Pokémon TCG Pocket doesn't have a banlist, and we don't yet know if there are any plans for the cardpool to rotate. Yet something must be done about a card that I think is terrible for the health of the game. No, it's not Giratina ex. I'm talking about the Supporter card Misty.
You may think this is a pretty odd moment to call for Misty's head. Sure, there was once a time when its endless coinflips were a source of terror - when 18 trainer Articuno decks were common perhaps, or when Gyarados was a top deck. It's probably been a while since you even saw anyone play Misty.
But that's the thing; there's a reason for that. Creatures Inc and DeNA haven't made any good water cards for months.
Have a think. What's the most recent, meta-relevant water type Pokémon Pocket card you can remember? I reckon it's probably Irida, released almost six months ago in Triumphant Light. Since then, the type has been plagued with bad ex cards like Kingdra and Wishiwashi, and a surprising lack of support. While every other type has been showered with awesome energy acceleration options or low-energy attacks, water has been left in the dust.
And when I try to think why, there's one obvious answer. It's Misty. Misty is keeping the water type in a prison, preventing it from having any good cards. When a supporter like her exists it means the only good water types must have ridiculously overcosted attacks to compensate or just be plain bad. Pocket's designers are scared to give us good water types because they know with Misty they'd be broken. As a result, water decks remain several tiers below everything else.
The obvious fix is not to warp the entire design future of this game around one busted card. It's to ban the card from the game. If DeNA doesn't want to do that, it should take a leaf out of Hearthstone's book. This is a digital game, so you can tweak cards on the fly if they're misbehaving.
An additional problem is Misty's ramp is no longer even the best in the game, thanks to its inconsistency. Other types have caught up, from Stokezard for fire, Pichu for electric, and Energy Switch - there are dozen different options that have caught up with and even surpassed Misty. Yet no one designing for the game seems to have noticed yet.
If you prefer physical cards to virtual ones, check out our list of the most expensive rare Pokémon cards. You can also find out about the newest Pokémon set, or check out the Wargamer Discord.