Update on Shiftry/Unliminted Tourneys please?

[UnlimitedProf]

Can we please get an update on this? We were promised a solution for this?

Like I said, the best idea is to ban the banned cards from tourney plays (not versus play).

 

(inb4 we're not adding "unlimited tourneys at this time" because we don't feel like trying to figure a solution out and game feedback isn't important anymore.)

(also inb4 we'll forward to the devs aka this idea will be ignored.)

[SharKing319]

I'm sure that if there's any official response at all, the argument will be raised that Shiftry not being banned from Unlimited is meant to be "in the spirit of Unlimited" or something like that.

Here's the thing, though: Unlimited on PTCGO is not Unlimited. The real Unlimited format is Base Set-on; PTCGO's version is HGSS-on. Therefore, this "version of Unlimited" is essentially a PTCGO-exclusive format, and thus not necessarily bound to the real-life version.

 

 

As for Shiftry itself, I also have this to say: that card can only be either broken or useless, with no middle ground in between.

Shiftry saw no competitive play at all during its lifespan in the Standard format, simply because a Stage 2 with a coin-flip Ability is generally bad, especially with no way to speed up evolutions. However, with such a way (such as Forest of Giant Plants), it suddenly becomes easy to spam its Ability, which, while inconsistent in nature, has the very real potential to win games without the opponent even getting to play.

That's why we have this menace in Unlimited today, the beast that makes it difficult to find actual games, the deck that no one wants to face ever, and the reason why we have no Unlimited Tournaments now. However, if something like a ban or errata to Forest of Giant Plants were to happen, Shiftry would go right back to being played by no one, as it was before Forest of Giant Plants.

 

Therefore, Shiftry might as well be banned in this PTCGO-exclusive format, because keeping it around even with it not being broken anymore would make no tangible difference.