News 20th Anniversary Set in September + Surfing Pikachu and M Slowbro-EX!

OMG, a Lily Pad Mew Holo card! I so want it.

And that Promo Charizard too, gosh.

My wallet is bleeding hard.

Don Pianta said:
Not to be a major buzzkill, but they've not confirmed that the US set is bringing back the starry holofoil pattern, so excuse our reserved reactions.

If and when that's confirmed, all aboard the hype train, full speed ahead.


I'd settle for Firered and Leafgreen style reverse holofoils, to be honest.
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Oh oh, the Firered and Leafgreen style reverse holofoils are pretty epic too,

Just that Legendary Collections was kind of a reprint of BasesetXJungle,
and this is closer to LC as compared to FRLG, but I'll settle for that too.

It'll be nice to have a change of common foils.
 
That Rattata could see some play because of that ability (we are losing xerosic and startling megaphone) but then again it takes a bench space and low HP so Lysandre bait.
 
HA559 said:
Does anyone know exactly how many cards (excluding secret rares) will there be in the English set? In the bulbapedia page on XY Evolutions set, it mentions on the set description that there will be over 100. That would mean around a third of the first gen pokemon won't be remade.
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The "Over 100 Cards" line is a part of the official product description for Evolutions, as seen in this original news post. We don't know the exact number of cards until we start seeing some cards from the English version of the set, and even then that won't account for SRs (if any). We do know that the Japanese set has 87 cards (again, not including SRs, which in Japanese includes FAs), and there are likely to be a number of Japanese promos also included in the English release.
 
So which base set reprint is better besides the attack and HP. The Charizard from DP stormfront or this reprint of Charizard right here, which is the same as base set? The stormfront one has different texture (oil pastel?) which I like.
 
Am I missing a joke?

I mean I get the people that are are all excited about this set because of nostalgia, or if they weren't around/paying attention to the originals, just enjoy the blend of retro and new in these cards.

What I don't get is how many people are acting like we've seen anything particularly good. A few decent-ish cards, but nothing worth getting excited about. Click the Spoiler to read my confusion and annoyance. XD

Going through what has been revealed so far:

  • Chansey - What happened? Even with Protection Cube this isn't worth it. The HP should be 130 or 140 (remember 140 is the new max for regular Basics), Scrunch should be more like [C] and then it would be good for stalling (still decent now though), while Double Edge... for [CCCC] I expect about 100 damage. I also expect damage done to self to basically add that much to the damage done to the opponent's Pokémon. So Double Edge should be dealing 180 damage. If that is too much to be balanced, then lower the Energy cost and/or the recoil. This version even loses the Psychic Resistance (expected) and the [C] Retreat Cost (not expected). @_@
  • Charizard - I commented on this earlier, but to reiterate, it ain't bad. It ain't good unless we get a way of attaching two Double Colorless Energy at the same time, or Boost Energy gets a reprint, or we get a way of attaching a lot of non-Fire Energy to Charizard in a form that won't preclude running it in the same deck as our Stage 2. Otherwise, instead of an Ability like Energy Burn they may as well have just made the attack cost [RRCC]. Well, other than wanting to synch up with the original, of course. I just mean if I have to use this in Expanded with Blacksmith to power up quickly, why include an Ability that makes it easier to counter this hypothetical deck when tweaking the Energy cost does the same thing.
  • Charmeleon - an Evolving Stage 1 doesn't need to be super strong, but being a back-up attacker is rarely worthwhile unless it is so amazing it either threatens to overtake its Stage 2 or actually does. Even for [CCC] I would expect 70 or so damage. For [RRC] and [R] discard, I expect a Stage 1 to give me about 120 damage (to be remotely competitive). It needed to focus on setting up for Charizard, or given something (preferably an Ability) to disrupt the opponent, but I get how that is too different from what came before.
  • Gyarados - The original enjoyed a short stint as an attacker in Raindance decks, because of the lack of anything better. Fossil gave us two better attackers, and Gyarados (and Dewgong, approximately its equal) were done. Even assuming we get a similar degree of Energy acceleration, this version has badly overpriced attacks. For three Energy right now, you expect about 90 damage. Paralysis means it could get by with a bit less, specifically requiring [WWW] instead of say [WCC] or [CCC] means it needs to do a bit more; net result is still needs to hit for about 90. [WWWW] already should be doing 120 to be mediocre; 180 is only 20-40 points ahead of where it should be, and yet the attack still requires double "heads" to work. I haven't even gotten to the fact it is an Evolution, no longer has a useful Resistance, and its Basic is Maikarp. @_@ I will credit it for shaking things up as much as it did from its Base Set counterpart.
  • Mew - Appropriately enough, this card faces almost the exact same problems that lead to it faring poorly when the original was around. There are just too many ways around its protection: attacking with something before you Evolve, Ability negating effects, and Pokémon capable of attacking through effects means several of the attackers it was meant to frustrate already have an out... while the format is heavily focused on Basic attackers in the first place. Remember that in Standard, it won't have Dimension Valley and in Expanded, it faces more competition.
  • Mewtwo - Better relative to its Base Set counterpart "back in the day", ignoring how a lot of cards saw more competitive play due to card and knowledge shortages. The card's attributes are far better, don't get me wrong! It is just the attacks are merely scaled up versions of what it once had... and what it once had was either mediocre (Psychic) or largely pointless (Barrier). The deck "Mulligan's Mewtwo" was a literal joke; the only reason some of us took it seriously was because we were fooled (*raises hand*). This Mewtwo does have a decent attack in Psychic, but again Dimension Valley won't be there in Standard, and you need to hit something that is at least two of the following: small, Energy laden, or Psychic Weak. This version of Barrier might have made for a good Ability, though.
  • Onix - An improvement over the original, and I like how they just fixed the obvious problem by making the stalling attack costs [F] and the damaging attack require [FF], while raising the numbers, but it really needed to raise them higher: HP could be a bit bigger, damage soaked could be a bit bigger or else just grant a flat 60 damage reduction, and Rock Throw could stand hitting for another 10 or 20 damage. Still enough to make this "decent-ish" though because the threshold isn't that high. I mean our only current Onix is terrible.
  • Pikachu - Filler. Yes, better HP and Metal Resistance, but this was the "bad" Pikachu as soon as we had more options. I would rather they had updated another one (though as we can see below, that didn't work too well either). The best bet for this one would have basically been to make it like Base Set Electabuzz, but still with Retreat Cost [C] and Metal Resistance. Just replace Gnaw with Thundershock and change the damage amounts on Thunder Jolt to match Thunderpunch. That still wouldn't make this the best current Pikachu (for that you'd need to up the damage a little more)
  • Poliwhirl - Evolving Stage 1 Pokémon need to contribute to avoid only being skipped in favor of Rare Candy in general. Most only see play because of the fear of Item lock. Poliwrath are going to be Fighting or Water, and so Maxie's Hidden Ball Trick or Archie's Ace in the Hole let you skip Poliwag and Poliwhirl. So this needs to do something to improve set up, or some other trick to make it worth the hassle. An overpriced version of Amnesia is not that trick. I already said that a three Energy attack ought to do about 90 damage, but Double Slap needs two "heads" to hit 100. Nope. Again, I get that they are bound by what the original card did, but just the numbers could have been a bit higher.
  • Professor Oak's Hint - Apparently the "hint" was this entire set is nostalgic collector bait, and when possible updated cards will be severely nerfed. All we needed was a card named "Professor" that was a Supporter which had you discard your hand to draw seven cards. Then issue errata to chance the names of Professor Juniper and Professor Sycamore to just "Professor". No more silly, unique rule to keep players from running mixing discard-hand-to-draw-seven Supporters. Otherwise they should have just re-released the original Professor Oak as a Supporter (maybe helping Unlimited a bit with damage control) and added it to the rule about not running Professor Juniper with Professor Sycamore. This card is just so terrible: Bianca+1 is rarely going to net you more than a Cheren or Tierno. Edit: As of the morning of September 17, 2016 I finally noticed the clause about ending your turn. In my defense, would you expect such a clause on an already nerfed card? ;) Yeah, not much of a defense. :p I blew it, and I'm sorry. Take everything I said when I thought it was "Bianca+1" and realize it was largely unnecessary because just ending your turn is going to ruin most Supporters.
  • Rattata - The Ability is merely "okay"; besides there being multiple ways to shut down Abilities on Basic Pokémon, it only discards from your opponent's Active. Toss this on a big, Basic Pokémon-EX and its still handy. It isn't on that, it is on a 40 HP Basic with a single Energy Retreat Cost. 10 more HP was not worth [C] more Retreat; barely surviving a few things (Bench hits, Hypnotoxic Laser/Virbank City Gym, etc.) doesn't compensate for getting stuck in the Active slot where you won't survive most attacks. 20 damage plus 10 from a Fighting Fury Belt, even in Standard. Kudos for just adding an Ability, but why did the attack get nerfed?
  • Starmie - Again, glad we get an Ability seemingly out of nowhere, but an old-school Energy Retrieval each turn at the cost of a Bench-sitting Stage 1 is rarely (if ever) going to outdo just having two slots for the current Energy Retrieval and/or other cards to reclaim spent Energy. Star Freeze is better than the original, but that attack was absolutely horrible, this one is just horrible.
  • Zapdos - The original has really bad design, a bit better than the original but not much. Yes now Thunder can use Double Colorless Energy but that's still a waste, like the [C] requirement on the original: why are you going to have any off Type Energy when Thunderbolt needs just as much Energy, but all of the same Type. Yes Thunderbolt discards all attached Energy so you won't always want to use it, but are you really going to include Double Colorless Energy just for Thunder? You'll need [L] Energy acceleration no matter what. Thunder does 90 with a chance of self damage for an Energy cost that should do 120-140 with no drawbacks. Thunderbolt does 170 but with a drawback that should probably allow it to hit for 200-240. This card does have a chance, but only if Magnezone (BKT) finally gets a strong deck working.
I'll also include some of the miscellaneous bits that may or may not be in our set:
  • M Slowbro-EX - Dealing with Confusion is easy. Even dealing with it but not in a way that will also reset the attack's effect is pretty reasonable. Keeping your opponent from resetting it? Not so much. 100 for [WWW] on a Mega Evolution isn't worth it unless you can keep the effect going.
  • Pikachu - Kind of acts like support by attaching Energy to itself, but not worth it at 50 HP (especially with Fighting Weakness). Second attack is way overpriced, even as an "emergency" move. I have not seen a proper translation for the card though; if it is far different from the original (besides damage) then I could easily be wrong. ;)
  • Slowbro-EX - Why only healing 60 damage for Slack Off? Change the attack to "Rest" and give it its proper effect (Pokémon is Asleep, wipes away all damage and other Special Conditions). I mean for an attack that isn't all that great.
  • Snorlax - Might be my favorite Pokémon, but the Jungle version was always under powered and only found a place in Turbo Snorlax decks after someone realized we could abuse Thick Skinned (and at the same time, lock down Trainers because Dark Gloom and Dark Vileplume). That attack is way too expensive or way too under-powered. At least it finally got the HP it deserved (10 under the printed max for regular Basics). I also haven't seen a proper translation yet, so if I'm missing something, let me know.
 
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I'd say you're underselling Mewtwo and MAYBE Starmie (it's probably going to have its place, but it's certainly not going to alter the meta), but you're definitely right about the hype levels in general. People need to stop pretending things like Charizard and Rattata (without a Raticate that doesn't suck) are playable. I suspect the remaining non-Bill Supporters likely to be in here will be decent, but I'm not expecting massively playable cards. (Though I am open to the idea of something like Ninetales BREAK being good.)
 
RiverShock said:
I'd say you're underselling Mewtwo and MAYBE Starmie (it's probably going to have its place, but it's certainly not going to alter the meta), but you're definitely right about the hype levels in general. People need to stop pretending things like Charizard and Rattata (without a Raticate that doesn't suck) are playable. I suspect the remaining non-Bill Supporters likely to be in here will be decent, but I'm not expecting massively playable cards. (Though I am open to the idea of something like Ninetales BREAK being good.)
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Perhaps you are right on the Mewtwo; maybe there will be enough Energy laden attackers (like M Mewtwo-EX) to justify. Then again, that is kind of what I said; two of the following three etc. The difference is I just didn't realize there might be enough competitive decks that met two of those three. ;)
 
Chunky McMunky said:
That starmie is rediculous just think how crazy it will be in greninja, volcanion and mega sceptile.
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Not very because

1) It is a Stage 1 and those cards are in rather full decks already.
2) It is an Ability, so unless we get something to neutralize the effects of Garbotoxin, odds are we'll be in a Garbodor heavy format.
3) However many you run of it, those slots could go to Energy Retrieval and/or Fisherman, or additional copies of those card if some are already present.

Don't forget the from-the-hand discard cost as well. Something like this has worked before - see Magneton (EX: Dragon 17/97; EX: Power Keepers 16/108), but only so well and in significantly different formats from what we currently (and mostly likely will) have. If I am wrong... cool, almost always better that I'm wrong when I'm being like this. ;)
 
It would be cool if they re-released the coins for the US. I am probably the most excited for this set. I want to get a booster case of it! Also very excited to see ninetales and machamp break. I wish they would make a gengar break... :/
 
Hmm, never thought they would release the info of this set so soon... Nonetheless, I believe this'll be the end to the XY set ;-; /sobs violently/
 
I like the M Starters, but I dislike the Raichu artwork, it looks... off. I think it should have been a Mewtwo.
 
Glad to see Raichu on the packaging! That rat deserves to represent a TCG set after its place on the VGC Worlds winning team from this past weekend.

(Also, slight correction on the article. That's a Mega Charizard Y, not X. :p)
 
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