News Japan's SM6b, 'Champion Road'!

As a person who's gotten the world championship decks with these and has a good amount of TV reporters throughout my childhood, comparison to Hau or not, I adore that this is a straight reprint of the classic TV reporter. Do keep in mind that the discarding effect ay actually be good in the same sense how Jason Klazynski first used it to discard stuff he didn't need so that when he got his hand shuffled he didn't draw the stuff he discarded. Granted I think Sophicles might do a better job of doing that but just something to point out.

Regardless of competitive play, it's just......so beautiful to look at as a sun and moon-styled card.
 
Its basically Trade in a Supporter form.

  • Energy Switch - Its Energy Switch. Tech in some decks that needs energy navigation.

Ok, so its basically a Reprint of EX era cards, give us a VS Seeker and Rare Candy (2003 art ver.) and I will be fine.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Oh, a FA Supporter was revealed? I see, it's my time to say something. I'm not all over it, to be honest. Not my favorite art, Gabby's eyes just look unnatural...

I adore the usage of the old art for the Energy Switch!!! It looks amazing! :D
 
Holden Sheeks said:
As a person who's gotten the world championship decks with these and has a good amount of TV reporters throughout my childhood, comparison to Hau or not, I adore that this is a straight reprint of the classic TV reporter. Do keep in mind that the discarding effect ay actually be good in the same sense how Jason Klazynski first used it to discard stuff he didn't need so that when he got his hand shuffled he didn't draw the stuff he discarded. Granted I think Sophicles might do a better job of doing that but just something to point out.

Regardless of competitive play, it's just.....so beautiful to look at as a sun and moon-styled card.
Click to expand...

At the time when TV Reporter was great, Copycat, Professor Oak's Research, and Delcatty w/Energy Draw were all the norm. We also had a slower format that still had T1 attacks, so Dunsparce (EX - Sandstorm) and its "Strike and Run" was a great opening play. Oh yeah, and old-school Rare Candy. Out of those, I do not want Rare Candy to go back to how it was (you don't balance Evolutions v. Basics by making Evos faster) and Cynthia is a Professor Oak's Research+1 (or equal to Professor Oak's New Theory).

That kind of environment isn't impossible to replicate, but the big thing is that with no T1 attacks, it isn't as rewarding to build a deck around attacks that aid in setup. We are way closer to it than I would have imagined a year ago, but it is mostly due to what has always caused problems with game balance in the Pokémon TCG; we get a few examples that do have the speed/power/whatever to be competitive despite the rest of the metagame, but most of the cardpool won't hold up. If we got T1 attacks back, however, too many current (and probable future) releases already have the speed to go full aggro without that option; with it, they'd make sure that "setup" attacks were still pretty useless. Makes me wonder if the powers-that-be need to revise the first turn rules so that you can attack T1, but T1 and T2 attacks cannot do damage (or something like that).

Tangent aside, the main thing is that TV Reporter probably needed to be at least a "Draw 4, discard 1." to have much hope of competitive success, but you're right that it still has some.
 
disagree that this is worse than hau/cheren...many archetypes specifically want things like energy in the discard, and the fact that you choose after you draw 3 cards is a nifty little deck thinning effect regardless. Not that I plan on playing it, just saying I would often choose this over a straight draw 3 if I were forced to choose :p
 
Otaku said:
At the time when TV Reporter was great, Copycat, Professor Oak's Research, and Delcatty w/Energy Draw were all the norm. We also had a slower format that still had T1 attacks, so Dunsparce (EX - Sandstorm) and its "Strike and Run" was a great opening play. Oh yeah, and old-school Rare Candy. Out of those, I do not want Rare Candy to go back to how it was (you don't balance Evolutions v. Basics by making Evos faster) and Cynthia is a Professor Oak's Research+1 (or equal to Professor Oak's New Theory).

That kind of environment isn't impossible to replicate, but the big thing is that with no T1 attacks, it isn't as rewarding to build a deck around attacks that aid in setup. We are way closer to it than I would have imagined a year ago, but it is mostly due to what has always caused problems with game balance in the Pokémon TCG; we get a few examples that do have the speed/power/whatever to be competitive despite the rest of the metagame, but most of the cardpool won't hold up. If we got T1 attacks back, however, too many current (and probable future) releases already have the speed to go full aggro without that option; with it, they'd make sure that "setup" attacks were still pretty useless. Makes me wonder if the powers-that-be need to revise the first turn rules so that you can attack T1, but T1 and T2 attacks cannot do damage (or something like that).

Tangent aside, the main thing is that TV Reporter probably needed to be at least a "Draw 4, discard 1." to have much hope of competitive success, but you're right that it still has some.
Click to expand...
they can always latiosEX an attack "this pokemon may use this attack on the first turn of the game"
 
Dar Ksereth said:
they can always latiosEX an attack "this pokemon may use this attack on the first turn of the game"
Click to expand...

That clause has appeared on - I think - three attacks so far, only one of which was set up based. =/ Frankly, I think allowing the player going second to attack for damage first turn has already sped the game up too much, so leaving things "as is" seems undesirable even if the powers-that-be suddenly started printing all the non-damaging attacks with that clause.

I know this sounds kind of nutty, but it's basically me muttering again (sorry). I'm a long time player, and I've come to certain stances after nearly 20 years of playing, and about a decade of really pondering some of these things. I like the fast pace of Pokémon relative to some other games; I just think a turn or two of players setting up followed by three to six turns (per player) of intense action is still plenty fast, even if it seems "slow" compared to the modern day game where you might take one turn to focus on setting up but then the next three really decide the game (sometimes, that is even in terms of overall turn count and not per player!).

Things become more complicated because of various forms of acceleration. You might think you have a pretty well-balanced attack but oh yeah, DCE makes it a turn faster, or Aqua Patch makes it two turns faster, etc. Which is why, even if Pokémon Card Laboratories (I think that's the division name...) suddenly agreed with me about the direction of card design, and started making Pokémon with low-cost, early game attacks only focused on setup (or maybe some disruption) and not on actually taking Prizes... we'd still need a rule to deal with all the current cards that completely fly in the face of such gameplay. ^^'
 
KK-Swizzle said:
disagree that this is worse than hau/cheren...many archetypes specifically want things like energy in the discard, and the fact that you choose after you draw 3 cards is a nifty little deck thinning effect regardless. Not that I plan on playing it, just saying I would often choose this over a straight draw 3 if I were forced to choose :p
Click to expand...

What about all the decks that don't have obvious discard targets? Out of what is currently on top, how many truly want something in the discard pile other than situation specific cards that don't look needed for the current match? I'm actually asking, not just debating. I haven't been paying much attention to the competitive scene the last two months... and even then we're really debating what things will be like 6 months to two years from now.

It helps to understand that when TV Reporter was new, she was a staple. So some of these comments are from people who remember when TV Reporter was as heavily run as stuff like Cynthia, N, and Professor Sycamore are now. If a deck doesn't need a little extra discard - so either it doesn't want to discard cards at all or it already has plenty - then Hau would be as good or better of a choice and neither would be better than just sticking to the big three (Cynthia, N, and Professor Sycamore).
 
So 'Champion Road' is the nostalgic set like 'Evolutions.'

Does that mean Sun & Moon era is coming to an end soon?
 
I cant believe I'm saying this, but there is a worse draw supporter than Hau in the format.
WHAT HAS THIS WORLD COME TO?
 
There really was no need to reprint this card. (Other than nostalgic reasons I guess.) If after Sycamore's rotation there will be no other "discard x and draw x" cards in Standard then Sophocles will still be better. Or even Ultra Recon in Beast decks if that becomes a thing. There's also Wake for water decks.
 
Otaku said:
That clause has appeared on - I think - three attacks so far, only one of which was set up based. =/ Frankly, I think allowing the player going second to attack for damage first turn has already sped the game up too much, so leaving things "as is" seems undesirable even if the powers-that-be suddenly started printing all the non-damaging attacks with that clause.

I know this sounds kind of nutty, but it's basically me muttering again (sorry). I'm a long time player, and I've come to certain stances after nearly 20 years of playing, and about a decade of really pondering some of these things. I like the fast pace of Pokémon relative to some other games; I just think a turn or two of players setting up followed by three to six turns (per player) of intense action is still plenty fast, even if it seems "slow" compared to the modern day game where you might take one turn to focus on setting up but then the next three really decide the game (sometimes, that is even in terms of overall turn count and not per player!).

Things become more complicated because of various forms of acceleration. You might think you have a pretty well-balanced attack but oh yeah, DCE makes it a turn faster, or Aqua Patch makes it two turns faster, etc. Which is why, even if Pokémon Card Laboratories (I think that's the division name...) suddenly agreed with me about the direction of card design, and started making Pokémon with low-cost, early game attacks only focused on setup (or maybe some disruption) and not on actually taking Prizes... we'd still need a rule to deal with all the current cards that completely fly in the face of such gameplay. ^^'
Click to expand...
the problem with pokemon is that your resources (the pokes) are also the target, unlike magic where you can tank some hits to set up your board, or yugi where monsters defend your life points and you can summon some stupid strong monster much easier.

in poke if you're evolution based going first means so much. and some decks thrive on the fact that they don't particularly care if they go first or second (volcanion/buzz) and being unable to accelerate energy also makes bad situations in the game worse. this is why zoroark's so good right now, literally does everything. accelerates the deck, can attack for one energy*, and the more the merrier.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top