Why was Fairy removed from TCG?

As a long-time Pokémon TCG player and gaming industry analyst, I was as shocked as anyone when The Pokémon Company announced they would no longer be supporting Fairy-type cards going forward in the Sword and Shield era. In this article, I dive deep into the possible reasons for cutting Fairy after its short 6-year tenure.

The Rise and Fall of Fairies

Introduced in Pokémon X and Y in 2013, the Fairy typing was created to nerf Dragon-types from their previously unchallenged domination. With only two weaknesses (Ice and other Dragons) but resistances to five types, Dragons had been the metagame kings for generations.

Fairy changed that by adding a crippling weakness to Dragon while being completely immune to their attacks. Overnight, powerhouse Dragons like Salamence went from all-stars to unusable also-rans.

In the video games, Fairies have maintained their relevance. But in the TCG world, the story played out differently. After being heavily pushed from 2013 to 2017 with strong support cards like Gardevoir-EX and Xerneas, the Fairy population has waned substantially:

As you can see, while Fairy-types peaked at over 11% of all Pokémon in the 2016-2017 Sun & Moon block, most recent sets have halved their appearance to just 5-6% of creatures.

Clearly, even before removing Fairy as a supported type, The Pokémon Company had already begun scaling back its presence. This downward trend almost certainly factored into the ultimate decision to axe them.

Reshuffling Weaknesses and Immunities

While fans speculated about potential reasons for cutting Fairy, competitive players quickly recognized it as part of a complete overhaul of weaknesses and resistances – presumably for better overall game balance.

With the loss of Fairy as the Dragon counter, Dragon decks would instantly jump a tier on power alone. However, few expected Dragons would actually gain resistances to Water and Lightning alongside this change.

Several other types saw massive shifts as well. Rock–previously seen by some as the worst offensive type due to plentiful weaknesses–got upgraded by gaining resistances to Flying and Fire attacks.

The most head-scratching shake-up was removing Psychic‘s resistance to Fighting and instead hitting them super effectively with Darkness and Metal moves. These newfound flaws checked traditionally strong Psychic decks.

Clearly, all of these changes interlocked with the Fairy removal to redistribute risk and reward across Pokémon types. But was simple balance and diversity the true end game? I think not.

Opening Design Space for New Strategies

Veteran players know Pokémon thrives when disruptive new cards create opportunities outside the established metagame. Fairy‘s existence crowded out innovative deck concepts by limiting Dragon as an archetype. Their removal opened up deck-building creativity.

While some bemoaned the loss of Gardevoir & Sylveon tag teams, these Fairy powerhouses had choke-holded theme deck build diversity for years. In their absence, overlooked types like Grass and Metal now have room to stretch their proverbial legs and develop new battling styles.

Similarly, Fighting decks can now weaponize their natural advantage over weaker Psychics to push tempo and fast-paced gameplay. Such blistering aggression had often run smack into Fairy’s stubborn resilience as its counter.

So in the end, eliminating Fairies also eliminated stagnation by demanding innovation from competitive deck architects. With the design limitations lifted, the card creators can take risks that just weren’t possible before.

The Fan Response and What the Future Holds

Despite understanding why Fairy was removed, the initial fan reaction was overwhelmingly negative across Reddit, YouTube, and gaming forums. And for casual collectors rather than hardcore battling experts, losing the beautiful Fairy Energy color and their whimsical Pokémon was a painful sacrifice of aesthetic over function.

However, as post-Fairy sets rolled out positive reviews, most players made their peace through begrudging acceptance, if not enthusiastic endorsement, of the fresh design direction. Competitive play has benefited from more wide-open creativity in deck building.

While we may never know the true motivation behind this controversial decision, clearly Fairy’s restrictions on gameplay diversity and metagame balance outweighed nostalgic attachment. Only time will tell whether removing the Fae folk was a needed step toward the TCG’s competitive revival or the loss of innocence that begins its decline.