I kind of tolerated the gen 1 theme for a while because Jolteon and Zappos are amazing, but this is getting outrageous. The entire C block this year might be only gen 1. It was fine during the ORAS era because of the sets having themes. Want to know something I’m curious about? How even though the sets are getting close to 300 cards, they haven’t moved on from the same set of 153 (Meltan and Melmetal) Pokémon!!! (Sry I just completely raged)
1: Let's Go is out, what do you expect until Sword and Shield??
2: I'd like to point out that the majority of Sky Legends and GG End aren't gen 1 Pokemon, and in fact mostly gen 4 and 5 Pokemon. I counted, 22 from gen 4, and 22 as well from gen 5, while only 18 individual Gen 1 cards, if we include Alolan Forms. You're completely exaggerating that we're "only gen 1" right now. While there's a lot of Kanto
focus lately, the last few sets, and a LOT of what we've seen of Miracle Twins has been not gen 1. If you take a look at the lists for Team Up and Unbroken Bonds, they have the majority of gen 1 Pokemon in it. Team Up has a majority, and Unbroken Bonds has a majority, albeit smaller. Looking at what we've seen of GG End and Sky Legend, and the last few reveals of Miracle Twins, we're going to have an even
smaller majority of gen 1, if that.
You're implying here that all they've been doing is the original 151, plus Meltan/Melmetal.
This couldn't be farther from the truth.
Some Pokemon are getting their first cards in YEARS. Terrakion and Leavanny come off the top of my head. While a lot of Tag Teams
do use Gen 1 Pokemon, they also pair them with Pokemon from other generations-effectively striking a balance of old and new. And if you, again, look at the most recent japanese sets, they're also striking a pretty good balance lately. And I'll always bring this up, but look at a lot of the more obscure Pokemon they're making into Ultra Rares for the past year and a half. Stuff like Venomoth or Shuckle or Magcargo getting Ultras was something that was
incredibly unlikely in XY/Early sun and moon.
I'm not going to say Pokemon is without flaw lately, though. I think they've been thematically muddled, especially as of late, and your point on the sets not having much of a theme lately does stand. But I still stand by what I mean in that, since, say, Lost Thunder and Celestial Storm, they've been taking a lot of steps in the right direction. Issues will always be present, like set bloating, but there's a lot they've been doing right in terms of what Pokemon gets to be in what.
As I've said, Let's Go is out. They're trying to cover all of the Kanto ground, which is totally understandable if you think about it-they want to sell products. They're a
company, we can't forget this. They're promoting their game with the TCG, and they're promoting the TCG because of their game. Of course they would advertise products like these Kanto tins that have people going like "Oh hey, I played that game, I know who those Pokemon are! I'll buy this!" instead of something like a, say, "Ultimate Stunfisk Power Collection" (which I really want now that I think of it). They're both covering that ground, and yet, also putting in a lot of things that you wouldn't expect in a Let's Go block. Such as an influx of these gen 4 or 5 Pokemon who haven't gotten cards in a long time.
I guess my concluding statement here is that I feel like Pokemon is starting to (keyword STARTING) head into a direction that pleases both sides of the fanbase. As I've said, there's a LOT of flaws with gen 7's TCG. The hyper rares and gold items
especially, they're the worst ultra rares ever made. But, you have to acknowledge that Pokemon is a company trying to sell products to the most people, so they have to do a bit of service for the popular Pokemon they know are going to sell.
