One of the weirdest and most short-lived experiences in Pokémon TCG history was Prop 15/3. Players and developers alike were getting frustrated with the direction the card game was taking. Decks that celebrated diversity and were full of the iconic creatures from the franchise...were kind of bad.
Instead the game revolved entirely around stacking your deck with dozens of Trainer Cards and reusing the same handful of 'mons over and over again because nothing else was strong enough to compete. On top of that the Trainer Cards in the game were just too damn strong.
Sure, I could try to find room in my deck for my favorite pocket monster...but isn't discarding my opponent's entire hand on the first turn of the game blatantly more effective?
Base-Gym's Many, Many Problems
As a result, decks didn't look anything like the cute starter decks and intro packs that were lovingly crafted by the game's creators. The game's flawed mechanics actively encouraged the player to cut down to the lowest number of creatures and Energy Cards possible (a problem that's never really been fixed), in favor of the powerful and free-to-play Trainer Cards.
This was not helped along by the existence of the trapper combo, a combination attack that left your opponent's hand empty.
Or Erika's Jigglypuff, a card that could output enough damage to instantly knock out most Basics on the first turn of the game.
Or Super Energy Removal, which gatekept most evolutions out of the game single-handedly, since removing two Energy Cards from the opponent left them completely unable to charge up their big, flashy attacks.
While the reality is that it was just a handful of cards causing problems, there was still a general consensus that the game had some serious systemic issues. It had become too fast and too cutthroat for most of the cards in the format to see the light of day.
Japan's answer to these problems was the Hall of Fame Format, which I'll likely write a post about eventually. But over here, Wizards of the Coast only really tried to address this issue once. Their improvised solution was Prop 15/3.
The premise of the format is extremely simple. You may only use 15 Trainers in your deck, and only 3 of each card instead of 4. The obvious thought process here is that it forces players to play more creatures and makes the game slower and less consistent (for better and for worse).
Unfortunately, the experiment wasn't well-received at the time. The general consensus is that games came down to whoever drew their Trainers first and were too swingy and inconsistent. The format lasted for all of one day, at one tournament (The 2000 East Coast Super Trainer Showdown) and was never brought up in an official context again.
However, that hasn't stopped fans from revisiting the format in the modern era. It's not nearly as widely played as something like Base-Fossil or RS-PK, but it's still a neat little format to explore.
The Prop 15/3 Experience
This is a format where awkward support 'mons shine brighter than they ever did in the standard game. Consistency boosting attacks and powers are far more important than they are in other formats, even when you have to bend over backwards for them.
There's also less Removal running around. Even if a player wants to fully commit to Energy Removal, Super Energy Removal, and Item Finder (to reuse them), they only get 3 copies of each instead of 4.
It's also a much more questionable investment when you're sacrificing most of your deck's Trainer count, so the tradition is to play less copies of each.
This allows Evolution decks to thrive in a way that they really don't in any of the other Generation 1 formats.
Koga's Pidgey (lv 9) experiences perhaps the biggest glow-up out of any card in the game in this format. There's very little reason to run it in the other formats, where you have access to so much draw and search power that this dorky little card seems trivial.
But in a format where every Trainer slot matters? Where powerful cards like Gust of Wind are relegated to being one-of inclusions, just to eat up less space?
Yeah, in this format that dorky little search effect is way more impactful, especially on a Colorless Basic. If I had to choose one card to be the face of Prop 15/3, it would be this one.
It's far from the only card that got a boost, though. Let's look at a few cards that are much more important than usual.
In regular formats, Jungle Kangaskhan tends to be seen as either the worst good card or the best bad card, depending on who you ask. It's at the cusp of viability, but only fits in certain decks.
But in Prop 15/3, a 90 HP basic that just sits there drawing cards is actually really good. Many more games come down to getting your evolutions out as fast as possible, and Kangaskhan does a good job of helping you get there while sponging hits from more aggro-minded opponents. Just remember that you only get 3 copies of Double Colorless Energy. Better make it count!
Dark Dragonair is another absurdly good pick for the format. You can play it by itself, grabbing Evolution cards every turn to set up your board with relative ease, or you can add in Dark Dragonite as another extremely powerful searcher.
The full Evolution line will cost you a good deal of deck space, but it's hard to argue against it considering what an insane value engine it is. These cards were only worth a side-eyed glance in Base-Rocket and Base-Gym, but they stand proudly as a powerful core in Prop 15/3.
Both versions of Brock's Mankey see serious play. The one with Taunt mostly exists to give you a Gust of Wind effect that isn't reliant on trainers, though it's far from a mandatory inclusion.
But it's the one with Karate Chop that you really want to find space for. It's one of the cleanest answers to the many powerful colorless-types that creep into the format, as well as a one-shot on Base Electabuzz. Having dual-utility as a pivot certainly doesn't hurt, but try to keep it healthy if you can.
Fossil Slowpoke is actually an underappreciated card in the more popular formats, but it REALLY makes a splash in Prop 15/3. It turns out that being allowed to reuse your trainers when each player is only allowed 15 Trainers is a massive advantage. Who would've guessed?
Cards that can deal with this guy quickly, most notably Sabrina's Abra, are extremely important to the format. Otherwise a single Slowpoke might lock you out of the game by reusing Removal cards until you're dead in the water.
Of course, these are far from the only cards you'll see in the format. Blaine's Rapidash, Brock's Golbat, Dark Kadabra, Sabrina's Alakazam, and Koga's Beedrill are just a handful of the Evolution cards that suddenly enter the conversation with the restrictions of Prop 15/3 in place.
I wouldn't go so far as to call it "balanced" and the complaints that it's a very swingy format weren't entirely misplaced, but it's a beast unlike any other Generation 1 format. And for what it's worth, I'd at least take a game of this over a game of Base-Gym or Base-Rocket. Wizards was onto something at the time, even if they didn't quite stick the landing.
Closing Thoughts
Players in 2000 dismissed the idea as "well-meaning but pointless." The players of the time didn't think about ways to really capitalize on the format's limitations, instead opting to play mostly the same types of decks, just with less Trainers.
It's easy to look back with modern knowledge and wonder how no one realized that they should be loading up their decks with copies of Dark Dragonair and Koga's Pidgey and Jungle Kangaskhan, but that just wasn't a mentality that players were used to at the time. Nowadays splashing supportive 'mons into a deck is just common sense, but the players of 2000 had only ever experienced formats where Trainers did all the work and big Basics were king.
So we shouldn't be surprised that they weren't actually ready for a sudden upheaval of everything they were used to, even if player sentiment before the tournament was optimistic. They just didn't have the resources and skillsets that we've accumulated in the time since then, after all. When your best resources are Pojo and a small circle of friends, it's kind of hard to develop a whole new format out of thin air!
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