain is the perfect music to play in the background of the Pokémon TCG's main villain

As someone that hasn't played Pokemon since Team Rocket came out... I have no idea what any of this is talking about :P

Honestly I actually thought Lost Zone was what was going to be brought up when I saw the video title, as it has existed for a similar amount of time and still to this day is in meta and is annoying for players to face. I personally after some... Struggles, to say the least, against ADPZ went and made Decidugoon. Aka the middle finger to ADPZ alongside Altariagoon. Ended up making a spiritual successor after it was rotated out in Perrserker V Can't wait for Lost Zone to be rotated out

Summoning Salt music was a good choice 👌

I think the most hated mechanic is Ability blocks - Since the first Garbodor came around...

Correction on one thing at 1:55, SF Gengar wasn't even legal during both of Gino's legendary runs. Gardy doesn't need Cresselia to deal with Gengar anyway, Gardy Lv.Xs Bring Down works fairly well against it. While yes, Cress was primarily utilized for damage manipulation and setting up maths, the attack itself is a lot more respectable than what you said. It steals games. There's a reason why players who opt for Cresselia over Jolteon⭐️ play a few more psychic energies. With how oppressive Plox was in the format, it wasn't hard to set up a Cresselia ready to attack at the right time. While yes, it wasn't a central part of the gameplan, it was an actually viable second option at times. It ohkos Bronzong after moving damage with Lake Boundary in play, ohko's Kirlias (with LB) and Ralts.

Surprised you didn’t bring up items that give up/reduce the amount of prizes you get like expert belt, legacy energy, greedy dice

In all honesty there's two 'most hated mechanics'. There's this one, taking extra prize cards. And at this point it's kinda hard to get rid of. There will always be cards that do this. But then, there's interference. Cards that stop your opponent from doing certain things, mess with their deck, or even just make it so you don't even have to play the way you're supposed to. And the reason I believe interference mechanics are truly the most hated? They actually get BANNED. Reset Stamp, Red Card, Jessie & James, Delinquent- these might sound familiar. These are all cards that manipulate the opponent's hand. There's some unbanned cards that do this too- you might be familiar with Marnie, who was commonplace in the Standard format during the Sword & Shield era, or N, a common sight still in Expanded. But why ban some of them, and not all of them? The answer is how they end up synchronizing to make it where your opponent cannot play the game, AT ALL. If you play cards right, you can literally lock your opponent out of the strategies they need to win. In fact, with the banned cards, people were able to shut down ALL DECKS. Because you can't play the game, if you don't have a hand to use. That's why some of these cards got banned. They worked too well. And people hated playing these decks. I'd argue that interference is the most hated mechanic. It still exists because such strategies make sense. But it's limited nowadays for a reason. Taking extra prize cards is a staple. But interference makes the game painful for anyone facing decks relying purely on it. Nobody wants to play a game that's only painful...

Huh, I always assumed the most disliked Mechanic in the TCG were Coin Flips, since it's always been viewed as contentious from the inherent RNG and is part of the reason why some have a mixed reception of the NEO Block of the TCG where they were most frequent. Not even mentioning the overall reluctance of physical Coin usage in general over Dice.

I use daily to play pheromosa buzzwole with swsh rillaboom, I think that the biggest issue with this deck was that I had to find a way to take less damage, I was a junior at the time I'm a senior now but I think that BuzzMosa is probably my favorite deck of all time, even without rillaboom I could still use celestial storm sceptile to rack up damage for beast game.

Jake Gearhart is somewhere fist pumping right now about ironhands ex Amazing analysis on one of the most polarizing Mechanic.

Tag Teams were also pretty awful

Play a small amount years ago so out of loop. What about an atk that does say 40+ to all benched and current pokemon? Anything like that? If so I would personally find that more annoying on account it could wipe out teams at a time. potentially leading to quick KO's also.

I will forever stand on the hill that ADP was strong in base SW/SH… but the lack of reliable gusting let cincinno mill stand heads and above the rest of the format

Have you any tips for getting Grass Energy on quick? At present I am using Gardenia's Vigor and Exeggutor V but both are hit and miss, it's great when it all comes together, but not getting Heads more than twice on the trot with Exeggutor leaves me struggling, I am happy to lose the 2 prizes for the sake of set-up but Exeggutor's usually back in hand after use courtesy of an Acerola and will generally have extra HP on via a Hero's Cape so can take the damage prior to rescue, but it really is one of those where if I get 3 Tails in a row my game is all but over, should it pan out in my favour it rarely go's wrong. I play Expanded so if there are any golden-oldie cards out there: one of my favourites for causing a bit of havoc being Koga, let me know, I've been playing what I'd say properly since 2021 so I am still finding a lot of older cards that fit my deck and play style, I'd use Forest of Giant Plants but am aware it's banned, any you'd recommend for a grass deck? Preferably to get Energy on quick. Keep up the great content mate, it's always fun viewage! (Nice new word there) If your busy no problem, but if an idea pops in your head like: Triple Grass Energy from 2008 "Obivously a joke" that'd be great.

Summoning Salt?

Taking extra prize cards? Huh. I'll be honest, I was fully expecting the most hated thing about the TCG to be... the prize cards themselves. Let's be real, this is an awful win condition because it adds unnecessary RNG and can completely ruin your deck, regardless of how you build it. If you think it feels awful to lose because you were disallowed to play certain cards, you couldn't get around something like paralysis or sleep, you missed vital coin flips, or you just couldn't draw what you needed (and yes, those are all awful), trust me, there is _no worse feeling_ than losing a game because your own deck just decided to cripple itself for no reason. It's especially bad when something egregious happens: I was playing a Primal Kyogre-EX deck once, and I lost a game because *_ALL THREE OF MY KYOGRE-EXS WERE PRIZED._* (As an aside, this mechanic also makes one-copy tech cards much riskier than they should be, especially when they're often meant to help you against bad matchups.) I get that there needs to be a win condition connected to KO'ing your opponent's Pokémon so that there's an actual point to it, and taking six KOs (or fewer because of big, powerful targets) is a good way to do it. But I'd argue that it's possible to have that wincon _without_ the ruinous RNG attached. Just change prize cards to "KO points" or something that you can keep track of with a die; dice already go from 1-6 and are used in the competitive game for all sorts of other purposes anyway (damage counters, coin flips, etc).

Lmao i love that iron hands had a similar impact to the tcg meta as it did with vgc when it was first legalized there

YES LUGIA !2022 IS #1. LUGIA, PILLOW. SLEEP ON ,,, AR CHEOPS?

My most hated Pokemon mechanic is definitely Prizing. I have some of the worst prizing luck. At a regional I played Zacian Vstar and every round I prized at least 3 energy, and multiple basics

This isn’t that bad. Imo gusting is the one i hate the most. It makes it impossible to be strategic with your active.

Can anyone name the song used in the intro? I can't place it and it's killing me

I have a permanent grudge against anybody that plays Chien-Pao ex decks.

I'd give that "prize" to energy removal, 100%

Thought it would be about stall.

Any deck that featured Trevanant for me.

That's one of my favorite mechanics lol

I remember seeing this a few times

Uh... what's with the face on Tapu Lele?

item lock?

Bit of friendly criticism: Your editing could use some work. Frequently, when you cut between audio tracks, you are leaving one or two syllables present, leaving half a word in the edit that shouldn't be there. Tightening up your timing and reviewing your transitions between clips will vastly improve the viewer experience.

tcg always support deck pyschic that deck always have good engine ==a in every season

I would much rather have a (theoretically) late game unlock like Sableye than first turn Iron Hands ex. The idea of damage spread makes more sense and is more capable of being countered.

I video about prize cards eh?

Most hated mechanic? You must mean sleep, for someone who never flips heads when they need it most 😔

Maybe YOUR most hated mechanic. But I don't agree at all. I think it's actually quite noobish and painful to listen to this. Multiple prize card cards are just a part of the game. Unquestionably the worst mechanics are any mechanics that prevent a player from playing the game. Decks that set up a lock and then make you sit there until you deck out. Unable to play cards. This is ungodly stupid and the least fun the game has ever been. Decks like Vileplume HGSS or Durant BW or Seisemitoad-gabador. Those decks locked us out of the game. There was no interaction. One player sets up the locks and it's just over. Sit there for 10 minutes and lose. Runner up is Hypnotoxic Laser. If you know what that card is, you know that one card was more problematic and worse for the game than anything you whined about here.

Nah, its tag teams and vmax pokemon, yuck

I was going to guess EX Pokemon. It was clear from the very first set that big basics were already the most powerful Pokemon, making them even more powerful just overcentralizes the types of decks available.

worst mechanic by far are these damned ex cards. no point in trying to OG evolve your mons anymore

I love that Gardevoir has been the core of like way too many meta/best decks throughout the TCG.

Big basic haymaker EX's is what I hate the most. Something that's been a mainstay since 2012

10:19 correction Silver Bangle was the card and it did 30 more damage to EX Pokemon instead of Muscle Bands 20.

Best videos worst thumbnails

Loving the videos man! I just got into the TCG so seeing all of this history has been great!

ever since the introduction of [insert name of HGSS set Legends card here] i thought there would be more cards that allowed you to add prize cards to your opponents prize card count.

"Then there was articuno" HIS NAME WAS BANTERCUNO

You forgot to mention turbo hands , the deck which makes iron hands ex do 140,160,180 potentially 220 damage while potentially taking one more prize card

What about Winbro? Slobro with Twilight Inspiration!

Were does he got those foil card 3d animations?

“Let’s get back to the video” >video ends

EX Pokemon innit

CROBAT EPIC MODE

Bring back Ancient Traits!!

Prize cards?

Hey bro when did you start playing ptcg?

PCG get more toxic every year without any banlist. Good thing I stopped play it when Primal Clash kingdra + swampert was the best duo, combined with walrein Flashfire as the boss monster.