Pokemon TCG Power Creep 1999-2021

In this video I dive into the history of power creep in the pokemon trading card game from the classics in base set and jungle to the newest cards in 2020 from the Sword & Shield sets and even to the future cards that have been revealed for 2021.
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0:00 HISTORY OF POWER CR
0:41 SOURCES / CREDITS
2:05 WHAT IS POWER CREEP
2:46 POWER CREEP IN PTCG
4:18 YEARS & LEGAL SETS
5:43 2000-2001
7:31 EARLY EX ERA 2003-2004
8:44 2004 WORLDS LISTS
10:21 2005 Worlds Standings
10:57 2010 Worlds Standings
12:18 2013 Worlds Standings
13:21 World Championships 2017
14:16 DEC 2020 ONLINE EVENT
14:34 2020 TOP DECKS
15:01 ESTIMATED POWER BY YEAR
16:02 ESTIMATED HP BY YEAR
19:04 ESTIMATED DAMAGE BY YEAR
21:01 BASIC MULTI-PRIZE POKEMON
22:49 MECHANICS OVER TIME
25:15 TRANSITION FROM BIG BASICS TO EVOLUTIONS
26:14 CURRENT STATE OF GAME
27:01 ON THE HORIZON

[idontthink]

I really enjoyed the GX era (pre-TagTeam). I think it was the most fun and balanced era of the PTCG.

[ValVenusaur]

The insane thing is there’s no reason for power creep in Pokémon. The format rotates, so it’s not like current cards have to compete with older ones. Cards could reverse power creep, get weaker, and as soon as the strong cards rotated everyone would be forced to play the new ones.

[ringss_]

Man, I miss the days where massive HP pools were reserved for Wailord

[AkeTheSnake]

Power creep was a fairly gradual rise until tag teams. Cards rotated before getting obsolete because of power creep. Tag teams literally have more HP than a stage 2 GX. Man, 230-250 used to be impressive...

[coledavidson]

What sucks is that the power creep for the big cards (V, VMAX, GX, EX) is huge, but for the regular cards there's very little power creep. So it becomes less and less viable to use regular cards in decks even if they have good abilities or effects

[eloyjaimes]

I played as a kid with base, fossil sets. Started back up around 2011 when my oldest son wanted to play. It was the beginning of the Black and White sets. Which was fun. Now in 2021 started playing with my youngest and my the game has changed a lot. Between vmaxs, rapidstrike, fusion strike and soon to bring back the lost zone. I have a lot of relearning to do.

[rever]

We can say that your reading of the situation in 26:00 is great and accurate. The adition of VSTARs moved to meta to VSTARs vs VMax, both 1 stage evolutions.

Now, with the Scarlet and Violet sets, they will probably bring back a meta more similar to the GX era, in which multiprizers evolve from normal pokemon instead of from multiprizers.

[ZachPowers]

For me, the 2008-2010 segment was the best. There were still tons of decks roaming around that had multiple stage 2 lines and multiple support evolution lines in them. The format had god tier draw support and consistency cards as well. I think the worst part of the format was the likelihood of getting donked which really sucked since tournaments were best of one at that time I believe.

[Redvox]

I used to heavily play the card game online when I graduated high school and created a unique deck based around salamance that only had salamance in the deck. The idea was to reshuffle abunch to get a starter card, then the opponent would always take all the extra starting cards and turn one I'd have a Wally a double dragon energy and turn 2 have a salamance that used the 20x the amount of cards your opponent had which of course since they'd still have a whole hand full of cards from me reshuffling would instantly wipe their deck

[runegate]

I always say this, I hope in gen 9 they just do a hard reset and tone it down to the numbers(or at least balancing)from the ex and DP eras.

[talonitex]

TPCI hier this man

when you put it in a graph it easier to see the huge spike in power creep I can’t believe how much the HP has increased for multiple price Pokemon compared to single price Pokemon

[dredgendorchadas]

I used to play in the playground with no evolution, no energy, no supporter limit. Unsurprisingly there was one kid who's mommy bought all the strong cards for and he blew us out. I've grown to love the evolution mechanic and wish stage 2s like nidoking, queen, Aron (stage 2), and others would get more love as stage 2s

[bryanbare]

I was there for the making of the thumbnail. Good video Mr. Network!

[jackscales]

I want to return to an era without gx, ex, or v Pokémon, and only have evolutions or basics, with more unique abilities and strategies that aren’t just attach energys hit for 230 etc. I think it would be a nice change, and something we really haven’t experienced in years.

[monte_]

Seeing this now after 2 years it’s crazy how you got exactly right in terms of evolution for the game. ex are back, and now was back to evolution dual prize Pokémon. VSTARs even provided a sort of power creep with slightly less HP, but arguably better attacks and abilities while also being only worth 2 prizes.

[ungulatemanalpha]

I think the basic issue is that the Pokemon TCG keeps putting consistency cards that favor big basics (Professor's Research and Quick Ball being the best examples) in formats where big basics are already the best threats. Running a Stage 2 deck is a lot more palatable in a format where the best draw supporter is Cynthia, the best Pokemon search is Comms, and shuffling dead cards away doesn't come at the cost of playing a worse supporter than the decks who get to discard their hand to draw 7 and don't care about losing any of the pieces in it.

The part where basic Pokemon contribute to this consistency in the form of cards like Shaymin-EX, Dedenne-GX, and Crobat V just exacerbates the problem. When decks have to run Stage 1 engines like Octillery or Zebstrika to draw cards, they can't just run their basic attacking line, 4 Quick Balls, and then slap in more draw power that their Quick Balls can find.

[zacharyavrutis]

Looks like alot of work went into this. Great job!

[xvlmltj]

I love the comprehensive breakdowns from your content. It's nice to see a by the numbers approach in Pokémon tcg content

[TheAshenHawk]

Thumbnail's personally on point.
Considering that old Blastoise EX was my first deck and that Mewtwo EX was spoiled right when I stopped playing, curious to see how crazy it's gotten.

[connorism]

I'd love to see a small promotional set made with vintage damage and HP parameters, as a gesture for all of the fans who dropped off due to all of the damage/HP creep and the other changes that occurred.