Theme Decks for Pokemon TCG Sets Likely Discontinued!

That's good, for all I care they should move more and more towards a League Battle deck style of product, or at the very least have the quality of say, a M Char VS M Blast Battle Arena from a while back. Now those are products that actually respect new players and their intelligence. I always thought "being too complex for new players" was a half-baked and poor excuse for just not wanting to make actual good "theme" or "intro" type products. And that is something that plagues all TCGs across the board, theme or intro decks are almost always trash products that treat newer players like they're mentally challenged or something and wouldn't manage to play a more decent, well put together deck. For instance, for anyone familiar with MtG's Challenger decks, that's what intro decks should look like, and in the case of Pokémon, the aforementioned Battle Arena or League Battle decks. Good riddance, theme decks.
 
Diego Lima said:
That's good, for all I care they should move more and more towards a League Battle deck style of product, or at the very least have the quality of say, a M Char VS M Blast Battle Arena from a while back. Now those are products that actually respect new players and their intelligence. I always thought "being too complex for new players" was a half-baked and poor excuse for just not wanting to make actual good "theme" or "intro" type products. And that is something that plagues all TCGs across the board, theme or intro decks are almost always trash products that treat newer players like they're mentally challenged or something and wouldn't manage to play a more decent, well put together deck. For instance, for anyone familiar with MtG's Challenger decks, that's what intro decks should look like, and in the case of Pokémon, the aforementioned Battle Arena or League Battle decks. Good riddance, theme decks.
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I agree. If anything, it's much harder to learn with a theme deck. Because they are poorly constructed and have little synergy, there's a very small chance to learn any actual strategy as you read through the card options you have available.
 
I don't think theme decks were very good, but the post-TeU versions had a place I think for younger children. They really played two roles:
* A cheap way to get something they could play
* A way to get some useful trainers for real decks

Once they started having Professor's Research etc. in every one, I started recommending them to all of my kids - they'd get one, play with it for a few weeks, then start improving it, and not have to spend too much.

If the V Battle decks do the same thing, for the same price point or very close, then it's fine; but if the V Battle decks are $25 or so, then they're out of the range of "casual purchase by Mom or Dad for a seven year old." That then becomes a bigger problem, on my end.
 
snoopy369 said:
I don't think theme decks were very good, but the post-TeU versions had a place I think for younger children. They really played two roles:
* A cheap way to get something they could play
* A way to get some useful trainers for real decks

Once they started having Professor's Research etc. in every one, I started recommending them to all of my kids - they'd get one, play with it for a few weeks, then start improving it, and not have to spend too much.

If the V Battle decks do the same thing, for the same price point or very close, then it's fine; but if the V Battle decks are $25 or so, then they're out of the range of "casual purchase by Mom or Dad for a seven year old." That then becomes a bigger problem, on my end.
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makes sense. They definitely have to hit the sub $20 mark.
 
As posted in the original story, each deck is $14.99 and the bundle is $29.99 (two decks and eight more Trainer cards, two of which are holo). So sounds like those prices will work for kids! :)
 
Aw,too bad.I like the theme decks.


Also Empoleon means Sinnoh confirmed.
 
I wonder what the implication is for something like PTCGO's Theme Format. While I don't play in that one, I wonder-is it going to go the way of Legacy? (Which they stupidly stopped supporting in tournaments, which I'm still salty about to this day) Or will it be updated to include these new upcoming Blastoise/Venusaur Battle Decks?
 
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The only reason I bought starter decks was for the shatter foil variants of the main card.

Beyond that, they didn’t really serve a purpose other than the cardboard damage counters. (I guess?)
 
I guess we stopped pretending there's a game to be played without Pokemon-V.

League Battle decks should not serve as a replacement to Theme decks. A big part of this game is creativity, playing with the cards you like and coming up with strategies, especially in an LGS setting. I never recommend League Battle decks to beginners, because it's just saying "here's a basis for a Tier 1 deck, just play that to win".
I would just prefer for them to improve Theme decks (or Battle decks) and design two per set to be played as a pair, against each other.
 
Boooooooooooo!!!!

Im only a online player and even when these deck are far away to be perfect, it had some charm see diferent gimmicks that never see any play on regular decks, it quite sucks cause then Dragonite will reign supreme for the eternity and I was really hoping for a theme deck able to take it down of that position and change the meta once again that have being pretty much stuck in a long time

Also is the only guaranteed 6 vs 6 matches which is how the game should be
 
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AshCo said:
I wonder what the implication is for something like PTCGO's Theme Format. While I don't play in that one, I wonder-is it going to go the way of Legacy? (Which they stupidly stopped supporting in tournaments, which I'm still salty about to this day) Or will it be updated to include these new upcoming Blastoise/Venusaur Battle Decks?
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My guess is that if these are the new "theme decks, now with V cards" (which seems to be the case), they will simply be treated as such and be usable in the torneys and ladder, etc. Which I think is great, that format could use the shake up.
 
Yaginku said:
I guess we stopped pretending there's a game to be played without Pokemon-V.

League Battle decks should not serve as a replacement to Theme decks. A big part of this game is creativity, playing with the cards you like and coming up with strategies, especially in an LGS setting. I never recommend League Battle decks to beginners, because it's just saying "here's a basis for a Tier 1 deck, just play that to win".
I would just prefer for them to improve Theme decks (or Battle decks) and design two per set to be played as a pair, against each other.
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Well, in my personal experience, both me and every other person I ever saw getting into new TCGs will play their respective introductory type decks for 3 or 4 times and immediately go like "...ok, now I wanna build a deck that is not total trash". Maybe I went a little superlative with League decks, but they don't have to be 1/3 energy decks, like theme decks were either...The Battle Arena ones, like the excellent M Char VS M Blast for instance is a perfect sweet spot I think. It's not a cookie-cutter, pratically tier-1 deck, but it's not a joke like theme either and has lots of room for improvement still. If I ever had the chance to play a theme format were all the decks were on that level I'd be ll over that.
 
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AshCo said:
Good move, I'd say. While Theme Decks post-Ultra Prism did get a good improvement, and there were a few nice Cracked Ice cards (I will miss those if they're going away) it still wasn't the best thing in the world. I was much more of a fan of preconstructed decks like the Battle Arena/League Battle ones. So these new V ones, while likely more simplistic are a step up from regular Theme Decks while still having a decent enough price point.

However, I wonder what the implication is for something like PTCGO's Theme Format. While I don't play in that one, I wonder-is it going to go the way of Legacy? (Which they stupidly stopped supporting in tournaments, which I'm still salty about to this day) Or will it be updated to include these new upcoming Blastoise/Venusaur Battle Decks?
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I imagine that depends on whether they are doing more than basic maintenance on PTCGO or not. My hope is they're replacing PTCGO entirely with a new program, soon, in which case this probably won't happen... but who knows.
 
Yaginku said:
I guess we stopped pretending there's a game to be played without Pokemon-V.

League Battle decks should not serve as a replacement to Theme decks. A big part of this game is creativity, playing with the cards you like and coming up with strategies, especially in an LGS setting. I never recommend League Battle decks to beginners, because it's just saying "here's a basis for a Tier 1 deck, just play that to win".
I would just prefer for them to improve Theme decks (or Battle decks) and design two per set to be played as a pair, against each other.
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"V Battle decks" are probably not the same as the Tier 1 - lite decks that they're printed already; they're presumably closer to theme decks (just with a V). Of course we don't know for sure until the first one is printed (in Feb), but it seems likely given this change that they're making them a bit disconnected from the main releases, which is a good thing in some ways - it allows them to put together mechanics that work across releases instead of having to basically just use one release's mechanics.
 
snoopy369 said:
I imagine that depends on whether they are doing more than basic maintenance on PTCGO or not. My hope is they're replacing PTCGO entirely with a new program, soon, in which case this probably won't happen... but who knows.
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As in a completely new program from scratch, or? I severely doubt they'd do a new program unless you'd be able to transfer what you already have on there as well as being able to still use code cards.

That being said, since it's on the topic, I feel like I should mention I'd like to see them more actively update and improve the client however, I feel like there hasn't been any big updates since... Hell, four years ago now?
 
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