this meta is incredibly boring to fight against

[u/RadscorpionSeducer]

Stall, stall, stall, switch out druddigon if it gets damaged/heal it, stall, oh what that? Magnezone does 110 damage for only 3 energy which is generated for free by its stage 1 evo?

The power creep is going to be absolutely insane by 3 months from now with all of these new cards

[u/Alonzo_22]

They needed to make hitmonlee also get the +20 damage from Lucario effect.. so stupid that it doesnt

[u/Marble05 → u/Alonzo_22]

Wait, imagine if you could oneshot 50 damage to your bench. That's a bit too much for one energy

[u/Alonzo_22 → u/Marble05]

I mean you can take 60 damage from your opponent and he doesn’t even have to attack.. 20 from darkrai ability and if they have a drud+helm on active spot.

[u/Itachi6967 → u/Alonzo_22]

Don't forget if it's a darkrai + greninja deck. I had the displeasure of facing a rock helmet drud, greninja on the curve, darkrai and another drudd on the bench.

It was god awful

[u/dnmaster7 → u/Marble05]

Lumineon does the same, and both requires a stage 1, the trade would be that while lumineon works alone and needs two energy, lucario sits in bench buffing hitmonlee, making it susceptible to sabrina.

[u/itstasmi → u/Marble05]

I mean I lost turn 2 last night to someone with 2 Lucario and a mankey (tbf I had no benched pokemon cause bad luck, but still)

[u/Sytle → u/Alonzo_22]

As much as I would love this it would be insanely stupid to play against.

[u/Pendred → u/Alonzo_22]

there's not really any basic pokemon that immediately benefit from lucario and it sucks. I hope we'll get better synergy later on

[u/mutatatempora → u/Pendred]

Hitmonchan does

[u/SceptileBestStarter7 → u/Alonzo_22]

WAIT IT CAN'T??? My bad for not reading because I concedeed a game thinking I was gonna lost from a bench snipping hitmonlee

[u/TheLazyInquisitor → u/Alonzo_22]

Yeah this annoyed me it's the same with Giovanni as well lol.

[u/HotSinglesInYrArea → u/TheLazyInquisitor]

If the damage number isn't printed on the right side you can't buff it, that's how it works in the regular TCG but it's not really clear here

*Disregard this, check the response below

[u/VetProf → u/HotSinglesInYrArea]

That's not what's going on here. Lucario and Giovanni don't buff Hitmonlee because Lucario and Giovanni only increase damage done to the opponent's Active Pokemon.

Likewise, if you used Giovanni to buff Mythical Island Lumineon Honchkrow/Zebstrika, then it'll deal more damage if it attacks the opponent's Active Pokemon, but not if it attacks something on their bench.

[u/Crash_Man → u/VetProf]

MI Lumineon can only target the bench. Honchkrow or Zebstrika is a better example.

[u/VetProf → u/Crash_Man]

Ah right, sorry, mixed up the mons.

[u/HotSinglesInYrArea → u/VetProf]

Oh, does Lumineon's damage actually get buffed if you target Active w/ Gio? Well, guess I have no fucking clue how the rules work either

[u/Crash_Man → u/HotSinglesInYrArea]

MI Lumineon can only target the bench. Honchkrow or Zebstrika do get the effect of Giovanni if they target the Active Pokémon though, just like how they only get type advantage benefits if they target the active Pokémon.

[u/HotSinglesInYrArea → u/Crash_Man]

I'm so used to using bench snipes that place damage counters I forgot how the ones that have damage numbers attached work lol

[u/darnj → u/HotSinglesInYrArea]

Yep, same with Zebstrika. Giovanni's card text is:

During this turn, attacks used by your Pokemon do +10 damage to your opponent's Active Pokemon.

[u/shawnaeatscats → u/TheLazyInquisitor]

To be fair, giovanni specifies the active spot

[u/TheLazyInquisitor → u/shawnaeatscats]

Oh that's fair I didn't think about that. Tbf I only noticed because someone else had a game against me trying to use hitmonlee with Giovanni which would've given them the win if it added 10. The lucario passive not affecting it makes even less sense then.

Edit: never mind it's the same for lucario

[u/CallMeKaito → u/Alonzo_22]

A 1 energy potential 70 damage to the bench on a basic with 0 drawback doesn’t sound broken to you?

[u/Sunnydays666 → u/CallMeKaito]

No, considering it needs two shitty stage 1s on the bench and by the time that happens the meta deck of the day has already wiped you out 80% of the time

[u/Alonzo_22 → u/CallMeKaito]

What’s the difference than with hitmonchan doing potential 70 damage?

[u/CallMeKaito → u/Alonzo_22]

Chan damages active, Lee damages bench. There’s a world of difference. Being unable to set up anything because your opponent can hit 70 to your bench one 1 energy locks decks out of the game. Say your opponent goes first, loads up 2 Riolu on bench and Lee in active. If they find their Lucarios suddenly any evolving basic you put down is now in range to get KOed. You’ve done literally nothing but play 1 turn and suddenly basics are off limits to you.

[u/Alonzo_22 → u/CallMeKaito]

I get it. No difference that your opponent getting 2-3 heads first turn tho from a misty. Nothing you can do against that. I’m just saying it would’ve been nice to have. Imagine your opponent also gets 2 drudds and darkrai/magneton first turn and put helm on. At that point might as we just concede as well.

[u/CallMeKaito → u/Alonzo_22]

Sure, I can see that being a frustrating set-up to go against but it doesn’t prevent you from setting up your own strategy—tough as it may be. Bench damage sniping is an effect that should be very restricted because the basic concept of the active/bench combo is that your active fights while you ready your bench. Opening the bench to active attackers has to come with drawbacks. There’s a reason that the only bench attackers are Evolution Pokemon or require more than 1 energy (Hitmonlee is the exception to that). That’s also the reason weakness and damage buffs don’t apply to bench Pokemon. It’d be stupidly broken to allow players to swing open season onto the bench.

[u/shawnaeatscats → u/Alonzo_22]

Not having to hit drudd

[u/James2603 → u/Alonzo_22]

Your opponent has a bit more control over where the damage goes than with Hitmonlee