Catching ‘em All in Quarantine and Acting Sus

Hello again, trainers, long time no see! What a wild year we’ve had; I hope everyone is staying safe and healthy during these unbelievable times. I know it’s a struggle that feels more challenging every day, but for those of you acting with compassion for others and doing your part to make sure we minimize the harm we cause to each other, thank you from the bottom of my immunocompromised heart <3

So, what’s been going on in the world of Old School Pokémon? It seems right when we were going to start kicking off meetups and enjoying this format, the world blew up. But that’s alright; we can pursue some alternatives together. Here are some things I’ve found during the quarantimes that we can use:

First and foremost, play via webcam is the safest and most effective way to live our organic gameplay experience. The good part about the Pokémon TCG is that there isn’t a large amount of interacting with our opponents cards in a tactile way, so the flow of gameplay can still feel very organic. The struggle lies in a good way to display your gameplay area that is visible to your opponent. So what do we need for all of this? Here is what Michael found, making a priority of balancing quality and cost.

The Victure 1080P Webcam on Amazon balances quality and cost. Clocking in at 39.95 USD with a nice HD picture and a sensitive microphone means you’ll be able to be seen and heard quite well without breaking the bank.

Since this was our first and only purchase, I don’t have further suggestions for webcams, but welcome input from others!

Up next is platforms, with quarantine and work-from-home being more commonplace nowadays, there are an abundance of these, so everyone has their own, but I’ll share the ones I’ve used to some success.

Whereby – This is by a wide margin the fastest and easiest platform for a variety of uses. Being a simple and straightforward platform, simply push a button to make a room, set up a name you like and you’re all set! It has a limited capacity on the free version, so you won’t be able to have a large amount of people present, but it’s very handy for 2-4 people, and even permits rearranging and custom volumes, so you can play 2 games at the same time, watch your buddies play, and talk through your game without being disturbed by excessive noise from the other game. This is my current preference for Pokémon games.

Spelltable – A platform designed for Magic webcam play, specifically Commander, it contains a visible section with a life total, which you could get creative with and use for a Prize count. Like Whereby, it is also limited to 4 users on the call.

Discord – This is the Old School Pokémon Discord, where game rooms are built in, which of course allow for video calling and work just as well as any web platform, and allow spectators, but is limited to being a member of the Discord. This is the most universally accommodating for folx that have access to the Discord, though I’ve heard mixed reviews on the video quality of the calls sometimes, so your mileage may vary.

Hopefully these will provide options for you to get some games in while we wait out the next phase of this virus. With the lowered face-time, we’ve had less time than we’d like to develop the format further, but have been studying some things, particularly with  Imposter Oak’s Revenge, and whether or not we need to vote this Imposter off the ship.

There exists a combo with Erika where you play as many Bill and Erika as you can, drawing up an oppressive hand, then when you’re satisfied, play Imposter Oak’s Revenge to force your opponent down to 4 cards, sometimes before they can even take their first turn. The issue isn’t necessarily that this immediately ends the game either, the main issue is that the opponent is so behind on resources, a long game ensues where they actually have no hope of catching up, unless they themselves also play this combo and luck into it as a response. There are plenty of ubiquitous Trainer cards in this format, enough so that we’ve restricted a small suite of them to diversify gameplay. The concerns raised with this particular combo is it can create for a high number of ‘non-games’ where the recipient of the Imposter doesn’t have sufficient time and resources to catch up before being overwhelmed by sheer card advantage. This combo followed by a fast Psyduck or Dark Vileplume can mean lights out as early as the second turn. While those games can be exciting and rewarding to play, ensuring there are reasonable limitations in place to keep them as the exception and not the rule, is the goal.

On the other hand, there are ways to disrupt this combo, and not every archetype wants to play to this angle, needing those precious available card slots for other pieces of their game plan. Further testing is required, but consider yourself on watch, Imposter.

Since the last article was posted, Professor Oak was unrestricted; I (Ryan) was wrong, Michael and Andrew were right, they are very smart and correctly argued that Oak made the format better and wasn’t an automatic 4-of in every deck like I worried. They humored me and now I have to accept when I’m wrong.

Thank you all for reading, I’ll be writing up some deck techs soon, now that I have a pile of decks to walk through, most of which I think you will recognize, and I’m excited to share them with you! Stay safe, wear your mask, and I pinkie promise it won’t be a year before you hear from me again.