NXD Shiftry Banned from TCG Competitive Play

General
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www.pokemon.com/us/pokemon-news/shiftry-banned-from-expanded-format/

Ability: Giant Fan
When you play this Pokemon from your hand to evolve 1 of your Pokemon, you may flip a coin. If heads, choose 1 of your opponent’s Pokemon. Your opponent shuffles that Pokemon and all cards attached to it into his or her deck.

This Pokebeach article does a much better job at explaining Shiftry than I can. www.pokebeach.com/2015/08/flippin-fans-a-test-of-shiftry

But I shall try to make a short version. The Shiftry deck would run through itself in one turn, getting as many Giant Fan abilities off and trying to remove all of your opponent’s Pokemon from play, thus winning the game for the Shiftry player by default. This was made viable due to Giant Plant Forest. As such, Pokemon has banned Shiftry from expanded format play. Thoughts?

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Necessary for a balanced format. I commend the decision.

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This is a bit like shutting the barn after the horse has bolted.

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Pokemon needs more time to adjust to multiple formats. Maintaining multiple formats requires strategic tweaking. Bans are by far the easiest way. This is a good start. :blush: