I thought I couldn't think of a way they could make this set even better. I guess I was wrong!
News 20th Anniversary Set in September + Surfing Pikachu and M Slowbro-EX!
- Thread starter Athena
- Start date
So, if the english set also uses these classic-like templates and if EXs and BREAKs retain their usual template, this means no other japanese promo cards other than EXs and BREAKs will be included in the Evolutions set, which means no Karen or CP5 cards...
I hope they include a Fairy line (Clefable probably) and a Dragon line (There's Dragonite EX but we don't know if it will use their modern template) to go with the old style Fairy Energy promo.
On the same note, it's unfortunate that there probably won't be any Dark or Metal-type cards...
I hope they include a Fairy line (Clefable probably) and a Dragon line (There's Dragonite EX but we don't know if it will use their modern template) to go with the old style Fairy Energy promo.
On the same note, it's unfortunate that there probably won't be any Dark or Metal-type cards...
Missed opportunity if there isn't a full art Oak
I think the Charizard has a lot of potential, considering its ability. You can play it with a lot of different types, not just fire. Burning energy is a possibility and if Blacksmith gets reprinted, it will be a lot easier to setup.
Pikachu and Professor Oak are not that great, but will be cool to get from a collector's standpoint.
Pikachu and Professor Oak are not that great, but will be cool to get from a collector's standpoint.
Wow... this is disappointing.
Charizard is actually better than I expected, but unless we get something like Boost Energy or Recycle Energy also returning, it is a Stage 2 that will need too much support accelerating Energy. I don't know, maybe in Expanded where it could use Bronzong or Eelektrik?
Pikachu is almost what I feared; I wasn't fond of the art on the original, and it certainly isn't the best option we have for Pikachu (unless all the good ones are hit by the rotation).
Professor Oak's Hint kind of makes me mad. Professor Sycamore just got its Full Art, and it is unlikely rotation would split between XY: Steam Siege and XY: Evolutions. So just reprinting the original Professor Oak as a Supporter and amending the rule so that Professor Juniper, Professor Oak, and Professor Sycamore cannot be in the same deck or as I mentioned waaaay back when we first received Professor Sycamore, just release a new Supporter with the "Discard your hand and draw seven cards." effect just named "Professor" and issue an errata changing the name of Professor Juniper and Professor Sycamore to "Professor". Then whether you need them as promos or just for later releases, you swap in different professors for the art. This also could have helped get the Unlimited Format into something more manageable. =P
Professor Oak's Hint looks bad. Do not compare it to Tropical Beach; that is a Stadium card. Instead compare it to what it most resembled: Bianca. This is Bianca+1. People tried to use Bianca but it was never really that good. If your hand is empty, Bianca was good and so too will be Professor Oak's Hint. Keep track of how often you Professor Sycamore or Professor Juniper with cards left in hand, and count those cards. Now subtract that amount from seven; that is how much Professor Oak's Hint is likely to draw for you. Those situations where you have to painfully discard your entire hand with Professor Sycamore? Professor Oak's Hint avoids this problem by drawing much less cards, or possibly being a dead card in hand (unlikely you'll have 7+ cards besides it, but possible).
So to summarize:
Edit: It took me until the morning of September 17, 2016 to finally notice the clause that ends your turn on Professor Oak's Hint. No idea why, but I wish to apologize for being critical of comparing Professor Oak's Hint to Tropical Beach. Yes, this literally is the effect of Tropical Beach as a Supporter and yes, that means I thought the card was awful before realizing it would end the player's turn!
Charizard is actually better than I expected, but unless we get something like Boost Energy or Recycle Energy also returning, it is a Stage 2 that will need too much support accelerating Energy. I don't know, maybe in Expanded where it could use Bronzong or Eelektrik?
Pikachu is almost what I feared; I wasn't fond of the art on the original, and it certainly isn't the best option we have for Pikachu (unless all the good ones are hit by the rotation).
Professor Oak's Hint kind of makes me mad. Professor Sycamore just got its Full Art, and it is unlikely rotation would split between XY: Steam Siege and XY: Evolutions. So just reprinting the original Professor Oak as a Supporter and amending the rule so that Professor Juniper, Professor Oak, and Professor Sycamore cannot be in the same deck or as I mentioned waaaay back when we first received Professor Sycamore, just release a new Supporter with the "Discard your hand and draw seven cards." effect just named "Professor" and issue an errata changing the name of Professor Juniper and Professor Sycamore to "Professor". Then whether you need them as promos or just for later releases, you swap in different professors for the art. This also could have helped get the Unlimited Format into something more manageable. =P
Professor Oak's Hint looks bad. Do not compare it to Tropical Beach; that is a Stadium card. Instead compare it to what it most resembled: Bianca. This is Bianca+1. People tried to use Bianca but it was never really that good. If your hand is empty, Bianca was good and so too will be Professor Oak's Hint. Keep track of how often you Professor Sycamore or Professor Juniper with cards left in hand, and count those cards. Now subtract that amount from seven; that is how much Professor Oak's Hint is likely to draw for you. Those situations where you have to painfully discard your entire hand with Professor Sycamore? Professor Oak's Hint avoids this problem by drawing much less cards, or possibly being a dead card in hand (unlikely you'll have 7+ cards besides it, but possible).
So to summarize:
- Charizard looks better than expected but still lucky if it becomes part of a "fun" deck.
- Pikachu will only matter if all the current good ones rotate and Raichu (Circle Circuit) makes a comeback.
- Professor Oak's Hint is probably a bad card that won't be worth running and is a missed opportunity to put something right that once went wrong... in two different ways.
Edit: It took me until the morning of September 17, 2016 to finally notice the clause that ends your turn on Professor Oak's Hint. No idea why, but I wish to apologize for being critical of comparing Professor Oak's Hint to Tropical Beach. Yes, this literally is the effect of Tropical Beach as a Supporter and yes, that means I thought the card was awful before realizing it would end the player's turn!
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Wow, Oak is pretty bad, actually. Why couldn't it have just been a reprint? I'd rather play Oak than Sycamore, personally. Or perhaps the same effect in an Item? That'd be good.
If Blacksmith gets a reprint, then Charizard can be good, methinks, since DCE counts as Fire and whatnot. It wouldn't be the premier fire deck compared to Volcanion, but it actually could see some play.
Just a random thought -- could you imagine if all the starters got BREAK cards? Charizard with some Energy acceleration, Blastoise with a good attack or Energy retrieval as an ability, Venusaur with... Also Energy acceleration or perhaps Pokemon searching?
*shrug*
Regardless, that would be really interesting to see.
If Blacksmith gets a reprint, then Charizard can be good, methinks, since DCE counts as Fire and whatnot. It wouldn't be the premier fire deck compared to Volcanion, but it actually could see some play.
Just a random thought -- could you imagine if all the starters got BREAK cards? Charizard with some Energy acceleration, Blastoise with a good attack or Energy retrieval as an ability, Venusaur with... Also Energy acceleration or perhaps Pokemon searching?
*shrug*
Regardless, that would be really interesting to see.
Otaku pretty much hit the nail on the head 'bout the Oak card.
Oak actually reminds of an old but really bad promo called 'Computer Error!'. I see what they tried to do and I'm glad they just didn't make it a straight reprint as a supporter because I still don't like that they gave Sycamore and Tireno the exact effects as Juniper and Cheren. But a card that's suppose to be the big once per turn card with an effect that ends your turn is really hard on your deck's tempo. Unless you're playing an odd jobs deck that's goal is mill and even then most mill decks also attack. As long as they keep reprinting the core type of supporter they have to really innovate for new supporters to matter.
I really would like a Professor card that searches your deck for a Pokedex and a non-EX Basic Pokemon.
Oak actually reminds of an old but really bad promo called 'Computer Error!'. I see what they tried to do and I'm glad they just didn't make it a straight reprint as a supporter because I still don't like that they gave Sycamore and Tireno the exact effects as Juniper and Cheren. But a card that's suppose to be the big once per turn card with an effect that ends your turn is really hard on your deck's tempo. Unless you're playing an odd jobs deck that's goal is mill and even then most mill decks also attack. As long as they keep reprinting the core type of supporter they have to really innovate for new supporters to matter.
I really would like a Professor card that searches your deck for a Pokedex and a non-EX Basic Pokemon.
Reminder!
Blastoise's Rain Dance is simliar to Blastoise's Deluge from Boundaries Crossed
I think a very shallow rainbow holo, not the galaxy one.
If you wish that Alakazam will be modernly reprinted, always remember that Kadabra is STILL BANNED in the TCG.
Don't worry! Don't get too hesitate. I hope in Novemeber, we'll see those Modern Reprint cards in this card format. (Don't mind the content, just the card format.)
In my evaluations:
Charizard is good. The Damage is MASSIVE, but the HP is reduced by 10 from the current Charizard (Non-EX). Burning Energies will do the trick. If hammers are everywhere, we've always a backup. It is also good for Infernape to fuel it's Flare Up.
Pikachu's still good, nothing to say.
Prof. Oak's Hint makes me suspicous, You draw card like Shaymin, It ends turn like Megas w/o Spirit Link, and vulnerable to N. I think this will use if you can't attack yet.
I wished to weigh in on this. To give you an idea, while there are times I just could not keep up with the game (even few months where I tried to quit), whenever I came back I learned about what I missed, and I began playing the Pokémon TCG in 1999. I bring this up so I can establish I was there (or at least went back and learned from sources who were there).
Computer Search is a fantastic card. Remember that the original was a "normal Trainer", what today we would call an Item. Decks would run three or four copies, because getting exactly what you needed when you needed it was a great deal, even when it was a three-for-one trade. Unlike many TCGs, Pokémon provides abundant draw power. In the days of the Base Set, the best draw card was the original Professor Oak. It was also a "normal Trainer" so you could play as many copies as you wanted in a turn. It made you discard your hand, but decks adapted, learning to include cards that could be played quickly for at least some token amount of advantage, as that was less of a waste than just discarding them. Cards like Computer Search and Item Finder effectively had no discard cost if you were discarding cards that you were just going to toss with Professor Oak instead.
The Ace Spec version of Computers Search, which as you mentioned is basically the Pokémon Star mechanic except for Item cards (I believe every Ace Spec card was some form of Item). In a sense Computer Search acts as a floating copy of any other card (provided you can meet the discard requirement). The top draw card when the Ace Spec Computer Search was released was Professor Juniper, who has you discard your hand to draw seven cards. Sound familiar? She is a Supporter and not a "normal Trainer" (Item card) so you can only use one copy of her per turn, plus you can't use any other Supporters that turn... but decks still followed the pattern from way back in the days of the Base Set: include a lot of cards you can handle having to discard because odds are you'll have to discard some of them, and include cards with discard costs because if you pitch something that was just going to get discarded by Professor Juniper anyway, you basically are using the same cards to pay two costs.
Now both in the past and the present, it is vital you keep your deck flowing, so Computer Search is an out to get a new draw card. Computer Search also great for getting that one card you include for a troublesome match up. If not needed for that, it can just help with general setup. Then there were the decks that could reuse Computer Search... so yeah it was and still is a potent card, even as an Ace Spec.
Let's bring back the Haymaker Hitmonchans!
They've done that before as well.
Hitmonchan (Base Set 7/102) was first re-released as Base Set 2 8/130, then again as Best Of Game 2*, and most recently as Platinum 129/127. The other half of the original Haymaker tag-team was Electabuzz (Base Set 20/102; Base Set 2 24/130; Best of Game 1; Platinum 128/127 ). To give you an idea, Platinum released in 2009, so about the 10th anniversary of the Pokémon TCG in North America. Seems almost a given that they will do something with these two in XY: Evolutions... unless the-powers-that-be feel the Generations versions are good enough (though Electabuzz was oddly absent from that set).
*The Best Of Game series were promos towards the end of WotC run. Hitmonchan had a printing error that left him with 60 HP instead of 70. Under WotC we had to play as written, but I believe it was errata'd for use under Nintendo. Actually was a pretty big deal as both companies allow you to use previous printings, so I remember winning a match because I had the 70 HP Base Set Hitmonchan and he (a friend, though not particularly close) had the 60 HP Best of Game.
Maybe other people that started from the beginning with Base Set feel differently, But I actually love the idea of having 6 slots dedicated to Charizard, and heck to the other starters as well. I don't think they will, but I would enjoy it if they did.
Also I think it would have been awesome if they didn't give us a new Garbodor with garbotoxin, but just waited till this set to reprint Fossil Muk. Muk's updated Pokemon Power: Toxic Gas would be updated into the same type of ability that Garbodor has.
I started with Base Set as well! So I also have that nostalgic feeling. But with generations I was disappointed so I'm affaires CP5/Evolutions will disappoint me too.
I could see them giving us a card based on Mysterious Fossil that let you put Restored Pokemon on it. Not like that's never happened in Pokemon's history. (Buried Fossil was such a weird card. The only Pokemon card that didn't actually depict a Pokemon.)
We've basically had better remakes of Base Set Hitmonchan a few times. Black/White Sawk is the most direct example, as it's literally just Hitmonchan, but better in every way. Breakthrough Hawlucha is also a better Hitmonchan, though it obviously carries a different weakness/resistance. Hitmonchan, mechanically, hasn't aged well. It'd be bad even as a common now, sadly. Even if they gave us like a Hitmonchan EX along the lines of Lucario or Zygarde, it'd just be a worse knock-off of those. But eh, they could give a direct common reprint of it for nostalgia's sake I guess. But IMO, it would feel more like a mockery.
Wait. Isn't there still the kadabra ban? Does that mean no alakazam?
A) That didn't stop Mysterious Treasures giving us an Alakazam (and Abra).
B) The ban was self-imposed. Uri Geller lost the lawsuit. They just opted not to print Kadabra cards so he didn't get butthurt about it.
I could very easily see them giving us Pokemon Breeder (or a derivative of it) in Supporter form as a workaround to including Kadabra, probably in Rare Candy's OLD form, though Rare Candy is an option anyway.