Help Curious About Card Printing/Reprinting Patterns

[Duo]

Hello all. I'm fairly new to the TCG and started wondering about the cycle of how/when cards get printed and/or reprinted. I am aware of the 2 year rotation in standard format and that expanded and unlimited exist as well, but for the sake of discussion, I'm only focusing on standard and have a few questions I'd like to ask.

1. Professor Sycamore is a card that I believe has stuck around for a while, mostly because Juniper came before him and has the exact same effect. Are there some supporter cards/Trainer cards in general that we can simply expect to stick around for forever, like perhaps rare candy, or do we expect all cards to eventually rotate out at some point to change up the game?

2. Is there anything that determines what new Pokemon will come out in the latest sets? Latest generation? Meta? Fan favorites? It seems like certain Pokemon will receive constant reprints that also update their performace, albeit they aren't always brought back in the form of the generation's Special Pokemon, and I was hoping there was a trend other than "cause Charizard." I'm particularly hoping that one day there will be a Milotic GX or whatever next generation may offer even if it's not something worth basing a deck around.

3. Do we expect each new generation to bring in new mechanics to the game? BREAK was an interesting evolution that refilled HP and allowed you to keep "previous evolution" moves. EX Pokemon seem to skip evolutions altogether, and GX have special GX attacks (like Z moves from SuMo). That also brings me to a follow up question of what comes first - the new generation in video games, or the new generation in TCG, or is it simultaneous?

4. From what I understand, major expansions come out every 3 months, and every once in a while there are some "filler" sets in between. Is that fairly consistent?

I think that's everything I have for now. Thanks in advance.

 

[JDA]

These are really good questions and in reality we don't really know why some cards get reprinted and while others do not. What I believe is that reprints are also chosen based on populairity and in certain cases a cool card dissapears to be replaced by another popular character or Pokemon.

Odd as it might sound Professor Sycamore to my knowledge is actually quite a popular character, so is N. This likely comes from how fancy Sycamore looks and how N is just typically a really cool Trainer, with quite some mystery behind him even! I believe that Sycamore was reprinted because his effect is very balanced and liked by many while we don't have too many Pokemon that can replicate a draw effect like it. So while Professor Kukui could have done something similar they decided to go for two proven popular characters. I mean there are even some polls on this, I kid you not!
https://www.polygon.com/2016/7/8/12123204/pokemon-professors-ranked (Sycamore wins!)
http://screenrant.com/pokemon-best-battles-trainers/ (N just after Red, something I agree with)
All in all Im certain that N has seen his last reprint but for Sycamore I just dont know. He remains a popular guy

Pokemon prints and rare reprints seem to be completely based on favourite picks. I think Pokemon GO has influenced it somewhat (in the sence that we still see a lot of gen 1 Pokemon in sets) and the Pokken game also more or less ensures that Pokemon there will get a functional card, likely GX aswell. I think Milotic has a lot of fans and I also think it will be printed. For GX cards Im less certain. Milotic is popular but to my knowledge not Darkrai, Eeveelutions, Machamp or Gardevoir popular.
I'm certain there is a list of that aswell...

When we look at the past of the tcg we actually dont see too many new mechanics. BREAK was new and a test as far as I can see, GX is likely to thake over the EX concept as it in my honest opinion is a better concept in general. From my perspective the prime issue EX's always had is that they make Stage 1/2 Pokemon often "useless" because their set up thakes more time. Lv. X was a well developed concept akin to BREAK but doesn't actually speed things up, in fact it only made it slower. The same is true for Mega Evolutions.
So the fact that GX is what it is to me makes it the perfect in between of regular Stage 1/2 and EX. Other than that you can expect any new thing showing up in the games also show up in the TCG. So if the game will have (idk) Super Mega Pokemon, we will see Super Mega Pokemon in the TCG.

The last point is indeed fairly consistent. Ultimately though everything is subject to change but what is typical to Pokemon and Japanese culture is that changes occur more slowly as say in format rotations changes seen in Magic the Gathering or Hearthstone, where former top Tier decks simply completely dissapear. Pokemon is more of the top Tier decks either rotating slowly out of top Tier (e.g. Decidueye GX) or going from second top Tier to top (e.g. Volcanion EX). You basically get a longer time to enjoy your cards as with most popular card games. This also applies to YuGiOh another popular Japanese TCG.

Keep in mind the above are just my opinions. I don't think the TCG design team really gives a behind the curtains type of articles but I would be very interested if they did. From my perspective Pokemon TCG is unique in giving fans usually what they want but this does indeed turn somewhat into a populairity contest.

Cheers,