New 'V-UNION' Trademark Filed for the Pokemon TCG!

Tytus

Expanded Best Format
Member
Assuming that the pull rates are the same for each side of the card it will be interesting to see whether or not each piece varies in price or if they will all cost the same based on the playability of the larger card.
 

Hongo

Aspiring Trainer
Member
I liked the two card system of the Legend mechanic.

These cards have *a lot* of empty space with those thick borders.
 

Sombres

Aspiring Trainer
Member
Of course they give zacian the attack that kills all the vunions, just like zacian v can kill any basic v o_O

This feels like its too much for me. LEGENDs were nice, but this...

This seems like this might be the final nail in the coffin for compressor in expanded, and also for me in this whole game. Like, oof. I don't wanna have to deal with this.
 

sonicjms

Bench, Call, Ride, Summon, Cast
Member
Seems alright, they're like nerfed tag teams, harder to get out, you can't have two of the same on the bench and they use more deck space, as for aquisition they shouldn't be more expensive than getting a playset of any other Ultra Rare (if people want to play the gacha opening packs to build their decks that's on them), the art looks fantastic.
 
Last edited:

Merovingian

Dead Game Enthusiast
Member
Well now!

- Can only summon THAT SPECIFIC V-Union per game (you could theoretically "summon" Mewtwo V-U, Greninja V-U, etc.)

- need all 4 pieces in discard pile

- no deck building restrictions to V-Union, (you could run 4 of each part).


Battle Compressor is being eyeballed as busted already. It's useful, but V-Union don't SEEM to be all that powerful to warrant Compressor getting hit.

If anything, this makes a stronger case to get rid of Electrode-GX. That card is going to get banned in the future anyway. But if you Wally T1 into Electrode-GX, and have Greninja or Mewtwo V-U in play, slap on a bunch of Energy and wipe their Bench (Greninja) or target down threats 16 counters at a time (Mewtwo).

Greninja can get hard countered easy. But Mewtwo can't be affected by effects that could seriously hinder it (like the Carry Off Noctowl, or Pokemon that can return an opponents Active to the owners hand, etc.), and combating damage counter placement is harder than protecting your Bench. There's Sky Pillar, but the Mewtwo player could just as easily run 4 stadiums and/or Chaotic Swell. There's also that Intimidating Pose Machoke, but that's not going to help you if they get Mewtwo out and running T1.
 

The Almighty Bidoof

Just your everyday MtF trans Bidoof worshipper
Member
Well now!

- Can only summon THAT SPECIFIC V-Union per game (you could theoretically "summon" Mewtwo V-U, Greninja V-U, etc.)

- need all 4 pieces in discard pile

- no deck building restrictions to V-Union, (you could run 4 of each part).


Battle Compressor is being eyeballed as busted already. It's useful, but V-Union don't SEEM to be all that powerful to warrant Compressor getting hit.

If anything, this makes a stronger case to get rid of Electrode-GX. That card is going to get banned in the future anyway. But if you Wally T1 into Electrode-GX, and have Greninja or Mewtwo V-U in play, slap on a bunch of Energy and wipe their Bench (Greninja) or target down threats 16 counters at a time (Mewtwo).

Greninja can get hard countered easy. But Mewtwo can't be affected by effects that could seriously hinder it (like the Carry Off Noctowl, or Pokemon that can return an opponents Active to the owners hand, etc.), and combating damage counter placement is harder than protecting your Bench. There's Sky Pillar, but the Mewtwo player could just as easily run 4 stadiums and/or Chaotic Swell. There's also that Intimidating Pose Machoke, but that's not going to help you if they get Mewtwo out and running T1.
All 4 cards share a name just like LEGENDS did. You can only run 4 cards named Mewtwo VUnion in a deck
 

Mimikeon

Aspiring Trainer
Member
IMO, the best solution to the Compressor problem is to eratta it to exclude V-UNION. But TPC will always take the simple solution over the complex and fair one...

Losing Compressor due to a mechanic that nobody wants or asked for. Ugh. RIP Archie's Blastoise, Dark Box, Bird Trio... So many fun decks.
 

Mimikeon

Aspiring Trainer
Member
Well now!

- Can only summon THAT SPECIFIC V-Union per game (you could theoretically "summon" Mewtwo V-U, Greninja V-U, etc.)

- need all 4 pieces in discard pile

- no deck building restrictions to V-Union, (you could run 4 of each part).


Battle Compressor is being eyeballed as busted already. It's useful, but V-Union don't SEEM to be all that powerful to warrant Compressor getting hit.

If anything, this makes a stronger case to get rid of Electrode-GX. That card is going to get banned in the future anyway. But if you Wally T1 into Electrode-GX, and have Greninja or Mewtwo V-U in play, slap on a bunch of Energy and wipe their Bench (Greninja) or target down threats 16 counters at a time (Mewtwo).

Greninja can get hard countered easy. But Mewtwo can't be affected by effects that could seriously hinder it (like the Carry Off Noctowl, or Pokemon that can return an opponents Active to the owners hand, etc.), and combating damage counter placement is harder than protecting your Bench. There's Sky Pillar, but the Mewtwo player could just as easily run 4 stadiums and/or Chaotic Swell. There's also that Intimidating Pose Machoke, but that's not going to help you if they get Mewtwo out and running T1.
They're introducing a weaker Compressor as a supporter. It's gonna go.
 

Malavok

Aspiring Trainer
Member
These are horrible on so many levels. Ugly for collectors and gimmicky for players. I hope these don’t end up being widespread in upcoming sets. Worse than BREAK cards.
 

Duo

RIP Nessa 2023
Member
As with most things I like to look at both the good side and the bad side, because focusing on just one or the other is tunnel visioning and often leads to ignoring the other side.

-Don't think anyone is looking forward to pulling 4 pieces of a Pokemon. Not only are the individual cards unplayable but the individual cards have no value until you have all 4. Although I'm not a collector and don't care about collecting, I can see this presenting a lot of "problems." Such as pulling 4 top left corners, 3 top right corners, 3 bottom left corners, and only 1 bottom right corner. So you'll have a complete picture and then a few binder pages dedicated to dismembered Pokemon body parts. The extra layer of the problem is that if you want the full art or the secret rare or the alt art edition, you need that rarity for all 4 pieces. If you have just one full art or alt art corner of the picture then it won't even line up with the other 3 pieces. However these "problems" come with making a lot of assumptions.

The reason why this isn't an actual problem is because it hasn't happened yet. I think people are fear mongering way too hard (Like all the people who thought Let's Go was going to kill the mainline series of Pokemon games) that all of a sudden booster sets are just going to have 4 V-UNION Pokemon and all 16 ultra rare slots are going to be taken up by V-UNION pieces. What's currently known is that they show up in structure decks, so you would get all 4 pieces in a single product with no problems. This also opens the doors for elite trainer boxes to just simply have a guaranteed full V-UNION in them as a promo. I have a very simple rule which is "I'll believe it when I see it." They're releasing V-UNION in structure decks where you get all 4 pieces guaranteed. I fail to see the issue from even a collector's standpoint as the product currently stands. We know about product releases months in advance. It's REALLY REALLY easy to see something coming and make an informed decision.

+I'm gonna get it out of my system now. Thank GOD these aren't Tag Teams. There's an actual restriction to playing them, and putting them in your deck makes your deck strictly worse since you have a 56 card deck with 4 bricks, and you could prize 1 or more of them and automatically lose access to them. With great payoff comes great investment, which cards like ADP completely disrespect. I don't need 2 years straight of PikaRom, M&Ms, and ADP again. The only good Tag Teams did was introduce great art. Outside of that they're everything wrong with the EX era made worse.

This is what a new mechanic should be. You have to think about it. Figure out how you can play it, if you want to play it, playtest it and optimize it. Might not go in every deck, might actually have to be a deck of its own focusing on low prize Pokemon or defensive strategies in order to buy time to not lose before you can get one out, which is completely fine. We have 1 prize decks, VMAX decks, Tag Team decks, so and and so forth that don't utilize every mechanic in the game because that's not what the deck's strategy is about. We've also literally only seen 3 V-UNION Pokemon and 1 V-UNION support card and people are already calling their verdicts. This mechanic has 2 years ahead of it people.
 

Perfect_Shot

Armored Core>Elden Ring
Member
This is what a new mechanic should be. You have to think about it. Figure out how you can play it, if you want to play it, playtest it and optimize it. Might not go in every deck, might actually have to be a deck of its own focusing on low prize Pokemon or defensive strategies in order to buy time to not lose before you can get one out, which is completely fine. We have 1 prize decks, VMAX decks, Tag Team decks, so and and so forth that don't utilize every mechanic in the game because that's not what the deck's strategy is about. We've also literally only seen 3 V-UNION Pokemon and 1 V-UNION support card and people are already calling their verdicts. This mechanic has 2 years ahead of it people.

It's just that the thing is, will even future V-Unions (even if they're better than this) see any play? It's already too easy with our present card pool to search your deck and then realise "Wow! I've already lost the game because important cards #1, #2 and #3 are all prized!" As you and others mentioned having just one piece of a V-Union prized cuts you off from using it and the prizing situation is completely out of the players control.

Otherwise the art is kind of nice although I find the text for all the different attacks and abilities to be an eyesore.
 

ApricornNut

Optimistic Trainer/Collector
Member
As with most things I like to look at both the good side and the bad side, because focusing on just one or the other is tunnel visioning and often leads to ignoring the other side.

-Don't think anyone is looking forward to pulling 4 pieces of a Pokemon. Not only are the individual cards unplayable but the individual cards have no value until you have all 4. Although I'm not a collector and don't care about collecting, I can see this presenting a lot of "problems." Such as pulling 4 top left corners, 3 top right corners, 3 bottom left corners, and only 1 bottom right corner. So you'll have a complete picture and then a few binder pages dedicated to dismembered Pokemon body parts. The extra layer of the problem is that if you want the full art or the secret rare or the alt art edition, you need that rarity for all 4 pieces. If you have just one full art or alt art corner of the picture then it won't even line up with the other 3 pieces. However these "problems" come with making a lot of assumptions.

The reason why this isn't an actual problem is because it hasn't happened yet. I think people are fear mongering way too hard (Like all the people who thought Let's Go was going to kill the mainline series of Pokemon games) that all of a sudden booster sets are just going to have 4 V-UNION Pokemon and all 16 ultra rare slots are going to be taken up by V-UNION pieces. What's currently known is that they show up in structure decks, so you would get all 4 pieces in a single product with no problems. This also opens the doors for elite trainer boxes to just simply have a guaranteed full V-UNION in them as a promo. I have a very simple rule which is "I'll believe it when I see it." They're releasing V-UNION in structure decks where you get all 4 pieces guaranteed. I fail to see the issue from even a collector's standpoint as the product currently stands. We know about product releases months in advance. It's REALLY REALLY easy to see something coming and make an informed decision.

+I'm gonna get it out of my system now. Thank GOD these aren't Tag Teams. There's an actual restriction to playing them, and putting them in your deck makes your deck strictly worse since you have a 56 card deck with 4 bricks, and you could prize 1 or more of them and automatically lose access to them. With great payoff comes great investment, which cards like ADP completely disrespect. I don't need 2 years straight of PikaRom, M&Ms, and ADP again. The only good Tag Teams did was introduce great art. Outside of that they're everything wrong with the EX era made worse.

This is what a new mechanic should be. You have to think about it. Figure out how you can play it, if you want to play it, playtest it and optimize it. Might not go in every deck, might actually have to be a deck of its own focusing on low prize Pokemon or defensive strategies in order to buy time to not lose before you can get one out, which is completely fine. We have 1 prize decks, VMAX decks, Tag Team decks, so and and so forth that don't utilize every mechanic in the game because that's not what the deck's strategy is about. We've also literally only seen 3 V-UNION Pokemon and 1 V-UNION support card and people are already calling their verdicts. This mechanic has 2 years ahead of it people.
THANK YOU for eliminating any possible clout these people are trying to stir up about V-Unions!

These players, talented, crafty and admirably resourceful though they may be, are too proud to admit that their TAG TEAM decks, despite their astounding dominance, have been causing way too many problems for casual players trying to get into the game. They're only dissing V-Unions because they can't find ways to use them quickly, lazily, cheaply, and effectively. If this is TPCI's way of flipping the Delibird to all of THOSE players, then they've truly succeeded! I personally look forward to seeing how the more whole-hearted players will utilize these behemoth V-Unions as they're released!
 

The Last Shaymin

Floof
Member
all they need to do is introduce starting with a 13 card hand where you choose your 6 prize cards

this way you wouldn't just lose to prize cards

also this mechanic is just overtuned legends. "complaining about tag teams being too easy to set up? well here you go!"

i really don't know at this point. might just quit and play smash bros
 

Bongooo

Eternatus VMAX is Mega Rayquaza's goth phase
Member
Get ready for v union max cards. First play down the 4 v union cards, then dynamax it with 4 more v union max cards
 

Duo

RIP Nessa 2023
Member
It's just that the thing is, will even future V-Unions (even if they're better than this) see any play? It's already too easy with our present card pool to search your deck and then realise "Wow! I've already lost the game because important cards #1, #2 and #3 are all prized!" As you and others mentioned having just one piece of a V-Union prized cuts you off from using it and the prizing situation is completely out of the players control.

Otherwise the art is kind of nice although I find the text for all the different attacks and abilities to be an eyesore.

I don't see how this is any different than things like "Will Milotic V see any play?" or "Will Centiskorch VMAX see any play?" This isn't a problem exclusive to V-UNION. It's just simple meta calls and what level people want to play at (full casual, local, regional, etc). Now that we have Shadow Rider Calyrex VMAX, basically that's the standard for all psychic decks now and the validity of all Psychic Pokemon for the next 2 years will be decided by how well they go with Shadow Rider. This is not a mechanic exclusive thing. This is simply deck building and playing towards the meta.

Similarly I can prize 2-3 Shadow Rider Calyrex VMAX and that can lose me the game. Every Gardevoir GX player has lost at least once to prizing 3-4 Ralts. This, again, is not a new mechanic exclusive problem. Prizing V-Union is actually a lot more acceptable than prizing your Ralts or basic Pokemon, because you can still play the game without them and set up properly, and if you take them as the first 2-3 prizes, you can now actually decide if you want to use them throughout the rest of the game.

I don't think people are necessarily paying attention to the fact that in the generation about Dyanmaxing and huge Pokemon that we get a mechanic that leads to us having a huge card on the field. It's just flavor, but it's also incredibly appropriate for the Dynamax era. We quite literally have Dynamax size cards.
 

K_la

Aspiring Trainer
Member
One has to wonder if they abandoned focus groups to see what their customers want. From what I have been reading from collectors and players this mechanic is a massive flop. V-union is a HARD PASS for me.
 
Top