So the current storyline is indeed taken straight from my life. My son attended his very first Pokemon League night on Tuesday. I played the game very seriously a few years ago but have not touched it recently. My son went in with a deck cobbled together from some of my old cards. It was comprised mostly of pokemon he really liked but had no synergies to speak of. I helped him a bit just making sure he had enough energy and talking to him about how many of each stage in an evolution you should have. He got to the league event and ended up losing all five of his games. Some of them after only a few turns.
I’m incredibly proud of him though. For one thing he kept playing which I can’t immagine was easy. Also he asked if we could practice before he goes back next week. The fact that he wants to go back makes me extremely happy and you can bet we’ll practice. The problem though was more than his inexperience with the game. It was also the fact that the meta for Pokemon appears to have changed drastically since I played.
When I was playing the game decks were built around powerful evolutions. The level X cards appeared on the scene just as I was getting out of the game. All the decks I saw at this event seemed to be built on EX cards. These cards come out quick because they require no evolution to set up and they hit like a ton of bricks. I recognize that it is a poor craftsman who blames his tools but in this case I really feel like we took a knife to a gunfight.
So today’s comic isn’t too far off the mark. I didn’t buy all new cards from eBay but I did make a few strategic purchases from CoolStuff Inc. I’m not going to build his deck for him and we’re going to focus on his favorite Pokemon (Emboar) but this weekend we will need to talk about some things. I can't teach him how to hit a baseball but I can sure as shit teach him about synergies, draw engines and probability.
-Gabe out
