'Unified Minds,' August's SM11 Set!

Anyway it's kind of sad that the English TCG is making every new set a race to be the biggest ever, but I've sort of given up fighting it at this point because they're going to keep making these gigantic sets as long as people keep buying them, and it's still not at the point where my annoyance toward these huge sets outweighs not collecting at all, so...

It's really not a matter of "filler" being the problem either IMO. Who cares if there's 2 or 200 common and uncommon cards in a set? All of them are going to end up being worth pennies (except some of the Trainers if they're meta staples). It's the 5 different tiers of chase card levels (GX, Full Art, Rainbow, some of the tag teams now get alt artwork, etc) that suck and make me hate the Gen 7 TCG. But the thing is, those clearly are not "filler" from TPCi's point of view because they're appeasing to players who want to play their meta cards with blinged out varieties. (And presumably collectors too but I've not seen many collectors happy about the direction this hobby has gone in the last 3 years.)
 
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Only last month did I say "soon we will get 300 card sets and think they are small." Scared Now?
In my opinion I wish we could get sets at the same pace as Japan. I know we get a more refined format by the end but it gets STALE after after 3-4 weeks. On the bright side... RoWlEt & AlOlAn ExEgGuToR!!!!

I predict all the Alola starters will be on TTs before Sword & Shield.
My Predicted duos:
Popplio & Wishiwashi GX
Litten & Alolan Marowak GX

Sorry about how tangenty this post became.
 
I dunno about the Gen 7 starters all getting a TTGX before Gen 8 starts. They can't even give Primarina a Fairy-type card, the sis is paid DUST.
 
Anyway it's kind of sad that the English TCG is making every new set a race to be the biggest ever, but I've sort of given up fighting it at this point because they're going to keep making these gigantic sets as long as people keep buying them, and it's still not at the point where my annoyance toward these huge sets outweighs not collecting at all, so...

It's really not a matter of "filler" being the problem either IMO. Who cares if there's 2 or 200 common and uncommon cards in a set? All of them are going to end up being worth pennies (except some of the Trainers if they're meta staples). It's the 5 different tiers of chase card levels (GX, Full Art, Rainbow, some of the tag teams now get alt artwork, etc) that suck and make me hate the Gen 7 TCG. But the thing is, those clearly are not "filler" from TPCi's point of view because they're appeasing to players who want to play their meta cards with blinged out varieties. (And presumably collectors too but I've not seen many collectors happy about the direction this hobby has gone in the last 3 years.)


Right, Commons/Uncommons/Rares haven't usually been the problem ever, even with some older sets having decently cheap commons and the like. Even old larger sets like Expedition have pretty cheap commons, but it's definitely, like what you said, all these chase cards that are bloating the sets. I really, REALLY dislike how TPC pretty much only appeals sets to either casual fans or players who want to bling out their decks. If you want my opinion on it as a collector, it's really turned me off to this era. I can list all the issues this has right here:

(note: This is going to be a very, VERY long wall of text on my opinionated garbage, so I'm marking this as a spoiler to keep things compact. <3)

And here we go... They're all as follows:
  • Full Arts, Rainbow Rares, and Gold Items have less collectible value than most other ultra rares in the last few years. Full Arts are bland renders with no love put into them, Rainbows are a lazy more expensive palette swap, and Gold Items are the worst ultra rares EVER. There's nothing appealing about a shiny golden card of a stupid looking stick, or a belt, or whatever nonsense they put out with these.
  • They're too hard to get, especially when ALMOST EVERY SINGLE GX GETS A HYPER RARE. Rainbows have a LITTLE bit of appeal. but I don't like them enough to want to hunt down every single one of them, especially when they're so hard to get hold of. Either they're too expensive or just too scarce.
  • They don't make sets fun to collect anymore. I may have mentioned on here before that I adore the Black and White era. I've collected every single full art from those eras and I'm continuing on the secret rares and normal EXs, and whatever else I need to get. Those sets are pretty heavy sets when it boils down to it, but they're fun enough to collect because everything is unique. Same goes for older sets. Every ultra rare has its own charm to it. Every holo has its own charm to it. Even commons, uncommons and rares can feel special in some sets, such as e-series sets (Expedition is my personal favorite). What's unique about higher-rarity GXs? It's literally the same "background" every single time. I like the uniformity at times, but you know what else did uniformity? EXs. And yet they still all stayed unique and memorable.
There's only a few things I can say this era got right, and they are as follows:
  • Shining Legends. This set made me love collecting Sun and Moon for once. The shinings are some of the best ultras that Pokemon had put out in YEARS. Each of them are unique and memorable? Check. Each of them look good next to eachother? Check. There's just enough to feasibly collect without destroying your wallet or your sanity? Check. I ADORED the shinings of this set, and even enjoyed the small amount (comparatively) of GXs that went with them. Secret Rare Mewtwo added that icing on the cake that just made it easily the best set in the entire era. Now, do I wish there weren't the FAs or RRs? Yeah, I really do. (I like the FA Mewtwo's artwork but that's just an exception). It'd have made the set better if those things just weren't in the SM era but Shining Legends did what it could.
  • Tag Team GXs. Well, scratch that. I'd say that Tag Teams ALMOST knocked it out of the park. Good artwork to start made their collectible appeal above most anything else in the series. And the alternate arts. Good god those are some of the most gorgeous cards ever created. Sadly, again, like all good things in this era. Full Arts and Hyper Rares had to dampen the experience and make for more set bloating. We really didn't need those, and I was SO excited to think that the Alt. Arts would replace FA/RR's for Tag Teams. But no, this is the Sun and Moon era, I should have expected more.
  • GX Ultra Shiny. Another thing they ALMOST got right. The shiny reprints of the non-GXs? Fantastic. The shiny reprints of GXs? Not as fantastic, but only because of, YET AGAIN, full arts and hyper rares. Imagine if these were the only versions of those cards-They'd blow people's minds. I know I'd love to collect them if they weren't just a sad palette swap we've seen three times. If only...
See the pattern here? It's those stupid Full Arts and Hyper rares. They screw up everything that this era does right. If those two things (and gold items) didn't exist, Sun and Moon would be a pretty great era. One of the best? Not sure, probably still one of the weaker ones out of them all, but nonetheless, it'd be a LOT better. I'm fine with Full Art Supporters-They're a great way to give some of the characters in Pokemon some love and the art is usually always good. I like the normal GXs for what they are, and I like the art appeal of Tag Teams. There's so much this era does right and it bothers me that there's so much to slow it down.

I think Black and White/XY did it very well, despite a few bumps in the road.

  • Although there are two (sometimes three) versions of an ultra rare, there's LESS ultras total in these sets, and they all had their own flair to it. Secret Rare Megas from early XY? Not the best choice, but they fixed this promptly in early 2015 with Primal Clash's gorgeous Full Art Megas.
  • Secret Rares were done fantastically (apart from the Early XY megas). In Black and White, you had the choice reprints of certain cards. Although some were items, these were so few and far between it never really mattered. The black and white SR's are some of my favorite iterations of some of these Pokemon, such as the Empoleon from Plasma Freeze which is my favorite card of all time. They had just the right amount of rarity and appeal to them that makes me, at least, want to collect them all. I love the way they look. And then you have the XY BREAK era secrets. One or two per set, just the right amount. And of course, like the BW secrets, they have visual appeal to them.
  • The sets were also just the right size that made them feasible to collect. Just the right amount of stuff, just the right amount of pull rates (in later XY, BW pull rates are garbo).
If Sun and Moon had continued this trend, it'd have been perfectly fine. So what do I want from gen 8?

  • No more than two versions of an Ultra Rare. Three if it's like, one secret or something.
  • If there are Full Arts, I want backgrounds. Make them unique.
  • Keep FA Supporters, those were fine.
  • No more bloating of the sets. I want sets that are a fair challenge to complete. Not whatever these last few sets have been.
  • Artistic variety, like how the Alt. Art tag teams are doing (I'd be fine with Arita art for ultra rares though, I love Arita).
  • A more appealing Ultra Rare than GXs. They're fine for what they do, but I want something more vibrant and nice to look at like the BW and XY eras.
  • I want them to try some new things, like how the EX era did with the many different kinds of cards they came up with back then. Deltas, Gold Stars (the bane of my collecting existence), etc.
  • A continuation of the mix of obscure pokemon being represented, with fan favorites as well.
  • All the legendaries. Come on, Pokemon, you owe me after skipping on poor Regice, Suicune, the Lake Trio and Arceus with EXs.

Will we get any of these things? Probably not. Pokemon doesn't care about what collectors want. They only care about the casual crowd and the players. And that makes me sad, because I fear that I'll end up quitting collecting because of this. I've been doing this for four, almost five years now and I've loved every second of it. Don't ruin it for me Pokemon. I miss that feeling the Black and White sets I'd find gave me. That sense of wonder and excitement for opening packs, that sense of progress towards completing a set. At least amiibos give me that progression feeling, I love those little plastic figures.
Did I go on for way too long? Yeah. Am I too salty over a card game? Yeah. I apologize for all the rambling and ranting I do around here all the time-It's just something I'm passionate about. Because, despite what Pokemon thinks, collectors care a lot about the game too.
 
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This is going to be a very, VERY long wall of text on my opinionated garbage, so I'm marking this as a spoiler to keep things compact. <3

Right, Commons/Uncommons/Rares haven't usually been the problem ever, even with some older sets having decently cheap commons and the like. Even old larger sets like Expedition have pretty cheap commons, but it's definitely, like what you said, all these chase cards that are bloating the sets. I really, REALLY dislike how TPC pretty much only appeals sets to either casual fans or players who want to bling out their decks. If you want my opinion on it as a collector, it's really turned me off to this era. I can list all the issues this has right here:

  • Full Arts, Rainbow Rares, and Gold Items have less collectible value than most other ultra rares in the last few years. Full Arts are bland renders with no love put into them, Rainbows are a lazy more expensive palette swap, and Gold Items are the worst ultra rares EVER. There's nothing appealing about a shiny golden card of a stupid looking stick, or a belt, or whatever nonsense they put out with these.
  • They're too hard to get, especially when ALMOST EVERY SINGLE GX GETS A HYPER RARE. Rainbows have a LITTLE bit of appeal. but I don't like them enough to want to hunt down every single one of them, especially when they're so hard to get hold of. Either they're too expensive or just too scarce.
  • They don't make sets fun to collect anymore. I may have mentioned on here before that I adore the Black and White era. I've collected every single full art from those eras and I'm continuing on the secret rares and normal EXs, and whatever else I need to get. Those sets are pretty heavy sets when it boils down to it, but they're fun enough to collect because everything is unique. Same goes for older sets. Every ultra rare has its own charm to it. Every holo has its own charm to it. Even commons, uncommons and rares can feel special in some sets, such as e-series sets (Expedition is my personal favorite). What's unique about higher-rarity GXs? It's literally the same "background" every single time. I like the uniformity at times, but you know what else did uniformity? EXs. And yet they still all stayed unique and memorable.
There's only a few things I can say this era got right, and they are as follows:
  • Shining Legends. This set made me love collecting Sun and Moon for once. The shinings are some of the best ultras that Pokemon had put out in YEARS. Each of them are unique and memorable? Check. Each of them look good next to eachother? Check. There's just enough to feasibly collect without destroying your wallet or your sanity? Check. I ADORED the shinings of this set, and even enjoyed the small amount (comparatively) of GXs that went with them. Secret Rare Mewtwo added that icing on the cake that just made it easily the best set in the entire era. Now, do I wish there weren't the FAs or RRs? Yeah, I really do. (I like the FA Mewtwo's artwork but that's just an exception). It'd have made the set better if those things just weren't in the SM era but Shining Legends did what it could.
  • Tag Team GXs. Well, scratch that. I'd say that Tag Teams ALMOST knocked it out of the park. Good artwork to start made their collectible appeal above most anything else in the series. And the alternate arts. Good god those are some of the most gorgeous cards ever created. Sadly, again, like all good things in this era. Full Arts and Hyper Rares had to dampen the experience and make for more set bloating. We really didn't need those, and I was SO excited to think that the Alt. Arts would replace FA/RR's for Tag Teams. But no, this is the Sun and Moon era, I should have expected more.
  • GX Ultra Shiny. Another thing they ALMOST got right. The shiny reprints of the non-GXs? Fantastic. The shiny reprints of GXs? Not as fantastic, but only because of, YET AGAIN, full arts and hyper rares. Imagine if these were the only versions of those cards-They'd blow people's minds. I know I'd love to collect them if they weren't just a sad palette swap we've seen three times. If only...
See the pattern here? It's those stupid Full Arts and Hyper rares. They screw up everything that this era does right. If those two things (and gold items) didn't exist, Sun and Moon would be a pretty great era. One of the best? Not sure, probably still one of the weaker ones out of them all, but nonetheless, it'd be a LOT better. I'm fine with Full Art Supporters-They're a great way to give some of the characters in Pokemon some love and the art is usually always good. I like the normal GXs for what they are, and I like the art appeal of Tag Teams. There's so much this era does right and it bothers me that there's so much to slow it down.

I think Black and White/XY did it very well, despite a few bumps in the road.

  • Although there are two (sometimes three) versions of an ultra rare, there's LESS ultras total in these sets, and they all had their own flair to it. Secret Rare Megas from early XY? Not the best choice, but they fixed this promptly in early 2015 with Primal Clash's gorgeous Full Art Megas.
  • Secret Rares were done fantastically (apart from the Early XY megas). In Black and White, you had the choice reprints of certain cards. Although some were items, these were so few and far between it never really mattered. The black and white SR's are some of my favorite iterations of some of these Pokemon, such as the Empoleon from Plasma Freeze which is my favorite card of all time. They had just the right amount of rarity and appeal to them that makes me, at least, want to collect them all. I love the way they look. And then you have the XY BREAK era secrets. One or two per set, just the right amount. And of course, like the BW secrets, they have visual appeal to them.
  • The sets were also just the right size that made them feasible to collect. Just the right amount of stuff, just the right amount of pull rates (in later XY, BW pull rates are garbo).
If Sun and Moon had continued this trend, it'd have been perfectly fine. So what do I want from gen 8?

  • No more than two versions of an Ultra Rare. Three if it's like, one secret or something.
  • If there are Full Arts, I want backgrounds. Make them unique.
  • Keep FA Supporters, those were fine.
  • No more bloating of the sets. I want sets that are a fair challenge to complete. Not whatever these last few sets have been.
  • Artistic variety, like how the Alt. Art tag teams are doing (I'd be fine with Arita art for ultra rares though, I love Arita).
  • A more appealing Ultra Rare than GXs. They're fine for what they do, but I want something more vibrant and nice to look at like the BW and XY eras.
  • I want them to try some new things, like how the EX era did with the many different kinds of cards they came up with back then. Deltas, Gold Stars (the bane of my collecting existence), etc.
  • A continuation of the mix of obscure pokemon being represented, with fan favorites as well.
  • All the legendaries. Come on, Pokemon, you owe me after skipping on poor Regice, Suicune, the Lake Trio and Arceus with EXs.

Will we get any of these things? Probably not. Pokemon doesn't care about what collectors want. They only care about the casual crowd and the players. And that makes me sad, because I fear that I'll end up quitting collecting because of this. I've been doing this for four, almost five years now and I've loved every second of it. Don't ruin it for me Pokemon. I miss that feeling the Black and White sets I'd find gave me. That sense of wonder and excitement for opening packs, that sense of progress towards completing a set. At least amiibos give me that progression feeling, I love those little plastic figures.
Did I go on for way too long? Yeah. Am I too salty over a card game? Yeah. I apologize for all the rambling and ranting I do around here all the time-It's just something I'm passionate about. Because, despite what Pokemon thinks, collectors care a lot about the game too.

Opinionated garbage? Must have been a typo. These are opinionated FACTS.
 
For me the sweet spot was the HGSS era, where you got 5-6 Primes and 1-2 Legends in a box, not the entire set's worth but close enough that you wanted to buy a box and didn't feel overwhelmed by the chase card extravaganza. BW's EX block was the original jump the shark moment for me when I expected regular EX cards to be Prime-level rarity but they were closer to Legend-rarity. Granted, the SM era has said jumped shark in orbit at this point.
 
For me the sweet spot was the HGSS era, where you got 5-6 Primes and 1-2 Legends in a box, not the entire set's worth but close enough that you wanted to buy a box and didn't feel overwhelmed by the chase card extravaganza. BW's EX block was the original jump the shark moment for me when I expected regular EX cards to be Prime-level rarity but they were closer to Legend-rarity. Granted, the SM era has said jumped shark in orbit at this point.
I can't believe I forgot about HGSS for a second there. Easily one of the most appealing and collector-friendly eras out there in my opinion, and you're definitely right about it hitting that sweet spot with pulls. Not sure how Call of Legends was personally, that's dependent on how many SL's there were per box for me. I'd assume probably not up to HGSS's standards.

I'd have to agree with you on BW's pull rates being a little (a lot) too low, and I'm glad that XY remedied it somewhat. (I've usually been satisfied with the few XY boxes I've opened, I felt like with a lot of them I got that feeling of progression, especially with Roaring Skies). The last box I ever opened was Sun and Moon, and combining my horrible pulls with that sheer amount of cards in that set, it just turned me off to boxes in general.
 
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They are starting too many groups of cards then they can't finish here are some of the discrepancies I can name off the top of my head:
  • No Terrakon-GX
  • No Blastoice-GX
  • No Swampert-GX
  • No Fairy type Primarina or Phychic type Decidueye
  • No TTGX with Blastoise
  • No TTGX with Kyrem
  • No TTGX with Litten or Popplio
  • No Delphox-GX or Chesnaught-GX
  • No Silver Dialga-EX
  • No Mega Saybleye or Saybleye-GX but Mawile gets both
  • Reshiram and Zekrom get promo GXs but Reshiram also get to be in a mini-set
  • There is literally not a single Black Kyrem in a Sun and Moon set, but plenty of White Kyrems and even a White Kyrem-GX
Edit: Zapdos-GX and Moltres-GX
These are all I can think of right now, feel free to add to the list.
 
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I love how they have the joke tag teams haha, snorlax chasing eevee, wailord inhaling magikarp, feel like rowlet will be trying to eat one of exeggutors coconuts or being flung into the air like a catapult lol
 
They are starting too many groups of cards then they can't finish here are some of the discrepancies I can name off the top of my head:
  • No Terrakon-GX
  • No Blastoice-GX
  • No Swampert-GX
  • No Fairy type Primarina or Phychic type Decidueye
  • No TTGX with Blastoise
  • No TTGX with Kyrem
  • No TTGX with Litten or Popplio
  • No Delphox-GX or Chesnaught-GX
  • No Silver Dialga-EX
  • No Mega Saybleye or Saybleye-GX but Mawile gets both
  • Reshiram and Zekrom get promo GXs but Reshiram also get to be in a mini-set
  • There is literally not a single Black Kyrem in a Sun and Moon set, but plenty of White Kyrems and even a White Kyrem-GX
These are all I can think of right now, feel free to add to the list.


they also stopped making prism star cards and left a lot of typings without having gotten a prism star stadium. Fire, electric, dark, fairy, grass got stadiums and have these awesome swing cards that can greatly effect the game but steel, water, fighting, physic, dragon saw no support in that regard.
 
Not a big fan of the 200+ card sets and how they lead to card price volatility. Getting a specific card becomes highly improbable via buying boosters, so the fallback becomes buying it on TCGPlayer, which is perfectly fine by itself. But if that card is popular in the Meta, the card instantly becomes expensive (Supply and Demand 101.) Ahem, Jirachi.

Fairie Alolan Ninetales GX is a pointed example - the Full Art shot up to $40+ within weeks of release ... only to crash to $20 (as of now, and dropping) as Jirachi in the very next set mostly replaced FAN GX in the Meta. The regular GX also has volatile numbers.

Two bad results with the 200+ card sets:
1. paying $40 for any card, or anything more than $20. Some of us have kids, who like to play Rayquaza and CakePop - Argh.
2. paying that much (or trading) for a card that plummets in price a few months later when the next set comes out.
And everyone said amen.
 
Am I missing something or are there still 2 unannounced tag team GX cards the 5 in this set plus alolan raichu and raichu tag team possibly only missing one of the birds card is a tag team
 
TPC: What’s that? Keep those unnecessary rarities AND add even more? And start pumping out two sets each month to really make sets bloated overseas? You got it!!

Spot on. So annoying for a collector like me. I guess this trend is continuing. They just do not get it. A secret rare isn't interesting anymore when there are 10 per set, every set, and they are clearly part of some uncreative system.

Man, do I miss the old days. When Pokemon was dying they made sets like Neo Destiny Skyridge, Aquapolis and EX Unseen Forces. I guess it is true that real art can only come from misery.
 
250 card set?! I'm done.

About the Rowlet TTGX, it would be a Sleeping Rowlet in Alolan Exeggutor's head. It was based on Ash's Rowlet's sleepy nature in the anime.
 
This is getting ridiculous when it comes to set size, these set s are near impossible to complete, and even getting a booster box to do so, end up leaving massive gaps. Lost Thunder was fine for a one off, but then Unbroken Bonds and now this set too. Japan needs to stop making so many mini sets,where half of the cards are filler.
 
Right, Commons/Uncommons/Rares haven't usually been the problem ever, even with some older sets having decently cheap commons and the like. Even old larger sets like Expedition have pretty cheap commons, but it's definitely, like what you said, all these chase cards that are bloating the sets. I really, REALLY dislike how TPC pretty much only appeals sets to either casual fans or players who want to bling out their decks. If you want my opinion on it as a collector, it's really turned me off to this era. I can list all the issues this has right here:

(note: This is going to be a very, VERY long wall of text on my opinionated garbage, so I'm marking this as a spoiler to keep things compact. <3)

And here we go... They're all as follows:
  • Full Arts, Rainbow Rares, and Gold Items have less collectible value than most other ultra rares in the last few years. Full Arts are bland renders with no love put into them, Rainbows are a lazy more expensive palette swap, and Gold Items are the worst ultra rares EVER. There's nothing appealing about a shiny golden card of a stupid looking stick, or a belt, or whatever nonsense they put out with these.
  • They're too hard to get, especially when ALMOST EVERY SINGLE GX GETS A HYPER RARE. Rainbows have a LITTLE bit of appeal. but I don't like them enough to want to hunt down every single one of them, especially when they're so hard to get hold of. Either they're too expensive or just too scarce.
  • They don't make sets fun to collect anymore. I may have mentioned on here before that I adore the Black and White era. I've collected every single full art from those eras and I'm continuing on the secret rares and normal EXs, and whatever else I need to get. Those sets are pretty heavy sets when it boils down to it, but they're fun enough to collect because everything is unique. Same goes for older sets. Every ultra rare has its own charm to it. Every holo has its own charm to it. Even commons, uncommons and rares can feel special in some sets, such as e-series sets (Expedition is my personal favorite). What's unique about higher-rarity GXs? It's literally the same "background" every single time. I like the uniformity at times, but you know what else did uniformity? EXs. And yet they still all stayed unique and memorable.
There's only a few things I can say this era got right, and they are as follows:
  • Shining Legends. This set made me love collecting Sun and Moon for once. The shinings are some of the best ultras that Pokemon had put out in YEARS. Each of them are unique and memorable? Check. Each of them look good next to eachother? Check. There's just enough to feasibly collect without destroying your wallet or your sanity? Check. I ADORED the shinings of this set, and even enjoyed the small amount (comparatively) of GXs that went with them. Secret Rare Mewtwo added that icing on the cake that just made it easily the best set in the entire era. Now, do I wish there weren't the FAs or RRs? Yeah, I really do. (I like the FA Mewtwo's artwork but that's just an exception). It'd have made the set better if those things just weren't in the SM era but Shining Legends did what it could.
  • Tag Team GXs. Well, scratch that. I'd say that Tag Teams ALMOST knocked it out of the park. Good artwork to start made their collectible appeal above most anything else in the series. And the alternate arts. Good god those are some of the most gorgeous cards ever created. Sadly, again, like all good things in this era. Full Arts and Hyper Rares had to dampen the experience and make for more set bloating. We really didn't need those, and I was SO excited to think that the Alt. Arts would replace FA/RR's for Tag Teams. But no, this is the Sun and Moon era, I should have expected more.
  • GX Ultra Shiny. Another thing they ALMOST got right. The shiny reprints of the non-GXs? Fantastic. The shiny reprints of GXs? Not as fantastic, but only because of, YET AGAIN, full arts and hyper rares. Imagine if these were the only versions of those cards-They'd blow people's minds. I know I'd love to collect them if they weren't just a sad palette swap we've seen three times. If only...
See the pattern here? It's those stupid Full Arts and Hyper rares. They screw up everything that this era does right. If those two things (and gold items) didn't exist, Sun and Moon would be a pretty great era. One of the best? Not sure, probably still one of the weaker ones out of them all, but nonetheless, it'd be a LOT better. I'm fine with Full Art Supporters-They're a great way to give some of the characters in Pokemon some love and the art is usually always good. I like the normal GXs for what they are, and I like the art appeal of Tag Teams. There's so much this era does right and it bothers me that there's so much to slow it down.

I think Black and White/XY did it very well, despite a few bumps in the road.

  • Although there are two (sometimes three) versions of an ultra rare, there's LESS ultras total in these sets, and they all had their own flair to it. Secret Rare Megas from early XY? Not the best choice, but they fixed this promptly in early 2015 with Primal Clash's gorgeous Full Art Megas.
  • Secret Rares were done fantastically (apart from the Early XY megas). In Black and White, you had the choice reprints of certain cards. Although some were items, these were so few and far between it never really mattered. The black and white SR's are some of my favorite iterations of some of these Pokemon, such as the Empoleon from Plasma Freeze which is my favorite card of all time. They had just the right amount of rarity and appeal to them that makes me, at least, want to collect them all. I love the way they look. And then you have the XY BREAK era secrets. One or two per set, just the right amount. And of course, like the BW secrets, they have visual appeal to them.
  • The sets were also just the right size that made them feasible to collect. Just the right amount of stuff, just the right amount of pull rates (in later XY, BW pull rates are garbo).
If Sun and Moon had continued this trend, it'd have been perfectly fine. So what do I want from gen 8?

  • No more than two versions of an Ultra Rare. Three if it's like, one secret or something.
  • If there are Full Arts, I want backgrounds. Make them unique.
  • Keep FA Supporters, those were fine.
  • No more bloating of the sets. I want sets that are a fair challenge to complete. Not whatever these last few sets have been.
  • Artistic variety, like how the Alt. Art tag teams are doing (I'd be fine with Arita art for ultra rares though, I love Arita).
  • A more appealing Ultra Rare than GXs. They're fine for what they do, but I want something more vibrant and nice to look at like the BW and XY eras.
  • I want them to try some new things, like how the EX era did with the many different kinds of cards they came up with back then. Deltas, Gold Stars (the bane of my collecting existence), etc.
  • A continuation of the mix of obscure pokemon being represented, with fan favorites as well.
  • All the legendaries. Come on, Pokemon, you owe me after skipping on poor Regice, Suicune, the Lake Trio and Arceus with EXs.

Will we get any of these things? Probably not. Pokemon doesn't care about what collectors want. They only care about the casual crowd and the players. And that makes me sad, because I fear that I'll end up quitting collecting because of this. I've been doing this for four, almost five years now and I've loved every second of it. Don't ruin it for me Pokemon. I miss that feeling the Black and White sets I'd find gave me. That sense of wonder and excitement for opening packs, that sense of progress towards completing a set. At least amiibos give me that progression feeling, I love those little plastic figures.
Did I go on for way too long? Yeah. Am I too salty over a card game? Yeah. I apologize for all the rambling and ranting I do around here all the time-It's just something I'm passionate about. Because, despite what Pokemon thinks, collectors care a lot about the game too.
Reading this was beat for beat my own opinions of the Sun and Moon era. It's quite astounding how exact our opinions are on this. The last set that I bought booster boxes of was Lost Thunder. I bought two. Not for the "challenge" of completing the set. (That would never happen even with 30 boxes. Which is soul-crushingly disappointing.) I bought them because I liked so many things in the set. Before that? I got Guardians Rising and Burning Shadows boxes by trading bulk. Didn't get any boxes in between those sets. There were... what, at least 4 sets between Burning Shadows and Lost Thunder? That's a full year of new sets. And I used to buy at least one box of every XY set as they released. Now, I'm not interested. Due to the size and the overabundance of ultra rares with increasingly slimmer chances of pulling them, it's no longer fun. One of my favorite quotes is perfect for this situation: "You took fun and made it unfun! How'd you even do that?!"
For me the sweet spot was the HGSS era, where you got 5-6 Primes and 1-2 Legends in a box, not the entire set's worth but close enough that you wanted to buy a box and didn't feel overwhelmed by the chase card extravaganza. BW's EX block was the original jump the shark moment for me when I expected regular EX cards to be Prime-level rarity but they were closer to Legend-rarity. Granted, the SM era has said jumped shark in orbit at this point.
And to add to my-exact-thoughts--YES!! HGSS era was one of the best eras, in my opinion. (Set-wise, it's probably tied for me with the Neo era.) At that time, buying booster boxes was a rarity and a treat for me. I only got one for Unleashed, but that one booster box nearly completed the set for me. The way they handled the rarities and pull rates of Primes and Legends was awesome. Even buying loose packs was usually rewarding! And I had the same thoughts regarding EX's when they came out. "Surely there will be about 5 to 6 EX's (replacing reverse holos) and 2 to 3 full arts per box, right?" How naive.

I wish things would improve in the Sword and Shield era for collecting, but I have very little faith in that actually happening.
 
I can't believe I forgot about HGSS for a second there. Easily one of the most appealing and collector-friendly eras out there in my opinion, and you're definitely right about it hitting that sweet spot with pulls. Not sure how Call of Legends was personally, that's dependent on how many SL's there were per box for me. I'd assume probably not up to HGSS's standards.

Let's not forget the Neo Revelation - Skyridge era where pulling a simple Holo still felt like hitting the jackpot, but you also had a chance of pulling a shiny/crystal. I think the Gen 5/6/7 EX/GX's are the problem. They kind of became the new basic chase cards (replacing Holo's), therefore creating an extra chase card layer and thus inflation.
 
haha 69 cards also im really excited for this set, its gonna be my fav of this year.
 
Let's not forget the Neo Revelation - Skyridge era where pulling a simple Holo still felt like hitting the jackpot, but you also had a chance of pulling a shiny/crystal. I think the Gen 5/6/7 EX/GX's are the problem. They kind of became the new basic chase cards (replacing Holo's), therefore creating an extra chase card layer and thus inflation.
I'll give you that earlier holos do feel more like a jackpot than what we get nowadays as holos. But I also think again that gen 6 remedied a lot of the problem with these chase cards. They're easy enough to get without giving someone TOO much. It's the same with Primes from the old HGSS sets. Chase cards, yes, but pull rates were solid back then. Black and White I can agree though had a bit too low of rates for it's own good. I've opened enough packs back in 2014/15 to know that. Despite being rare though they have a lot of collectible appeal to me personally.

Pokemon used juggle between great and horrible pull rates all the time. I think when they nailed it though, they remedied a lot of the issues with collecting higher rarity cards.

And of course, I might be biased but some of them are beautiful to look at, so I don't mind the hunt.
 
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