The History of Pokemon TCG Power Creep

[@literallygrass1328]

Better idea. Just get better noob

[@pokeinator7834]

Shame pin lol

[@Isipro06]

Gigachad

[@testsubject7881]

@@pokeinator7834 W pin wym?

[@pokeinator7834]

@@testsubject7881 I didn’t get the joke at the time, I thought he was a cringe dumbass

[@cobaingrohlnovo]

gottem

[@CambriaBold]

Team Rocket's Dark Pokemon generally had attacks with strong effects and/or relatively low energy cost. Many of them also had Pokemon Powers, which up to that point had been relatively rare across the previous three sets. It was a unique little time in the game's history where they opted to try and make more offensively-inclined cards that were balanced around being frail. I kinda miss that, honestly.

[@Samsungor]

Idk i recall dark pokemon being harder to use in general when playing the pokemon GB2 game. There were a few gems but most of the time I'd just rather use the originals over the light/ dark versions.

[@TheLaGangjShow]

@@Samsungor There are exceptions but both Dark Kadabra & Base Kadabra we’re both pretty good. Base Kadabra had 50 power attack and second attack to heal while Dark Kadabra had an ability to allow you discard and draw 1 card & hit any Pokémon for 30 damage with no weakness or resistance.

[@crait]

They were not balanced... They were rarely used, competitively-speaking.

[@TheLaGangjShow]

@@crait Being able to Bill (Draw 2 Cards) & Oak (Discard your Hand & Draw 7) as many times as you want per turn kind of makes Dark Kadabra’s Ability to discard/draw not to good but modern day Pokemon, it could be tech. But who needs Kadabra when you have Hitmonchan, Electabuzz, Scyther, & Promo Mewtwo running around 🤣

[@fulgenzio89]

Dark Alakazam had the same HP of Jungle Nidoran F (60). I’ve always found this hilarious

[@anonymone453]

5:07 Oh damn, looks like Terastalize is a returning mechanic after all

[@PkmnMstr10]

Terastal Pokémon are actually more similar to the Delta Species mechanic than the Crystal Type ability you earmarked.

[@redwings13400]

The hp stat is the easily noticeable change, but the thing that bothers me more is the energy cost to respective damage output of attacks that have changed over time. Like, the early wailords with insane hp had pretty severe drawbacks, but 13:39 is a really good example of how the game truly underwent power creep. Charizard originally had 120 hp, a move that dealt 100 damage for four fire energies, with the drawback of discarding two fire energies from itself on use. This was never a particularly good pokemon even in the original format, it was devastating but super expensive. Compare it to that emboar card, and we're seeing Emboar have a cheaper attack (2 colorless energies instead of fire) with no drawbacks that lets it deal 80 damage, with 30 more health. Then, compare that to the other emboar you put on screen, which makes the first emboar obsolete. Heat Blast is an even cheaper attack (only one of the energies needs to be fire) that deals twice as much damage with no drawbacks, and it has even more health. As someone who has a lot of original cards, I want to combine my old cards with some various new cards in order to just play casually with myself or my friends/cousin, but that's kinda just... not going to work. All of my cards are just blatantly worse than the cards that came afterwards, with the lone exception of Mr Mime, which is pretty broken since nothing does 20 or less damage anymore. Its an unfortunate state of events, but the power creep has essentially made me not interested in the tcg anymore, since all the collecting I did as a kid feels functionally useless in the new world.

[@tyrantkuwaga]

yeah your right

[@SoftwareAgentsTV]

Really constructive analysis!

[@allanrosa]

I feel exactly like this. I've played competitively from 2014 to 2016, and when I realized Sword and Shield were going ham, my passion for the game was gone twice as fast. I still keep all my cards from those days so I have a quite big collection, capable of making a lot of the most important decks back then. It's fun since most decks from that era can be adjusted to be competitive with each other, allowing me to have fun with some simple restrictions when deckbuilding.

[@tankthomus]

I completely agree. The power creep really doesn’t affect the competitive scene much because they just cycle the old cards out anyways. The main losers are the casual fans who have older cards that get completely countered by newer cards in every aspect. I love collecting the older 1st and 2nd gen cards but sadly when I make my decks I can’t use a single one because they have terribly low stats.

[@cellofellow5115]

Exactly how I feel. My I don't collect new cards, but my siblings do. Our battles turned from a fair fight to a complete wash because my cards have simply become absolete.

[@NOLOAF-AR]

12:50 There is actually one exception to this rule, being the 2010 World Championship format. In 09, a decision was made not to have a yearly rotation, which lead to the 2010 World Championships being Diamond and Pearl Base to HGSS Unleashed - almost four years worth of legal sets. This was the largest card pool a standard format had ever seen, and is one of the many reasons 2010 is regarded as one of the best standard formats of all time. Goes to show that there isn't a need to rotation every year.

[@YukeWeiss]

A golden era. That was when I played and I used the Arceus set Wormadam's and did alright. B&W coming out totally changed the game and I never really got that into it after it.

[@iamspikefire]

They should do this again sometime imo

[@sangan3202]

everyone knows the actual reason is because they wanna sell the new sets at the expense of the players

[@jamiecreighton4127]

@@iamspikefire idk, expanded seems to be a dumpster fire and has been since after XY. during XY even abit into Sun/Moon expanded was alot of fun, but towards the end of gen 7 everything started to go downhill imo. it was just too much power creep to allow older cards to run how they did during the XY era of BW onward

[@PkmnMstr10]

Funny you say that, because I thought the game started to see increased popularity when Black & White began, and the Diamond & Pearl era was a lull.

[@ascraeusorange9157]

YO this is INCREDIBLE, the editing is amazing especially for your first time holy shit

[@ThePKMNTrainerAndrew]

How does this not have more views? I used to play semi competitive in the pokemon tcg. Power creep in special cards is a huge problem. Its why I stopped playing.

[@DeltaSeeker]

Same here. That gap in power and the small percentage of competitively viable cards really kills my motivation to play. And pre-releases are just the worst. If you don't pull a multi-prize GX or V, you're most likely screwed.

[@itsgonnabeanaurfromme]

Probably because not a lot of people today used to play competitive tcg

[@josephblattert6311]

The other side of the coin that you're not seeing is people like me, who just started playing the TCG less than two years ago. To me, those old cards look incredibly boring and slow to play with. Not that either of us is right or wrong, I think it really just comes down to what you're used to

[@aeneas6377]

I played this game for a while and I can see why people consider DPP the "end" of it. The game just sped up so much that was impossible to play it without having a job to pay for the cards and I was really surprised by that, since it was meant for kids. I tried to return to it last year, just before the pandemic, but I just wasn't having fun, even when playing with the best decks available. I personally think that card game creators should keep the speed of the game in check, since when it goes too fast, it becomes significantly less fun and way more expensive. I have the same problem with Yu-Gi-Oh for example, ever since late pendulums, the decks became so consistent that the objective switched from attacking for 8000+ damage, to just prevent your opponent from actually playing the game, so I quit. Loved the video man, keep it up

[@NOLOAF-AR]

While I agree that the Ruby & Sapphire & Diamond & Pearl eras were the “Golden Age” of the Pokémon TCG, I would disagree that later sets were any less “accessible” than the game was back then. Without disposable income, you were simply never going to be able to build the types of lists best suited to win tournaments. The Pokémon TCG nowadays is the most accessible the game has ever been. Tier one decks can be built for under $80 due to products such as the Trainer Tool Kit, and various league battle decks. Back then, there was nothing of the sorts. You weren’t building Luxchomp back in the day for less than $175, with Luxray GL Lv. X being priced at $100+ for one single alone. There is no staple nowadays (ignoring Full Art or Secret Rare Versions of Cards) that is worth remotely close to as much.

[@TrianglePants]

Alt formats and free sims are the saviors of these poorly-run games.

[@Lilacs4]

I used to play yugioh but quit for similar reasons, I've played Pokémon since childhood with years long breaks, but what brought me back and kept me going is sealed leagues. I highly recommend it as it's very fun and low cost. My local game shop hosted it, we all bought a $12 starter deck and went to town. Each week we bought one $4 pack to modify our deck, and each week if you got 10 wins you'd get a free pack. I don't remember how many weeks it went but in the end 1st 2nd 3rd won great prizes, lots of packs and a few cool merch items, and everyone felt very satisfied because we all started from a level playing field and the best strategists were rewarded with more cards resulting in better decks by the end.

[@TheGuzeinbuick]

Yu-Gi-Oh got so freaking ridiculous. Synchros were fine enough I guess but XYZ Summons were already pushing it. By the time Pendulums came around I was like hell naaaah. Now there's Link Summons and shit. Psssh.

[@ayngrand3212]

@@TheGuzeinbuick We have 2023 and some people are still complaining about Xyz smh. Go with the times, old man.

[@Kirbita22]

!!!!! This is the exact kind of content I was looking for tbh- I could watch this type of well-researched, scripted and edited informative video on just about anything, but I was specifically looking for a channel that had this sort of content on Pokemon TCG. Subscribed instantly, incredibly surprised that it's your first video??? Really looking forward to anything you do next!

[@xuanathan]

I absolutely loved the ORAS era of the tcg My deck revolved around using a stage 1 medicham with only 90 hp, but it had a unique effect where it could attack twice in 1 turn. This was balanced out by its attack being only 30 power, but I'd attach 2 strong energies, set up machamps on my bench which passively increased fighting types' power by 20, and attached muscleband to be able to just fire off multiple powerful attacks per turn. The metagame revolved around a 180 hp EX card, Seismitoad. This thing's meta defining attack, Quaking punch only did 30 damage, but it changed the way you built your deck. It prevented any item use from your opponent, while dealing chip damage that would add quickly. Before seismitoad, you'd make use of lots of items to utilise various effects, discard special energies, search your deck for mons, lure out benched pokemon, etc but after Seismitoad, you'd have to rely mainly on supporters. Tbh the new power creep just makes me sad, as much as I hated Seismitoad back in the day, new powerful cards just win based on having 1 billion million power and hp, even stage 2s have gotten less and less interesting. I don't think there will be another Seismitoad, and there will definitely never be another Medicham. Moving countries made it very hard to keep playing, but more than anything else the metagame shifted away from everything that made me enjoy playing it. Even if back then I would have called you crazy if you said I'd miss the days of Seismitoad.

[@lucasferreira9487]

The problem with Seismitoad is that it was very disruptive and caused non games for the opponent. But besides that, i think that relying on OHKO stagnates the game and make it seems more like having the rarest card available in your deck.

[@roguedeathangel]

I used basically the EXACT same deck. Korrina for Candy+Machamp was such a powerful combo.

[@xuanathan]

@@roguedeathangel Korrina was and still is my favourite card, it was just so convenient to have, and yeah the synergy with Candy/Machamp was so strong

[@TheGloriousLobsterEmperor]

This is one of those videos that I desperately wish was longer. It's so enthralling.

[@tanzolo4487]

Basically In terms of raw power the first Charizard was the strongest, with 120 hp and 100 damage. The latest set is called “151”. The charizard in that has 330 hp and 330 damage. That about sums up the entire video

[@Asdayasman]

100 damage every two turns at the fastest with double colourless and the pokemon power. It actually sucked ass. Blastoise was so much better it was crazy.

[@ich3730]

The base set charizard was one of the worst cards of the set, what are you talking about

[@coolhandluke1503]

You missed the point​@@Asdayasman

[@mac_sour]

​@@coolhandluke1503 no, the OP had a bad take and got flamed for it. the point can still be made while also being wrong, no one is arguing power creep doesn't exist buddy

[@Asdayasman]

@coolhandluke1503 then explain it.

[@four-en-tee]

If this guy made an analysis on Yugioh powercreep, we'd be here for hours, lmao

[@UnboltedList956]

Fiendsmith Snake-Eyes sitting in the corner. About that....

[@KingChiggy]

It's funny how now over a year later and they are kinda going backwards. The Pokemon VStar cards and kinda like GX instead of V and especially with the sets released recently a lot of single prize decks are coming out that are being able to compete with the VMax and VStar decks. It almost feels like they are trying to slow down the meta before the next series begins with Scarlet and Violet

[@cyberdragonzekrom6790]

Now that we've seen the new Scarlet & Violet cards, it doesn't really seem that way. Basic New-ex's are similar to V's, Stage 1 New-ex's are similar to VSTARs, and Stage 2 New-ex's are similar to VMAXes - all both in HP and damage. Of course, now there is the inherent risk in Stage 1 & 2 New-ex's of having a single-prize Pokemon sitting on your Bench, waiting to evolve, being a sitting duck for Gusting or spread damage, so maybe that will disincentivize those cards and the format will settle on Basic New-ex's alongside VSTARs.

[@thebearnado4256]

Coming back to the game after playing as a kid, it was wild seeing how the game had pivoted to pumping up the chase cards. Both in terms of stats, and just the general number of "shiny reverse holo gold pikachu" cards. Special cards are probably the way they keep powercreep pushing, especially since timmy and his group of friends who just play with eachother wont really notice until someone opens one.

[@inazumatan7050]

That doesn’t have anything to do with the power level of the game. On the contrary, those super special shiny cards are the reasons the game is so cheap and accessible (relative to any other TCG). People chasing after those cards keeps the perfectly playable less shiny versions in circulation.

[@sasir2013]

I would speak more about the attacks than the hp, since the biggest problem in the pokemon tcg is usually the one hit kos and broken effects for example, in 12:40 the last two exeggutors could OHKO the first ones with the same energy cost, and they're not even special cards and when you die in one hit, creating a strategy to work around the power difference becomes way harder, since you usually have to sacrifice pokemons just to charge one in the bench, giving your opponent around 3 extra cards just to connect one attack

[@DeltaSeeker]

Definitely true. I think HP and effect power go hand-in-hand for the most part, so it's kinda hard to determine which is contributing more to the power creep. The modern era has definitely been more focused on OHKOs though, which has increased the speed of the game, if nothing else. Unfortunately, I don't know much more about the competitive scenes than I put in the video, so there's probably other trends like this that I'm missing.

[@nathanboyer2939]

I always liked Pokemon better than Yu-Gi-Oh in the early days because there was an option to whittle down monster health. With Pokemon now also being focused on OHKOs and complicated effects, it has lost a lot of appeal to me.

[@dissraps]

@@nathanboyer2939 but that was still never the focus, there's literally 0 benefit to whittling life vs one hit. Its actually massively disadvantageous, while it takes you 5 turns to knock out that one card the one on the bench that can OHKO is fully ready to come destroy everything. You constantly want to destroy pokemon as fast as possible

[@gtdfg4594]

​@@dissrapsI think he meant that yeah, the goal is always to one-hit KO, but it was generally much harder to achieve with the lower power level the cards had. I don't know the exact thresholds, but if you need like 2 plus powers to KO a Pokémon back at Haymaker format, that is at least 4 cards of effort to KO (basic mon + energy + 2 plus power). Nowadays, a deck easily accelerates energy into the 'mons, puts out most of the mons needed from the deck quickly and the attack values are much, much higher. I remember that at Pikarom and Reshizard and specially ADP formats, not one hit-KOing was literally unviable. I tried (and still do) playing Ultra Necrozma with Malamar support and got easily beaten by my friend, because I often need two turns of preparation to have Necrozma deal about 200-240 damage, and he needed 2 turns to set his entire field and be able to easily accelerate energy, deal a shitton of damage and/or permanently deal 30 more damage to my mons.

[@hayden9431]

Where are you subscribers man??? Under 1k makes no sense to me, the quality of your videos is deserving of so much more! Hoping you get the eyes you so very much deserve!

[@carsonportis8416]

Video was great! I just started getting into TCG online at the peak of sun and moon with tag teams. I found that it was extremely difficult to get into the game at first due to tag teams specifically because of their insane power and the fact that they were basic and could be played immediately

[@matthewkuscienko4616]

The funny thing about tag team Pokemon, looking back on them now, is that while the strongest ones were undoubtedly some of the best cards in the game for the reasons mentioned (namely being basic Pokemon, which let you play them right away), there were also a fair number of tag teams that were underwhelming, with some being just plain bad. I feel that the reason why tag teams are remembered as being as strong as they were was because at their best, they were far and away some of the best cards in the game, but truthfully, a lot of them fell out of favor as time went by for one reason or another

[@dissraps]

Why would that make it hard to get into the game?

[@cvangemon1307]

@@dissraps Price.

[@apokelink]

How in the world did you do such a great job on your first video, it was really well paced and very informative, I loved it.

[@TehFoamy]

I was kinda hoping that the video would also go in depth about the gradual changes to attack damage, energy costs, additional effects, Abilities, etc., while also talking about the rebalancing of Trainer cards Not to mention all the special energy cards

[@TrashWorld]

Great video. Felt like I was listening to a veteran youtuber only to hear it's your first video at the end. Keep it up! Also props to the KZbin algorithm for having someone's first video on my recommendation tab

[@dovesr0478]

I think its very interesting how both Pokemon and Yugioh have experienced a similar type of power creep in favor of faster paced games. Pokemon shifted majorly towards EX cards and their variants, essentially removing the need to evolve from the game. Yugioh did the same when it transitioned away from traditional trap cards into hand traps. For Yugioh I get it, there needed to be a way to prevent the player who goes first from setting up an unbeatable board on turn 1. For Pokemon I really feel like EX cards are against the spirit of the game and are there specifically to power creep the game.

[@random135246]

late - but having played both modern games pokemon is NOWHERE near as bad as yugioh. Modern yugioh is barely held together with the way the mechanics are pushed to the power creep extreme.

[@ChrisThorne19]

@@random135246Especially when you look at the PC applications. Master Duel makes it incredibly hard to save up for packs. My friends can never build a deck good enough to push past gold, because by the time they've managed to build it there's about 4 days left of the month which means a new banlist pops up and you have to create another new deck...for the next 4 weeks. I would play 2-5 hours a day and had no issues with building op decks, one month I even went to one of my really old decks to play a friend and beat him in one turn lol. But TCG Live is much easier to unlock packs, idk if they still have them codes like TCGO had, I loved that about buying physical cards.

[@snark567]

Yugioh is on another level of power creep.

[@GAMEFAN27]

Coming over to pokemon from yugioh and I have to say the power creep isnt nearly as bad as yugioh And is way less noticeable to an outsider looking at old vs new cards.

[@xPandamon]

Nah, Yugioh isn't nearly as bad. So many old cards are still old and playable, be it as support for newer decks or even as proper decks. Stuff like Exodia or Blackwings are still a thing, but with Pokémon, basically all old cards are unplayable with very few exceptions

[@DrewskiTheLegend]

@@xPandamon if you are playing casual maybe. I assume so, because Exodia has never really been a successful competitive strategy in the TCG, Jarel Winston trolling Worlds with it in 2012 aside (worlds is a wild format and the deck was more of a Hail Mary, so crazy it might work fringe strat) 2 decks released one year apart can have vastly different power levels due to sheer powercreep, as is often necessary in Yugioh. Occasionally an engine will use older cards, though this is not really a case where older cards are viable. I played some absolute monster decks back in the day that would be completely dominated by even rogue tier decks at this point in time. The game is fundamentally different from what it was back then. The game design philosophy itself is radically different, the power of the average card and what the cards do is irreconcilable with most older cards, designs, and archetypes. Classic super staples like Mirror Force and Book of Moon aren’t even playable anymore, having been replaced with strictly better alternatives, many of which are also obsolete. Heck, traps as a whole don’t even really see play anymore. I’m not as versed on Pokémon but I’ve played YGO MTG and Hearthstone for long enough to understand the competitive sides of those games, and I can say with fair certainty that the powercreep present in Yugioh is head and shoulders above any of the other mainstream TCGs, taking into consideration this video’s explanation of the Pokémon TCG’s powercreep as well.

[@emobassist]

To me Yu-Gi-Oh is worse Pokemon is still basically the same game as it's always been. Yu-Gi-Oh basically looks nothing like it used to when back during it's hey day

[@xPandamon]

@@DrewskiTheLegend Yes, Yu-Gi-Oh changed a lot, but that's exactly why I can't say it's powercrept that much, it just plays very differently now. But Pokémon stayed the same, and yet old cards are pretty much universally unusable

[@NaudVanDalen]

Have the attack and defense stats really changed that much since the beginning or maybe like 10%? In Pokemon TCG, attacks are like twice or thrice as strong.

[@un_miroir]

Just wanted to say the music selection was top-tier. Amazing video!

[@Lilacs4]

The power creep and money burning reality of what Pokémon tcg has turned into is devastating to the hobby. I've played Pokémon since childhood with years long breaks, but what brought me back and kept me going is sealed leagues. I highly recommend it as it's very fun and low cost. My local game shop hosted it, we all bought a $12 starter deck and went to town. Each week we bought one $4 pack to modify our deck, and each week if you got 10 wins you'd get a free pack. I don't remember how many weeks it went but in the end 1st 2nd 3rd won great prizes, lots of packs, some cool merch, and store credit. Everyone felt very satisfied because we all started from a level playing field and the best strategists were rewarded with more cards resulting in better decks by the end. My spouse and I do our own sealed league with each other, we buy elite trainer boxes on sale and save the packs, only opening one after x amount of wins. Also when we open packs, we do a "pack battle" which is like a simplified mini-battle, it makes opening the pack a much more exciting and rewarding experience than just ripping through the cards. By doing this we've been able to continue enjoying one of my treasured childhood hobbies without breaking the bank. I can't imagine ever doing standard format again.

[@Swampert00260]

The interesting thing is that a lot of trainer cards have actually gotten worse. Base set had Professor Oak, which wasn't a supporter and let you discard your hand and draw two. Imagine if those cards were legal with the current pokemon

[@Llalllall425]

This is awesome, great info and delivery

[@DeltaSeeker]

I really appreciate it! Glad you enjoyed

[@fluffer324]

just got this in my reccomended and loving it so far, the crystal type cards at 5:10 sure seem like inspiration for the future terra types in scarlet and violet.

[@juliawertz5282]

6:50 how DARE you drop in that Temporal Tower music out of nowhere, my heart and adrenaline levels can't take it

[@tysondennis1016]

I remember looking at fake Pokémon cards that had hilariously overblown stats. Now, those cards are being officially made by GameFreak.

[@barnoslat5632]

Old head exaggeration

[@NotTheWheel]

Firstly GREAT VIDEO! Secondly You have no idea how much I appreciate you listing sources and even providing a google doc for your findings. You have no idea how often people never share their collected data to look at for a video so thank you sooooooo much for doing that. Good stuff man. 💙

[@jammerbf4694]

This is such a good video, can’t believe it’s your first one, keep up the good work!

[@NitroNEXT]

Fascinating. My journey with the Pokémon tcg ended when Wizards lost the license so everything after is new to me.

[@Kmn483]

I stopped playing the TCG when diamond and pearl dropped. I had a TON of cards before that and now suddenly everything was much more powerful. Bought like two decks and realized there was no way I'd keep up with those cards. Wasn't fun using them against others that didn't have gen 4 decks either.

[@N3mdraz]

Just buy new cards?

[@Kmn483]

@@N3mdraz That would invalidate the several hundred dollars already spent on old cards. Without power inflation you can combine older cards with new ones to great effect. After D&P the new cards were so ridiculously strong you basically had to throw out your old collection and start new since they're non-comparable, which isn't fun.

[@RaitoVolt]

I was just hoping to find content like this, and you popped up!! Loved the video, keep it up man :)

[@danielespinoza8243]

Loved this video! There's nothing I appreciate more than consideration for beginners. I really liked the way you explained mechanics and divided up cards into different categories. I'm getting back into the tcg after a few years away, but this power creep problem is making it hard to stay excited about it. It's kind of overwhelming :(

[@Winlee620]

This is an important and insightful video about the discussion of power creep which haunts Pokemon TCG and any other competitive card game for that matter. I think it is important to recognise power creep as an issue that may plague the game's future and alienate its playerbase. However, I personally do want to add some more insight to the topic because I think this video still scratches the surface of the problem, and I think there could be more ways of context which would better give an understanding of how bad power creep is in PTCG. 1. While HP is one indicator for power creep and how bad it is, I think it should be made clear that this cannot fully show that power creep exists. For example, most of the single-prized pokemon that broke their respective HP records at the time (such as any of the Wailords with record-breaking HP) were barely ever played in any competitive level, because even if a Pokemon has high HP, their attacks are still very uncompetitive, sometimes even against previous series cards. The more accurate way to gauge power creep in terms of HP, in my opinion, is to include comparing the damage of attacks as time goes on. As HP values increase, attack powers also increase, which means that while similarly powered Pokemon of a single set will require a similar/identical amount of turns to kill or be killed by a single Pokemon, older Pokemon will have a disadvantage because it takes many more turns for them to kill newer ones, while they get killed in a shorter amount of time. This still shows that power creep in this respect is still very valid, but I just wanted to add this bit of context to show this more fairly. 2. I think the increasing use of special Pokemon cannot simply be explained by them being more powerful. Keep in mind that card synergy (e.g. with trainers, special energy, etc.) and the current meta (e.g. countering popular decks of their time) also make a huge difference to how much they are played. One example I can think of is the PTCG 2019-2020 Standard rotation, which is a rotation that has some of the worst Pokemon search in recent years. TL:DR for those who don't know, generally Pokemon could be searched easily by universal Pokemon search cards that can be played as much as you want during a turn (Item cards), but in this specific rotation, most universal Pokemon search rotated out with no replacement, so the majority of decks were forced to rely on limited Pokemon search items or once-per-turn supporters. This greatly disuaded the use evolving decks simply because it is much harder to get all the Pokemon you need if you need multiple Stage 1/2 Pokemon out at a time, and gave great favour to basic Pokemon, especially GXes which had cherish ball, an item card that searched for GXes (but only GXes) with no downsides. This is, in my opinion, a big part of the reason why Tag Team Pokemon dominated the format in said rotation, because the rotation gave great favour to these cards in terms of synergy that it made evolving single-prize decks much less competitive. In this light, it's rather a bit of a balance issue that extends beyond the scope of power creep. 3. Although Pokemon cards have seen fairly obvious power creep, trainer cards have actually been fairly balanced, or arguably have seen a reverse in power creep. If you look at the Expanded format (where you can play cards as old as from the Black & White era), you'll see that some staple trainers in the format are actually old cards, such as Ace Spec Computer Search or Battle Compressor (both from X&Y). Ace Spec Computer Search is actually a reprint of a base set card that was heavily nerfed (to the regular 4 max per deck to 1 per deck), and it got another nerfed reprint in the Sun & Moon era with Red's challenge, which is a Supporter you can play once per turn and disrupted your use of other supporter cards that would possibly be more important in the turn. Another example is Pokemon collector, which searched for 3 basic Pokemon and put them into your hand. It got nerfed to become Pokemon Fan Club (which nerfed the number from 3 to 2), Brigette (which limited the search to 1 EX or 3 non-EXes AND put them onto the Bench instead of your hand, which doesn't activate certain abilities), and Sonia (which is just Pokemon Fan Club but also let you search basic energy instead). I hope this gave a bit more context to the situation. To be clear, I still agree that power creep is rampant and is bad for the longevity of the game, but I think that it is also the idea of fair balancing that would mitigate this idea. Make special Pokemon weaker or single-prizes more powerful to compensate, or give more tools (trainers, special energy) that single-prize decks can use while special Pokemon users can't. I think that is another way to solve the problems of power imbalance of the game that may give more leverage to older/single-prize pokemon decks and make the game more interesting/longer lasting. Still, great video!

[@DeltaSeeker]

I chose to focus on what I did in the video because of the much deeper complexity that exists like you're describing. If I had the experience and willpower to research everything and make a two hour long EmpLemon-style history video on it all, I would, and it would be much better than this one, but I'm super out of my depth here and just wanted to attempt to make a video that I don't think existed before.

[@Winlee620]

@@DeltaSeeker Yeah I understand that. I still really appreciated the video because it’s an important topic to keep the game running strong. The power creep is so obvious now that meta shifts happen so quickly and it’s hard to catch up. I just thought I’d offer my two cents to the matter, that’s all. Thanks man!

[@dhuntertodd]

Watching this for the first time in 2013, just after Scarlet/Violet release and the return of ex. I played in 09-10 and remember when Lv. x made full evolution lines worth it, so the SwSh era of essentially stage 1 Vmax was exhausting. Very happy to see that the SV era will bring back the importance of evolution, even though most everyone will use rare candy to quickly get to stage 2. Love this analysis and really appreciate the content.

[@SFTaYZa]

Time traveller

[@TheMaskedHero]

I remember playing back in the day and now realize how much game theory of was lost on me as a kid. Now that I have a son who is getting into the game, looking at the power creep is rather daunting. Magic the gathering has power creep but it's interesting how cards from the original sets are actually more broken than things they would print today. And the power creeping is more of an Escher staircase where different elements of the game get better and worse over time as they existence Standard. That said, cards printed today would have blown my mind in 2003.

[@CavalloDiSpade]

Pokemon actually follows a similar progression to magic, in terms of the power creep being in the creatures specifically, but the early sets having some non-creature cards that are extremely powerful and wouldn't be printed again. For Pokemon this is cards like energy removal, Bill, Professor Oak, and Rocket's Sneak Attack.

[@oceansky6207]

Great video!!! Very informative and top notch production value. Congrats on the good job

[@Luxcy]

Great first video! Editing and script was on point, couldn't even tell this was your first time! Loved the pokemon batttle revolution music as background music!!!

[@darkjade7782]

Wasn’t able to tell this was your first video lol it was very well made

[@funnypenies4999]

ive been looking for a comprehensive and engaging video about the pokemon tcg for so long you're making some awesome content dude !!

[@EagleEric_VA]

I absolutely love your inclusion of the WI-FI Menu music from Mario Kart Wii, at the beginning of the video.

[@rune4543]

Really loved this video and i'm genuinely surprised it's your first!! Easily earned my sub :)

[@math3matica]

Was super surprised this was your first video! Great quality discussion, very informative!

[@pokker21]

I've just discovered your channel and it seem to be the best new one for me in a realy long time. This video was realy interesting and now it's the moment to watch all the others you've made. Thx for the amazing content and research :)))

[@kevinshekdar8634]

This video is crafted with a lot of care and passion. And it shows. Bravo! This video deserves millions of views!

[@aritzmartinezrodriguez1825]

I used to play Pokemon TCG since the original base set up to the gym sets (although I bought a pack here and there of the next few sets). I used to love it, it was fun and represented the video game well, evolving your Pokemon during the game to make them strong was cool and rewarding, you had to work for it. There use to be a back and forth of attacks, the turns and the game itself were fairly quick and the 6 prices was a nice objective representing the 6 Pokemon in a trainers team. I had played Pokemon TCG online a few time sin the past so I decided to check it again a week or so ago (even if I knew and experienced the power creep every time I came back I had fun). I am already over it. Man is it nuts and not fun... I had a better time playing the theme decks than playing standard. Evolution and how cool and rewarding felt getting to a super strong fase2 Pokemon is out for super OP basics of upwards of 200+ hp that maybe can evolve to a fase1 ultra OP thing with 300+ hp, 150+ attacks, and 1 or more abilities and upsides with a fuck ton of text not exactly easy to read readable written over multi colorful holo full art card. Pokemon that btw is totally online on turn3. That's freaking nuts. And receiving more prices for them doesn't balance at all their OPness while fucking up the concept of the 6 prices because 6 Pokemon on a team. The 2 things that I have noticed the most, have their roots in power creep and I think you didn't mention are that: -The opponent's turns feel incredibly long and boring. Back in the day the turns were on average quick and there was a lot of back and forth between players, so even if there is nothing to do during opponents turn it was fun and you stayed on the game. Now the timing of the game feels weird, the games seem quick since everything is so OP that it take way less turns than before to finish, but the turns themselves are way longer. With all the different abilities and mechanics players do a million things during their turn, so opponents turns drag a lot, making the game feel sooo boring when you are not the active player that I found myself disconnecting a lot from the game, reaching for my phone and such. I can't even imagine how boring it has to be irl where you have to actually search and shuffle the deck for real... -How much easier it is to just sweep a team spamming the same thing. The few attacks of that time that could 1 shot most pokemon tend to be in phase2 Pokemon, and even then they used to have drawbacks, like discarding energy, or recoil damage. So you normally couldn't spam it every turn or at least there was a cost to doing that. Now most of those strongest attacks are on basic Pokemon, cost less energy than ever and not only don't tend to have downsides, but more often than not they have upsides, like scaling over time. Making it easier than ever to sweep spamming. Of all the times I have came back to the game this is the first time that I consciously stop playing because I am not having fun.

[@Q-TebGamesNL]

I completely agree not even just the basic OP Pokémon are insane, but some cards like a Charizard (stage 2, not some special type of card) with an attack that only costs 2 energy, deals base 100 damage, and does 50(!) more damage for each Leon card in the discard pile (which is permanent) that's not all though, because the effect of the most common Leon card already increases your damage on that turn by 30!!

[@HighPriestFuneral]

"The opponent's turns feel incredibly long and boring. Back in the day the turns were on average quick and there was a lot of back and forth between players, so even if there is nothing to do during opponents turn it was fun and you stayed on the game. Now the timing of the game feels weird, the games seem quick since everything is so OP that it take way less turns than before to finish, but the turns themselves are way longer. With all the different abilities and mechanics players do a million things during their turn, so opponents turns drag a lot, making the game feel sooo boring when you are not the active player that I found myself disconnecting a lot from the game, reaching for my phone and such. I can't even imagine how boring it has to be irl where you have to actually search and shuffle the deck for real..." This in my opinion also ruined Yugioh.

[@georgeschmall9254]

@HighPriestFuneral yugioh, like any duel, is supposed to be over with as fast as possible.

[@HighPriestFuneral]

@@georgeschmall9254 ...Why? Where's the fun in that? Besides, it doesn't even really work that way, it just makes 10+ minute turns with a player going through half their deck to build a board.

[@dissraps]

That thing you played 25 years ago as a kid was more entertaining than the same thing made for kids now? Wow crazy who would have thought

[@LaVieDePierre]

I was already amazed by the quality of the video, and when you said that it was your first, I had to check to see if it was true ! Incredible quality man

[@JackPitmanNica]

I remember when they added those e-reader things to the cards... as a kid I didn't like them because it changed the definitive look of pokemon cards and I felt scammed

[@evanspaulding672]

Dude your channel is awesome and informative! Very well researched. I've been enjoying watching all your videos while sick in bed.

[@diggle6103]

i’m shocked this is your first video!! i was very impressed with it!!

[@Reginald_Ritmo]

Seeing the stat differences between base set cards and their XY retrains has to be one of the funniest examples of power creep in any game.

[@skelly1555]

There’s no way this was your first video. This was so well made!!

[@MelonSeedOfficial]

5:00 Type changing crystalized Pokémon? *Now where have I heard that before..?*

[@Archenoth]

Oh damn, I know I'm a bit late to the party but, this was your first video?? I honestly had no idea until you mentioned it, this is really well done! I really liked the Gen 5 era of the TCG, but that's mostly speaking from a bias of that's when I actually started paying any attention to it, like, at all. Though I definitely remember looking at some of the cards I had access to and vaguely remembering gen 1 Charizard and thinking "uh dayum, number go up huh"

[@mymarshlands]

your channel is sooo professional!! im in love! perfect editing, scripting and pace 👌can't wait for a video covering the lore of Holon!! me and some friends thought it would be really fun to make a fangame set in it

[@AnomalyAlter]

I just collected the cards To this end, the TCG never surpassed the Delta Species sets Truly peak Pokemon

[@NOLOAF-AR]

fastest subscribe of my life. hope u upload more, can’t wait for more content covering the intricacies of the pokémon tcg 😇

[@Max-tq5fs]

Never would have guessed that this is your first time making a video, excellent presentation all around!

[@spakwi]

5:05 , That sound almost exactly like Terastalising from gen 9!

[@Clarkv2]

That’s such a great video!! Can’t wait for the rest of your channel

[@Thatonepersonyouheard]

This is your first video!!!!! This looks like your been at it for years! I don't like the pokemon card game and don't want to get into it but you made the video interesting for even me. Great job

[@goatbackr380]

Your channel is highly underrated. keep making videos man

[@Whitepawprint]

Really good editing and music choices! Great video :)

[@calciferblack2409]

This was your first video? You did a great job. Also, you really took me back with that Pokémon Colosseum music.

[@brysonmcfaull1218]

Daaaamn first video ever? It's so solid!!!!

[@enathri6555]

Came into this with little interest in the topic, watched the whole way through, was really interesting and cool. Good video!

[@nixel1324]

5:05 hold on, that sounds familiar... I guess the gimmick from the gen 9 games isn't as original as I thought.

[@wizardwor511]

This is your first video? Excellent quality dude. Keep this up and you'll be huge.

[@grant2989]

This is amazing for your first KZbin video, well done bro

[@DarkBearDojo]

My issue with power creep is the synergy between trainers/supporters/abilities that make these big Pokémon Vmax and tag teams so absurd. Don’t get me wrong, it’s good to have decks with combos and synergy, but the pendulum has definitely swung too far in one direction. I don’t think Pokémon having more health or bigger attacks is the biggest problem for competitive and newer players since they’re most often buying the latest sets. It does push out legacy players and those who can’t afford (or even find the new sets today).

[@gabekillian2761]

I personally think Pokemon needs more formats like MTG. Like only pre EX sets, or EX to DPP, stuff like that. Even Legacy is still pretty proken

[@GreenLeafUponTheSky]

@@gabekillian2761 what about ones for each era? I started with Black and White in 2011-2012, then stopped playing and collecting until now.

[@RyuPhrog]

Crazy that this was your first video amazing job

[@otmar3840]

Just got recommended this by the algorithm. Glad I did. Hope there's a part 2 any time

[@kevinorissa2802]

Nice video, showcase and editing. I really liked it. The problem is though, this video mostly only focuses on the hp value. There are many many other things to consider like basic things like abilities, trainers, items, attack values but even more complex things like tempo, value and the different strategies. I was really hoping for a wider topic and more in-depth about the various metas, like triple the length when you talked about the "ex" from 2004 vs 2006+ onward. That would be a perfect analysis for me. Just my taste though. I can guess and understand why you picked the hp value, it's a nice silver lining to show the general powercreep. Still good video, thanks.

[@muttnick]

This is your first video???? Excellent work

[@JO-iv7tl]

The best understanding of a metagames power creep is to know the two hit ko numbers meant to achieve. For example that would be 60 damage in base set. That would now be 160 damage. There are variables and circumstances but this is the most consistent evaluation of power creep I use.

[@FranTRf]

You got me at "power creep" and "pokemon tcg", something i've been dreading for years.

[@TaggedByTim]

I'm just thoroughly impressed at how well this video goes into detail about power creep without mentioning MTG.

[@ThePinnokio]

first video??? really strong, looking forward to more of your things

[@kalebcasas5795]

Thank you for making this video I was just reminiscing About pokemon cards and the power creep. That happened with a friend recently, so this video was great to watch.

[@RoosterLewis]

Pretty damn sweet video for a KZbin debut. Good job

[@jonahcoffman3078]

As much as the future of this game looks bleak I do appreciate the history and design put into these cards. The mechanics mixed with the nostalgic art makes me love the game and appreciate being able to watch it grow over the years.

[@wusstunes]

I haven't played in 10 years really, but what I noticed when I did was that not only did hp go up, but also the value of energy cards. Even by Ruby and sapphire you could expect to do a lot more damage off of a single energy than in the previous sets.

[@vongolajames]

This is so well made. Just as the top comment said, this is exactly what I was looking for and unable to find! Great work and thank you. 😊😊😊 Good luck with future videos, can’t wait to see!

[@AURAxSTAR]

this was such a well made video, especially for a first ever video :o looking forward to more!

[@L0calLEGEND]

I can tell that Emplemon was a inspiration for your choice of music in your vids.

[@ValenteXD]

I remember joining up the scene during crimson invasion and it was a lot of fun, then I gave up as soon as they revealed tag team GX, honestly I think I quit at the right time and hope that gen 9 turns out more balanced so I can come back

[@MLESoup]

This is such a great video - well researched and presented! I love the Pokemon TCG and hearing people talk about it. :) I've been collecting since the beginning, but got into playing a bit around the launch of Next Destinies. My biggest gripe is that the game is so expensive to keep up with. Cards go in and out of rotation, and the special cards, while cool to look at, can be such a pain to get.

[@GreenLeafUponTheSky]

honestly, about 3-4 new expansions a year, wtf

[@Colesc]

Would love to see lots more TCG content like this! Subscribed :)

[@vestofholding]

This data is fantastic! And kudos for posting your data in the description.

[@brandao.rafael]

Very good video. I started and stopped playing Pokemon TCG in the first era but I bought an HG/SS Deck to play with my younger brother and I was amazed how much more powerful the pokemons were. This videos sumirizes this very nicely. I think you could have talked more about how you are calculating the points for each set and maybe do some more numerical comparisons besides this major number. Great video nonetheless

[@noobdadgaming3302]

wow this was your 1st video? it was good! i watch till the end. Great job.. Subscribing..

[@polvocorrupto]

Card typing was also another form of powercreep. Introducing Fairy-type cards gave an initial balance creep, as Steel-type cards were less common than other card types. Although worse was removing Fairy-type cards 2 gens later and moved the type to Psychic, not only made Psychic-type cards more unpredictable but also made Dragon-type cards to have zero weaknesses.

[@RoosterLewis]

It's weird to see how dependent on Power creep almost all japanese TCG:s seem to be in comparison (not that the western ones don't have any )

[@MrProtastic98]

Your voice and the choice of music is really good.

[@realMr.chickenman]

Wait till he hears about the new ex

[@jacksonkuzmic]

I was surprised by the quality of this video. Most early KZbinrs videos are in 480p edited in movie maker but this is actually quality.

[@brandonhernandez3321]

Didn’t even realize this was a year old. I’m imagining it hasn’t gotten better. Anyways digimon TCG is super fun and interesting! I’d suggest doing a video on that! Subbed

[@msunflowers]

It’s… a mix. Rotation just happened, there aren’t any more tag teams (they were a neat concept, but unbelievably broken.) The game’s meta is actually a little more tactical and interesting, with one of the most popular decks based around cards with ~70 hp. They’ve got this “sacrificing” mechanic where you have to strategically choose what to remove from your deck (not discard.) Once you’ve sacrificed 10 cards, you can do this attack- and it’s not even that hard-hitting, its usefulness comes in being able to divide the damage between any pokemon however you’d like. So that emphasis on strategy is fun, but there’s still a huge V-whatever problem. Vs, VMaxes, Vstars, V-unions… besides the disparity between the og 90s cards, there’s also just a huge gap between the cards they share the game with. Hopefully less tanky tactical cards get more of the spotlight. A franchise like pokémon is so big that they can pretty much innovate in whatever way they want- there’s lots of room for creativity. Didn’t know there was a digimon tcg! I’ll have to check that out

[@PkmnMstr10]

@@msunflowers You're referring to the "Lost Box" deck, and so many people hate it with a passion, as do I. There's little skill to playing it, and it just feels like a deck that you only play when you can't be good with any other deck.