'Hidden Fates,' Special Set Releasing in America This August!

OVERGRO

Pokemon is lyfe.
Member
While yes TPCi wants to make money, the American pulls rates are still better than the Japanese equivalent where you get 1-2 shinies per box, and Japan is also the originating source that in Gen 7 started pumping out 10-12 sets a year that have to be combined into 4-5 English ones. So the money train cash grabbing isn't exactly an American-exclusive phenomenon lately...

GX Ultra Shiny was an overall excellent set though with guaranteed ultra rares in the packs. The opening videos had me drooling for sure haha, if only this was remotely similar.
 

FourteenAlmonds

Helipotile
Member
I was semi-excited about Onix-GX as a stall card when it was revealed for Japan, but with Acerola and Max Potion and even Fliptini (?) gone, and the high proportion of decks running Mixed Herbs I've seen at my local league, it just seems... bad.
 

AngryBokoblin

Guzzlord is fun
Member
If the shiny cards are in the reverse slot, does that mean the pack trick might be 5 cards with the rare at the front so the (hopeful) FA cynthia, shiny charizard, or gold tapu is in the back?
 

ShatterSt0rm

Aspiring Trainer
Member
So just to confirm, Hidden Fates is standard legal the day it releases correct. The TCG Rules state that a set is Standard legal the 3rd Friday of the month the set releases. Since it is the 4th weekend of August when it is releasing it was technically Standard legal for Worlds but it was unreleased?

Aren't half these out of standard now :*(

To quote Frost above:
44 out of 163 cards in Hidden Fates are not legal in Standard right now. So let's get the misconception that "most of the set isn't legal" out of way; 75% of them are, and the ones that aren't legal have high collector appeal.
 

Pone

Delta Species is best species
Member
So just to confirm, Hidden Fates is standard legal the day it releases correct. The TCG Rules state that a set is Standard legal the 3rd Friday of the month the set releases. Since it is the 4th weekend of August when it is releasing it was technically Standard legal for Worlds but it was unreleased?

From what I understand, sets are legal two weeks after release, which just happens to normally land on the third Friday of the month because regular sets normally release on the first Friday of the month. Hidden Fates will probably be legal on September 6, two weeks after the set releases.
 

Number51x

Blasting off at the speed of light!
Member
There's Eevee GX but besides that probably not? Eevee has an ability to allow it evolve, but Onix does not, so I don't think it can actually evolve.
Sorry, I just meant that the Pokemon was an evolving Pokemon, not that it could evolve in the TCG. Still, I forgot that Eevee so that counts kinda double since as you said, it actually can evolve.
 

Pone

Delta Species is best species
Member
The pull rates are fine for me personally. It's better than the Japanese rates, or normal international set pull rates. And really, the fact that the normal GXs aren't playable isn't a bad thing-Im really refreshed to have something that's appealing for collectors like myself.

The fact of the matter is, Pokemon products are never a good deal unless you get them on sale. I don't see why this is a bigger deal than the other products that basically guarantee to give you less in the end. Even if theres tons of shinies in this set, you're still going to get more out of an ETB from this over an ETB from the latest set. I'd much rather get a few non GX shinies over getting a single filler GX that's worth 2 dollars aftermarket.

Yes, this set is huge, and I'd have liked 1 shiny per pack, but I'm not complaining about the rates. I'm gonna get the products for fun, and then complete the set by getting singles. Most of them besides Zards or anything meta will likely be affordable if they're printed a lot. It's simply infeasible to pull an entire set-singles are a collector's best friend.
It's better than the Japanese rates, but the Japanese rates are the worst I could even think of short of them just not including them in packs but still having them in the set list. I generally complete the sets using singles, but for most sets I rely on getting some product (usually one booster box/ETB combo) to fill in most of the trash/filler cards, which itself is usually a pretty good strategy and may even save you quite a bit of money, especially if you sell the duplicates afterwards (I normally don't for anything more common than an ultra rare, though I may in the future seeing as I have several boxes full of extras), but for this set a booster box worth of packs will net you maybe 50% of the set if you're especially lucky. And that's not even including variants like reverse holos and whatever other variants they release in the future (like alternate holo patterns in blister packs and stamped GameStop exclusives, though obviously you wouldn't expect those in normal packs anyway). I'm a dedicated collector, but this set is incredibly terrible and feels like a spit in the face. The enormity of sets since Lost Thunder have been an absolute pain, but the difficulty in collecting Hidden Fates just takes it to a level never seen before in the TCG.
 

Number51x

Blasting off at the speed of light!
Member
Considering that most videos out there are showing a GX/shiny pull at about 50%, I'm all in on this set :D
Oh, let it be Generations all over again. Pulled EXs so frequently it got boring! I wanna be that kind of bored.
 

Pone

Delta Species is best species
Member
Sorry, I just meant that the Pokemon was an evolving Pokemon, not that it could evolve in the TCG. Still, I forgot that Eevee so that counts kinda double since as you said, it actually can evolve.
Japan had Pikachu GX and Ash's Pikachu GX, but I don't think we'll see them internationally. I believe Onix GX is the only evolving Pokémon we've had that itself can't evolve. Unless of course you want to count Tag Teams.
 

Number51x

Blasting off at the speed of light!
Member
It's better than the Japanese rates, but the Japanese rates are the worst I could even think of short of them just not including them in packs but still having them in the set list. I generally complete the sets using singles, but for most sets I rely on getting some product (usually one booster box/ETB combo) to fill in most of the trash/filler cards, which itself is usually a pretty good strategy and may even save you quite a bit of money, especially if you sell the duplicates afterwards (I normally don't for anything more common than an ultra rare, though I may in the future seeing as I have several boxes full of extras), but for this set a booster box worth of packs will net you maybe 50% of the set if you're especially lucky. And that's not even including variants like reverse holos and whatever other variants they release in the future (like alternate holo patterns in blister packs and stamped GameStop exclusives, though obviously you wouldn't expect those in normal packs anyway). I'm a dedicated collector, but this set is incredibly terrible and feels like a spit in the face. The enormity of sets since Lost Thunder have been an absolute pain, but the difficulty in collecting Hidden Fates just takes it to a level never seen before in the TCG.

Yeah, this is pretty much what I do too. Keeps the bulk down (plus I give my extra singles to my son so he has a collection too!). I also get about 20 of 3 pack blisters. That is more expensive, but I've had pretty good luck with those.

For this set, I see it more like Best of XY was for me; a long term collection I get pieces of here and there with singles after the product is all gone. I'm still filling in the last few Full arts in that set. This aint like Shining Legends or Dragon Majesty; it's its own beast.
 

GM DracLord

Shadow of Death
Member
Did they really used Staryu from the old set without even atleast giving it a new art.. That worst that having the reprint (Promo) from the older set in this set
 

Scoop

Literally a sheep
Member
It's better than the Japanese rates, but the Japanese rates are the worst I could even think of short of them just not including them in packs but still having them in the set list. I generally complete the sets using singles, but for most sets I rely on getting some product (usually one booster box/ETB combo) to fill in most of the trash/filler cards, which itself is usually a pretty good strategy and may even save you quite a bit of money, especially if you sell the duplicates afterwards (I normally don't for anything more common than an ultra rare, though I may in the future seeing as I have several boxes full of extras), but for this set a booster box worth of packs will net you maybe 50% of the set if you're especially lucky. And that's not even including variants like reverse holos and whatever other variants they release in the future (like alternate holo patterns in blister packs and stamped GameStop exclusives, though obviously you wouldn't expect those in normal packs anyway). I'm a dedicated collector, but this set is incredibly terrible and feels like a spit in the face. The enormity of sets since Lost Thunder have been an absolute pain, but the difficulty in collecting Hidden Fates just takes it to a level never seen before in the TCG.
I do (almost) the same method with new sets-I usually get an ETB and a few packs here and there. Booster Boxes not as much, haven't opened one since XY, but they were very helpful back when I was opening them for set completion. It's a pretty good method to get the C/U/R cards out of the way.

I may just be the one person then who actually feels more inclined to collect Hidden Fates. I can see where the complaints are coming from, definitely, but I find the regular sets way more daunting and less rewarding than Hidden Fates to complete. I'm just more drawn to finding these shiny cards, I guess, over something like Rainbow Rares and Gold Items, which are hard to pull and immensely unappealing to me. Yes, there's a lot of quantity with the shinies, but the pull rates are alright to get me started before I hunt for singles, and the quality of them is top notch to me. I barely open product anymore apart from these special sets, so I'm more used to being 100% singles. Trust me, this set will be tame compared to something like the e series (Skyridge ESPECIALLY), or the EX (gen 3) era. Those are the real nightmares to collect. And if prices get low enough, It could even be easier than your average main Sun and Moon era set to complete. Since there's going to be a lot of them with high pull rates, there will be a lot on the market most likely-compare that to your average sun and moon set with 20 different Secret Rares, PLUS all the other nonsense they've got going on that have inflated prices. I could be wrong and the shinies could end up being pricey (I know some will definitely, Zard, malamar, etc). But I'm pretty confident that most of them won't be too bad. We do live in an era of large sets, but I don't think this is the worst of it.

Of course, that's just me-And I'm fully aware this set can be daunting to some. I'm not fully intimidated for the reasons I stated above, but it could just fully be that I'm just so much more interested and engaged in collecting this set. It's the same feeling Shining Legends gave me. I'm excited, it gives me that old feeling of wanting to open packs again that I had in the good old days of 2014-15.
 
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ShatterSt0rm

Aspiring Trainer
Member
So, none from these cards update their legality, right?

It depends. Remember Hidden Fates is two sets in one; a standard set with Hidden Fates symbol and alternate arts Shiny Vault. Any card in the Hidden Fates regular set is Standard legal upon release date. So if any of those are reprints, such as Misty’s Determination which was originally in the BREAKpoint set (which is currently out of Standard legailty), with the set release, this card is now standard legal.

The Shiny Vault cards are a mix. They are alternate arts of card from previous sets. If the card it is an alternate art for is legal in current standard then it is legal, and vice versa.

I went ahead and checked Pokemon's website for proper rules and it states: "New expansions become legal for tournament play on the third Friday of the month they are released." I linked directly to the page I found it.

This also responds to your post also, @CardPone.

From what I understand, sets are legal two weeks after release, which just happens to normally land on the third Friday of the month because regular sets normally release on the first Friday of the month. Hidden Fates will probably be legal on September 6, two weeks after the set releases.
 
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ShatterSt0rm

Aspiring Trainer
Member
If the shiny cards are in the reverse slot, does that mean the pack trick might be 5 cards with the rare at the front so the (hopeful) FA cynthia, shiny charizard, or gold tapu is in the back?

If you want, but with the way the set runs, the rares could be ultra rares also and you can get a Shiny Vault rare before it. If you still like the anticiaption keep it like the rest of Sun and Moon with 4 card card-trick.
 
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