So, in quite a few previous posts, I’ve made it quite that I
hate and despise Pendulums with a burning passion, and I build my Decks
specifically to make Pendulum players cry as hard as possible. But I’ve never
actually done a post, specifically on why I hate Pendulums, and I’m also going
to give my counters to arguments that people use when I say that Pendulum
Summoning is broken.
My hatred of Pendulums comes down to my purist nature. When
the game first started, there were very clear rules on Special Summoning
monsters. In general, you could only Special Summon two monsters at most at the
same time, not because there was a limit, but because there weren’t any cards
like Soul Charge or Return From the Different Dimension (Henceforth simply
referred to as “Return”). They’d been seen in the anime, but hadn’t been
printed in the TCG yet. In fact it wasn’t until Dragons of Legend in 2014 that we received Soul Charge, despite it appearing
in the anime in Episode 176 all the way back in 2005 in the dub. We actually
had Return in 2004, but it didn’t become widely accessible until 2008 in The Dark Emperor Structure Deck, after
appearing in the movie Pyramid of Light
in 2004. Those are the only two cards I can think of from that era that allowed
you flood the field essentially at will. As we are now aware, Soul Charge is
limited and Return is Banned. Why you might ask? Because Konami doesn’t like
cards that allow you to flood the field at will. Well, at least they didn’t
until some bright spark came up with Pendulum Summoning, a mechanic which
allows you to flood the field at will. And I know you’re going to say: But Big Dub, what about the costs? But Big
Dub, they were Banned and Limited because of game-breaking combos. Yes, I
hear you guys. I think we can all agree that both cards were, and arguably still
are, broken. As for the costs, bear with me. I’ll get to that.
Argument 1- “Pendulum
Summoning isn’t broken, the monsters you summon are”
If I drop a glass and it shatters on the floor, am I responsible
for breaking the glass, or is the floor? It’s the same logic. Saying that “Pendulum
Summoning doesn’t break the game, the monsters do” is the same as me saying “I
didn’t break the glass, the floor did” from a logic sense, or should I say
nonsense? If the monsters you summon via Pendulum Summoning are broken, then
Pendulum Summoning itself is broken, inherently.
Argument 2- “That’s
not the same thing though” in response to Soul Charge are Return
This is a common one. Whenever I point out that Soul Charge
and Return are Limited and Banned, Pendulum players always come out with “it’s
not the same thing though”. Let’s compare Pendulum Summoning to Soul Charge/Return:
Pendulum Summoning
|
Soul Charge/Return
|
Inherent
Special Summon
|
Non-Inherent
Special Summon
|
5
Monsters max.
|
5
Monsters max.
|
No
cost
|
Has
a cost (1000 LP per Monster for Soul Charge and half of current LP for
Return)
|
No
restriction on game mechanics
|
Restriction
on game mechanics (Can’t attack for Soul Charge, banished during End Phase
for Return)
|
Special
Summon from Extra Deck/Hand
|
Special
Summon from Graveyard/Banished Zone
|
They seem very similar don’t they? Sure, Konami has made
Pendulum Summoning better than both Return and Soul Charge combined, but at its
core, it is exactly the same thing. You’re still flooding the field with up to
5 monsters at will, you’re just not summoning those Monsters from the same
places. Konami, please. If you’re going to have Pendulum Summoning as a thing,
either put Soul Charge at 2 or give us back Return, because it just seems
ridiculous to keep cards Banned and Limited for doing exactly what Pendulum
Summoning does.
Argument 3- “Pendulum
Monsters don’t break the Extra Deck limit, they just add to it”
This argument has the same flawed logic as Argument 1. You
typically start with 15 cards in your Extra Deck (which is the limit) and then
you get what’s essentially bonus cards on top of that, taking the Extra Deck
beyond 15 cards. Saying that’s ok, is like being pulled over for driving drunk
and telling the officer “It’s ok. I was at 0.05 (or whatever your legal limit
is) when I got in the car” No. It doesn’t work that way. We have limits for a
reason. Being allowed to break that limit, just makes Pendulum Summoning even
more broken.
Argument 4- “You win
or lose on the Pendulum Summon. Negate it and you win”
True. Yes, Pendulum Players usually push for game with a big
Pendulum Summon of 3-5 monsters. If you negate that summon, you usually win.
But that’s not the point. The point is having the ability to Summon that many
monsters at once is broken.
Anyway, comment below either on the post or on Duel Amino if
you got here from there. Do you agree with me? Do you disagree with me? I know
the game had to evolve to survive, but (apart from hating it) I just think Pendulum
Summoning as a whole was badly designed.
Big Dub out.
"We have limits for a reason. Being allowed to break that limit, just makes Pendulum Summoning even more broken."
ReplyDeleteI have a question on this one though, it doesn't necessarily allow you to add more extra-deck monsters to the deck, it just puts pendulum monsters on top of it, you still only have a max of 15 extra deck-specific monsters, pendulums don't give you a 16th monster in the extra deck that's a fusion, synchro or XYZ, it literally just puts a monster on top of it, there are no "limits" being broken here, if it somehow allowed you to put a 16th extra deck monster into it then that would be a problem, but currently, it can't just take a monster out of your side deck and add it to the extra deck, so I don't see the issue here.
I should note about my earlier comment, I'm not trying to argue either side about whether or not pendulum is balanced or overpowered, I'm simply not seeing the issue with that particular bit of criticism you brought up regarding the extra deck and I'd like to hear you explain it a bit further so that I may understand.
ReplyDeleteIt all comes to what you define as an Extra Deck Monster. For me, that definition is: Any monster, regardless of how it got there, that is summoned from the Extra Deck.
DeleteThat includes Pendulums
The 15 card limit is an "in total" limit, at least it was when it was designed. So once the total cards exceed 15 in total, the limit is being broken.
Big Dub
The way I define the Extra Deck is "A deck that is placed face-down and can only contain 15 _extra deck_ monsters(i.e. fusion, synchro, xyz)"
DeleteThe Pendulums which come from the normal deck being placed on top of the deck _face up_ I don't see as breaking any limits, again, it's not like it allows you to add more fusion, synchro or xyz monsters on top of the original 15, sure, the Fusion-Pendulums, Synchro-Pendulums and XYZ-Pendulums are placed on top of the extra deck, but those cards also have to be summoned _from_ the extra deck before they can be placed on top when destroyed.
Again, I'm not trying to argue for or against Pendulums in terms of balance, but I feel your thing with the extra deck is a bit of an unfounded criticism.
Again, if pendulums somehow allowed you to somehow add in more extra deck monsters than 15 then I'd see a problem, but as long as the deck still doesn't allow you to exceed 15 of any combination of the three cards, fusion, synchro, xyz, then as far as I see it, there is no limit being broken here, especially since when they're destroyed, they're placed _face up_ on the deck, not face down and then given different summoning materials as if they're actual extra deck monsters themselves, they're just placed face up there and then can be re-summoned through Pendulum summoning.
On a side note, I agree with you as far as things like Return and Dimension Fusion being banned while Pendulums are basically better, I'd love to see those two cards unbanned and see what kind of decks and strategies which revolve around removing a bunch of monsters from play then using one of those two cards to summon them all at once, I think it would be interesting at least to see, and I agree, if Pendulums can do their thing, then those cards are completely balanced due to their high, high cost and in some cases, outright reversal of their effects, I mean, there's a reason Power Bond isn't banned despite what ungodly powerful cards you can summon with it and how dangerous it can be to use in some cases.
Alright, one Pendulum Monster goes to the Extra Deck right? Assuming there have been no Xyz/Synchro/Fusion Summons yet, and the player began with 15 cards in the Extra Deck, how many cards now reside in the Extra Deck? 16 correct? 16 is higher than 15 and therefore breaks the limit.
DeleteI'm glad you agree with me on Soul Charge and Return though. I've had a few arguments with friends in the past who disagree completely.
Big Dub
You're missing the point here with the limit. I ask you, why is there a limit of 15 in the first place? It's so you don't have too many fusion/synchro/xyz monsters in your deck, if you place a pendulum on top of the extra deck, it's just moving one card from your regular deck, to the extra one, not breaking the limit of how many extra deck-specific monsters you can have.
ReplyDeleteI find it a bit difficult to get behind your logic as far as "breaking the limit" is concerned since, yes, technically you're breaking a limit, but what do you gain by "breaking the limit" in this scenario? You aren't suddenly getting a 16th extra deck monster, if anything, if you want an example of how you can _actually_ break the extra deck limit and end up with a 16th or even more extra deck-specific monsters at one time, go into a tag duel, have 15 extra deck monsters, have your teammate summon one or more extra deck monsters, have them be destroyed, go back to your turn eventually, then play Exchange of Spirit, boom, all cards in the grave become your deck, and by doing so, you add all extra deck monsters you had in the graveyard to _your_ extra deck, you then have 16+ extra deck-specific monsters in your extra deck, an actual break of the in-game limit.
Unlike pendulums, this actually could potentially give you an advantage since you now have the cards summonable again and if you're deck has tuners or something and the extra deck monster was a synchro, you can resummon it. This is an example of the actual limit being broken, and being done in a way that potentially does help.
Pendulums being placed on top of the extra deck just serves as their graveyard, nothing more, it doesn't break the limits, it doesn't allow you to add more extra deck-specific monsters in, so the 15 card limit on _extra deck monsters_ is not being touched, whereas the exchange of spirit example actually _does_ break the limit of how many you can have in the extra deck, since you now have 16+ extra deck-specific monsters.
When Pendulum was introduced I stopped playing current version of the game. I was all good with Synchro and XYZ, those I could stomach and adapt to, but Pendulum is just like, you lose no matter what unless you have a counter deck, or a better Pendulum deck. Now I make my own custom cards to play between friends because I don't trust whatever new bullshit they could come up with.
ReplyDeleteIt's quite funny to see how you come to a conclusion that Soul Charge is more balanced than Pendulum Summon, your comparison table just gets as moot as the fact that Soul Charge is currently banned for it being enabler of Extra Links, and easy Synchro/Xyz/Link Spam, also losing 1000 LP is not a cost, and even then, it didn't matter since you build the board anyways, also, the Battle Skip is just as moot as these arguments, it's been used first turn, guess what, you can't conduct your battle phase first turn anyways, Mass Graveyard recursion is more overpowered nowadays, which is why Soul Charge is strictly more overpowered than Pendulums, not saying the latter is extremely balanced.
ReplyDeleteI do agree that Pendulum are broken. But your arguments are... really terrible.
ReplyDelete"Pendulums allow you to have more than 15 cards in the Extra Deck." Sure. So what? The total limit (75 cards per deck) still exists. The Pendulums still take space in your Deck.
Your comparison with the floor breaking the glass really doesn't work at all, and doesn't negat the idea that the MECHANIC is not broken if it's OP because of the MONSTERS.
Then again, you are right, Pendulums ARE broken, and I can't believe so many people defend it on the net.
It allows you to summon 5 Monsters at the SAME TIME, no cost, and when these Monsters are defeated, they just go back STRAIGHT TO THE EXTRA DECK?!!!!
That's just retarded! You can destroy each and everyone of those monsters, they can just all go back the next turn!!! And if you destroy the cards who allow the Special Summon, there are so many ways to replace them or simply get them back!
That's just broken, pure and simply. The only reason it's not OP is because there are many more completely OP stuff in this game.
But those OP stuff were Monsters. The mechanics have all been pretty balanced compared to the previous ones. Pendulum was the only BROKEN MECHANIC, and that's the reason I quit playing this game although I love it. They went way too far with that one.
ima take my odd eyes pendulum dragon and leave especially due to the fact that if they rly where as broken as you claim them to be then why wouldn't they all be banned?
ReplyDelete