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I laughed after reading Rampardos' second attack. Hey, Machamp's back! It's an all around solid card too! At least 120 damage to evolved Pokemon for only 1 energy, and straight up KO's for Basics. And actually, this is an interesting difference between Machamp and Rampardos with the formats they're in. Machamp was big because it could do this on turn one. And although Rampardos' attack costs more, it's in a format where you can take 2 prizes by KO'ing a basic EX or GX. There were no 2-prize Pokemon back then (unless your opponent had an Expert Belt attached). So it kind of balances out for Rampardos!

I'm so glad to see the old fossil mechanic back. Golly, it's almost like if something wasn't broke, they shouldn't have tried to "fix" it and get stuck with that fix for years. :rolleyes:
PieterPie said:
I'm also hoping I didn't come off as a jerk. I guess I didn't think of it that way, like honestly regular EX and GX just don't seem special anymore, because if they aren't playable, they are worth as much as a non-holo staple trainer.

On the other hand, it would be brutal to make cynthia a "chase card". If there was only a full art, then prices would be crazy high. I guess the current system with low rarity and full art options is working well, so it would be best to do that, especially for a good trainer.
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Nah, you didn't. And yeah, there are a lot of things that no longer seem special, especially in TPCi's releases. For one, this may just be a generational thing, but I remember two instances of my nephew opening packs, getting a holo, and saying he got nothing. One of those was a Head Ringer and the other was an Evolutions holo, which, at the very least, is different from the regular holos--both are, really. Personally, I find regular rares to be useless now. Japan doesn't even have that rarity anymore. (Just common, uncommon, holo or higher.) So it's something that TPCi keeps around, I can only assume for familiarity and to pad out pull rates. The closest TCPi has come to making pull rates and rarities the way I personally think would be best is in Shining Legends. Not a single non-holo rare to be seen, non-holo Stage 2's are uncommons (though there were only holo Basics, but whatever), and ultra rare pull rates seem slightly higher than usual.

I said when the new Cynthia card was first revealed, I could only imagine how expensive it would be. A popular character on top of a great effect? But add on top of that, the possibility that the regular version of the card is a holo? Ouch...
 
Ok so question is.....can you rare candy the fossil onto the Rampardos / Bastiodon? I know you could do that at least under 2004 / 2006 rules, If I could do that these cards will become a lot more viable.

Glad to see the old design of the fossils are back, none of that random "look at the 6 bottom cards" crap, just pure and simple evolution, the way I like it (and I think they even fixed the part where back then you didn't take a prize for knocking out a fossil so what people did that time was stall and mill out your opponent's deck while they take no prizes knocking out fossils!)

Ramprados is my clear favorite of the group. 2 attacks, both of which are good under the right circumstance. The first attack requires little set up energywise and it does a good chunk of damage to evolution with a strong energy and a band if it's a GX (60 + 60 + 20 + 30 = 170. Ho boy, imagine this thing with more strong energies, maybe with the support of promo koko?), and that second attack is something Lunala-GX wishes it has. That's a very good attack if you get it going, the question is how? Carbink BREAK? Elixir? I think people already have somewhat of a weird time charging Buzzole so I don't know. I like this card still!

Bastiodon: I would care more, but the decks that have DCE in it, I don't think any Metal Decks lose to. Volcanion uses only basic energies about 98% of the time, Metal decks lose to that, so I don't think it'll see much use. It's a neat ability, don't get me wrong, I don't think it's as good as Rampardos (maybe if it gave protection to Pokemon with a Metal energy, I could see Rampardos having a Rainbow Energy on it so that you can use this from the same evolution line, but that's just simple not the case. The attack as a quick note is also something not to care about. Maybe i'm just looking at this purely from a match-up perspective, after all I am using Noivern online more now that Gardevoir is seeing less play with all the metal hype and how pretty much anything else uses Double Colorless Energy, so I can lock them out :D So Maybe a deck based off Bastiodon. I've written too much for a pokemon that probably won't see play :p

Gardenia: Not get 2HKO when playing Golisopod? I guess? Nah, Acerola is a better option for him. I don't think this will see any play either. Very.....what's the words I'm looking for?

Marowhacker said:
-Gardenia. Underwhelming
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Yeah, that's it. Underwhelming.
 
We better get a Crasher Wake in this set though. Even though Steel types are a primary focus, I still hope we get a good Crasher Wake card if we get one in SM5.
 
Holden Sheeks said:
Ok so question is.....can you rare candy the fossil onto the Rampardos / Bastiodon? I know you could do that at least under 2004 / 2006 rules, If I could do that these cards will become a lot more viable.
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You play it as a colorless basic pokemon, so more than likely yes. But we'll probably find out when we get the rules on set launch.
 
Nistua said:
Like I said, the old fossil cards only specified the name, so you should technically be able to use the old Shieldon fossil to put the new Shieldon onto your bench.
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Ahh my mistake. I read it like you thought any fossil could work. That brings up the other issue as well, is it okay to evolve from a restored pokemon to stage 2? Also, you cant use the old Bastidon with the new shieldon, as they are both stage 1 cards.

Also, is the old Bastidon still in standard? I play in japan so the sets in standard format outside of japan slip my mind.
 
Both fossil Pokémon are cool. I can see both being played. I really like Rampardos' second attack. The first deck that comes to mind is Buzzwole GX/Rampardos with energy acceleration. Buzzwole GX is great at spreading chip damage for Espeon EX's Miraculous Shine, but struggles against Basic heavy decks like Volcanion. Rampardos getting automatic KOs on Basics is huge. Not sure if it'd be too clunky but it sounds nice on paper.
 
Senorsmith said:
Ahh my mistake. I read it like you thought any fossil could work. That brings up the other issue as well, is it okay to evolve from a restored pokemon to stage 2? Also, you cant use the old Bastidon with the new shieldon, as they are both stage 1 cards.

Also, is the old Bastidon still in standard? I play in japan so the sets in standard format outside of japan slip my mind.
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Yeah, western standard is Breakthrough on and the Bastiodon was in Steam Siege.
 
It only took them 2 generations and a bit for fossil mechanic to return to the way it was in DP and before. This one is better applying to all pokemon that evolve evolve from fossils.
 
so for the bassdiadon you have to target that before your opponent evolves and locks you out of the game. I swear TPCI you are really making me angry with this metal stuff right now.
 
I do like that they brought back Mysterious Fossil tbph, I wasn't a fan of the restored mechanic of looking at the bottom seven cards. As for Rampardos, I had forgotten that we haven't seen it since 2009.
 
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