#metagame

[strontiumsun]

Thoughts on the TCG Pocket meta now that I've played it for a week

Well I've certainly enjoyed playing TCG Pocket. I'm surprised at how easy it is to get rare cards and rare art cards on top of that, and the streamlined battle mode is easy on-the-go fun. But despite not having played the actual TCG, I'm not unaware of how much nuance was cut out of the game to streamline it into a bite-sized experience. In specific, the metagame lacks depth.

Of the ten archetypes, Fire, Water, Grass, Lightning and Psychic have clear strategies baked into the cards (with Water having multiple, IMO). Fighting, Darkness, Metal, Dragon and Colorless, not so much. Some of these strategies are meta, some are not.

Meta Strategies:

Grass: A surprisingly reliable deck, with access to an excellent supporter card in Erika, healing +50 hp to any Grass Pokemon. Exeggutor is your lead mon - regular or ex, both work - with its high HP and annoying low-cost move that does double damage on a coin flip. While Eggy sponges damage and heals with Erika, you work on building up a Venusaur ex in on the bench. Sprinkle in any support Pokemon you'd like - I think Butterfree's healing ability has great potential. Unfortunately I don't have all the cards for this deck, but I've seen other players use it to great success.

Psychic: The only deck with reliable energy acceleration. It has multiple strong attackers in Mewtwo ex, Alakazam and Gengar ex. The name of the game is building up Gardevoir on the bench so she can use her broken Psy Shadow abilty to attach 2 Psychic energy per turn. That takes 3 turns minimum if you get lucky, with luck being the name of the game. Sometimes, you can have Mewtwo ex ready to dish out 150 damage by turn 3. Otherwise, you have to hope you draw your cards before your opponent sets up. I don't have two copies of the Gardevoir line so my version of this deck isn't up to snuff.

Powerful but Volatile:

Fire: This deck is potentially very powerful but highly luck-dependent. Moltres ex provides energy acceleration... at the cost of a coin flip. You can generate anywhere from 0-3 energy per turn. And unlike Gardevoir, it has to be in the active spot to accelerate energy. The core strategy here is to build up multiple Fire attackers, specifically Charizard ex, while Moltres tanks attacks with its high HP and accelerates energy. The caveat is that once Charizard ex is in the active spot, it won't be able to regain energy from Moltres - and it loses 2 energy per use of its 200-power attack. I faced an opponent with this deck today and they surprised me in the end with a backup Magmar powered by Blaine. Definitely gets results, but cross your fingers.

Water: Like Fire, Water has a luck-based way to accelerate energy - Misty. Unlike Moltres ex, Misty is a supporter card, and you can have 2 per deck. But you can get very unlucky quite easily with this card, as one tails and you get nothing, whereas Moltres ex gets 3 chances to flip heads. Water has a lot of good ex Pokemon, like Blastoise ex and Lapras ex. It's a very flexible archetype, and I've found success with a particular deck (more on that later).

Dragon: Probably the most volatile deck in the game. There are no cards that support Dragon-type Pokemon, which is a problem when Dragonite - a Stage 2 - takes 4 attachments to do damage. Its attack deals damage to the active and benched Pokemon... at random. If you want this deck to succeed, you need max copies of Dratini/Dragonair/Dragonite and a lot of luck.

Noob Trap:

Lightning: Pikachu ex decks are super easy to use! And super underwhelming. It's easy to stack Lightning Pokemon on the bench, but the most damage you can do is 90, and you often find yourself falling short of KOing bulky Pokemon ex before you get KO'd. Unless you're up against a Water deck, the damage just isn't high enough.

Underexplored:

Fighting: This archetype has a surprising number of cards, including two Pokemon ex and multiple reliable 1-prize attackers, but is largely underexplored by the player base. Being Psychic- and Grass-weak when those are two of the best decks is a factor.

Colorless: Colorless cards have a ton of utility but not a ton of power. It's an archetype I haven't seen anyone trying, but as they can be used with any deck, it's still common to fight against Colorless Pokemon. I'd be on the lookout for Fearow, Kangaskan and perhaps Cinccinno.

Underdeveloped:

Darkness: If Psychic is meta, you'd think Darkness decks would be a good counter, right? Unfortunately, there are no Darkness Pokemon ex in the game currently. Without a strong Pokemon to anchor them, this archetype doesn't have any real estate in the meta. That said, I did fight an opponent that combined Mewtwo ex with Weezing and Koga and it actually worked really well.

Metal: There are 5 Metal cards currently. Better than Dragon, right? But the cards aren't very splashable. Meltan has built-in energy acceleration but it has to be in the active spot to use it, and once it evolves it loses that ability. Paired with its low HP, and there's a reason I have never faced a Metal deck. Future expansions will hopefully give this archetype a chance to shine.

My Water deck - Splash Damage

I've recently developed a Water deck that I think is pretty strong. I call it the Splash Damage Deck. This deck plays Articuno ex in the lead and builds up Greninja on the bench. The idea is to combine Greninja's Water Shuriken ability (meaning it activates while on the bench) with Articuno ex's relatively weak for an ex Blizzard attack. With one Greninja, you can amp Blizzard from base 90 damage to 110 damage. With two Greninja, you bring that damage to 130. Not only that, you also do splash damage to the bench. And if Blizzard's 90 power is going to KO the active Pokemon, you can throw Water Shurikens at a Pokemon on the bench, potentially doing up to 50 damage.

I play two copies of Articuno ex, Froakie, Frogadier and Greninja, one copy each of Staryu and Starmie ex as a back-up attacker and cleaner, two copies of Misty and then general support and item cards. I could get rid of two items or two supporters to run another set of Staryu and Starmie ex if I have consistency problems.

If you read all that, let me know what strategies you've found success with and what your favorite cards are!

[thejaymo]

A Rediscovered Map | Weeknotes

One of the benefits of keeping a diary for over a decade and a half is that you can revisit your past thoughts and feelings to see what was on your mind during similar times.

[sameoldgb]

I think Path of Exile is a cool exception. The currency in that world is just a bunch of useful items that are indistinguishable and small enough to be used as such. I mean, ppl use the 'Chromatic Orbs' as sort of a main currency, but that's more meta-game and even so, it's not the only currency for player trading. Lore-wise I don't know if they never "evolved" beyond bartering, or the dire situation led them back to it.

i'm guessing at some point someone in charge must've been like "if there's swords in the game then the currency is gold. if there's spaceships the currency is credits. if you do otherwise i will kill you"

[bananartista]

La Soluzione - Entity N° 16057

Mixed media on A4 paper (21 x 29,7 cm , 350 gr.)

[harleyacoincidence]

Instant Metagaming Counter

One time, a player of mine kept asking for information only the DM should know. They wanted to use it to their advantage during combat. The thing they did that really irked me was that whenever I told them information, they would act like someone in the campaign told them so their character would have the knowledge. This time, I responded in the most obnoxious UwU voice known to humankind, giving them vague descriptions of information they had inquired about. They never metagamed again, and now the DM is a canon entity with that voice in that specific campaign.

[arkadiaasks]

In what ways do you think the success of the new Excutie cards will impact future card design in Rush Duels? And do you think there will be anything like the Excuties in the future?

It'll encourage power creep and absolutely, Excuties were meant to create a new meta/power Deck to push sales and break the hold of Level 7 strategies that were seen too monolithic in Konami's eyes.

[rhiangalaxy]

White-haired Shizun... save me White-haired Shizun...

(bonus character reaction under the cut :P)

[ID: A Scum Villain Drawing. A half body shot of SY!Shen Qingqiu with white hair. He has one hand raised up clutching a semi-closed fan with a soft but slightly amused smile/expression. He is wearing green robes with various plant patterns. A couple of green sparkles are near his face. End ID]

[ID: A Scum Villain Doodle. All characters in chibi style. Liu Qingge stands with a disgruntled expression and crossed arms but his ears have a pink blush to them. Next to him is Yue Qingyuan who is gripping his hands tightly together with a nervous smile, his cheeks slightly flushed. Lastly White Lotus! Luo Binghe has his arms folded down in front of him his face very aflame with a nervous :3 face. Above them are thought bubble dots all leading to the floshed emoji. End ID]

[islandoforder]

[building my case in fantasy mortal rights law court] your honour the defendant cast hold person on this gnome student, but dominate monster on this goblin student. a coincidence? i think not

[gfaqscartridge88]

Paul has accepted his fate. This is his punishment for bringing the meta game into the Pokémon world.

no context. here

[eternalgirlscout]

the foundational level 3 feature for the mastermind rogue subclass is the ranged bonus action Help. it's a fantastic feature to have and kipperlilly "bad at this game," "no practical application" copperkettle never, ever used it. this is the person who lead a party that clustered up in perfect fireball range. this is the person who, at the cost of all her friends dying, undertook the rage ritual willingly. at any time, she could have helped them and over and over she chose not to. now that's strong characterization through mechanics

[priyanshkumar]

Metaverse has become more prevalent in current years as an expanding number of businesses embrace it as the technology of the future economy.

[tenleaguesbeneath]

Imagine if baseline D&D character tactical competence were gated as metagaming the way other things were.

"It's a loud and chaotic battle and they're shooting arrows at you, I don't think you'd notice that the rogue who was trying to flank the enemy formation just got ganked. I'm not letting you cast Healing Word on them without a perception roll."

[jerichoes]

She is the one who brought me to Moonrise and into the presence of her so-called god—the Absolute.

[sunderwight]

If Luo Binghe had died at the end of PIDW (and Airplane had properly finished the story before his own sudden and unexpected demise), how much do you think that would change Shen Yuan's attitude after losing his shit over it and then transmigrating into Shen Qingqiu?

So much of SV only really happens because Shen Yuan is comfortable in his certainty that the world at least won't let Luo Binghe, even if he suffers. Eventually he realizes that he can't really stand letting Luo Binghe suffering either, but part of how he compartmentalizes his no-win scenarios with the System (like the Abyss) is that, well, Binghe will be fine in the long run. He'll conquer the world, win all the ladies, live in sprawling palaces, ascend to untold heights of power, and reach a point where no one can ever threaten him again because he's just too strong to be threatened.

But if the story ended with Luo Binghe's destruction, all that would go out of the window, wouldn't it?

The idea that the world would ultimately see Luo Binghe safe would vanish. Now, it's just that Luo Binghe gets to live until his death is deemed poignant enough. What if something Shen Qingqiu does makes that point arrive sooner? But also, it's gotta be possible for him to thwart Luo Binghe's canonical death, and he wouldn't accept otherwise.

He'd be so stressed out.