TCG Thinkpiece: Hate Cards

The EX format is some of the most fun Pokémon I’ve ever played. The sheer number of viable decks can be overwhelming at first, but you learn very quickly the ins and outs of the format. And as with any format, there are always a crop of decks that rise to the top. In a format where decks can break the game wide open by harnessing the abilities of different Poke-Powers to attach additional energy cards and search for individual cards in the deck, the variety of boardstates is astounding. But with powerful cards comes ways to keep them in check. Commonly dubbed "hate cards", there are a multitude of cards in the EX format that restrict the abilities of others, like Battle Frontier, Cursed Stone, Desert Ruins, Crystal Beach, and Cessation Crystal, among others. But there is a dichotomy of how these hate cards restrict the traits of others: this is through prohibition, or cost.

Cessation Crystal completely shuts down entire decks just by being attached to a Pokémon.

Hate cards that prohibit certain abilities from activating are definitive in their wording and offer no alternatives for the opposing player to work around. Cessation Crystal, a Pokémon Tool from EX Crystal Guardians, is a prime example of one of these cards. It has a broad range of effect, prohibiting the use of Poke-Powers and Poke-Bodies from either player's Pokémon as long as the Pokémon with the tool attached is in the active spot. If the opposing player can't remove the Pokémon with Cessation Crystal attached from the active spot or get rid of the tool entirely, then that player is forced to play with a gimped version of their deck with no other way around it.

Shiftry poses a problem to Poke-Power heavy decks, but can still be worked around.

Hate cards that have a cost element to their functionality offer counterplay opportunities that prohibition cards don't. Shiftry ex from the EX Legend Maker set has a similar ability to Cessation Crystal, but with a twist. While Shiftry ex is on the field, the opponent can still use Poke-Powers on their Pokémon, but at the cost of placing 2 damage counters on that Pokémon whenever that Poke-Power is used. This gives the opponent a choice of whether or not they should use a Poke-Power during their turn, instead of not giving them an option at all. By introducing this element of choice, the game becomes much more dynamic. And being that Shiftry-ex is a stage 2 Pokémon, it requires much more effort to put into play compared to a Pokémon Tool. Hate cards with a cost element can be punishing to decks when the penalty is severe enough, but other times the penalty can be so negligible that it leads to the card seeing little-to-no play. This was the case with Umbreon δ DS, where even though special energy like Metal, Darkness, and Scramble energy were incredibly popular during its time, the drawback of placing only a single damage counter on the Pokemon getting the energy attached hardly even mattered.

Umbreon δ DS's Poke-Body Delta Moon was too underpowered to meaningfully impact the format.

Pidgeot δ's Poke-Body Delta Reserve only restricts certain Poke-Powers and requires more effort to activate than Cessation Crystal's requirements.

This isn't to say that prohibition-based abilities are inherently poorly designed, however. Only when an ability has such a vast range of effect for little resource investment is when the card becomes overcentralizing. Pidgeot δ HP's Poke-Body functions as a weaker version of Cessation Crystal in terms of prohibiting the use of Poke-Powers. If Pidgeot δ has a Holon Energy card attached to it, then all Poke-Powers on both sides of the field are blocked, except for δ Pokémon. Also, like Shiftry, Pidgeot δ is a stage 2 Pokémon, so the process to activating its ability is more arduous. It also narrows the variety of decks that are able to utilize the card, contributing to its niche playability. These limitations ensure that the card doesn't pervade the format while still maintaining relevance in certain metas. This concept was revisited albeit with looser requirements in later years primarily with Garbodor DEX and BKP, both of which saw widespread play during their respective eras (As an added note, Garbodor functions essentially as a reprint of the very first hate card, Muk from the Fossil set back in 1999, whose Pokémon Power turned off all Pokémon Powers besides its own).

Garbodor was much more splashable in decks because of its low investment cost, leading to its inclusion in numerous top decks such as Robin Schulz's 2018 Worlds-winning Zoroark-GX deck.

Similarities between older formats and modern formats continue in the form of "Safeguard" Pokémon and other hate cards for multi-prize Pokémon. Shortly after 2-prize Pokémon-ex were introduced in 2003, EX Sandstorm introduced Wobbuffet, which had the Poke-Body Safeguard, protecting it against all damage and effects of attacks from Pokémon-ex. This Poke-Body's effect of completely shielding a Pokémon from other classifications of cards would come to be replicated numerous times in future sets to accommodate new card types like Pokémon-EX, LV X, GX, etc. A soft counter to Pokémon-ex introduced in EX Hidden Legends was the stadium card Desert Ruins, with its effect being that in between turns, each player must place a damage counter on each of their Pokémon-ex with a maximum HP of at least 100 (For example, since Jirachi-ex has a maximum HP of 90, it would not be affected by Desert Ruins). This card helped single-prize decks compete with powerful Pokémon-ex by penalizing them each turn, but not restricting what they were allowed to do. This effectively puts players who use Pokémon-ex on a clock, forcing them to end the game soon before their Pokémon-ex are gradually knocked out. As opposed to the binary counter of Wobbuffet, this gives Pokémon-ex players a fair chance of defeating the opponent's Pokémon while still being penalized. Desert Ruins was reprinted in spirit only twice, once in 2016's Ancient Origins set with Faded Town, putting 2 damage counters on Mega Evolution Pokémon in between turns, and again in 2018's Celestial Storm set with Shrine of Punishment, putting 1 damage counter on Pokémon EX and GX in between turns. In comparison to the dozens of Safeguard Pokémon and those with similar effects, the gradual HP-chipping effect of Desert Ruins has been printed far less often.

Desert Ruins put single-prize Pokémon on a more even playing field with Pokémon-ex, while Wobbuffet locked them out of the game entirely.

Moving away from the EX era for a second, a unique hate card that has a condition that has a condition that I think should be revisited is No Removal Gym from the Gym Heroes set. This card was printed to specifically counter two of the most popular cards in the Base-on format, Energy Removal and Super Energy Removal, without banning them outright. This stadium forces a player who wants to use one of these two cards to discard two additional cards from their hand in order to use the card's effect, making them much more resource intensive. This remains to date the only card to specifically address the dominance of another card and attempt to counter it. With today's Standard and Expanded formats, instead of banning certain cards if they become too strong or unhealthy for the game, maybe more cards like No Removal Gym could be printed to dissuade usage of problem cards and restore balance to the meta.

No Removal Gym was unique in the sense that it was the first "cost card", where the opponent was forced to pay a cost in order to use a resource.

Hate cards in the Pokémon TCG have taken several different forms according to the metagame at the time and acknowledging the relative strength of cards and archetypes within the format. The TCG has proven that cards that curb the abilities of others with a degree of nuance can be popular with players and find competitive success, so hate cards shouldn't be limited to binary "can or can't" restrictions. Hopefully TPCI releases more cards that help diversify gamestates and limit cards that directly counter others.