Ophie said:
The rarities of these cards are like carrots on a stick. From Nintendo's POV, the purpose of the Pokémon TCG is to make money, so they'll come up with ways to maximize profits before people get annoyed and turn to something else (or just avoid spending money on card games altogether, which is the worst outcome). The people assigning how rare these cards are know that people like you will still buy them. Until they discover a decline in sales and determine that Pokémon-EX are too rare or whatever, they're not going to become more common.
Otherwise, there'd be a Pokémon-EX in every pack. But that's just financial suicide for a TCG.
That's a hefty assumption. This set reminds me of Call of Legends with the sheer amount of Rares and Ultra Rares in it. (AND the low ratio of getting any Ultra Rares in a box, compared to any of the HS sets, for example.) I don't like CoL, to say the very least. And to this day, I've only gotten 5 packs of CoL; 4 of which were in tins or something where it couldn't be helped (the other was from my father because he randomly decided to get me one while he was at Target one day). I also quit collecting new EX sets when they introduced Delta Species Pokemon. Bought some EX Delta Species packs, didn't like what I saw, and didn't buy a single pack from the EX sets that came out afterwards. (That's
6 sets including EX Delta Species.) So I'm fully capable of controlling whether I buy any sets from TPCI or not.
The unfortunate part of taking that stand on this set is that there ARE cards, as a collector and as a player, that I like about this set, and I will actually be going to a prerelease this weekend. However, the way I see it is, I might be able to get a few things I want (I doubt it, but maybe), and after that, I can just buy individual cards online.
And not to turn this into an arguement or anything, but it seems you skipped over the fact that I already know that their intent is to make money (thus, why they're making everything so rare, so that more packs are bought), and it seems you misunderstood my issue with making regular EX's less rare. I said they should've been like Primes, replacing reverses in a pack and being more common than the other Ultra Rares in the set. Were Primes in every pack? Nooo... Was it finacial suicide making Primes slightly more common than Legend pieces, even though Primes were clearly more sought after? Nooo...
There are two points I want made perfectly clear (even though probably no one's reading this topic anymore, and my messages are way too long).
1. Could anyone at TPCI/Nintendo honestly give a legitimate reason for why regular EX's couldn't have been like Primes? (
Other than the fact that they're being money hungry with this set, especially compared to the HS sets.)
2. More people should be upset or even offended by how they went about making this set. There are 16 Ultra Rares that really are difficult to pull. To give an example of how rare the EX's are to pull, in a video on YouTube, two people, Renae and Josh (JWittz), went with their friend to a prerelease, and out of 42 pack between the three of them, not ONE EX was pulled. (Renae, however, did pull a shiny Zoroark.) On top of that, there are so many pointless Rares! All of those monkeys are rares again?! And really? Wigglytuff? Especially
Muk? It's just mind-numbing how terribly this set was thought out. And it's all because they want us to buy more packs because we aren't getting the cards we want, due to low probabilities.
One last thing I want to add is just a comparison to deciding to buy a booster box of this set compared to buying the HS set that had the most Ultra Rares: Triumphant.
"
I think I'm going to buy a box of Triumphant." Someone else asks why. "
Well, even though I'm only going to get 5 out of 8 Primes, there's a pretty high chance I'll get most of the ones I want. And most of the Trainers and Suppoters are useful." Depending on which is more important, the 3 Legend pieces are either good for the collection and you'll have gotten most of the set from one booster box, OR they're decent trading/selling material.
In short, you're getting your money's worth, either way. Now for Next Destinies.
"
I think I'm going to buy a box of Next Destinies." Someone else asks why. "
Well, I REALLY want a Mewtwo EX. I might get lucky, you know?" Is there any other reason for buying a box? "
I mean, the Trainers and such are pretty useful. I guess some of the other Pokemon are too." What happens if you don't get Mewtwo? "
Hm... Well, I guess Reshiram and Zekrom would be nice. Regigigas seems nice too. Shaymin's situational, so I'd rather not get one." What about Kyurem EX? What if that's one of your TWO or possibly 3 EX's for the box? "
I'm selling it." (Or if it's for a collection, it's staying in there; big whoop.)
Translation: I'm buying this in the hopes of getting one card. If I don't get it, that was, for the most part, a waste of money due to how few EX's you can get, out of 12 possible. In short, I'm taking a gamble with nearly $100.
I just hope people realize all this about ND instead of blindly handing over their money.