Ampharos ex and Lucario ex “ex Battle Decks” in May!

Water Pokémon Master

Water Pokémon Master

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New “ex Battle Decks” featuring Ampharos ex or Lucario ex from Scarlet & Violet will release on May 5th. They will cost $9.99 each.


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Pokemon-TCG-Ampharos-ex-Battle-Deck_EN-799x1500-f3a2c67-160x300.jpg




These are the obvious successors to V Battle Decks. Like them, each package will come with:


1 ready to play 60-card deck


3 reference cards


1 rules booklet


Single-player playmat


Damage counters


1 large metallic coin


1 deck box


1 Quick Guide to unlock the strategies within


1 code card to unlock this deck in Pokemon TCG Live


These decks are cheaper than before! The last V Battle Decks featured Zeraora V or Deoxys V and released in October 2022. They cost $14.99, which is $5 more than...
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Hold on...these are both actually pretty decent? I didn't expect lucario to ever get good cards, but it looks like he's starting to.
 
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If "even more bare-bones" means stripping them down to Start Deck 100-esque essentials, I welcome the price reduction - anything to reduce the barrier to entry! (Though I hope they don't direct people to Live to learn the rules; it's still not ready for prime time.)

Edit: Nice, pictures! Looks like they're still larger than SD100, but are more space efficient than the trapezoidal packaging they've been using for like 20 years. Also, Water Pokémon Master, that bit about Pokemon TCG Online must be a typo, since card updates for it end in two weeks. Live only. ?
 
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I just thought of something. The V Battle Decks have all had a MSRP of $15, but if you look at sites like TCGPLAYER, they tend to gravitate around $8-12. Now, big box stores like Target always sell at MSRP anyways, which is part of their business model, but Local Game Stores tend can’t afford to sell over the market price set by case-by-case supply and demand. Now, let’s say the Wholesale cost per V Battle Deck is $7.50 (I have no idea what it actually is)? That’s about how much the Corviknight V and Lycanroc V Battle Decks sell for. Those small stores are losing money on every deck they sell. Whether or not they can turn any sort of profit on those decks depends more and more on the popularity of the signature ultra rare. Now, however, the MSRP has been dropped to what the average collector pays, meaning the wholesale has also dropped. To use the theoretical example above, store owners are now paying $40 (instead of $60) for a display of 8 decks, yet they continue to sell the display for $64-$80. In other words, this change is a major boon for Local Game Stores, who can now stay competitive with reduced losses.
Zestygan said:
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Hold on...these are both actually pretty decent? I didn't expect lucario to ever get good cards, but it looks like he's starting to.
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The Lucario ex hasn’t seen any play in Japan, but looking at weekly tournament results on pokemoncard.io shows that many Miraidon ex players that choose the Flaaffy variant over the Regieleki VMAX variant run one or two copies in their decks. It’s not great, but it’s worth the tech slot, apparently. My guess is Ampharos ex’s superior HP is largely responsible… not to mention the fact you’re already running a thick Flaaffy line.
https://pokemoncard.io/article/week...result-week-6-part-1-727#mcetoc_1gp2r7g3u4gmq
Here is the latest Weekly Tournament Result article. Miraidon ex comes just after Gardevoir ex in the table of contents, and the Ampharos ex/Flaaffy variant comes right after the Regieleki VMAX variant. This series is where I learned about the Tyranitar V and Single Strike Energy variant of Lugia VSTAR/Archeops from, by the way.
 
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Now that the product images have been released, we can add “lower shipping fees” to the list of ways the new theme deck business model benefits Local Game Stores.
 
TandemTCG said:
Yes.

Speaking of being cut, where are we going to get Mareep, Flaaffy, and Riolu? The set list from 1-125 worked perfectly until this news came up.

UNLESS they pull a Kyurem-EX NXD 38 / Kyurem-EX PR-BW 37
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They might keep the pre-evos in the set proper. And replace those cut cards to non-ex Miraidon/Koraidon
 
TandemTCG said:
Yes.

Speaking of being cut, where are we going to get Mareep, Flaaffy, and Riolu? The set list from 1-125 worked perfectly until this news came up.

UNLESS they pull a Kyurem-EX NXD 38 / Kyurem-EX PR-BW 37
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Really, why May 5th? TPCi has angered some people, I think.
 
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