A fairly popular article on my site last year was the "2009's Top Ten Most Signifcant Events" series, where I discussed ten major moments in the Pokemon TCG community.
Now that 2010 has been a thing of the past for three weeks, and now that we have /blog, I think that it's time to offer up a sequel to that segment…On the perfect platform!
In formulating this list, the main problem I had was that we didn't really have much in the way of new developments? What we did have, however, could be summarized in three words:
Evolution; lack; and stagnation.
What came about last year (HeyTrainer, Sixprizes, youtube videos) has built on its foundation; evolution.
Much of what we needed or wanted, we don't have; lack.
And some things have just stayed the same; they've remained stagnant.
So without further ado, I bring you…Numbers 10 and 9 of "The Top Ten of '10."
#10: The Undefeated Worlds Victory of Yuta Komatsuda
(An undefeated win is all well and good, but…Why on Earth is he using those horrid Garchomp sleeves?)
Why it Mattered: In order to understand how important this victory is, let’s look at the past nationalities of each Worlds winner in the Masters division…
2004: Japanese
2005: American
2006: American
2007: Finnish
2008: American
2009: American
2010: Japanese
What happened the last time a Japanese player won Worlds? Simple: due to the lack of contact between Japanese and non-Japanese players, champ Tsuguyoshi Yamato – and his country – achieved
a status of unrivaled mystique. However, thanks in large part to American dominance, Japan’s momentum and relevance to the competitive field have eroded…Until now, that is.
Not since then has there been so much curiosity and interest in the decks that Japanese play, the formats they use, and all other pieces of information that are, for 362.25 days of the year, less relevant to us than information on our “own” metagames and communities.
Now, let’s consider the records of World Champions…
2004: 12-0
2005: 11-2
2006: 11-2
2007: 8-2
2008: 10-2
2009: 10-2
2010: 12-0
While almost no one would contest the validity and value of a Worlds win, nearly everyone would agree that it usually takes some record blemishes to get that title. So when someone emerges victorious from the world’s toughest event with NO losses, the community better take notice.
So what was interesting about Yuta’s list? Here are a couple of the points I raised in my very first /blog article:
*The playing of Professor Oak’s New Theory
*No Call
*1-1 Dialga G LV.X
None of these were common in lists before Yuta’s win, but after the fact, we’ve seen a huge change in the way that SP lists look. Since SP is at the forefront of the 2010-2011 metagame right now, anything that radically affects SP cannot be ignored.
For these two reasons, Yuta’s undefeated win was major in 2010, as well as vital in setting the stage for 2011.
#9: Metagame Stagnation
(Remember us?)
Why it mattered: Due to the expanded card pool, many of the decks that have been good for season after season…Are still good.
What does this mean for newer cards? Simple: they’re not as good! It sure does suck when literally every new deck is held to the “does it beat Luxchomp, Gyarados, and Vilegar?” standard…Every one of them! As a result, whole sets – sans their new Trainer and Supporter cards – become lost. Even worse, that blasphemous triumvirate of Pokemon archetypes has been at the top of the field since States 2010! While that may be troubling in some ways, the deeper implications of the new Modified format are that people can actually leave the game for prolonged periods of time, come back, and still have some reasonable hope for success at events. Whether such an advantage outweighs the disadvantages is up to you, but both are crucial to keep in mind.
(Once rogue; now vogue)
The only things that kill top decks these days are format rotation, and power inflation. I’m afraid that Pokemon Card Laboratory is moving too slowly in the former, and too quickly in the latter. For these troubling reasons, I made this #9 on my list of major events.
(I’ve been eating little childrens’ brains since 2008. That isn’t too long, is it?)