Shoutout to stormfront sableye for single handedly killing the unlimited format, oh and turning standard into a coin flip of who went first for 3 weeks
Andrew, I can't tell you how much I appreciate videos like this one. I'm a real life Poke-dad who came to the game way late. Your content provides so much context I've heard about but couldn't necessarily make sense of. And your evolving presentation and editing styles are reaching young and old players alike. I think it's safe to say that Tricky Gym provides the best orientation and analysis content for every stage of the Pokemon TCG journey. Your channel introduced me to the game, built my passion and curiosity for it, and has undoubtedly made me a better player.
Not half as good as Seismitoad. Budew can be easily KOed and it's Dragapult food. The most annoying thing about Seismitoad was not the item lock. It was the fact that it was also incredibly bulky for the time, and it did decent damage with all the modifiers it had available, so it could and often was the main attacker of the deck. Budew can only slow down the game to give you time to set up, which is definitely toxic but not nearly as bad.
I suppose I should add to my previous comment that Budew fills a similar role as Garbodor did. Despite Garbodor turning off all abilities, it did so in a way that made it difficult to play effectively. It could also be countered with cards that discarded or disabled tools. Every deck had options that could be included to counter it. And so it is with Budew now. Cards like Turo, Munkidori, return lock with your own Budew, and Jet Energy. Budew isn’t very oppressive when you build your deck to function even when it attacks.
I think Emerging Powers Catcher deserves a spot for how much of the heavy lifting it did allowing big basics to cripple B&W (especially while Junk Arm was still legal). Decks like Empoleon, Garchomp, Zoroark, and many others could've probably had real competitive viability without it. Obviously you can extend this to Gust of Wind, but Base Set had so many broken aspects it's hard to classify it in the same way, or at least single out as so problematic to the format at large. Another huge one from B&W was Tropical Beach, a super expensive world's promo that greatly assisted said crippled setup decks to function, to the point I remember Pooka saying decks like Blastoise/Emboar weren't competitively viable without it (or at least he wouldn't bring it to tourney). The fact that card never got an accessible print was one of the most FU moments from Pokemon and turned me off the game for a long time. Anyway, fun watch, can't argue with what's here.
I bubbled out of top 8 at states in 2014 because I flipped 4 tails in a row on sleep from a hypnotoxic laser. All I had to do was wake up and play the Lysander in my hand to win.
13:50 Fun fact the 2014 senior world champion won with a trevenant deck using accelgor to hit and run. He was also marking cards and deck stacking and never got caught. I also loaned him numerous full arts for TDK which is what he was originally going to play and he never gave them back.
15:10 Not just once, Mismagius and Belleba & Brycen-Man were also banned from the Standard format on August 28, 2020. Amazing video though. I love going back through history to remember these cards.
I remember making everybody at my local league not want to go against me. I ran 4 BW Darkrai Ex, 4 Yveltal EX, 4 Toad Ex, 4 super/normal energy removal, 4 hypnotic laser, and virbank city gym (I’m not gonna give the whole deck list, just the cards that made people mad)
Dishonourable mention goes to Accelgor from Dark Explorers for continuously paralyzing and poisoning the opponent every turn and since Trevenant would item lock, the opponent would never get to attack or do much of anything..
if you had to choose a card from the ruby sapphire block i would have to say it's Cessation Crystal. It wasn't historically toxic, but returning to the era this card can be a real pain.
2:26 "There has never been, and never will be, another ability locking pokemon as powerful as Muk from Fossil." I would argue Galarian Weezing. G Weezy has the same all-encompassing ability lock, but requires himself to be in the active, which I found fine enough when I played it. The lock also doesn't stop if Weezy gets poisoned, asleep, confused. Plus, he can evolve from the koffing with the Ascension attack, and G Weezy has a pretty good poison attack.
I would argue that Galatian weeding, while decent, is still not as strong as garbodor, and garbodor is not as strong as muk. The ability to just bench sit and ability lock while you swing with the games strongest attackers is too insane
No mention of Broken Time-Space and Machamp from DP-Stormfront, which was the start of the era of Donk decks? The one deck which forced Pokémon to change the rules of what you could do going first? No?
I decided not to include those because players didn’t actually have to endure that for very long, pokemon acted quickly and changed the rules, making it so those cards weren’t actually very toxic
Forest curse trevenant is by far my most hate card ever printed. I have very unfond memories of booting up PTCGO and clicking expanded format only to watch my opponent set up a turn 1 lock and then not being able to do anything every turn until I lose.
For me, I hate Briar a lot more than Iron Hands or Dusclops/Dusknoir. The latter a relatively telegraphed and require setup, Briar comes out of nowhere
Man i remember gengar minikyu gx. Played it all the time with alolan raichu dunk deck. Probably one of the funniest decks i played. ADP was really cringe imo. I got back into the tcg with mew vmax being EVERYWHERE it was so bad. But honestly, i won my first local because of the drapion V and sablezard deck. Dusknoir has been really boring imo, not as bad as dusclops, i think clops is fine but dusknoir is just, cringe, tbh.
Ahhh yes I remember playing Pokemon in 2011 and played mewtwo. Back then when I was in junior division and it got me through some games it was my favorite ex
Energy removals straight up ruin retro formats. When i printed proxy decks for me and my friends (or play in tabletop simulator), i banned super energy removal and only have maximum 2 copies of energy removal. I didnt want to ban both straight up, to prevent Double Colorless from dominating. Its a nice balance.
I think I speak for everyone when I say that the 2015 and 2016 world championships were arguably two of the worst formats of all time, plagued by Night March, Garbodor, Seismitoad, Trevenant, and Vileplume. Man I do NOT miss those days.
Ironhands ex is fine. Not all decks can run it or don't need it. I know that it gives single prize decks a harder time but as long you prepare an awnser for it, it's not that bad.
BW-XY era was peak PTCG. Hypnotoxic Laser is the GOAT and should be reprinted. No this is not bait, I genuinely really like that card, though MAYBE without stuff like Shadow Triad. Mewtwo EX and Seismitoad EX were also fun, but only in the BW-XY era when they had ways to be dealt with. (Coming from a toxic Keldeo-Blastoise player who used Mewtwo EX in the deck) Also Toad gave us in my opinion the BEST battle in the entire history of the TCG against the absolute unit that was Wailord EX.
Blastoise was generally regarded as one of the most honest, at least majorly competitive decks in B&W, nowhere near toxic compared to things like Darkrai/Garbodor. B&W is when I started paying attention and playing so I have a strong affinity for it as well, but there were major problems with those formats. I honestly did enjoy the speed of the game that laser complimented (that sleep flip can go to hell though), but it was really things like pre-errata Catcher and Tropical Beach that held those formats back so much. X&Y was a bit better with coin flip catcher and things like spirit link Megas, but still had tons of issues from so many angles with easy lock, Forest, and insane draw power, though I stopped playing around early 2016. Even though I didn't play in it, pre-TT S&M seemed like a healthier and more enjoyable format.
I'd like to add Snorlax from Pokemon Go, and possibly the new Budew from Prisimatic Evolutions. Super frustrating cards to play against, and I feel like they actively make the game worse.
Think it was an oversight to do a list video without a clear countdown/tierlist… cool vid but man have i seen videos inc slowking and seismitoad etc etc a bajillion times at this point this was not the angle imo
The most infuriating cards are my entire deck when it decides to not work.
Nah, my opponent’s cards, drawn in perfect order and always flip heads, are way worse.
Flips heads twice for wonder kiss.
When everything I need is in the prize cards lol
Shoutout to stormfront sableye for single handedly killing the unlimited format, oh and turning standard into a coin flip of who went first for 3 weeks
That card ALMOST made the list
The card that got 2 years worth of cards banned with the emergency rotation
Andrew, I can't tell you how much I appreciate videos like this one.
I'm a real life Poke-dad who came to the game way late. Your content provides so much context I've heard about but couldn't necessarily make sense of. And your evolving presentation and editing styles are reaching young and old players alike.
I think it's safe to say that Tricky Gym provides the best orientation and analysis content for every stage of the Pokemon TCG journey. Your channel introduced me to the game, built my passion and curiosity for it, and has undoubtedly made me a better player.
Love this type of content Mr. Gym
Thanks!!!
now the question is if history will add Budew to that last
Considering how long the section on Seismitoad was, almost guaranteed
Not half as good as Seismitoad. Budew can be easily KOed and it's Dragapult food. The most annoying thing about Seismitoad was not the item lock. It was the fact that it was also incredibly bulky for the time, and it did decent damage with all the modifiers it had available, so it could and often was the main attacker of the deck. Budew can only slow down the game to give you time to set up, which is definitely toxic but not nearly as bad.
I suppose I should add to my previous comment that Budew fills a similar role as Garbodor did. Despite Garbodor turning off all abilities, it did so in a way that made it difficult to play effectively. It could also be countered with cards that discarded or disabled tools. Every deck had options that could be included to counter it. And so it is with Budew now. Cards like Turo, Munkidori, return lock with your own Budew, and Jet Energy. Budew isn’t very oppressive when you build your deck to function even when it attacks.
@@ResidentKlinton exactly, its not the most broken card printed but it does force player to change their decks to respect the possibility of item lock
I love this fun history breakdown video format. Great job man and the editing was on point
Thanks!!! Glad you liked it :)
Great list, but I'm super surprised to not see Lost origins Sableye. That card was single-handedly gatekeeping single prize decks for a while.
I think Emerging Powers Catcher deserves a spot for how much of the heavy lifting it did allowing big basics to cripple B&W (especially while Junk Arm was still legal). Decks like Empoleon, Garchomp, Zoroark, and many others could've probably had real competitive viability without it. Obviously you can extend this to Gust of Wind, but Base Set had so many broken aspects it's hard to classify it in the same way, or at least single out as so problematic to the format at large.
Another huge one from B&W was Tropical Beach, a super expensive world's promo that greatly assisted said crippled setup decks to function, to the point I remember Pooka saying decks like Blastoise/Emboar weren't competitively viable without it (or at least he wouldn't bring it to tourney). The fact that card never got an accessible print was one of the most FU moments from Pokemon and turned me off the game for a long time.
Anyway, fun watch, can't argue with what's here.
Being most familiar with the old cards, this video has me reliving the pain of super energy removals and muk 😭😂 Haha great video!!
I bubbled out of top 8 at states in 2014 because I flipped 4 tails in a row on sleep from a hypnotoxic laser. All I had to do was wake up and play the Lysander in my hand to win.
0:17 A problem all too familiar for Midwesterners: Cabin Fever. The desire to touch grass, but the grass cannot be touched.
Our grass just burns in Cali, cant be touched either :(
Loving the new direction of your content. Keep up the good work
the most toxic card in S/V era is not dusknoir, fezandipiti or iron hands... because one little silly guy just arrived: Item lock Budew
Great video, I love your video essays that dive into niche parts of the game, especially the older eras!
Ive played against itchy pollen and im already mad.
Great to see clips from the certified classic Base-Gym Tricky Gym Live VOD, one of the funniest Pokemon videos I've watched
13:50 Fun fact the 2014 senior world champion won with a trevenant deck using accelgor to hit and run. He was also marking cards and deck stacking and never got caught. I also loaned him numerous full arts for TDK which is what he was originally going to play and he never gave them back.
Great list, thanks for the PTSD (Pokémon TCG Stress Disorder) 😂
No mention of Sableye from B&W Dark Explorers? 😮
15:10 Not just once, Mismagius and Belleba & Brycen-Man were also banned from the Standard format on August 28, 2020.
Amazing video though. I love going back through history to remember these cards.
I remember making everybody at my local league not want to go against me. I ran 4 BW Darkrai Ex, 4 Yveltal EX, 4 Toad Ex, 4 super/normal energy removal, 4 hypnotic laser, and virbank city gym (I’m not gonna give the whole deck list, just the cards that made people mad)
As someone who started playing the tcg in 2020, as I think a lot of people did, I think ADP is the most hated card in the game.
Adp zacian made me quit the game just long enough to be tortured by regidrago instead. Slight upgrade at least lol
Quit long before that but even worse than Seismitoad?
Dishonourable mention goes to Accelgor from Dark Explorers for continuously paralyzing and poisoning the opponent every turn and since Trevenant would item lock, the opponent would never get to attack or do much of anything..
Good work Andrew! Love these videos that look at older decks and previous formats
if you had to choose a card from the ruby sapphire block i would have to say it's Cessation Crystal. It wasn't historically toxic, but returning to the era this card can be a real pain.
Seismitoad will haunt my dreams for eternity. Not just because he's annoying, but also because he's ugly
Quagsire’s inbred cousin
2:26 "There has never been, and never will be, another ability locking pokemon as powerful as Muk from Fossil."
I would argue Galarian Weezing. G Weezy has the same all-encompassing ability lock, but requires himself to be in the active, which I found fine enough when I played it. The lock also doesn't stop if Weezy gets poisoned, asleep, confused. Plus, he can evolve from the koffing with the Ascension attack, and G Weezy has a pretty good poison attack.
I would argue that Galatian weeding, while decent, is still not as strong as garbodor, and garbodor is not as strong as muk. The ability to just bench sit and ability lock while you swing with the games strongest attackers is too insane
Amazing video! It was great to see the evolution of the Pokémon TCG, though mostly through the salty cards 😹
Budew will definitely be on this list soon.
Fantastic video Tricky!!
Thanks!!!
Surprised Battle VIP pass wasn’t on there. You don’t start with one you don’t get set up
That iron hands bit was gold 😂
The thumbnail is so good looooool
Its interesting to see how the toxic changes with time!
No mention of Broken Time-Space and Machamp from DP-Stormfront, which was the start of the era of Donk decks? The one deck which forced Pokémon to change the rules of what you could do going first? No?
I decided not to include those because players didn’t actually have to endure that for very long, pokemon acted quickly and changed the rules, making it so those cards weren’t actually very toxic
That thumbnail brings back some nasty memories 😂😂
Yeah, he definitely cooked with this one
Wow, great video man.
Thanks!!! I’m glad you liked it
Great video! I like this kind of content.
Thanks :) I’m glad!
the single most infuriating card is rare candy, specifically the fact that its never in my hand alongside a stage 2
Hope we get to play a format similar to the gen 3 ex era without item lock, mill decks or stall decks being popular/strong
Forest curse trevenant is by far my most hate card ever printed. I have very unfond memories of booting up PTCGO and clicking expanded format only to watch my opponent set up a turn 1 lock and then not being able to do anything every turn until I lose.
Loved this video!!!
For me, I hate Briar a lot more than Iron Hands or Dusclops/Dusknoir. The latter a relatively telegraphed and require setup, Briar comes out of nowhere
Briar can only be played when you have 2 prizes remaining - so it can’t actually come out of no where
If you always expect the briar, you will only ever be pleasantly surprised
Amazed that let loose marshadow didn't make this list. Getting that done to you before you can even play the game was disgusting.
Super cool video! Are we just going to ignore cessation crystal from the ex era though? Haha
Awesome thumbnail art.
Glad you like it! It’s illustrated by sefrao14 on instagram
110% agree about dusknoir. I wish there was a good way to counter the card
Man i remember gengar minikyu gx. Played it all the time with alolan raichu dunk deck. Probably one of the funniest decks i played.
ADP was really cringe imo.
I got back into the tcg with mew vmax being EVERYWHERE it was so bad. But honestly, i won my first local because of the drapion V and sablezard deck.
Dusknoir has been really boring imo, not as bad as dusclops, i think clops is fine but dusknoir is just, cringe, tbh.
Ahhh yes I remember playing Pokemon in 2011 and played mewtwo. Back then when I was in junior division and it got me through some games it was my favorite ex
Energy removals straight up ruin retro formats. When i printed proxy decks for me and my friends (or play in tabletop simulator), i banned super energy removal and only have maximum 2 copies of energy removal.
I didnt want to ban both straight up, to prevent Double Colorless from dominating. Its a nice balance.
I think you forgot the worst of them all BEDUW
I think I speak for everyone when I say that the 2015 and 2016 world championships were arguably two of the worst formats of all time, plagued by Night March, Garbodor, Seismitoad, Trevenant, and Vileplume. Man I do NOT miss those days.
Did you consider the evolution lock archeops? With Maxies hidden ball trick that card was very unfun
I really wish they give us a retrain of XY era Seismitoad EX in the upcoming 156 set
Truly the most toxic cards, I feel poisoned just by hearing about them!
Ironhands ex is fine. Not all decks can run it or don't need it. I know that it gives single prize decks a harder time but as long you prepare an awnser for it, it's not that bad.
The most infuriating is the Boss for game after an Iono to 1
Now we have Budew whahahaha
Great video 🔥🤘
*Toxic cards*
*Hypnotoxin Lazer in the thumbnail*
Comedy
Mew VMAX, my beloved
inb4 a small 30 HP plant makes the list
dusknoir is an evolution that denies evolutions
I was that toad Lazer player....
Love your videos 🔥🔥🔥
2025: Budew
Brings back the Pooka vibes :)
What site did you use to view the old tournament stats
Ptcglegends
I thought N would have made the list but I guess it's not as toxic as I thought it was
Lugia VSTAR should have made it to the list
ADP was fun though
Iron Hands is not a bad guy. Lol 🤷♂️
Can we please get a Short of 22:43-22:55???
I know alot of these cards from epic splash and I get it
0:23 toxtricity
Predicting a Budew ban
I pray power spray is here
Adp Is the goat
Lass? Not on the list?
Toad Ex is a legend. I loved that Toad/Yveltal/Archeops box so much. I hope the frog will eventually make a return, maybe as a stage 1.
what is the website at 7:05?
Ptcglegends.com
3:09 LMAO
Let Lose Marshadow must have bribed Mahone to stay off this list
did you forget snorlax pokemon go
Snorlax is fiiiiine that card has existed multiple times before without issue. Plasma snorlax was the same thing years ago.
Saddam Hussein larvitar 😂 6:27
😂😂😂
HE STRIKES AGAIN
Oh my god that’s hilarious 😂
BW-XY era was peak PTCG. Hypnotoxic Laser is the GOAT and should be reprinted. No this is not bait, I genuinely really like that card, though MAYBE without stuff like Shadow Triad.
Mewtwo EX and Seismitoad EX were also fun, but only in the BW-XY era when they had ways to be dealt with. (Coming from a toxic Keldeo-Blastoise player who used Mewtwo EX in the deck) Also Toad gave us in my opinion the BEST battle in the entire history of the TCG against the absolute unit that was Wailord EX.
Hypnotoxic would go crazy in cradily
@@CoppermineTypeK Exactly. Cradily could go wacky with it, and it'd be super cool to see at like, Worlds or something with a card like Hypnotoxic.
Maybe as an Ace Spec?
Blastoise was generally regarded as one of the most honest, at least majorly competitive decks in B&W, nowhere near toxic compared to things like Darkrai/Garbodor. B&W is when I started paying attention and playing so I have a strong affinity for it as well, but there were major problems with those formats. I honestly did enjoy the speed of the game that laser complimented (that sleep flip can go to hell though), but it was really things like pre-errata Catcher and Tropical Beach that held those formats back so much.
X&Y was a bit better with coin flip catcher and things like spirit link Megas, but still had tons of issues from so many angles with easy lock, Forest, and insane draw power, though I stopped playing around early 2016. Even though I didn't play in it, pre-TT S&M seemed like a healthier and more enjoyable format.
I'd like to add Snorlax from Pokemon Go, and possibly the new Budew from Prisimatic Evolutions. Super frustrating cards to play against, and I feel like they actively make the game worse.
*enter budew*
get some sleep
All my friends are toxic all ambitionless so rude and always negative
Think it was an oversight to do a list video without a clear countdown/tierlist… cool vid but man have i seen videos inc slowking and seismitoad etc etc a bajillion times at this point this was not the angle imo
budew