VS series = the Original SP Pokemon?

M

Mrs. Aforcer

Pokemon Professor as of 08/10/09
Member
Hey, kids! I know a lot of you young'uns here on PokeBeach think SP Pokemon are a brand new addition to the gameplay, but... guess what? They're not!

I remember years and years ago browsing an issue of Beckett Pokemon and wondering when the VS series was going to be released in America. I really liked the cards in the series, and the fact you essentially got to play with Pokemon that belonged to Gym Leaders and Elite Four Members alike. Much to my dismay, though, the set was never released in America.

Medaf and I had been speculating as to why the set was never released here in the States. The best reason we could come up with was maybe WotC (who owned the Pokemon TCG at the time) felt that American players couldn't intellectually handle the idea of playing Basic Pokemon that were evolved from other Pokemon.

Tonight, I was browsing Bulbapedia to look at old rare and unreleased cards and finally found the answer to this age old inquiry; the reasoning I found is on the link I posted in the preceding paragraph:

  • Wizards of the Coast officially stated that they had no plans to release the VS set, primarily because Wizards had competitive play in mind. The majority of Pokémon featured are fully evolved and designated basic cards. Therefore, many feature high HP and quite broken attacks for basic cards, and would give an unfair advantage in battles.
Click to expand...

Hmmm... high HP? Low energy-cost? Too broken? Sounds like a certain other set of cards we have today in America...

Discuss the similarities between the unreleased VS set and today's SP Pokemon? If WotC still owned Pokemon, how do you think they would have compensated for their adversity to these sorts of cards? What is your general opinion of SP cards? Do you think they did break the game to some extent, or was WotC just being a tad bit too cautious back in the day?

Additionally, I'd be curious to know if anyone knows how the metagme looked in Japan upon the release of the VS set.Did it break the game there like WotC felt it would in America?
 
This is an awesome find.
I wish they DID come out in America.
Looking at those cards makes me wanna play them. :x

And they really don't seem that broken.
Compared to the cards they had out at the time, they're pretty fair.
As opposed to SP's....​
 
That is an interesting finding. Back then, the concept of basic Stage 2's might be hard to grasp, but just think about Shining Charizard! Its a shame they never released it...

I think its kind of weird how they never came up with a good reason why thoughs stage 2's become basics. That would be a hard concept to grasp today if they wern't SP's.

Deck_Master
 
But the SP's of today aren't as broken as the cards were then. I own almost the complete set a few times over (on a side note, I'm missing a couple and would happily trade the rest for other cards if anyone is interested...), and it boggles my mind when I see just what kind of damage each card could do.
 
I still have the Beckett issue that shows all of the VS cards. A lot of them had fantastic artwork (like Karen's Umbreon).
 
I've seen those before on Bulbapedia.

A lot of them didn't seem that good to me (stat and attack wise), nor had great artwork.

But that's just me.

Then again some were stage 2's and such as basics so idk.
 
To be honest, most of the attacks don't seem that broken, even in the low HP, high energy cost for low damage-metagame that the cards were released in. The TMs aren't that fantastic either.
 
Are these worth alot? I actually bought a VS cubone and something else, I can't remember, from a misfit common pile at my local gameshop for 20 cents each :D
 
I've known about this for a while.

BTW, Wotc still works with pokemon card stuff, and alot of people thought they split up entirly back in the day. They might have decided they wanted to bring out the idea again, and now is the perfect time because a lot of other cards are broken.
 
GHJamesGH said:
I've known about this for a while.

BTW, Wotc still works with pokemon card stuff, and alot of people thought they split up entirly back in the day. They might have decided they wanted to bring out the idea again, and now is the perfect time because a lot of other cards are broken.
Click to expand...
Are you sure about that?

Bulbapedia said:
From 1998 until 2003, Wizards of the Coast was responsible for translating and distributing Pokémon trading cards
created by MEDIAFACTORY (then by The Pokémon Company). In 2003, Wizards of the Coast's license to translate and distribute Pokémon TCG card was transferred to Nintendo by Nintendo. After the license was transferred to Nintendo, Wizards of the Coast attempted to sue Nintendo, claiming Nintendo stole certain insider secrets. Both parties would later settle outside of court.
Click to expand...

I don't think if WotC and Nintendo were all buddy-buddy, one would've sued the other; also...

Bulbapedia said:
A set to follow Skyridge, titled "Jamboree," was in the works of being released by WOTC, but never had the opportunity to be due to the cancellation of Wizards' license. Other consequences of the cancellation of the WOTC license was that there was only one print run of Skyridge, causing the price of the set to skyrocket.
Click to expand...

And...

Since leaving WotC's hands, the game has managed to avoid a lot of these problems, with power now held between TPC and TPCI.
Click to expand...

I dunno, they sound pretty much divided to me. Also, the fact that there is next to no mention of the Pokemon TCG on the official WotC website (other than archives and stuff) makes me a little skeptical...

Additionally, WotC never decided what cards would be created aside from a few such as Dark Raichu which was an American exclusive until the Neo sets when it was released in Japan. They've always been printed in Japan first, then WotC had the option to not print cards. So WotC couldn't just "decide to bring those cards out again," even if they were still associated with the TCG, because they never printed the Japanese cards to begin with.

Also, do you have a source on the fact that WotC and Nintendo are still together on producing Pokemon cards? I find that really hard to believe...
 
Mrs. Aforcer said:
GHJamesGH said:
I've known about this for a while.

BTW, Wotc still works with pokemon card stuff, and alot of people thought they split up entirly back in the day. They might have decided they wanted to bring out the idea again, and now is the perfect time because a lot of other cards are broken.
Click to expand...
Are you sure about that?

Bulbapedia said:
From 1998 until 2003, Wizards of the Coast was responsible for translating and distributing Pokémon trading cards
created by MEDIAFACTORY (then by The Pokémon Company). In 2003, Wizards of the Coast's license to translate and distribute Pokémon TCG card was transferred to Nintendo by Nintendo. After the license was transferred to Nintendo, Wizards of the Coast attempted to sue Nintendo, claiming Nintendo stole certain insider secrets. Both parties would later settle outside of court.
Click to expand...

I don't think if WotC and Nintendo were all buddy-buddy, one would've sued the other; also...

Bulbapedia said:
A set to follow Skyridge, titled "Jamboree," was in the works of being released by WOTC, but never had the opportunity to be due to the cancellation of Wizards' license. Other consequences of the cancellation of the WOTC license was that there was only one print run of Skyridge, causing the price of the set to skyrocket.
Click to expand...

And...

Since leaving WotC's hands, the game has managed to avoid a lot of these problems, with power now held between TPC and TPCI.
Click to expand...

I dunno, they sound pretty much divided to me. Also, the fact that there is next to no mention of the Pokemon TCG on the official WotC website (other than archives and stuff) makes me a little skeptical...

Additionally, WotC never decided what cards would be created aside from a few such as Dark Raichu which was an American exclusive until the Neo sets when it was released in Japan. They've always been printed in Japan first, then WotC had the option to not print cards. So WotC couldn't just "decide to bring those cards out again," even if they were still associated with the TCG, because they never printed the Japanese cards to begin with.

Also, do you have a source on the fact that WotC and Nintendo are still together on producing Pokemon cards? I find that really hard to believe...
Click to expand...

Yes, because I know somebody that works for Wotc. You can't really argue that.
 
So, WoTC is still in on Pokemon?
That is what I've taken from that. Also, maybe the set Jamboree was supposed to be the VS cards, but they told that statement just because of the transfer to Nintendo meant that the set would never be produced due to it still being in the old style, and not the Nintendo style.
 
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