Speculatory Supporters

Lanstar

Lanstar

The Cutest of Ladies
Member
Looking at all the supporters that have come out, I'm amazed by the great variety this generation, with several unexpected characters printed. Who would have thought there would be a card for Brigette, or even the Delinquent as a Supporter?

This made me thinking: Given all the characters in the Pokemon games, there's still quite a lot of them that haven't gotten a card this generation - and many of them could be great candidates for future Supporters. One could be the Fairy Tail Girl, given how Fairy Decks haven't gotten much support lately, aside from the Max Potion coming soon. I'm surprised that Diantha hasn't gotten a card, given that she is the Champion of Kalos. Given that Misty got a supporter, perhaps Brock could come soon. Maybe a Pokemon Ranger too...

What do you think could come in the next sets? What do you think the new effects could be?
 
There's two things I feel influence what they choose. (Aside from the obvious promoting new games thing, which isn't currently relevant due to no new games having been released lately.)

1) Fan interest in the character. For example, this is apparently why we got Skyla back, and likely why we got Giovanni and Misty cards as well.

2) Because it fits a mechanic they wanted for a Supporter. This is likely why we got Hex Maniac and Brigette, for example. The effects were likely decided upon before the character they depict.


To be fair, they likely do occasionally just include a card because they wanted to feature the character, but this is usually, as I opened with, to promote new games, and not out of the blue without some other reason.
 
Brigette doesn't run a regional PC system. Cassius, who we already got a card for, runs Kalos's, and Lanette runs Hoenn's. She's the host of the two extra ones, Box and Bank. It's not like we got a Hayley card (or a Gen 3 Brigette card, for that matter), so Brigette was pretty unexpected. I'll grant you they probably chose Brigette over Lanette because she's more attractive, though.


Oh, and HGSS had Bill in Supporter form, so covered. ;p
 
I must resist making annoying and/or tasteless jokes.

I must resist making annoying and/or tasteless jokes.

I...

So anyway, if the-powers-that-be decide to recycle the "Discard hand, draw seven cards." effect for a Supporter again, I really hope that they do what they ought to have done last time: don't create a new card named Professor [Insert next gen Professor]. Instead just create a new card named... Professor. Then you can print it with whatever art you want to cover a variety of cards. If you issue errata, you could even get rid of that silly Professor Juniper/Professor Sycamore rule: if both are rechristened as "Professor" then suddenly we all know we can only use four total. Learning the errata seems like less of a hassle then "Four of any card that doesn't have a built in restriction printed on it... cept for those two. Those two with identical effects are four of either but you can't mix them at all. No, it doesn't apply to any other card like that; go ahead and run four Tierno and four Cheren!"

This would also allow something cool like a special Professor promo set featuring the more obscure "professor" characters! *sigh* as this is already quite fanciful I may as well hope that this would be done and include a errata for Professor Oak (as well as a Professor featuring Professor Oak in the art) turning that old, Unlimited only card into a Supporter. XD
 
The 'Professor' idea sounds quite fun - I'd love to use each professor card art of the same recycled effect, like both Juniper and Sycamore cards mix and matched, but only four total.

One interesting thing this Generation: They decided to reprint both Judge and Fisherman in a way that you can use the 4-5-year old art versions in your decks - which I've seen people use in the PTCG Online. That, to me, is a large gap of time to reprint supporters like this.

Another thing: Many of the newer supporters look like they were designed to be future proofed. Many new ones have no specified trainer names. Ace Trainer, Hex Maniac, Delinquent, Teammates, etc. aren't specified names, but are classifications of characters in the games. Even Judge and Fisherman fit into this category. They could be reprinted in any generation without feeling isolated from the sets.

Other Supporter characters newly printed, while they do have names, may be considered timeless characters that also can fit into any generation. Since Brigette manages the Pokebank, you'll probably see her in transitions of many games. Giovanni is also a notorious character no matter what the generation... although, with the 'Scheme' part in it, the exact effects reprinted might be questionable.

If the future-proofing idea is correct, maybe a 'Professor Card' could be possible. I wonder, though, if they'd do something like that for Lysandre for other bosses, given how incredibly important it is for the meta.
 
@Lanstar

Bear in mind this thought occurred to me specifically because the-powers-that-be went to the trouble of creating a brand new game rule specific to the Professor Juniper/Professor Sycamore situation. Notice how it doesn't exist for Cheren and Tierno. This is literally the powers-that-be choosing a more complex solution over a simpler solution. Well, that and failing to realize that Professor Juniper/Professor Sycamore might be a wee bit too powerful for our collective good. =P
 
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