News 'Lost Thunder,' America's November Set!

Ashblaze

Full Art Supporter Hunter
Member
YAAAAY, someone was sayin no fairy rise is coming in February, and that is was going to be a mini set (that would be dumb ) but I’m happy what I believed was half right, fairy rise IS coming in November but so is SM8 lost thunder as a three Japanese set to one BIG English set, I CANT WAIT FOR THE FULL ART SUPPORTERS, I love my full art supporters, I wonder what supporters will be in lost thunder’s part I hope there beautiful and awesome, this set could have maybe 6-7 full art supporters in English set PLUS IF THEY FINALLY ADD FULL ART LADY OR MASKED ROYAL FOR ENGLISH (which is a pain cause they haven’t for a couple sets already) then the set could have maybe 7 or if lucky then 8( this year will also be the year of the most full art supporters too, having 9 in February, 4 in may, 8 in August, and possibly 6-7-8 for November) can’t wait for this set
 

Lorde

♕ The Queen ♕
Member
Goodness. Well, that answers the question of how they were going to get all of SM7a, 7b and 8 released in the West in a timely fashion without an overlarge set: they're not, it's just going to be good ol' application of force.
Couldn't have said it better myself.
Judging by this and Celestial Storm, it seems like sets of this size will probably continue to be the trend as we stream towards the end of the Sun and Moon block, assuming Japan keeps pumping out Xa and Xb side sets to go with each of their SM(X) main sets. Obviously it's too early to make any solid predictions, but I wouldn't be entirely surprised if we go through the rest of SM without a set under 160 cards. In the same vein, I'm also expecting us to get another special set on the side... These cards will all have to go somewhere.
I really don't think this is the case. The only way they can keep these monster sets up is by pushing more and more mini-sets. Celestial Storm is only it's current size because that one mini-set was sizable on its own! Lost Thunder has two of those sets in addition to the base Japanese Explosive Impact! I don't see any reasonable way TPCi could keep pumping out cards like this, and causing English sets to be absurdly large. I think (and hope) this is a side-effect of Japan trying to push our schedule further.
Does this mean feb we get 200 card set
If they're including SM7a, SM7b, and SM8, it's most likely a no. I'd be shocked if there were another set with the sizes of Celestial Storm or Lost Thunder after this.
Gen 7's TCG is seriously just the worst.
No kidding, this is ridiculous. I thought Celestial Storm was bad enough, but there is no reason for a set so wildly large... especially since the promotional lists don't normally include secret rares, I'm genuinely scared this set could run itself into 230+ with secret rares. An absolute nightmare to the highest degree. I'm not excited.
Maybe they're trying to catch us up with Japan's schedule so cards will be released concurrently.
I don't think they'd be releasing sets at the same time, but this is probably them trying to keep us from lagging behind. At the rate Japan is pumping out mini-sets they'd have to be using this set as a dumping ground.
Don't get why people are moaning, this is exciting!!!
People are upset because this is just a ridiculously expensive set to collect. I empathize with them because I myself don't play the TCG, I only collect.
wow, i thought they were going to do another spinoff like dragons majesty
That's what I think they should have done. Even though they keep those special sets to a yearly maximum, Japan's Fairy Rise should have been a mini-set to be released in... I don't know, January. Would've been a nice Fairy set to compliment the Dragon Majesty too.
 

Zierant

Murcielago
Member
If only our pull rates were as good as Japan’s :( you can basically complete a set, minus secret rates, with one Japanese box.
 

Luplayz

The Master of bad Pokemon
Member
rough for set completers but,WE GET TONS AND TONS OF ULTRA RARES (sorry for my caps.)
 

CaptZero

Aspiring Trainer
Member
ugh... I hate these bloated sets. Most of the cards are bulk fodder and they haven't made it easier at all to get the cards that you really need or want. Not even talking about the chase GXs, but the supporters and trainers too. They need to increase the rare slots to 2 instead of one.
 

Frost

Ice/Fairy Stan Account
Member
Or they could just stop making 3 versions of every single GX card, but I guess nobody will buy Pokemon cards anymore unless every single set has 50 secret rares, so.....
 

ForeverRanger91

Aspiring Trainer
Member
You know how expensive some of this is going to be? Luckily I don't need anything out of this set for any potential deck.
 

John InCENAroar

Praising the Vish, Praying for Sableye V
Member
Gen 7's TCG is seriously just the worst.
Why exactly is it the worst? Sure, it's large, which is hell on Collectors, but for the average player it's not the worst thing that could happen, since more cards that could be considered hits may end up meaning more hits. I know that this same effect happened back in Gen 6 with the introduction of BREAK cards, where boxes shot up to a usual 7-9 hits per box instead of the usual 5-6ish. On top of that, most of the sets in the SM Era have a really playable card in them, so they all have a meta staple. Even more dissapointing sets like Forbidden Light or Crimson Invasion have at least one card that is almost a staple in our current meta, making it worth purchasing for more reason than "I guess I have no other choice." Gen 6, on the other hand, did not handle their sets so gracefully. There were some objectively awful sets in the X/Y era (Evolutions/Fates Collide) and the one card that could be considered "the best in the set" was often massacred in terms of usefulness in comparison to other huge meta decks (Night March, Seismitoad EX, Volcanion EX, Greninja BREAK etc.) Going back specifically to Evolutions, that set was a complete and utter disaster from beginning to end, where the best card from it was arguably a common (Rattata, no less). Whereas in Sun and Moon, we have a similar set in Celestial Storm, but at least it wasn't completely spent on rebooting old cards, and it mixed old with new, like Evolutions should have done.
 

CynderDarkov

Aspiring Trainer
Member
210 cards in one set is pretty meh...but at least we are getting all these sets at once and will probably shake up the game heavily all at once so I'm game.
 

Frost

Ice/Fairy Stan Account
Member
Why exactly is it the worst?

Because it's never been so transparent that all those in charge of the TCG care about is rolling in their piles of money. And while, yes, obviously, that has always been the case and always will be the case, there used to be a far better balance between "making money" and "making collectors spend hundreds if not thousand of dollars to compete a single set because every single chase card (of which there are usually like 15 per set lately) needs to have two if not three or four blinged out variants in the same set."
 

Skeleton Liar

サーナ~
Member
Well, I was very much looking forward to a lot of the Fairy Rise cards releasing in English--and even some of the Thunderclap Spark cards. I still am, to an extent. But the biggerer the set, the worserer the chances of getting what you want become. At the very least, it is interesting to see a set break the previous records for largest sets.
If only our pull rates were as good as Japan’s :( you can basically complete a set, minus secret rates, with one Japanese box.
THIS. It seems like you get all regular cards, all holos and most of the regular GX's in the Japanese SM booster boxes now (I think 4 or 5). Their secret rare pull rates are asinine, though, since you only get one, and full arts, rainbow rares, and golden cards are all lumped together as secret rares.

If that was to equate to our 36-pack, 10-cards-per-pack booster boxes, it would be about double that. How does 8 to 10 GX's, at least 2 full arts (or 'better'), and most or all of the holos sound per booster box? Wishful thinking. Booster boxes suck in the SM era, partly due to these giant sets, because it seems Japan can't not pump out 5,000 sets per year now.

If TPCi doesn't do something with this set like they did with Legendary Treasures or even Shining Legends... Maybe not to the extent where you're pulling a GX in every other pack, like Legendary Treasures. But the thing about that set was that TPCi saw how many holos and ultra rares were in the set and decided to throw their customers a bone with the pull rates (especially since most cards were reprints). That's not the case for this set, but some sort of adjustment would be nice.
Or they could just stop making 3 versions of every single GX card, but I guess nobody will buy Pokemon cards anymore unless every single set has 50 secret rares, so....
ALSO THIS. Full arts were a neat idea in the first three BW sets; make a few full arts of noteworthy cards. Then EX's came out, and each one of them got a full art, which was pointless, but we got used to it, I guess. And then Sun and Moon rolls around and doubles down on the pointlessness with rainbow rares. 'Kay. So why did I bother trying to collect when it's impossible now? I haven't been very enthusiastic about collecting for about a year...
 

Skeleton Liar

サーナ~
Member
Why exactly is it the worst? Sure, it's large, which is hell on Collectors, but for the average player it's not the worst thing that could happen, since more cards that could be considered hits may end up meaning more hits.
The bolded part part is enough for me to consider it the worst generation of the TCG. This alone has caused me to loose interest in collecting SM sets. And this is after a very strong run of collecting from the end of the DPPt/beginning of HGSS era to now (after a hiatus from the end of the ex to mid DP eras).

But regarding your average player comment, I have to disagree in a sense. The higher the ultra rare count in a set, the lower the chance is that you pull a particular card. So let's ignore the fact that it will have a reprint soon and take Tapu Lele GX as an example. If it was in a set that just had 6 regular GX's in it, if you got a pack with a regular GX in it, your chances of getting Tapu Lele would be 16.6%. But since Guardians Rising has 12 regular GX's in it, your chances of getting a Tapu Lele are 8.3%; half of the previous example. And that's not factoring in anything like full arts, rainbow rares, the odds of pulling an ultra rare versus a holo or regular rare, how many ultra rares you get in a box, etc. I understand you were saying that GX's, on average, have been better/more interesting to play with than most EX's, but in my opinion, the frustrations of the cons (terrible for collectors, worse chances at pulling something specific) outweigh the pros (more possible interesting cards to play with).
 

Oddish22

Aspiring Trainer
Member
It's 3 more GXs and 1 more Prism Star than Ultra Prism (173+ cards). Assuming the 13 GX have FAs and there are about 10 Trainer FAs (if all included), then there are still around almost 170 cards that are not Ultra Rares. That's quite insane, so pulling a specific holo card or maybe even an uncommon will be harder than a GX if there are still 4 regular GXs per box. There will be around 20 holos.
 

paulyd84

cooltrainerpaul
Member
Wow...

Just wow lol this set will be worth a fortune mastered as will be so so hard to do.. Get that cheque book ready!!
 
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