Ancient Origins [8/15, aka Bandit Ring]

The Unown are asking "Nanda?" in Japanese. As in, "what is this monolith?"

Also did the artist make the two Unown A look really different or is it just me? The part under their eyes isn't consistent.
 
I really like the Unown art for this card! I feel like the artist has given them some nice personality. :)
 
I'm wondering about how competitive this card will turn out to be. It sounds like a potentially viable way to draw a card that you can reserve for later. However, Garbodor and Silent Lab would both shut off the ability, basically stopping its usefulness.
 
bbninjas said:
I'm wondering about how competitive this card will turn out to be. It sounds like a potentially viable way to draw a card that you can reserve for later. However, Garbodor and Silent Lab would both shut off the ability, basically stopping its usefulness.
Click to expand...
Every card is potentially viable, and there are always other cards/strategies that could shut 'em off, this is the beauty of the TCG!
 
We're reliving the D/P era! I can feel it! We have a super strong colourless dragon M-Ray (like back then we had Garchomp), the Vileplume and the Unown returned and there are more to come... I'm hyped :)
 
I... Love this card. It's simple, but it's pretty cool too. With damage manipulation, you could get 50 damage off the board while still drawing a card. The art has a nice feeling to it, like each Unown is its own - I like that a lot in art! I hope we see more of the DPP Unown being "reprinted", I think they're pretty nifty.
 
Considering that Unown R saw a pretty high amount of play, I think this guy could be good. He actually works really good as a starting card because you can just take your first turn setting up, and then you can pull him out of the Active by discarding him. (EDIT - Just noticed only works if Benched. Booooooo...) He could also be fun with Revive and Basic-searching cards, so there IS potential.
 
Green778 said:
We're reliving the D/P era! I can feel it! We have a super strong colourless dragon M-Ray (like back then we had Garchomp), the Vileplume and the Unown returned and there are more to come... I'm hyped :)
Click to expand...
I hope that the case as this might be one of my favorite time in the TCG. Old DP cards with XY.
 
Otaku said:
I was explaining that setting up via attacks tends to pace the game better than set-up via effects that can be used multiple times in a single turn. The more of his or her deck a player has access to, the weaker the cards in the deck need to be in order to maintain balance. One PlusPower (an Item that adds 10 damage to attacks against Active Pokémon) has rarely been an issue, however it tends to exist in formats where players can drop multiples in one shot. Earlier I faced a Seismitoad-EX deck that went through almost the entire deck thanks to Shaymin-EX, Super Scoop Up and AZ. It doesn't matter if you hit some "tails" on Crushing Hammer and Hypnotoxic Laser if you can use 2-3 copies of each in a turn, then can afford to recycle it all with Lysandre's Trump Card. Oh and when the damage finally started accumulating on Seismitoad-EX, it of course bounced as well.




Correct, in certain decks. Others would indeed need their early game attacks, either for set-up or early offense.



The early DP-on era was when I had to all but stop playing, so I couldn't keep up with the competitive metagame, but I am still pretty sure Mom's Kindness was seen as a joke card that no one played. While it is from well past the time when the reviewers (and reviews) were considered to be authoritative and insightful, I still think these Pojo CotD reviews explain Mom's Kindness pretty well. "Weaker" is a relative term; I'd put it as "less grossly overpowered".



I was almost totally absent from this era, and wasn't in too much of a hurry to rush back as what little taste I had of it reminded me too much of what I didn't care for in Yu-Gi-Oh. Yes it was about setting up first... which isn't all that great. Technically that is what I am complaining about now, it is just that decks have almost zero set-up time anymore, so it is easy to forget that technically a Seismitoad-EX deck that gets Seismitoad-EX up front with a Double Colorless Energy and Muscle Band, nails your Active with Hypnotoxic Laser, drops a Virbank City Gym usually just needs a few supporting Basics that just need to Evolve the next turn to be more or less "set-up".

Uxie is a better Shaymin-EX; it was nice to not be stuck relying solely on Supporters and lucky topdecks, but I really hated the near homogeneous deck builds where everyone had to run the same or nearly the same supporting Pokémon (a problem sadly even in the best of formats). Once we hit crazy levels of the appropriate draw/search power, it was annoying as "I play Card X!" "Well I draw half my deck to get to and play Card Y"! "Ha, but I search out and play my TecH copy of Card Z!"



They also rewarded a reckless pace and "throwing" your deck at your opponent. There was little point in cultivating a good, long term hand because either you would have to pitch something ahead of schedule to use Professor Juniper or when either of you have to use N.



Like I said, it is in no way new. The game literally began with that capacity! Only we didn't have a way to throw everything back into the deck after we finished ripping through it. Well, eventually we did but it still was no Lysandre's Trump Card. It helps to remember that Supporters were not part of the original Pokémon Trading Card Game. At this time there were only "Trainers", and they behaved as Items do now. There were no Ace Specs. There were no Supporters. All of the following is from the original Base Set.
Computer-Search-Base-Set-71.jpg

Item-Finder-Base-Set-74.jpg

Bill-Base-Set-91.jpg

Professor-Oak-Base-Set-88.jpg

That is the original draw/search/reclamation engine of the Pokémon TCG.

Instead of Crushing Hammer, Enhanced Hammer, Hypnotoxic Laser and Lysandre we had
Energy-Removal-Base-Set-92.jpg

Super-Energy-Removal-Base-Set-79.jpg

PlusPower-Base-Set-84.jpg

Gust-of-Wind-Base-Set-93.jpg
and for good measure, though they weren't in every deck, our "tricks" included the following, which includes the predecessor of Super Scoop Up
Scoop-Up-Base-Set-78.jpg

Lass-Base-Set-75.jpg
As a reminder, while attacks weren't as strong, HP scores maxed out at 120, with most Pokémon well below that.

Here are the top two attackers of this set, who formed the core of the dominant deck which would add new members but didn't really fall out of power until they were replaced by something even stronger two years (and five sets) later.

Hitmonchan-Base-Set-7.jpg

Electabuzz-Base-Set-20.jpg
Click to expand...
And yes I am aware of what you just wrote. I forgot that Crushing Hammer is a reprint of Energy Removal, just with a coin flip. And yes I do know that Computer Search existed in the older days but it wasn't an Ace Spec! We need that now! :)
 
Seismitoad EX is already breaking the game. Even is he rolls out before the new Vilplume it doesnt help the game.
 
The unown cards I grew to know were all individual letters.
Is this the first time an unown card is just, 'unown?'
 
Interesting card - it could pair well with Plasma's Flareon - but it will have to in unlimited format, since I assume the new rotation will be XY and onward. Perhaps a more obtuse strategy with Unown could involve Primal Clash Milotic as well?
 
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