In Retrospect, how do you feel about Wizards skipping VS?

W

Waspy

Aspiring Trainer
Member
We've had SP for quite some time now, and the general complaint was about speed. Wizards of the Coast skipped the VS series because they believed it would stuff up the meta at the time due to the speed, bulk and power outdoing anything at the time that was basic.

In retrospect, now we have had something that was more or less the same thing, do you think Wizards was in the right or wrong?
 
Things change, people change, systems change. A long time ago, it was wrong/illegal/prohibited for black people in the US to do a lot of things, but you don't see that now. The decision made at that point in time by WotC was based on circumstances at that time, not at our current time.
 
back then the meta game was so much weaker than that of todays, pokemon had less hp, they're attacks did less and there were not that many amazing poke-powers. If you think how much SP has changed our meta since its release then imagine what it would of done back then. It probably would of destroyed the game and lots of players would of stopped playing. WOTC didn't want that to happen
 
I don't know, their attacks would take about 3 Energy to do, and back then, there was also no basic metal energy, so the steelix would have been a bit unplayable.. so, I figure with pokemon breeder and breeder fields, along with pokemon trader, you could still outspeed the VS cards considering you both had to attach 2-4 energy in order to actually do something.

given their attack costs, and the lack of energy gain like the SP's have now, I think their lower HP would have killed them off.
 
Because they were distributed differently. Wizards doesn't like different.

In all seriousness, I think it would confuse a lot of the players (especially the younger ones, which this game is aimed towards) if fully evolved Pokemon suddenly became Basic Pokemon, stirring up a lot of confusion at tournaments and such.
 
I like that they did it, just because an old sneaky only Japanese set is neat.
Also, I agree with Pokefan.
 
I was glad they did it, I still believe SP's should have never seen the light of day. I am a firm believer that they have ruined what could've been very good seasons. Minus Luxchomp/DialgaChomp/Sablelock/etc.... We'd be left with a larger variety in the meta. G-Dos, T-Tar, Machamp, Arceus, Giratina might've even seen play. Eeveelutions...I think you get where I'm headed. There would've been no 1 strong deck.
 
no sp would just mean gyarados would rule. Jumpluff too. It's kind of a pick your poison kinda thing. When they put SP out, they also gave us BTS and rare candy to try and even the playing field, but the sp engine was too fast. But it'll be gone next year assuming RR-on. I still think a well played pidgeot from jungle could disrupt any deck into a loss. So VS was really never that big of a threat IMO.
 
^^^
Rare candy has been around for ages. It first found itself in the form of Pokemon Breeder in base set. and the Errate Candy has received in Japan this year, thus makes it a complete reprint (wording wise) to the Pokemon Breeder. And how can you say just Gyara would've dominated? He was out for well around a year before he even became popular when two french players took it to top 8 and top 16 respectively at worlds in 09. SF T-Tar, RR Eeveelutions, SF Gengar, Cursegar, Giratina, Flygon Varients (minus Champ) etc. would all have seen more play.
 
I was more specifically saying that since rare candy has been reprinted again, they made sure we still had it. I say gyarados would have dominated without SP since people were pretty much just looking @ SP variants. I'm in agreement that no SP would have lead to more interesting builds, but with a belted gyarados being so strong, it makes sense that it would have seen play much sooner.

I'm sure that the main reason people didn't want tu use gyarados was because they instantly thought the karps had to get KO'd in order to be in the discard, so a 3 prize loss to use gyarados was silly. So people ignored it. The hgss-on cards just made gyarados a stronger contender by making karp discards that much faster.

I dislike SP as much as anybody, but they're not unbeatable. Heck, I've beaten a luxchomp with a muk deck..
 
^We had Volkner's Philosophy a long time before HGSS, which is the main way to discard extra Magikarps, and Regice has been around for a looong time. All the HGSS-on cards made for Gyarados specifically was Junk Arm. People could've played Gyarados for a while now, they just didn't want to, especially because Luxray GL Lv. X.
 
What a great thread.

We need more threads like this. Good discussion. Keep it up.
 
I Really wish they would have made VS over here..I mean..honestly does anyone know how/if it affected the Japanese format? I don't know if/don't think there were large official tournaments til 2001..but either way how was the response by japanese players? were They freaked out by the usage of evolved pokemon as basics? Judging by how people reacted to SP's..some needed a bit of time to adjust but now it's just a basic fact like the supporter rule, and I'm pretty sure there would have been a similar reaction to VS.
 
I think VS not being done here was the correct move, @ the time they would've released it, we would've been about 10 or 11 sets in and i think people would have been semi turned off by a game completely changing seemingly overnight, whether or not they would have shifted the meta drastically has been and always will be up for debate but i think it would've changed the game more from a "Look daddy Dragonite's a basic, What's going on, that kid's cheating"etc. perspective than anything else.

Onto the sup conversation of BDIF w/out SPs, i think instead of the format being LuxChomp v. Everything it would be G-dos v. Magnezone as the main battles, think about Zone's worst matchup is SP, it beats pretty much anything else. I also have to believe that lostgar would be more playable as well.
 
Ah the VS set. I really wanted them to release that set in english. I remember seeing the japanese cards in a magazine and was simply blown away by seeing all those powerful Pokemon as basic types. Plus I loved Gym Heroes and Challenge so this was another plus cause now he Johto dudes were here. But then they skipped the set and I was all confused. I was more of a collector that's why I was pretty sad when i realized why they skipped it. Was really looking forward to that set. :(
 
VS, how I would have liked to see this.

First things first a comparison to SP is a cruel thing, VS didn't hold even close to the perks that SPs do, also Pokemon was a completely different beast back in the day. Supporters weren't released (by one set, but what ever.) and damage was much lower, as was HP. Looking briefly at the set I see nothing too powerful that cards at the time would have had that hard a time with. The most powerful things I see were the TMs which would be difficult to get much less attach all the energy needed. I don't think it would have destroyed the game or the understanding of the game. Shining pokemon were already released and significantly more powerful, and no one had trouble playing them.

The question arises though why didn't Wizards release it. Perhaps they thought of it as useless clutter, and thought no one would have cared for the cards. Maybe they foresaw it ruining the game. Who can say, but personally it probably would have kept me around a bit longer before I took my small hiatus.
 
I feel like they could have moved cards around and added them to the Neo era. instead of releasing them all at once, maybe two sets about with Johto leaders with Neo 2, make a set with the Elite Four and another with the Kanto leaders out of those and Neo 3, and end with Neo Destiny and the Rocket cards. Destiny already had Dark Pokémon, so they'd have fit nicely. They are a lot of options.
 
As a collector hearing it never got released here disappoints me.
Back then I didn't play the TCG nor really care about it so I wouldn't be able to place my thoughts on it from that perspective but the art on those cards is amazing.
 
i never heard of this set till this thread. after looking it up....it would have been awesome to have back then. it would be the SP of that time. sure your only doing 20 but when there is no BTS or anything like then you only have 40 HP thats KO T2...
 
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