Blastoise VMAX, Venusaur VMAX, and More Revealed!

[Wolfgirl90]

If PR(Magnolia) rotates out and gets replaced by PR(Professor Oak), will the Magnolia version still be legal? Or will the players be forced to buy a new playset, because a small italic subtext was changed?

This was answered in the link that I posted:

"From now on, instead of giving the card a new name each time, the name Professor's Research will be used. If the card is updated in the future, the new professor's name will appear in the upper-right corner of the card, but the card name will remain Professor's Research."

The name of the card is "Professor's Research". The name of the professor is not part of the card name and is just flavor text. The Juniper version is called "Professor's Research" and the Oak version of this card is called "Professor's Research". Similarly, Giovanni is just flavor text for the card "Boss's Orders"; the Lysandre version is named "Boss's Orders". If we get a Cyrus or Ghetsis version of this card one day, it too will be named "Boss's Orders."

This is being done to avoid the issue that we had before with different professors having the same effect and having to update the rules because of this. Now it doesn't matter (except in Expanded).

 

[Yaginku]

This is being done to avoid the issue that we had before with different professors having the same effect and having to update the rules because of this. Now it doesn't matter (except in Expanded).

Yeah, I think everyone gets that. Refer to the last paragraph of my previous post.

 

[Wolfgirl90]

Yeah, I think everyone gets that. Refer to the last paragraph of my previous post.

Okay..."Professor Juniper" and "Professor's Research" are two different cards. Same with "Boss's Order" and "Lysandre".

Nothing is being "overwritten" because the names are completely different. Having the same effect but a different name doesn't make a card legal for use (Standard or otherwise).

 

[Yaginku]

Okay..."Professor Juniper" and "Professor's Research" are two different cards. Same with "Boss's Order" and "Lysandre".

Except these cards have a special rule, that essentially treats them as identical to each other. The change itself happened to avoid this very problem, and now we're having Lysandre and Juniper come back in their "Research/Orders" versions. If these were any other characters, then this would be off the table - but with these two, it begs the question if it's a "solution" to having a clumsy rule that mentions specific cards.
I am not saying this will be the case. After all, in an extremely greedy move they've (re)printed Professor's Research and Boss's Orders in the holo rare slot, instead of the uncommon where they generally were. But it's absolutely on the table, and I'd like to give them the benefit of the doubt before making any absolute statements - because if our expectations start at the very bottom, then they give no incentive to improve things.

 

[Wolfgirl90]

Except these cards have a special rule, that essentially treats them as identical to each other. The change itself happened to avoid this very problem, and now we're having Lysandre and Juniper come back in their "Research/Orders" versions. If these were any other characters, then this would be off the table - but with these two, it begs the question if it's a "solution" to having a clumsy rule that mentions specific cards.

I'm not sure if you are confirming what I already said or not understanding...because I already mentioned that the "Professor's Research" and "Boss's Orders" cards were named this way to avoid future issues.

To put it bluntly, I think TPC is just being cheeky by using Professor Juniper and Lysandre here. But this DOES NOT mean that the cards "Professor Juniper" and "Lysandre" would be legal in Standard. The reason being that the new cards are named "Professor's Research" and "Boss's Orders" respectively. Cards with the same effect, but different names don't become legal. This situation is no exception to that.

The rule that you are referring to simply says that you can't mix Juniper/Sycamore/Research in your deck. That's it. That's the rule. It doesn't treat them as "identical"; it's simply a restriction. The same thing applies to Boss's Orders/Lysandre.

Now, it can definitely be argued that the rule exists because of the fact that they share the same function (indeed, the Juniper/Sycamore rule was made when both cards were Standard legal at the same time), but having the same function is not mentioned in the rule itself. You can't mix the cards for no other reason than because the rules say so.

 

[Yaginku]

I'm not sure if you are confirming what I already said or not understanding...

No, I understand you're taking a pragmatic approach and keeping your expectations low. I am, on the other hand, theorizing and pointing to the fact that we shouldn't make absolute statements about things we don't have official information about.
There's nothing wrong with expecting a clarification. Even if the official information will just state "no", that's a positive in my book. That's not a type of statement that companies like to make.

To put it bluntly, I think TPC is just being cheeky by using Professor Juniper and Lysandre here.

I think so too, but the fact they're not (yet) included in the main set, but in a separate box is another oddity. That's a weird place to make such a "joke".