>>16791973Sure, the lack of Catcher makes some stage 2's playable but that's where the positives end. During the game, you're playing into whatever your opponent wants you to play into. You can't change your plan according to the game's state or your draws. If your opponent gets a Blastoise up, they can never promote it and you will never KO it unless you're willing to take the bullshit risk of the coin flip. In all previous metagames without Catcher/GoW (well, apart from HGSS-on), you either had legitimate sniping options (Empoleon DP/MD/Lv.X, Garchomp C Lv.X, Steelix ex, etc) or cards with a gust effect and a non-bullshit risk to go with it (Pow! Hand Extension, Palkia Lv.X, Double Gust, etc). Right now, the only good field control card we had got nerfed and the only playable sniping card I can think of is G-Scope which doesn't even do enough damage to KO the current bench sitters.
As far as the first turn rule goes, it makes every deck worse than it could be with Tropical Beach. Even decks like Darkrai will eventually have to go first in a game and your turn is pretty much dead without Tropical Beach. This could be easily fixed by printing more cards with decent effects and a turn-ending drawback à la Tropical Beach, in any form, Trainer, Energy or Ability. Think Call Energy for example.
