Discussion Neglected Pokémon in the TCG

VeeCombee

Aspiring Trainer
Member
Adding Igglybuff, sorry if someone has said it. I think last seen in HGSS? It's probably not a great Pokemon for the players but very very cute and would make for some great art for us art collectors. Sadly there's not many cards released with Igglybuff and I don't like the art on most of them, except one promo.
 

Blob55

Aspiring Trainer
Member
Adding Igglybuff, sorry if someone has said it. I think last seen in HGSS? It's probably not a great Pokemon for the players but very very cute and would make for some great art for us art collectors. Sadly there's not many cards released with Igglybuff and I don't like the art on most of them, except one promo.
I didn't take it off of my list because it's a promo and I don't count those.
 

The Almighty Bidoof

Just your everyday MtF trans Bidoof worshipper
Member
In case anyone's curious. Here's what's changed with promos:
Igglybuff (JP only)
Jolteon
Flareon
Vaporeon
Chespin (JP only)
 

Blob55

Aspiring Trainer
Member
I guess this means the Snivy line is coming out of retirement. Just hope the other Unovan starters have it as good...
 

Frost

Ice/Fairy Stan Account
Member
Returning in Remix Bout:
-Snivy, Tepig, Pignite, Emboar, Throh, Deerling, Sawsbuck

Being immediately saved from rotation irrelevance:
-Duskull, Dusclops, Dusknoir, Phantump, Trevenant, Stufful, Bewear

Including Chespin and Igglybuff, 740 Pokemon have appeared during Generation 7, leaving 68 Pokemon as well as 1 Uri Geller lawsuit fodder in neglected status. And a few of these unlucky ones never appeared in Gen 6 either:
K8jSjjG.png


Based on what we know so far, there currently are/will be 655 Pokemon in the Ultra Prism-on rotation as of the release of SM12 in the west, although we're still awaiting 2/3 of the Japanese sets that will be combined with Remix Bout. (This is not including Igglybuff and Chespin's SM-P promos still exclusive to Japan, nor Dartrix, Decidueye and Seviper, assuming their SV forms in Hidden Fates will retain their old legality.)
 
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Frost

Ice/Fairy Stan Account
Member
Dream League gave us the return of:
-Gallade
-Tympole, Palpitoad and Seismitoad

... and that's it. We also got the first Water-type Sneasel and Fighting-type Palpitoad and Seismitoad cards, but this has to be the worst SM-era set in terms of returning neglected Pokemon. 65 Pokemon still haven't appeared in Gen 7 and you know Alter Genesis is going to have to some more repeats. RIP
 

Blob55

Aspiring Trainer
Member
Dream League gave us the return of:
-Gallade
-Tympole, Palpitoad and Seismitoad

... and that's it. We also got the first Water-type Sneasel and Fighting-type Palpitoad and Seismitoad cards, but this has to be the worst SM-era set in terms of returning neglected Pokemon. 65 Pokemon still haven't appeared in Gen 7 and you know Alter Genesis is going to have to some more repeats. RIP
Yeah, I knew that whole set was going to be a waste. :/
I think the next set will have 5 returning Pokémon we haven't got, so it's an even 60.
 

lampshade11

Spicy Lord
Member
I know he was in was Celestial Storm, but im getting kinda sick of there being no Swampert-GX. I mean the other two Hoenn starters have a GX but not Swampert? Come on.
 

MilesEX

Aspiring Trainer
Member
I know he was in was Celestial Storm, but im getting kinda sick of there being no Swampert-GX. I mean the other two Hoenn starters have a GX but not Swampert? Come on.

I know right, Swampert GX was among my most anticipated this gen.

On the flipside of this list, does anybody have a list of the most occurances? I feel like Alolan Exeggutor has had at least 6!
 

steffenka

Miss Vaanjie
Member
On the flipside of this list, does anybody have a list of the most occurances? I feel like Alolan Exeggutor has had at least 6!
I mean, Charizard is up there too haha. It's been in Dragon Majesty, Team Up and Detective Pikachu as non GX cards, been in 2 different Tag Team cards (which each have 4 cards), had 3 regular cards (1 of which had 4 prints too), and then a pre-release promo too (although it's a reprint). This is 8 different cards! Mewtwo and Pikachu (50+ different cards including all promo cards) are probably among the top too haha!

Other occurences (counting different cards): Greninja has 5 different cards, Exeggutor has 7 (6 of which are Alolan haha), Marowak has 6 (5 of which are Alolan), Tangrowth has 4, Salazzle has 8, Bewear has 6 (7 including the Ash vs. Team Rocket deck), Latios has 5, Tapu Koko has 6, Mimikyu has 8 (2 of which are Japanese exclusive), Lycanroc has 8 too (3 of which are GX cards), I could go on haha :p
 

MilesEX

Aspiring Trainer
Member
I mean, Charizard is up there too haha. It's been in Dragon Majesty, Team Up and Detective Pikachu as non GX cards, been in 2 different Tag Team cards (which each have 4 cards), had 3 regular cards (1 of which had 4 prints too), and then a pre-release promo too (although it's a reprint). This is 8 different cards! Mewtwo and Pikachu (50+ different cards including all promo cards) are probably among the top too haha!

Other occurences (counting different cards): Greninja has 5 different cards, Exeggutor has 7 (6 of which are Alolan haha), Marowak has 6 (5 of which are Alolan), Tangrowth has 4, Salazzle has 8, Bewear has 6 (7 including the Ash vs. Team Rocket deck), Latios has 5, Tapu Koko has 6, Mimikyu has 8 (2 of which are Japanese exclusive), Lycanroc has 8 too (3 of which are GX cards), I could go on haha :p

Of course, how could I forget about Pikachi and Charizard!!! I get that they sell sets but the fact Alakazam hasn't had a single card kinda blows. Especially when they do random stuff like 2 Silvallys, Venomoth and Shuckle.
 

SupStar

Aspiring Trainer
Member
Gimme Sunflora & Bellosam Tag Team
Ability: Sunny Day - your pokemon's moves cost G less.
Pedal Dance GX: This attack does 50 damage to each of your opponent's pokemon. If you have at least 2 Stage 2 G pokemon on your bench, do 100 damage to each of your opponent's pokemon instead.

Delibird GX
Present - Flip a coin: If heads heal one of your pokemon 100 damage, if tails inflict 100 damage to any of your opponents pokemon (do not apply weakness/resistance for benched).
 

Shafninja

Aspiring Trainer
Member
You know, the card game designers should really take a long hard look at the list of all 800+ pokemon and release all of them over each generation. Charizard, Pikachu and Mewtwo have ridiculous amounts of cards. Pikachu is understandable as he's the mascot. But charizard doesnt need 2 tag team cards, and 3 different GX cards. Like wynaut have the walrein line in dream league. Why haven't they made a spheal card since 2015!!! It's insane.
 

Frost

Ice/Fairy Stan Account
Member
2uZBzue.png

I like to break down these numbers and try to find explanations for why things have happened the way they have. Pikachu and Eevee get a ton of Japanese promos that we never get in America (Eevee mostly taking off with Gen 7 where LGPE started pushing it as a secondary mascot - I count 29 different Gen 7 Eevee cards, but that also takes into account 8 different versions of Eevee wearing ponchos of evolutions, which is a concept that bloats Pikachu's count to insane amounts in Gens 6-7, and how they've broken the Eeveelution representation across several sets this Gen unlike how they've usually grouped them together more in the past).

Mewtwo's two particularly bloated Generations were 6 (18 prints), where they covered its Megas (10 of Mewtwo's 18 prints are in Breakthrough alone), and now 7, where more than half of its prints are because of the super stupid way they've handled GX cards by giving every single one 3-5 tiers of artwork. Mewtwo has so far gotten 18 different "prints" in Gen 7 by my count..... but 12 of them are reprints of the same 3 cards (Shining Legends GX, Hidden Fates GX and Mewtwo/Mew TTGX).

Charizard is actually in the same boat where in sheer quantity its numbers have never really particularly obvious until Gen 6 with the double Mega factor and more specifically this year, where we're getting Charizard in almost every single set back to back to back (it's in Team Up, Detective Pikachu, Unbroken Bonds, Hidden Fates and Cosmic Eclipse - the later three where it will fetch outrageous prices for one reason or another). Like Mewtwo, Charizard's bloat is combination from the double Mega representation and the chase card explosion that every EX/GX card suffers from.

Also in Charizard's case is that it's technically not "taking a spot" from a neglected Pokemon. Pokemon likes to try to represent all 11 of its types and with Fire being one of the smallest pools, none of the Pokemon that fall under the umbrella of "Fire" are particularly neglected in the TCG for very long, save for Magby, but that's because Baby Pokemon were their whole different category of PCL not having any idea what to do with them. Magby aside, the Fire Pokemon we've gone the longest without seeing right now are Pansear and Simisear, who were in Burning Shadows less than two years ago. And believe me, there would be a lot more outrage toward Simisear somehow getting a GX than Charizard getting a second one. TBT to 2011-2012 when everyone was enraged whenever the elemental monkeys showed up in a set.....

That being said, PCL makes plenty of questionable decisions for Pokemon choices that shouldn't be made when fans have this information readily available for them after two seconds of using Google. There's no reason to have the Oddish family without Bellossom in three different Gen 7 sets. There's no reason why Pokemon X on meaningless filler card Y couldn't have been swapped out for meaningless neglected Pokemon Z. There's no reason we shouldn't have gotten Alakazam on a Tag Team when in the past they've jumped at any single opportunity to use Alakazam in a scenario that didn't involve Kadabra (hell, they even could have used Abra on Tag Team too).

But I also imagine it's not easy to come to the choices they make when they have to try to cross promote with games and shows and movies, they have to have a ton of promos ready for release in Japan that fans would actually care about because they're cross promoting with Domino's or Uniqlo or a random exhibit for Edvard Munch, they have to get in contact with a few dozen Japanese artists to make their illustrations, they have to worry about trying to make a balanced/playable metagame, they have to try to split popular/powerful Pokemon across several different sets lest we end up with some Emerging Powers monstrosity that nobody wants to buy, etc., etc., etc.
 

Blob55

Aspiring Trainer
Member
You know, the card game designers should really take a long hard look at the list of all 800+ pokemon and release all of them over each generation. Charizard, Pikachu and Mewtwo have ridiculous amounts of cards. Pikachu is understandable as he's the mascot. But charizard doesnt need 2 tag team cards, and 3 different GX cards. Like wynaut have the walrein line in dream league. Why haven't they made a spheal card since 2015!!! It's insane.
It's what I've been saying all along. From Gens 1-4 they included all Pokémon throughout the sets (excluding banned Kadabra), but since there's less Gen 5 and 6 sets, they cut a load out for more popular Pokémon, including 8 Megas! Gen 7 so far has come the closest to adding in all Pokémon in the last 3 Generations, with only 65 left to be included (excluding forms), but there's no way we can get all of them by now. :/

Galar has another issue, because it won't add all Pokémon, so the TCG could be limited to Pokémon in the Galar Dex and Sinnoh Dex (if we get a remake), limiting the choices even further.

The smaller sets released most months, going alongside the main sets in Japan, has definitely given us more variety of Pokémon. Though it could still do better and I doubt we'll get this close to having all mon in a TCG Gen again.

Most Generations (excluding the first and third) has had Pokémon that never appeared since.
Kadabra didn't make it past gen 2.
Most babies and Sunkern line didn't make it past Gen 4.
Lileep line didn't make it past Gen 5.
Timburr line, Bellossom, Aipom line, Zigzagoon line, Oshawott line and many others didn't make it past Gen 6.
 
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Frost

Ice/Fairy Stan Account
Member
The TCG has always been content to do whatever it wants regardless of the games. There were only 200 Pokemon in the Hoenn Dex at first but there were old Pokemon in the Gen 3 TCG long before FRLG came along. So the National Dex controversy may or may not extend to Gen 8's TCG, we have no idea.
 

Shafninja

Aspiring Trainer
Member
Galar has another issue, because it won't add all Pokémon, so the TCG could be limited to Pokémon in the Galar Dex and Sinnoh Dex (if we get a remake), limiting the choices even further.

I don't think dexit will affect the tcg at all. We will still get plenty of variety of mons (even if it's not ALL of them). I can see them putting in mons in the TCG that don't make it into Galar and even vice versa. Because the TCG has always distanced itself from the games. Mainly with typings e.g. Rayquaza being colourless type in Guardians rising, but also with attack names that are more diverse than the vg attacks e.g. Dedenne GXs Static Shock.
 
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