I Love The Game/Hate How People Play

Why not make counter decks?

At least that is what i'm trying to doas well, make counter decks against those meta decks, i mean i don't have that many cards yet, but i don't play with premade decks, i rotate between several of my decks, you can try using ERI, this card allows you to discard two of your opponent's item cards, usually they try getting Charizard ex with rare candy, against chien-pao you can try using pokemon that knock energy off, like a regular flareon, slowking or a lugia, or use pokemon that instantly knock your opponent's pokemon out in combination with trainer cards that allow you to take extra prize cards, plenty of strategy if you ask me, im at a 45 vs 62 w/l but tbf im experimenting, i also need to collect more cards to improve and make better decks, even coinflip decks can be powerful, holding your opponent hostage using rescue board in combination with Fezandipiti with Adrena-Pheromone in combination with darkness energy and brute bonnet with toxic powder can also work, or keep your opponent's pokemon confused while you snipe their bench :) i nearly won with just a Vaporeon Ex this way, you can even build a deck without any abilities and use cofagrigus to counter your opponent's ability pokemons.

Just think about what kind of deck you would like to play with and build it, power decks? stall decks? burst decks? disrupt decks? ability decks? no ability decks, heal decks?

Meta is a load of nonsense, people just think their decks are op, until someone comes along and builds a counter deck, then suddenly there is a new meta deck and the circle continues, which is the fatal flaw of meta gaming, its so popular it also gets countered faster unlike your own made decks, which bare to non might know about, and what even happens when players face eachother with meta decks? a draw is rare in this game.

For instance you could use a xaatu/mewto ex deck using a flareon ex over a chien-pao/baxcalibur deck, basically they do the same thing, with the exception of discarding, so the former deck is more powerful than the premade meta deck imo, yet you see the chien-pao deck more often.

Just play with the decks/pokemons you like, they aren't worse then the meta decks, i won games that seemed lost but i managed to turn the game around at a 2/6 and 1/6 prize card difference, where i still had 6 prize cards, and win unexpectedly, most of these meta decks fall off hard once you knock out their powerhouse.

Than i fail to see the problem, you can't control someone else's choice, alot of new players are also given the same decks, so your're bound to encounter these decks alot, isn't TS saying they are conceding when facing such decks?

I mean ts said it was like a recipe you cooked, that it means they wouldn't be skilled, Ts'd be surprised by how many fail to put down the same dish just following the recipe, a good deck doesn't mean anything, i sometimes get impatient and attack my opponent for instance, if i had waited i would've won the game instead of losing by giving them the advantage, strategy also means to apply what you have in the best possible way you can think of, and even try to think ahead, alot of games are pretty much like this, take chess for instance, pro chess players know known moves, the downside of these moves is that they are known and have known counters, they both get the exact same setup, same pieces and same possible moves, by that standard this game is pretty versatile.

yeah i play with my own decks too, i find that much more fun than any premade deck, i even try out new decks instantly in ranked, i don't have that many cards yet though.