Discussion Just Me, or Did Gen 5 and 6 TCG Sets Feel... Incomplete?

Blob55

Aspiring Trainer
Member
They easily could have included every Mega in the Gen 6 block, but they chose otherwise. They only had like seven of them left to add to the TCG (Pinsir, Lopunny, Latias, Abomasnow, Medicham, Banette, Sableye), but instead they issued second versions of Venusaur, Charizard Y, Blastoise, Gengar, Rayquaza and Gardevoir because they're more popular Pokemon.
Huh, looks like Sableye is getting one. Maybe that means they others will too? Though I'd rather they didn't span sets with Charizard Megas and instead focus on Lopunny and the rest that never get one.
 

RiverShock

Aspiring Trainer
Member
Huh, looks like Sableye is getting one. Maybe that means they others will too? Though I'd rather they didn't span sets with Charizard Megas and instead focus on Lopunny and the rest that never get one.

Complaining about those specific Megas isn't really a solid argument given how and why they exist. The "extra" Venusaur, Charizard and Blastoise happened due to a Kanto-themed product, so they couldn't have just included something like Lopunny instead, and, aside from Pidgeot (which we later got), Pinsir was the only Gen 1 Pokemon lacking a M Pokemon-EX. The extra Gengar happened due to a Halloween-themed product (granted, they arguably could have gone with Sableye or Banette instead, but keep in mind we didn't get a new Gengar-EX to go along with that M Gengar-EX, so it was clear they didn't want to create a second EX just for that product). The second Gardevoir and third Rayquaza were to promote a movie. That really only leaves the second Rayquaza as an "unnecessary" one, coming down to two different Rayquaza-focused products that probably happened due to ORAS's Delta Episode.)

The main reason we didn't get every Mega is probably just the fact they take up 2 UR slots. Without increasing the number of UR's, there wasn't much they could do to maintain variety. (And I think they were right to do this. I don't think the higher number of UR's in today's sets is exactly great for the game.)



As for being more on-topic rather than indirectly replying to a comment I should've replied to a long time ago... I'm not surprised this is happening. Tag Teams were pretty obviously designed to give them the freedom to put whatever Pokemon they want on a card without any real consequence from a game-design standpoint. Stuff like unevolved Pokemon, Megas, alternate forms (even ones that no longer exist in the main games), etc. are all clearly fair game, and have been from the start.
 

Blob55

Aspiring Trainer
Member
Complaining about those specific Megas isn't really a solid argument given how and why they exist. The "extra" Venusaur, Charizard and Blastoise happened due to a Kanto-themed product, so they couldn't have just included something like Lopunny instead, and, aside from Pidgeot (which we later got), Pinsir was the only Gen 1 Pokemon lacking a M Pokemon-EX. The extra Gengar happened due to a Halloween-themed product (granted, they arguably could have gone with Sableye or Banette instead, but keep in mind we didn't get a new Gengar-EX to go along with that M Gengar-EX, so it was clear they didn't want to create a second EX just for that product). The second Gardevoir and third Rayquaza were to promote a movie. That really only leaves the second Rayquaza as an "unnecessary" one, coming down to two different Rayquaza-focused products that probably happened due to ORAS's Delta Episode.)

The main reason we didn't get every Mega is probably just the fact they take up 2 UR slots. Without increasing the number of UR's, there wasn't much they could do to maintain variety. (And I think they were right to do this. I don't think the higher number of UR's in today's sets is exactly great for the game.)



As for being more on-topic rather than indirectly replying to a comment I should've replied to a long time ago... I'm not surprised this is happening. Tag Teams were pretty obviously designed to give them the freedom to put whatever Pokemon they want on a card without any real consequence from a game-design standpoint. Stuff like unevolved Pokemon, Megas, alternate forms (even ones that no longer exist in the main games), etc. are all clearly fair game, and have been from the start.
I guess? But they could have added a bunch of Promos for the Megas that didn't get into sets. Plus what's the point of bringing babies back if only about 2 make it back? The TCG at the moment is a mess of abandoned mechanics that make if back for 1 or 2 sets and then thrown away for another abandoned mechanic. They're going to do the same with Megas again, except Megas have it worse because not all of them got cards to begin with. This and the next 2 sets could add 2 Megas each and that would finish the missing Megas, but they won't do that, because the TCG just cannot commit, hence why the previous 2 Generations feel incomplete.
 
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RiverShock

Aspiring Trainer
Member
I agree that them abandoning mechanics after a few sets is bad, but M Pokemon-EX were not one of those mechanics. They lasted the entirity of the XY era. That's just as long as things like Pokemon Lv.X did. Having a mechanic be unique to a specific era that spans like a dozen sets is perfectly acceptable to me. But yeah, mid-generation things like Ancient Traits and Pokemon LEGEND were disappointing. (Technically I guess the HGSS block was its own "era", but it was so short I don't view it in the same way as, say, DPP or XY. I similarly don't view the 3 e-card sets as a unique entity.)

I don't think an average of 4 unique Megas per set was realistic, especially after Pokemon BREAK were introduced. Yeah, a couple of XY sets did have 4, but they had much larger numbers of UR's than average in general as well. Again, realistically, the fact Megas take up 2 slots was the issue. Short of making their base forms not UR's, increasing the number of UR's per set or releasing an ungodly number of products with multiple promo EX's (which, knowing Pokemon, would be ridiculously priced anyway), there was nothing they could do IMO.
 

The Almighty Bidoof

Just your everyday MtF trans Bidoof worshipper
Member
I guess? But they could have added a bunch of Promos for the Megas that didn't get into sets. Plus what's the point of bringing babies back if only about 2 make it back? .
Babies aren’t necessarily done. We had 1 set so far without them since they were added. Similar things have happened before. Tag Bolt only had TTGXs, no regular GXs. And GG End lacked an SR Stadium
 

Blob55

Aspiring Trainer
Member
Babies aren’t necessarily done. We had 1 set so far without them since they were added. Similar things have happened before. Tag Bolt only had TTGXs, no regular GXs. And GG End lacked an SR Stadium
I guess, but there's only 3 sets left this Gen and there's way more than 3 babies left.
 

Frost

Ice/Fairy Stan Account
Member
In the case of babies the fact that they're printing them again at all after so many years they hadn't is a good sign that they will probably continue to do so in Gen 8.
 

Blob55

Aspiring Trainer
Member
In the case of babies the fact that they're printing them again at all after so many years they hadn't is a good sign that they will probably continue to do so in Gen 8.
Nah, in Gen 8 they'll focus on new Pokémon and forms and it won't be until late Gen 8 when we get stuff like this.
 

Frost

Ice/Fairy Stan Account
Member
I meant that in the sense that there's nothing really stopping them from printing babies now (not that there ever actually was anyway, but they clearly couldn't figure out what to "do" with baby cards until this year), but other gimmicks and popular Pokemon will take precedent if they don't get around to printing them all. Like any other random Pokemon that hasn't received a card in 5 years, e.g. Sunflora, Sawsbuck, etc.
 
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