History Main / PoorPredictableRock

* Each of the main ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' games [[PlayingWithATrope play with this trope]] in various ways:
** In [[VideoGame/PokemonRedAndBlue Generation I]], almost every Pokémon's natural moveset consists entirely of moves of their type(s) and Normal-type moves, leaving little in the way of variety or coverage. While most are capable of using [=TMs=] to have more varied movesets, said [=TMs=] are single-use items and are often only attainable once per game. Later generations would let more Pokémon naturally learn moves of different types, however.
** [[VideoGame/PokemonRubyAndSapphire Generation III]] introduced the Wonder Guard ability, which takes this trope to its logical extreme by making the Pokémon that has it completely immune to any attack that does not do super-effective damage[[note]]Though non-standard types of damage, such as damage caused by weather effects, do not count as "attacks" and will still work[[/note]]. However, the only Pokémon with this ability is a OneHitpointWonder with five elemental weaknesses[[note]]Fire, Flying, Rock, Dark and Ghost[[/note]], including [[KryptoniteIsEverywhere Flying type, which almost every team is guaranteed to have at least one of]]. It's possible, though only in double battles, to use the move Skill Swap to move Wonder Guard onto a creature which has less weaknesses - most notably, the very same generation that introduced the ability also introduced Sableye, a Pokémon which, under normal circumstances, has [[GameBreaker no weaknesses]][[note]]although the player can use Odor Sleuth or Foresight to negate its immunity to Fighting-type moves, thereby revealing its weakness to them[[/note]]. Later generations [[{{Nerf}} nerfed]] this, though.
** [[VideoGame/PokemonDiamondAndPearl Generation IV]] subverts this trope with the introduction of the Solid Rock and Filter abilities, which reduce the power of super-effective attacks by 25%. The Solid Rock ability, however, plays with this trope even further and double-subverts it as the only Pokémon that can naturally have this ability are dual-type Pokémon with a 4x weakness to another type; [[UselessUsefulSpell reducing a 4x weakness to a 3x weakness is unlikely to stop the Fire/Ground-type Camerupt or Rock/Ground-type Rhyperior from fainting when they are hit by a strong Water-type attack, such as the ubiquitous Surf, used by a Pokémon of comparable level]].
** While it is entirely logical to attack the Water-type Goldeen or Seaking with an Electric-type move, the attacker might get a nasty surprise from [[VideoGame/PokemonBlackAndWhite Generation V]] onwards if said Goldeen/Seaking has the Lightning Rod ability, which averts this trope by not only making the Goldeen/Seaking immune to Electric-type attacks but also drawing all Electric-type moves to it and increasing its Special Attack by 1 stage each time it is hit by an Electric-type move.
** From Generation V onwards, Marill and Azumarill, both with the Water-type as their primary type, may avert this trope by having the Sap Sipper ability. Grass-type moves will increase their Attack stat instead of doing super-effective damage.
** The Ice-type move Freeze-Dry, introduced in [[VideoGame/PokemonXAndY Generation VI]], inverts this trope. Every other Ice-type attack does half damage against Water-type Pokémon; Freeze-Dry is super-effective against Water-types instead.
** The signature abilities of Primal Groudon and Mega Rayquaza in ''Pokémon Omega Ruby'' and ''Alpha Sapphire'' avert this trope in two different ways. Primal Groudon's ability, Desolate Land, completely shuts down all Water-type attacks, which would otherwise have 4x effectiveness against it and be a highly obvious choice of attack if the ability was not in effect. Mega Rayquaza's ability, Delta Stream, negates the effectiveness of moves that do super-effective damage to Flying-type Pokémon, causing them to do normal damage instead.
** Gym leaders from the earlier generations provide better examples of this trope being played straight. In particular, all the gym leaders in [[VideoGame/PokemonRedAndBlue Generation I]] (like Blaine and his Fire-type Pokémon, pictured above) play this trope straight by focusing almost exclusively on one type; the strategy to beating them is simply to raise Pokémon that can learn moves capable of hitting theirs for super-effective damage (such as Water-type attacks against Blaine's Pokémon). Sabrina then subverts this trope, however, since neither of her Psychic-type Pokémon's weaknesses are actually that helpful against her - Bug-type moves are pathetic in Generation I, and Ghost was entirely ineffective against Psychic in those games due to a programming error. Koga's gym, meanwhile, is supposed to specialize in Poison but also contains many Psychic Pokémon.
*** The Gym Leaders in Galar actually {{justif|iedTrope}}y this: the Gym Challenge involves trainers facing off against them to prove their talent and skill, and the early Leaders have to lower their Pokemon's performances because of this. When you rematch them at the end instead of the expected Elite Four challenge, their movepool has expanded to compensate for weaknesses.
** The Elite Four in all generations, as well as the gym leaders in later generations, play with this trope to the point of confusion. Some examples:
*** Lorelei from Generation I subverts this trope, as she runs a predominantly Ice-type team, except for her Slowbro, which is a dual Water/Psychic-type Pokémon, so an attempt to sweep her with a Fighting-type Pokémon might actually end quite badly. Alternatively, attempting to sweep her team with Fire-type attacks will also go badly because all of her Pokemon re partly Water-typed except Jinx.
*** Agatha from Generation I theoretically specializes in Ghost but ''actually'' specializes in Poison (to the point of having an Arbok, which is ''pure Poison''), and further averts this trope with her Golbat, which is the only Pokémon on her team that is also a Flying-type. Good luck [[NoSell trying to knock it out]] with [[DishingOutDirt Earthquake or Dig]].
*** Whitney is the WakeUpCallBoss in [[VideoGame/PokemonGoldAndSilver Generation II]] for only one reason: her Miltank. It's a Normal-type Pokémon, so it may initially look like Fighting-type bait. However, this trope gets subverted since the only Fighting-type Pokémon available at the point when the player has to defeat her is a Machop that is obtained from an in-game trade, and even with said Machop, Miltank's impressive Speed and bulk, coupled with its Stomp and Milk Drink moves, means that it can easily hold out against the Machop if the player is unlucky enough or unprepared[[note]]Stomp has a 30% chance of causing the Pokémon that was hit to flinch and not do anything for one turn—it is also stronger because it is a Normal-type move, so Miltank gets a same type attack bonus—which gives Miltank one extra turn to use Milk Drink, which restores up to 50% of its HP[[/note]]. It's even worse in the remakes, where Miltank comes packing the Scrappy ability, which allows it to hit Ghost-types. Thought you were being smart by catching a Gastly in Bellsprout Tower? Nope.
*** Jasmine from Generation II provides an example of this trope being slightly subverted with her Steelix. Her two Magnemite will get one-shotted by a strong enough Fighting- or Ground-type attack, but because Steelix has one of the highest Defense stats in the games, even the strongest physical super-effective attacks are unlikely to knock Steelix out in one hit unless the attacking Pokémon is significantly overleveled.
*** Winona from Generation III averts this trope by having a Flying-type team[[note]]weak to Electric-type moves[[/note]] that includes an Altaria which knows Earthquake[[note]]super-effective against Electric-type Pokémon[[/note]].
*** Juan averts this trope twice in ''Pokémon Emerald'' by having, in his Water-type lineup, the dual Water/Ground-type Whiscash[[note]]so it {{No Sell}}s Electric-type attacks[[/note]] and dual Water/Dragon-type Kingdra[[note]]which not only negates the effectiveness of any Grass-type attack that can otherwise sweep through all of Juan's other Pokémon, including the aforementioned Whiscash, but also negates the Water-type's weakness to Electric-type attacks[[/note]].
*** Thinking of using a Fighting-type Pokémon against Elite Four Sidney in Generation III? Watch out—aversions of this trope on his team are his Shiftry, which knows Extrasensory[[note]]does super-effective damage against Fighting-type Pokémon[[/note]], and, in ''Omega Ruby'' and ''Alpha Sapphire'', his Cacturne, which knows Spiky Shield[[note]]blocks any physical attack, of which most Fighting-type attacks are, and damages the attacker a little if Spiky Shield blocked a physical attack; also causes moves like High Jump Kick to miss, resulting in the attacker taking both crash damage ''and'' damage from Spiky Shield[[/note]].
*** Crasher Wake, the Water-type gym leader in Generation IV, averts this trope with all of his three Pokémon, each with varying secondary types and/or movepools to handle ''both'' Electric- and Grass-type Pokémon—Gyarados to weaken physical attackers with its Intimidate ability and slow down Grass-types due to its Water/Flying-type making Grass-type moves do normal, instead of super-effective, damage; Quagsire to wall Electric-types with its dual Water/Ground-typing; and Floatzel, a fast and powerful Water-type Pokémon packing a moveset that includes Crunch[[note]]a relatively powerful Dark-type attack that may also reduce the target's Defense[[/note]] and Ice Fang[[note]]to deal immense damage to Grass-type Pokémon, especially the Turtwig line[[/note]].
*** Burgh from Generation V has a Dwebble on his Bug-type team. Dwebble averts this trope as it is a dual Bug/Rock-type, which negates the effectiveness of Fire- and Flying-type attacks on it.
*** [[WebAnimation/ZeroPunctuation Yahtzee]] was screwed by an aversion of this trope when he reviewed ''White''; specifically, when he went up against [[ShockAndAwe Elesa]]:
--->'''Yahtzee:''' There was a Gym fairly early on that might as well had a giant sign saying "We use Electric types!" Every guy in the city asked me non too subtly how I was for Ground type Pokémon, and the whole area was lousy with Ground random encounters. So after [[LevelGrinding grinding]] my newly captured Groundie lads for an hour I challenge the Gym Leader and what does she pull out? A fucking '''Flying''' Electric type! And guess what '''Flying''' types [[NoSell are immune to]]. I'll give you a hint: It rhymes with pound-ing nails into my eyesocket.
*** Roxie provides an interesting subversion with her Poison-type gym in ''VideoGame/PokemonBlack2AndWhite2''. Although both her Pokémon are weak to Psychic- and Ground-type attacks, none of the Pokémon the player has met so far will learn such attacks within their immediate level range.
*** Marlon from ''Black 2'' and ''White 2'' plays this trope straight with his Water-type Pokémon. Although his Carracosta has [[LastChanceHitPoint Sturdy]], his entire team is still easy prey for Grass- and Electric-type attacks.
*** Shauntal and Caitlin, the Ghost- and Psychic-type Unova Elite Four respectively in Generation V, play this trope straight, with all their Pokémon sharing a common weakness to Dark-type attacks. A single Krookodile can Crunch both their teams into dust.
*** Viola from Generation VI averts this trope by running the dual Bug/Water-type Surskit in her Bug-type team, which can counter Fire-type Pokémon (such as Fennekin, the Fire-type starter) with Water Sport[[note]]halves the power of Fire-type moves[[/note]] and Bubble[[note]]super-effective against Fire-types and may also lower their Speed stat[[/note]]. Her other Pokémon, Vivillon, plays this trope straight as it doesn't know its signature move, Powder, which [[HoistByHisOwnPetard blows Fire-type attacks up in the attacker's face]].
*** There's also Grant, the Generation VI Rock-type gym leader, whose two Fossil Pokémon avert this trope with their respective counters—Amaura has a secondary Ice-type as well as the Refrigerate ability, which turns its Take Down attack into an Ice-type move that can easily annihilate any Grass-type Pokémon it is pitted against; Tyrunt is a dual Rock/Dragon-type Pokémon, which on its own negates the super-effectiveness of Water- and Grass-type moves against it.
*** Generation VI's Grass-type gym leader, Ramos, plays this trope nearly dead straight. Apart from his Gogoat knowing Bulldoze, which can do a number on non-flying Fire-type Pokémon, his entire team is pure fodder for Flying- and Fire-type attacks.
*** Got those Steel- and Poison-type attacks to take on Valerie's Fairy-type Pokémon in Generation VI? Her first one is [[OxymoronicBeing the dual Steel/Fairy-type Mawile]], which averts this trope as it takes regular damage from Steel-type attacks and is ''completely damn immune'' to Poison-type moves! What's more is that its Fairy type negates Steel's weakness to Fighting.
*** Wulfric's Ice-type team in Generation VI plays with this trope in at least two ways on their own (and he even [[LampshadeHanging lampshades it]]). Abomasnow plays it straight with its 4x weakness to Fire-type moves and average defences, but his Cryogonal and Avalugg have very high special defense and physical defense stats respectively, letting them endure even super-effective hits and ensuring they're not a complete pushover.
*** Wikstrom, the Kalos Elite Four who specialises in Steel-type Pokémon, does a grand job averting this trope with three of his four Pokémon—Klefki, a part Fairy-type, takes neutral damage from Fighting-type moves, Probopass takes neutral damage from Fire-type moves due to its secondary Rock-type and has Sturdy as its ability, and Aegislash, being a part Ghost-type, is immune to Fighting-type moves and has King's Shield, a move that nullifies damage taken for one turn in addition to reducing the attacking Pokémon's Attack stat if they used a physical attack against it.
*** Due to a lack of dragon variety, Raihan plays things a little differently and engages the player in Double battles during the Gym Challenge. He will always open with Gigalith and Flygon to exploit the hell out of Sandstorm, and Gigalith can crush any Ice-types that challenge Flygon. Thought to bring a Fairy with you? His ace is Duraludon, who is part Steel and will exploit that to Max Steelstrike your fairies into next week without the slightest hesitation. Just to further discourage Ice-type abuse, in the rematch tournament he opens with a Drought Torkoal, which will power his Lava Plume to melt your Ice-types and allow Solar Beam spam to destroy anything that could typecast it.
** ''VideoGame/PokemonDiamondAndPearl'' ended up featuring quite a few subversions, not because the developers were trying to make things more challenging, but because the Sinnoh Dex's lack of diversity forced them into a corner. The most blatant example is Elite 4 member Flint, a Fire-type specialist who only had two Fire-types on his five-member team because the only Fire evolution lines in the Sinnoh Dex were the obligatory Fire starter and the Ponyta line. When [[UpdatedRerelease Platinum]] expanded the Sinnoh Dex significantly, the Gym Leaders and Elite 4 members got updated teams to better match their specialties.
** All the games have trainer classes like Swimmer and Bug Catcher that openly broadcast their type specialty. But there's at least one Fisherman per game who takes it to a whole new level, by having an entire team of ''Magikarp'', a pathetically weak Pokémon that can only learn 3 attacks, one of which does nothing whatsoever... and these Magikarp specialists are often strict devotees of the do-nothing move. Inexplicably, they are just as eager to fight you as trainers with non-useless mons. Some of them, however, will have a few Magikarps and [[MagikarpPower a Gyarados]], which can catch you off-guard if you're expecting another pushover opponent. Most trainers in general will either use the same Pokémon in their lineup or use Pokémon based on the same or similar types. Certain trainers like Ace Trainers will use a more varied team, which makes battling them more tricky.
* Averted almost entirely in ''VideoGame/PokemonColosseum'' and [[VideoGame/PokemonXDGaleOfDarkness its sequel]]. Only a handful of Trainers in ''Colosseum'' (and most are effectively tutorial fights, the only other being Miror B., a noted eccentric character) and almost none in ''XD'' (only 2 Trainers, both carrying it over from ''Colosseum'', plus a series of IneffectualSympatheticVillain characters), stick to a single type/species. Even the enemy Grunts have ''far'' more variety than typical.
** Speaking of enemy Grunts, the only enemy teams whose Grunts aren't armed with the same old Pokémon happen to be Team Snagem and Cipher. You can expect Zubat and Rattata on any Rocket Grunt you find (replace Zubat with any old Poison-type if you want variety), and Team Galactic is similarly armed. You can also ALWAYS expect a Poochyena or Mightyena on both Teams Magma and Aqua, as well as a Fire- or Water-type, respectively. Even Team Plasma is not immune, though they're a bit closer to the Orre villains in terms of variety, but when a disturbingly large number pack [[DemonicSpiders Watchog]]...
** In ''VideoGame/PokemonSunAndMoon'', [[spoiler:the Aether Foundation follows in the footsteps of Cipher by having its Employees use a wide variety of evolved Pokémon, making them far more of a threat than the Team Skull Grunts faced prior.]]
** ''VideoGame/PokemonSwordAndShield'':
*** The [[spoiler:Macro Cosmos corporation contracts workers]] utilize Steel-type Pokemon to shut out any threats, and have a decent variety thereof to help contain the Poison-type [[spoiler:Eternatus]]... except many of them are critically weak to Fire, and [[spoiler:Eternatus]] turns out to know Flamethrower. Most damning is that [[spoiler:Chairman Rose]] is victim to this trope and can be flushed with just a Cinderace and a Bewear. The exception is [[spoiler:Oleana]], who has a more diverse team that leans towards Poison.
*** Averted with Leon. As the Champion he has a varied team but going into the fight his ace and Dynamax is obviously going to be his Charizard. The obvious counter is a Rock- or Water-type which are both resistant to Fire-type attacks and have moves that are Super Effective on Charizard. However Leon's Charizard has the Max Knuckles and Max Lightning moves which are a hard counter to Rock or Water.
* Averted in the crossover ''VideoGame/PokemonConquest'', Where most Warlords have a junior Warrior whose Pokemon is strong against the Kingdom's common weakness. For example, Ginchiyo's Electric types are weak to Ground, but Muneshige uses Flying Pokemon which are immune. On the other hand, each Pokemon only uses one attack, and you can see the list of enemy Pokemon beforehand, so there's no chance of them whipping out a surprise super-effective move

* When Ax was hit with an alien disease (which affected the human Animorphs too, but only gave them the flu), Erek played some Rock/Paper/Scissors with him to pass the time. He understood why scissors beat paper and why rock beat scissors, but not why paper beat rock. That's why he ended up owing Erek a million and four dollars.

** Of course, in [[spoiler: the Battle with [[BonusBoss Margaret]] in ''VideoGame/{{Persona 4}}'', a skilled Soloist can take advantage of this to get free heals!]]

* In the newer ''Franchise/{{Persona}}'' games, the protagonist is the only one who can switch Personae. Everyone else is stuck with one, and until you can evolve their persona (and sometimes even afterwards), they're limited to a few elements and typically have a weakness that reflects that. Chie for instance, specializes in Ice attacks [[spoiler:until you get Teddie, in which case she switches to physical]], and has a weakness toward fire until you [[LevelUpAtIntimacy5 Max her Social Link]]. The game is aware of this, so whenever you're forced to have a character in your party (more common in ''VideoGame/{{Persona 3}}'', but not unheard of in the early parts of 4) the boss will ''always'' have an attack of that type.
** Of course, in [[spoiler:The Battle with Margaret in ''VideoGame/{{Persona 4}}'', a skilled Soloist can take advantage of this to get free heals!]]

Interestingly in actual rock-scissors-paper, throwing the same hand every time is a valid tactic against an inexpert opponent. Basically nobody expects a player to play the same hand twice or more. There are even [[http://www.worldrps.com/how-to-beat-anyone-at-rock-paper-scissors names for the tactic, among those who care about such things]]. Also, rock is statistically the most used play, particularly among beginners.

* People actually tend to pick rock more often in rock paper scissors, most likely due to poor reaction time and the fact that, when playing, the hand is already in a fist.

** In ''VideoGame/PokemonSwordAndShield'', [[spoiler:the Macro Cosmos corporation contracts workers who utilize Steel-type Pokemon to shut out any threats, and have a decent variety thereof to help contain the Poison-type Eternatus... except many of them are critically weak to Fire, and Eternatus turns out to know Flamethrower. Most damning is that Chairman Rose is victim to this trope and can be flushed with just a Cinderace and a Bewear. The exception is Oleana, who has a more diverse team that leans towards Poison.]]

* After learning Sage Mode in ''Fanfic/SonOfTheSannin'', Naruto's entire fighting style begins to revolve around it, which becomes a serious problem when his enemies take out his clones before they can gather the nesscesary nature energy and leave him with nothing sustantial to fall back on. His situational awareness in battle also atrophied because he relied on Sage Mode's sensory abilities.

** ''Anime/YuGiOhGX'': Misawa tries to shut-down Judai's Fusion strategy by prohibiting him from playing Polymerization, even though Judai has other cards to perform Fusion Summons. It's not enough, thanks to Judai's [[WebVideo/YuGiOhGXAbridged plot device cards]], he wins without Fusions.
*** Similarly in season 4, a younger student tries to counter Judai's Fusion strategy with Horus the Black Flame Dragon [=LV8=] which negates and destroy all of Judai's Spell Cards. However, Judai's deck evolved so much since season 1 that he doesn't need Spell Cards to use Fusion Monsters anymore. So he beats Horus up with good old Neos.

* [[spoiler:Subverted hard]] in ''Anime/PokemonJourneysTheSeries''. When going up against a team of Pokémon poachers trying to capture the legendary Pokémon Suicine, Go goes into the battle armed with a newly-caught Drowzee specifically to exploit its [[ElementalRockPaperScissors type advantage]] against the poachers' stable of all Poison-type creatures. This goes as planned until the leader of the poachers turns this on its head by revealing he had a Houndoom (part-Dark-type and thus [[NoSell completely immune]] to the Psychic-type Drowzee), which goes to town on the poor Drowzee until Ash arrives on the scene with his Pikachu and Lucario to back Go up.

* [[spoiler:Subverted hard]] in ''Anime/PokemonJourneysTheSeries''. When going up against a team of Pokémon poachers trying to capture the legendary Pokémon Suicine, Go goes into the battle armed with a newly-caught Drowzee specifically to exploit its [[ElementalRockPaperScissors type advantage]] against the poachers' stable of all Poison-type creatures. This goes as planned until the leader of the poachers turns this on its head by revealing he had a Houndoom (part-Dark-type and thus [[NoSell completely immune]] to the Psychic-type Drowzee), who goes to town on the poor Drowzee until Ash arrives on the scene with Pikachu and Lucario to back Go up.

* [[spoiler:Subverted hard]] in ''Anime/PokemonJourneysTheSeries''. When going up against a team of Pokémon poachers trying to capture the legendary Pokémon Suicine, Go goes into the battle armed with a newly-caught Drowzee specifically to exploit its [[ElementalRockPaperScissors type advantage]] against the poachers' stable of all Poison-type creatures. This goes as planned until the leader turns this on its head by revealing he had a Houndoom (part-Dark-type and thus [[NoSell completely immune]] to the Psychic-type Drowzee), who goes to town on the poor Drowzee until Ash arrives on the scene with Pikachu and Lucario to back Go up.

* [[spoiler:Subverted hard]] in ''Anime/PokemonJourneysTheSeries''. When going up against a team of Pokémon poachers trying to capture the legendary Pokémon Suicine, Go goes into the battle armed a newly-caught Drowzee specifically to exploit its [[ElementalRockPaperScissors type advantage]] against the poachers' stable of all Poison-type creatures. This goes as planned until the leader turns this on its head by revealing he had a Houndoom (part-Dark-type and thus [[NoSell completely immune]] to the Psychic-type Drowzee), who goes to town on the poor Drowzee until Ash arrives on the scene with Pikachu and Lucario to back Go up.

Curious tendency observed in ElementalRockPaperScissors universes, where one element will beat another. (Water beats Fire, Fire beats Ice, etc.) These universes often have someone who will completely devote themselves to a particular element. Sometimes they will have entire [[ElementalNation cultures with that devotion]].

...what that means is that they have some ''very'' obvious weaknesses. Curiously, usually only the heroes get the idea of diversifying their elements. Either that, or the one-element specialists are fully aware of their situation and develop various tricks and techniques that allow them to defend, to varying degrees, against those elements which counter theirs -- so that ScissorsCutsRock. In some settings, this could even be seen as a kind of MinMaxing -- specializing in one element to the point where you can just brute-force your way past a more generalist opponent, at the potential cost of losing hard to ''other'' specialists who counter your element.

*** Lorelei from Generation I subverts this trope, as she runs a predominantly Ice-type team, except for her Slowbro, which is a dual Water/Psychic-type Pokémon, so an attempt to sweep her with a Fighting-type Pokémon might actually end quite badly.

* In ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'', this is built right into the game's mechanics. Each of the five colors lends itself to two or three basic strategies and weaknesses, but adding more colors to cover for each other makes it difficult to play spells reliably. On the other hand, Magic (and ''TabletopGame/YuGiOh'') allow the use of fifteen-card side decks in three-round matches, so between games you can swap out cards to counter your opponent's strategies or cover for particular vulnerabilities your opponent is hitting. Of course, nobody in the anime or manga plays three-round matches, making their extreme-theming all the sillier.
** Well, TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering has [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=5698 these]] [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Paper+Tiger three]] [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=5648 cards]], but they are a very uncommon example from a joke edition.
** Tournament [[TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering Magic]] is ''heavily'' based on rock-paper-scissors. Decks frequently fall into one of three categories: aggressive, combination, or control (aggro, combo, and control). Sometimes decks can play as either of two roles, but not as well as a deck truly dedicated to that role. The three roles fall into a rock-paper-scissors scenario: Aggro decks play multiple redundant threats to keep the pressure on and overwhelm Control decks. Combo decks use cards that are individually relatively weak but synergize to create powerful effects that can overcome even the strong threats from an Aggro deck. Control decks focus on defense foremost and use card-removal effects to dismantle combos -- if a Control deck removes one part of a three-card combo, it cripples the whole combo, while removing one of three Aggro deck cards will leave the other two to continue attacking.

* Done literally in ''Manga/{{Kinnikuman}}''. One of the Choujin Olympic events is a game of Rock-Paper-Scissors. Kinnikuman gets paired up against Kane Base[[note]]"Kane" means "crab"[[/note]]. Having crab pincers for hands, Kane Base can only choose scissors, so Kinnikuman easily wins choosing rock. Kane Base then returns at the next Olympics, having one of his pincers replaced with a human-like hand. However, the hand doesn't actually move, leaving it stuck choosing paper. Kinnikuman again wins easily by choosing scissors.

* People, actually tend to pick rock more often in rock paper scissors than could be explained by chance alone.

Interestingly in actual rock-scissors-paper, throwing the same hand every time is a valid tactic against an inexpert opponent. Basically nobody expects a player to play the same hand twice or more. There are even [[http://www.worldrps.com/how-to-beat-anyone-at-rock-paper-scissors names for the tactic, among those who care about such things]]. Also, rock is statistically the most used play, particularly among male beginners.

* People, especially men, actually tend to pick rock more often in rock paper scissors than could be explained by chance alone. It may have something to do with how tough a closed fist seems.

* A CyclicTrope for the ''TabletopGane/{{Pokemon}} Trading Card Game''. Just like with ''Magic'', having a deck be one or two Energy types (the equivalent of colors) makes a deck easy to use. However, how easy it is to use a deck with three or more Energy types varies over time, depending on whether or not there are recently-released cards designed to facilitate this, such as Energy Search or Rainbow Energy. (The card game's tournament rotation allows only the past several sets to be used in tournaments, banning all cards released before a certain date.)