These are so much less exciting than theme decks since they don't have a PTCGO format and don't release in-sync with sets.
First of all, there aren’t enough of these decks to build a format and they don’t go very well with the theme deck format. For instance, the V itself gives the deck an extraordinary powerful attacker. They had to remove cards like Professor so that these decks don’t dominate theme decks in casual play (although most kids are going to change the lists of any theme deck fairly quickly, not because they think that they can “improve” the list but because they want to use other cards that they have in their collection), as well as making sure to exclude any cards that would allow you to withdraw the V from the discard pile, but it still doesn’t make for the healthiest format. For another thing, I agree that not releasing these decks alongside the set is a bit of a letdown, but I think that TPCI made a smart move in largely disassociating quarterly V Battle Decks with quarterly expansions because it allows for the use of cards from earlier sets, including PROMOs of older Vs. This allows for more flexibility in Pokémon choice, which often leads to more interesting selections of Pokémon that have interesting effects.
I am a little confused about why the second deck contains Noivern V and not Duraludon V, but to be honest there are probably more kids interested in Noivern than Duraludon. Funnily enough, Noivern V will be the first Pokémon V in a V Battle Deck that doesn’t have a VMAX.
In any case, the purpose of Theme Decks and V Battle Decks is to make kids happy. The one thing that theme decks were lacking were the “big shiny cards” that you can find in most products. In a Theme Deck you get no Ultra Rares, while in an EX/GX/V Box you get a guaranteed Ultra Rare promo and a high chance of getting another Ultra Rare. Adding Vs to theme decks was not merely a cash grab… it actually improved the product, because now the kids can get a fun, “rare” card, the type of card that any kid who collects Pokémon cards is overjoyed at collecting. (Is that proper grammar?)
As for the lack of consistency, since when have theme decks been consistent? I don’t mean more consistent than these decks, I just mean in general. At least we haven’t seen any random evolving basics thrown into theme decks this generation. I’ve always been confused by the inclusion of random evolving basics in theme decks.
As for creating more “difficulty level 2” decks, pre-constructed top tier decks, even ones with sub-optimal lists, should NEVER replace theme decks or the equivalent. For one thing, most of these kids won’t even care about what is top tier and what isn’t, but for another thing, part of the fun of theme decks is that they feature cards that would never survive in the Play! Pokémon format, and kids can easily substitute those cards for any random Pokémon that they have in their collection and want to include. Using low-tier cards allows for kids to play the game the way THEY want with the cards THEY want; handing out tier-one decks in place of theme decks stifles the urge to experiment and restricts the freedom to use the cards you enjoy most. Don’t force them to play with the top-tier decks if they don’t want to play with the top-tier decks.
