Japan's March Set: 'Rebellion Crash,' Plus Toxtricity V, Charizard VMAX, Grimmsnarl VMAX!

Merovingian

Dead Game Enthusiast
Member
The art on Spiritomb looks like a sort of throw-back to the art of the old Vending Machine Promo cards

Galar Mine is a clear upgrade on Team Aqua Base. And the new Energy is a clear upgrade on Call Energy.

Here's my problem with the new cards being released.

I get that part of what they are doing is making the game a bit more simplified and easier, and we are in the middle of a clear restructuring. But so far, everything seems to be either super linear or clear upgrades on past cards.

I get the idea of rehashing the old and making it new. But at the same time, Sword & Shield is kind of....dull. Even the V/VMAX mechanic is basically "Regular EX Pokemon that can Evolve"

Like, where's something like the old Rocket Secret Machines? Lt. Surge's Secret Plan? Team Galactic's Wager? I'll even settle for a Random Receiver reprint.

The WILDEST thing to come out of Sword & Shield so far is freaking NUGGET (which is basically "the kitsch of Missing Clover, but with less cards"). Even Sun & Moon had Ilima in their Base Set

I'm hoping that this is all just R&D trying to "find their bearings" with everything in this block and we'll eventually begin getting some weird stuff, but so far, Sword & Shield feels A LOT like Upgrade & Reprint.
 

Frost

Ice/Fairy Stan Account
Member
Spiritomb - Spiritomb wasn't in the Galar Dex. So that means SWSH Tcg isn't stuck to the Galar Dextheme (I know that but I need visual evidence).

I mean, we've known this since literally the first Gen 8 cards revealed were V cards of random legendaries like Celebi and Tapu Koko.
 

momand

Aspiring Trainer
Member
Spiritomb seems cool in stuff like Night March and Vespiquen if they choose to start playing the counter package

Capture Energy seems neat in Cinccino mill but they already play Quick Ball so there's no point

Galar Mine might be a nice addition to Cinccino as well, using Boss's Orders to drag something to the active and then stall. Unfortunately there's a bunch of counter stadiums in the format so we'll have to see
 

AbyssalHand

Surge Double Bellelba
Member
Spiritomb seems cool in stuff like Night March and Vespiquen if they choose to start playing the counter package

Capture Energy seems neat in Cinccino mill but they already play Quick Ball so there's no point

Galar Mine might be a nice addition to Cinccino as well, using Boss's Orders to drag something to the active and then stall. Unfortunately there's a bunch of counter stadiums in the format so we'll have to see
idk capture could be a replacement for 2nd fire
 

AbyssalHand

Surge Double Bellelba
Member
The art on Spiritomb looks like a sort of throw-back to the art of the old Vending Machine Promo cards

Galar Mine is a clear upgrade on Team Aqua Base. And the new Energy is a clear upgrade on Call Energy.

Here's my problem with the new cards being released.

I get that part of what they are doing is making the game a bit more simplified and easier, and we are in the middle of a clear restructuring. But so far, everything seems to be either super linear or clear upgrades on past cards.

I get the idea of rehashing the old and making it new. But at the same time, Sword & Shield is kind of....dull. Even the V/VMAX mechanic is basically "Regular EX Pokemon that can Evolve"

Like, where's something like the old Rocket Secret Machines? Lt. Surge's Secret Plan? Team Galactic's Wager? I'll even settle for a Random Receiver reprint.

The WILDEST thing to come out of Sword & Shield so far is freaking NUGGET (which is basically "the kitsch of Missing Clover, but with less cards"). Even Sun & Moon had Ilima in their Base Set

I'm hoping that this is all just R&D trying to "find their bearings" with everything in this block and we'll eventually begin getting some weird stuff, but so far, Sword & Shield feels A LOT like Upgrade & Reprint.
true but it's all tpci bringing kids into the game as well as old players coming back. all about M O N E Y
 

AbyssalHand

Surge Double Bellelba
Member
Capture Energy is an extremely cool card and a great concept. It won't find its way into every deck, but the few specific decks that want it will be very happy.

Absol TEU with Galar Mine and three other Absols on the bench can OHKO a Reshizard, plus you've got a couple of Stage 1s with a more powerful version of this attack. Pressure Deck incoming?
maybe S3 will give us a dark patch reprint to make that possible
 

Mcsonic00

Less Filler Cards Please
Member
Spiritomb has the potential to be insane when going against 2 and 3 prize decks. I imagine 4 Professor's Research, 4 Dedenne GX, and 4 Acro Bike for draw in the deck; maybe add in a Roxie or 2 as well. You also play 2 or 3 Counter Gain so that you can attack for just [D]. Spiritomb seems like a nice rogue deck in a multi-prize Pokemon meta.

Galar Mine looks best when paired with Krookodile in my opinion. Doing 50x for each [C] in your opponent's active Pokemon's retreat cost for [C][C][C] is amazing. Triple Acceleration Energy is on the table here as well as Twin Energy + Counter Gain to be able to instantly charge Krookodile up. Galar Mine makes for another nice rogue deck.

Capture Energy is great in mill decks for sure; you probably play 2-4 Capture Energy in them. I think you don't need to play Mew3 + Magcargo GX for the mill 5, instead, you can play Mimikyu (CEC 96) so that you can use an extra Bellelba & Brycen-Man in the turn to end the game. Sure, you are discarding 9 instead of 11 cards, but you can use a lot more special energy now instead of having to run fire energies and you don't get screwed if either the Mew3 or Magcargo GX get prized (less likely to get just the 1 card prized than either of the 2); you also get 1 more space in your deck as well. Outside of mill, could be good, but depends on the deck's attackers.
 
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Nyora

A Cat
Member
clear upgrades on past cards.
Upgrades? I assume you mean Pokemon, there's no way they're doing this with Trainers. Some are slightly better/worse in their own ways, but so far most are worse. Air Balloon is worse Float Stone, Vitality Band is worse Muscle Band, Tool Scrapper is being reprinted over Field Blower, etc.
 

braywing

Aspiring Trainer
Member
With Galar Mine can I use Pokemon Maniac on 2 energy retreat cost pokemons?
It says the retreat cost of both active Pokémon is two more so since those Pokémon are not in the active they would not have an increased retreat cost and can’t be searched with pokemaniac
 

Clam

Almost decent
Member
I really like the art for the Spiritomb kinda weird just like how the pokemon itself is
 

Otaku

The wise fool?
Member
@Merovingian @Nyora

"Update" is probably a better word for it, and it has been the standard operating procedure for the game since at least the BW-era. You'll find a lot of "Old effect on new similar-yet-different card" before that, but I personally noticed it as a major guiding factor during the BW-era. Anyway, when updating an older card, be it a reprint with tweaked wording, an obvious homage, or a loose one, the name of the game is improving game balance. Well... it should be, at least.

We've had a weird thing for most of the life of Pokémon, a kind of "heightened" balance where the competitive metagame is made of up a fraction of the total card pool that kind of makes it feel like the Pokémon TCG is two different TCG's in one. Each operates at a different level of "power", but sometimes they crossover in competitive play when there isn't a "high power" option to do the job.

The point being is that Air Balloon is a better balanced version of Float Stone, because multiplying a cost by zero is insanely good. Tool Scrapper doesn't let you use an "as often as you want per turn" resource to counter a once-per-turn one (plus a bonus). ¬_¬ Muscle Band almost seems reasonable by comparison, but the powers-that-be seem to have this thing where so many key KO's are missed by just 10 or 20 points of damage, so only doing the extra 10 leaves Vitality Band still good, even though it is a nerfed Muscle Band. Though you could argue that all of these are improved versions of older cards, instead of nerfs of (relatively) recent ones. The best example being how Vitality Band really is just a better Strength Charm.

With the new T1 rule, a major change that seems to be game-balance driven, I'd say they really are trying to get back to basics; Pokémon V are like Pokémon-EX without the overly complicated rules for Mega Evolving.

Hopefully that added something to the discussion. XP
 

Tytus

Expanded Best Format
Member
That Milotic v will be nice even if it isn't good. I am also interested to see if the ability on the falinks will be any good. I also don't think anyone expected mally v max. Getting gusting back will also be nice.
 

Clam

Almost decent
Member
copperragah vMAC does 240 dmg ... ADP makes it do 270 those are some beeg numbers

oh is coal pokemon energy from deck for fighting??? if so thats sick
 
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