Yanmega - Before and After

How do you feel about the Yanmega Prime box?

  • Love it!

    Votes: 24 75.0%

  • Loathe the very thought...

    Votes: 8 25.0%
  • Total voters
    32
I

Izan

May Be More Crazy Than He Appears
Member
So we are two days away from the 'official' release of the Prime Challenge boxes and with it, a reprinting of Yanmega, Machamp, Umbreon and Espeon Primes. Obviously the latter three aren't the big picture here. Yanmega however is a big deal.

A card that is currently one of the highest priced singles and most sought after cards in the meta is about to become as common as Zekrom or Reshiram. I'm sure there are many walmarts out there who have already set these up on their shelves, as walmart doesn't give a damn about release dates, as long as they get paid, they're gonna sell them.

So the discussion is, how do we, as the community, feel about them taking one of the more powerful and rare cards from the meta and re-releasing them in a special box that ANYONE will have access too? Obviously this means that there will be ALOT more Yanmega decks hitting leagues and tourneys all over as the amount of the cards in circulation will probably quadruple and people who didn't even think about Yanmega before will now be able to build decks of their own.

On the opposite side of this, with the increased amount of Yanmega in the players hands, this will inevitably decrease Yanmegas trade value as people won't be so hard pressed to trade alot for them when they can just go spend $20 (half of what the card is currently worth) and get Yanmega, 2 packs, a theme deck and a Mamoswine line, as well as a code card for the PTCGO, meaning they get ALL OF THAT in the virtual game as well. The cards value will at least be half of what it is now, and probably decrease more in the time after the boxes have been out a while.

So, guys, my question to you is this. Is this going to be a good thing for the competitive and trading world, or bad?
 
I think it will be good for the game. Players on a budget can now buy Yanmega.

When using various decks at league, the younger players say stuff like "Are you play the Donphan deck? I wish I had Donphans...."
 
I don't think it matters a whole lot since Yanmega isn't too great right now. Its used in Primetime, Stage 1 Rush, and KYJ (can't even remember if that is the proper abbreviation for Kingdra Yanmega Jirachi since nobody plays it any more) and all of those decks have a disadvantageous matchup against the dragons, which are the most common and some of the best decks in the meta. I could never really figure out why Yanmega was still so much money in this meta tbh, so I don't really care about these boxes much.
 
I personally think it's a great thing for a game. In fact, I can't really think of any time where I think it's a good thing that there's ever a very high secondary market value of a popular meta card. It drives the cost of being competitive up and keeps some people away from playing.
 
It's great for the game because if you look at Japan who releases playable cards in a more affordable way, the rest of the world should too.
 
It is great for the game: we simply cannot have cards at $40 each that you need a playset, or at least 3, to be able to play. It's simply bad for the game to make people who are not as economically devoted to it not play certain decks, one of which is the arguable BDIF. I don't see how this is a bad thing for anyone: the more people see Yanmega, the more they play against it with its bad matchups. The more they do that, the less people play it. The less people play it, the less people use decks designed to beat it. Then it's back to the beginning, where people start to see Yanmega more. The entire thing is cyclical, and keeping that cycle going by giving people access to cards is a good thing.
 
Riskbreakers said:
It's great for the game because if you look at Japan who releases playable cards in a more affordable way, the rest of the world should too.
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This, precisely. The money barrier that keeps players from being active in the game is torn down. Players don't need to buy boxes of Triumphant to try and dig a few of these out, or spend tens of dollars on one off a card-selling site. Can't wait 'til these come out, AND CAN'T WAIT 'TIL I CAN GET AN ESPEON PRIME.
 
Scizorliscious said:
It is great for the game: we simply cannot have cards at $40 each that you need a playset, or at least 3, to be able to play.
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You realize that not every deck uses Yanmega, right? I don't play the game and even I know this...
 
You misunderstood what I said. What I was saying was that unless you have 3 or 4 Yanmega, you will not be able to play it competitively. Sorry if that was ambiguous.
 
I never have liked, or used, yanmega. And I still don't and won't use it. The card is an ok card that requires 6+ supporters to make it good. I'm just upset about how the value will drop dramatically. Sure it'll give some people a better chance to play slightly better decks than they already have, but the decks that yanmega are good in still require 3-4 $20 and up cards. So they will still have to either spend a lot or trade a lot for those.
 
I like keeping the game more affordable, but it is a pain when they release something for free that used to be $20, (Uxie, claydol, ect) because the value drops like a rock. I think this is a better way of doing things because you still have to buy a $25 ish dollar thing. So the value of your card won't go completely to crap.
 
I think it's one of those things that's great for people who don't have the card, and bad for those who do have it. If you already have a card before a promo is released, you essentially paid a lot of money for something which you can't get that money back. If you don't have the card, you now have a great card for cheap.

Overall, I think it is inherently better for the game. After all, do we want to play in a world where only a few people can afford the best cards (and therefore always win) or do we want a world where everyone can afford to build the best decks and use skill to compete, and everyone is on an equal playing field?

It always irks me when these releases happen, since I lose some money. But I like to remind myself that if I do well in tournaments, it's not because I could afford something the other players couldn't - skill got me there.
 
to me i see it as pokemon is taking the steps yugioh did with releasing cards that are high in value to people who cant afford them and make it common for those who want it.kinda reminds me of the clash of legends boxes with palkia g and dialga g lv x common versions lol
 
The thing I find interesting is that there is a 6 month lag between a card skyrocketing in value, and the reprinting. So it takes about 6 months to get a box made?
 
I doubt their full intent was to make Yanmega's price drop. We're getting low-value Primes as well, so it was probably just an idea to create revenue and then they said "hey, let's put Yanmega in here. TCG players love Yanmega. They'll eat it up." And you know what, that we will.
 
LegendsLugia251 said:
to me i see it as pokemon is taking the steps yugioh did with releasing cards that are high in value to people who cant afford them and make it common for those who want it.kinda reminds me of the clash of legends boxes with palkia g and dialga g lv x common versions lol
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this is what i think. a rare card in yugioh (pot of duality) dropped $90 when it was put in a tin.

yanmega is currently $9 at cheapest on ebay (one dollar more than pokemon catcher.) compare this to the nationals 2011 price ($100) and you have a big change.

i am excited for the yanmega release because i might finally be able to play stage one rush.
 
I think if they started to do this more actively you wouldn't see the prices go up so much in the first place. If a given card becomes critical to a metagame and the price starts to go up, it'll probably level off to a normal price, and sooner, because in the back of everyone's mind they know it'll get released in a more conspicuous manner soon enough. That way no one has to be burned when they buy a card for $40 dollars one week and its value falls the next, and worst case scenario even when it does, it's a $5-$10 dollar difference instead of $20-$30.

Obviously some cards won't always translate well (LEGENDs never would've been put in tins) and there'll still be some element of guessing whether a given card will attract enough attention and catch Nintendo's eye such that they decide to put it in a set like this, but it'd introduce some restraint on everyone's part.
 
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