‘Star Birth’ TCG Set Releasing in January: Pokemon VSTAR!

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We can now confirm the trademark for Star Birth (スターバース) is indeed a set and will release in Japan on January 14th! It will feature Arceus VSTAR.


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The set will see the release of a “Premium Trainer Box VSTAR” on the same date. Premium Trainer Boxes have always been released at the start of a new regulation block, like the last two for Single & Rapid Strike Master that kicked off the “E” block. If this holds true, this would be the start of the “F” block.
Last year’s boxes came with 50 Pokemon and Trainers, a unique promo card of Single or Rapid Strike Urshifu V, 100+ Energy, and the usual TCG accessories.


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Sword & Shield Premium Trainer Box (2019)...

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I have a question. So is this essentially the start of the Diamond and Pearl remake and Arceus era of cards or is this still part of Sword and Shield. I’m assuming Time Gazer and Space Juggler will be D/P, but what about Star Birth? Arceus being the focal point makes me want to assume we’re moving toward that era, but what do you guys think?
 
RIP to all the people that said "well ackshully the format will be better after rotation because the REAL problem are GX attacks".
Well, this is the first time I'm seeing this take, I have never seen a single person saying GX attacks were a problem. In fact I felt the consensus was that GXs in general were very good and that S&M was overall a fantastic era for the game, with some of the reasons being precisely that GXs were more interesting than EXs before them, both because they evolved, and because GX attacks added a whole new layer of interesting decision making to games. The problem always seemed to be Tag Teams especifically, it never had anything to do with GX attacks whatsoever.
 
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Well, this is the first time I'm seeing this take, I have never seen a single person saying GX attacks were a problem. In fact I felt the consensus was that GXs in general were very good and that S&M was overall a fantastic era for the game, with some of the reasons being precisely that GXs were more interesting than EXs before them, both because they evolved, and because GX attacks added a whole new layer of interesting decision making to games. The problem always seemed to be Tag Teams especifically, it never had anything to do with GX attacks whatsoever.
I've seen this take here and there, especially with decks like PikaRom still dominating the format despite Sword & Shield having so many sets out already. It's obviously not a good take, I suspect it's made by players that want to attribute to themselves their positive results from a really broken and simplistic format, deluding themselves that all the criticism is just a response to a soon-rotating problem.
Everything you've outlined is basically spot-on. GX attacks are a very cool concept and I'm happy to see it return.
 
I have a question. So is this essentially the start of the Diamond and Pearl remake and Arceus era of cards or is this still part of Sword and Shield. I’m assuming Time Gazer and Space Juggler will be D/P, but what about Star Birth? Arceus being the focal point makes me want to assume we’re moving toward that era, but what do you guys think?
Still Sword & Shield. Arceus V is the evidence.
 
Still Sword & Shield. Arceus V is the evidence.
Sinnoh and Hisui. Dynamax is going out with a bang, we're getting a new mechanic, and every main series remake in the history of the TCG has gotten a year (or, in the case of FireRed and LeafGreen, half a year) of special attention (the least obvious of which was 2019, but we got cards for most of the major Kanto characters during that era, plus the Hidden Fates main set), so even if we still have Vs and the SWSH template, the focus is shifting over to Sinnoh. I'm guessing it will still be CALLED SWSH, however, for the same reason that FireRed LeafGreen and Team Rocket Returns were still EX sets, the 2015 sets were still XY sets, and the 2019 sets were still Sun and Moon sets.
In other words, the answer to the question "will this be a new era" varies depending on what your definition of "era" is.
 
If the v cards were basics, will these v-stars have to "level-up" or evolve before going into play like GX's?
 
PLEASE STOP. We don't need more mechanics, we need balance.

I think you're stuck in February. The game has been already balanced since the release of Battle Styles back in March. You may not like the game's pace for instance, but balanced means essentially "lots of viable decks", not "I like the game right now".
 
I think you're stuck in February. The game has been already balanced since the release of Battle Styles back in March. You may not like the game's pace for instance, but balanced means essentially "lots of viable decks", not "I like the game right now".
I know what balance means, lol. I love the game in general and right now.

The number of viable decks is still atrociously small, especially when considered next to the quantity of cards that are produced. Either the quality of each card increases or the quantity released goes down. Of the cards legal in standard, say, starting next week, what percentage do you think have a place in the metagame? In the top decks? How many of those offer decisions on any of the games axes, like power vs speed?

Competitive formats trend toward uniformity, but balanced formats never get there. I'm not arguing that the game is imbalanced, I'm arguing that it needs to flesh out it's current design trends to prevent imbalance, and that rarely comes hand-in-hand with new mechanical variations on existing ideas (see also: mega evolution rule, tt-gx)
 
I know what balance means, lol. I love the game in general and right now.

The number of viable decks is still atrociously small, especially when considered next to the quantity of cards that are produced. Either the quality of each card increases or the quantity released goes down. Of the cards legal in standard, say, starting next week, what percentage do you think have a place in the metagame? In the top decks? How many of those offer decisions on any of the games axes, like power vs speed?

Competitive formats trend toward uniformity, but balanced formats never get there. I'm not arguing that the game is imbalanced, I'm arguing that it needs to flesh out it's current design trends to prevent imbalance, and that rarely comes hand-in-hand with new mechanical variations on existing ideas (see also: mega evolution rule, tt-gx)

I agree with everything that you said except with your expectations for how much of the card pool actually gets played. Every card game, like...ever is like that, some of the stuff is more or less competitively viable, and like 90% of the card pool is "useless", and that is somewhat by design. I don't think they could possibly achieve such an impossible task as to make like half of thousands of card equally viable at any given time, and I also don't believe they would even if they could, business-wise card games need to have those few chase cards among the sea of bulk to drive prices of cards, and therefore demand for the product, up.
 
I've heard people say that the 2010 Worlds format was a... I think the word was diverse, but it could have been something else... format, but in the end LuxChomp and SPs in general played a very similar gate-keeping role to ADP and Urshifu Rapid Strike (albeit a larger number of decks got through the gate). If it hadn't been for Donphan Prime, which in and of itself also did its fair share of gatekeeping.
https://http://google.com/.com/2014/08/04/bright-looks-and-psychic-locks/
https://ptcgarchive.com/2010-decks/
Granted, the 2010 format still appears to be extremely diverse. But looking at this list and seeing how dominant Luxray GL Lv.X and Garchomp C Lv.X were gives me a sense of deja vu. A "stage 1" evolved big basic holding the gates of the format against any deck that is unable to keep pace? And a highly prevalent stage 1 deck that has a type advantage over and the ability to restrict some of the oppressiveness of the aforementioned deck, but which itself also sets a high standard for the types of cards that can be used? Also, I'd like to point out that there is a widely used evolved support Pokémon (Claydol), a few Basic support Pokémon used by nearly every deck (Azelf, Uxie, and, to a lesser extent, Spiritomb, Chatot, Sableye, Combee, Mesprit, Regice, and assorted Unown), a well-used Stadium card with a powerful effect (Broken Time Space), a Special Energy that summons basic Pokémon to the field (Call Energy), a card that allows you to search for three Pokémon of one of the most dominant classes in the format (Collector, which is pretty much the equivalent of the upcoming Adventurer considering the dominance of SPs and the sheer number of techable and support basics), and even an entire archetype of cards that, at first glance, are just ordinary cards with a fancy stamp and tag on them (I mean, an evolved Pokémon species being printed on a basic isn't a MECHANIC, is it?), but which in fact have a very large support base. And also, the upcoming V-Union mechanic is more or less a spiritual successor of the Pokémon LEGEND and actually stands a fair chance of producing more playable cards of its archetype than Pokémon LEGEND. I mean, I'm seeing a lot of resemblances. The main differences are diversity and pace (and obviously Power Level, but Power Creep has been a thing for such a long time that to say that there is a difference in power between formats of two different eras is not only old news, but redundant news). And I would like to point out that at one point the SWSH format was actually pretty diverse, one might even say more diverse than the 2018 format (which, as far as I can tell was primarily formed of Buzzwole GX, Zoroark GX, Garbodor, Rayquaza GX, and Ultra Necrozma GX, losing all the diversity of the 2017 format despite the fact that many M EX's were still legal). I seem to remember a time when ADP, Centiskorch VMAX, Eternatus VMAX, Lucario & Melmetal GX, Pikachu & Zekrom GX, Inteleon VMAX, Dragapult VMAX, Blacephalon, and many more decks were all viable silmuntaneously. Yes, I said the words GX and VMAX a lot, but it was still a diverse format. Not sure how many decks are viable right now. Urshifu VMAX and Calyrex VMAX are forming the top tier, but I would expect there to be many more decks on tiers 2 and 3. Plus you can always go rogue with a meme deck if you're tired of playing the same-old-same-old and don't care about your winstreaks. And there are a lot of different toolbox decks and high-tier deck variations you can play if you want to spice up the game. We've had an astonishing number of techable Vs in the past couple of sets, and there's still a lot of unexplored design space as the new format shakes out. And the very nature of Single Strike and Rapid Strike Pokémon makes it possible to shake up familiar decks like Urishfu Rapid Strike VMAX (ever tried running an Urishfu/Sylveon VMAX build?). So I wouldn't say that this format is a good format for single prizers, but I wouldn't be too quick to jump to the conclusion that it is not diverse until you've done a bit of exploring and playtesting.
I agree with everything that you said except with your expectations for how much of the card pool actually gets played. Every card game, like...ever is like that, some of the stuff is more or less competitively viable, and like 90% of the card pool is "useless", and that is somewhat by design. I don't think they could possibly achieve such an impossible task as to make like half of thousands of card equally viable at any given time, and I also don't believe they would even if they could, business-wise card games need to have those few chase cards among the sea of bulk to drive prices of cards, and therefore demand for the product, up.
I would also like to point out that cube formats are a great place for the 90% to thrive because you can create a custom constructed format using cards of the same power level without being restricted by whether or not those cards have ever coexisted in any given official format. You also don't have to draft the cards necessarily; there is a system called "sealed cube" where you can just pick cards off of a list to put into your deck. A format where EVERY card is playable would have to be a VERY small format indeed.

Also, on an entirely unrelated note, what do all you more serious collectors do with all the extra bulk you get from opening a booster box (or several booster boxes) of each set? (This probably isn't the right place to ask, but all this talk about bulk and chase cards and 90%s has made me wonder.)
 
I agree with everything that you said except with your expectations for how much of the card pool actually gets played. Every card game, like...ever is like that, some of the stuff is more or less competitively viable, and like 90% of the card pool is "useless", and that is somewhat by design. I don't think they could possibly achieve such an impossible task as to make like half of thousands of card equally viable at any given time, and I also don't believe they would even if they could, business-wise card games need to have those few chase cards among the sea of bulk to drive prices of cards, and therefore demand for the product, up.
this is not entirely accurate. the options are not binary. I'm advocating for more useful cards, not exclusively useful cards.

I'm not sure what your tcg experience is, so this might be a bit mansplainy, but anyway. In the case of magic, standard constructed playability follows this pattern, but limited playability (sealed and draft) is much wider, and there are variant formats that lead to a greater percentage of the pool of cards being usable in some way or another. This is not the case for pokemon. When it comes to the recent digimon tcg, there is a clear relationship between a card's resource cost and it's power level. This means that the top decks can be structured very differently depending on the playstyle and preferences of the player. A deck of a certain color will not necessarily contain the same cards as the next, beyond key pieces. Obviously the CCG model is different from a distribution perspective, but my experience there was similar, with many Call of Cthulhu decks for example being difficult to predict based only on the color. I haven't played yu-gi-oh except in the most casual settings, but there is a huge pool of cards so the comparison would be hard to make. Still, the way archetypes are structured gives many deck types a chance, at least, not to mention the chance to be updated.

The point being that it isn't an impossible task to design more cards to be viable deckbuilding choices in constructed formats, and that it is possible without drastically impacting the highest tier of viability.

Also, Is it necessary business-wise? To design cards to be chased, I mean. A good design philosophy would not eliminate chase cards (which I'm not advocating for, just to be clear). And if the narrow/shallow viable cardpool is intentional, then it is possible to change. This is a game first in my eyes, and a collectible second. Prioritizing the collectability at the cost of the game--their current model, I'd argue--is frustrating, but prioritizing the game would not jeopardize collectability.


I've heard people say that the 2010 Worlds format was a... I think the word was diverse, but it could have been something else... format, but in the end LuxChomp and SPs in general played a very similar gate-keeping role to ADP and Urshifu Rapid Strike (albeit a larger number of decks got through the gate).
You go on to describe why more decks were viable; the widely used cards are support cards. Particularly in the Pokémon department. Uxie was a non-holo rare--still one of the strongest cards ever printed. That format is good because the shells (plural) can fit many different main and backup attacker slots, with huge diversity present even within a particular strategy. Is Garchomp better than Garchomp C? No. Does it stand a chance against it? Yes. The first deck on the page you linked has a similar shell to the world champ deck of that year but runs 2 stage2 lines of different types and operates on a largely different gameplan. Multiple decks on that page run single copies of tech cards to deal with each other and one has a 1-0-1 line of single prize stage 2s. You seem to think I'm arguing that recent tcg releases are somehow lesser than the classic stuff--I'm not. I'm expressing the need for more attention to be paid to balancing the swingy, big dudes worth 3 prizes and the little guys who, at the moment, rarely make a dent before setting up. I'm not objecting to power creep, I'm objecting to power creep on a single axis while other strategies stagnate. aka balance.

and don't care about your winstreaks.
If you have the most fun when certain matchups are an auto-loss, that's fine by me, but it cements the fact that the game is imbalanced.
until you've done a bit of exploring and playtesting.
>been playing consistently since 1999
>obviously needs to play more before commenting
I would also like to point out that cube formats are a great place for the 90% to thrive because you can create a custom constructed format using cards of the same power level without being restricted by whether or not those cards have ever coexisted in any given official format. You also don't have to draft the cards necessarily; there is a system called "sealed cube" where you can just pick cards off of a list to put into your deck. A format where EVERY card is playable would have to be a VERY small format indeed.
You do realize that you didn't invent cubing, right?
 
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