>>13538212>>>13518985From what I saw in the tourney, HTL is the gamechanger nowadays, but I have very little idea regarding what is actually going on in the game.
Hypnotoxic Laser is a game-changer, but it's dropping in use thanks to Virizion EX (Which negates Special Conditions on the Active Pokemon if it has any Grass Energy attached to it).
Hell, even Darkrai/Hydreigon (an old Darkrai deck that saw a lot of use until Plasma Storm came out) is seeing some use again thanks to Virizion EX.
I'm considering getting back into it, but I'm pretty sure it wouldn't be worth it when the best card I have is that base set Machamp.
The TCG is still decent, but most new players wait until a new rotation is in place before buying cards.
>>13538922If it's a matter of accessibility then most, if not all, leagues allow the use of proxies for TCG. The only time proxies aren't allowed is if you're in a sanctioned or limited tournament.
>>13539135The old rulebooks were quite clear on the matter, but the mat that came with one of my decks says "as many times as you like".
The "as many times as you like" blurb refers to the amount of Pokemon you have in play, not to how many times a single Pokemon can evolve per turn.
There was a Stadium card from the DPPt era called Broken Time-Space that negated the "Basic Pokemon cannot evolve on the same turn they were played" rule, but it's been rotated out of the Modified format.
