News New 'Battle Arena Deck: Black Kyurem vs. White Kyurem' in June!

jessalakasam

Floette is love Floette is life
Member
I get the opposite intent from this; these cards are releasing as XY: Black Star Promos specifically so that they can rotate along with the rest of the XY-releases, instead of sticking around longer by being Sun & Moon products.
Meh either way we still get TM for an extra year
Also, I think they did that so we don't have EXs in the SM series
 
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chella182

Aspiring Trainer
Member
Pleased to see Trainers' Mail included in these! And what's more, new artwork for Mail and Sycamore! I wonder if they'll be promo prints in that case?

EDIT: Nvm, someone beat me to that question haha!
 

Leric

Aspiring Trainer
Member
Expanded won't rotate.

I don't know why people think this when they already stated it won't rotate.

Do you have a source on that? Because I don't think that's true. More like too many people expected it to rotate for this season but it didn't.
 

TokenDuelist

YGO TCG is Cheaper. Fight me.
Member
Do you have a source on that? Because I don't think that's true. More like too many people expected it to rotate for this season but it didn't.

http://www.pokemon.com/us/strategy/prepare-for-the-2017-standard-format-rotation/
http://www.pokemon.com/us/pokemon-news/pokemon-tcg-format-rotation-for-2017/

This is a common practice in card games with "Legacy" and "Extended" formats.

Expanded hasn't rotated twice. There's a reason they pump out the Expanded format products. Because Standard Rotation ROTATES and Expanded EXPANDS
 

Leric

Aspiring Trainer
Member
http://www.pokemon.com/us/strategy/prepare-for-the-2017-standard-format-rotation/
http://www.pokemon.com/us/pokemon-news/pokemon-tcg-format-rotation-for-2017/

This is a common practice in card games with "Legacy" and "Extended" formats.

Expanded hasn't rotated twice. There's a reason they pump out the Expanded format products. Because Standard Rotation ROTATES and Expanded EXPANDS

Neither of those confirm what you're saying. In fact, they both hint that entire sets can indeed be removed.

"In 2017 we will not be removing older expansions from the Expanded format. Players should double-check what format is being used before deciding which deck to bring to their local events."

and

" The Expanded format will be monitored aggressively, and any cards that are deemed unhealthy for that environment may be removed."

Also, I suppose it's possible Expanded could develop an extensive banned list. That would be pretty neat.
 

RiverShock

Aspiring Trainer
Member
"Unlike the Standard format, the 2017 Expanded format will remain unchanged. With each passing year, these two formats will look more and more different, creating two distinct, exciting environments for the Pokémon TCG."

That is outright stating the Expanded format won't rotate...

The aggressive monitoring is just referring to emergency bans like Shiftry and Trump Card's. I can't imagine there'll ever be even a 2-digit number of cards on that list.
 

Otaku

The wise fool?
Member
First, let me apologize as this will get a bit long.

That is outright stating the Expanded format won't rotate...

Outright stating "The Expanded Format will never rotate." is outright stating that the Expanded; this is strongly suggesting it will never rotate while reserving the right to rotate it at some future point. ;) @TokenDuelist has successfully argued that we should not expect a rotation for the Expanded Format this September, and likely for the next two to three years. My hopes for a shift to something different are dashed, but eventually, they won't have a choice, or else Expanded will go the way of Unlimited.

I believe a good descriptor for the situation is "paradoxical": the desire seems to be there for the Expanded Format to never rotate, but don't you think the goal when the Pokémon TCG first began was to just release sets and never need to rotate? When the original Rocket-On Modified Format (what we'd now refer to as Standard*) was implemented back in the day, it was under WotC. It wasn't the first solution to the obvious balance issues created by most older cards on their own or mixed with newer cards; that was Prop 15/3 (3 Copy Rule instead of 4 Copy Rule, Trainer count capped at 15). It failed pretty bad; I don't know if TPC or WotC or both were trying to avoid the "Format with rotating sets" approach, but it happened. Later, we had a time when nothing rotated out of Modified play, and it wasn't because the powers-that-be caved to player demand. It seems like TPC wanted such a thing to happen, and thought the card pool balanced enough to do it back then. Eventually, this caught up with them, and they had to have the largest cut we'd seen for Modified, seven expansions!

Why do I bring this all up? Combined with the still recent banning of Lysandre's Trump Card, a pretty obviously broken card due more or less to how Pokémon functions as a TCG and/or cards which were contemporaries released a little before or after it (and thus likely in planning around the same time), you cannot trust TPC to get this right. Finishing my earlier thought, the paradox is that the longer Expanded goes without rotating, the more likely it will need a rotation eventually.

*"Standard" is actually a bit of a confusing term. The short version is that now it refers to a particular tournament format build around the most recently released TCG product. When it was first coined under WotC, it simply meant the default or usual or typical or expected tournament format for Pokémon. Most players did not realize this because there was no need to add any clarifier for official, competitive play when the Unlimited Format was the tournament standard format. It was only when this created confusion among players as Modified was first being implemented that it was clarified for we players.
 

Serperior

~
Advanced Member
Member
I love that new Trainers' Mail - those colors are gorgeous! As someone that doesn't care about max rarity, I'm definitely gonna look to pick up a playset of these for fun. Hopefully this drops the price of Trainers' Mail altogether because of it being accessible through these means. Also hoping there's another copy (non-foil?) in the deck as well.
 

jigglysama

Aspiring Trainer
Member
Wow, wasn't expecting them to add both Boundaries Crossed and Plasma Storm Black Kyurem and White Kyurem EXs.

That new Trainer's Mail is way more cooler than the regular one. Same as Sycamore. I might pick this one out if it is a good as the Rayquaza and Keldeo one.
 

TWGaming

Aspiring Trainer
Member
If you look at the set symbol for professor Sycamore he has a set symbol that is not a black star prom. The cards in the mega powers collection also have the same symbol. English best of xy set confirmed?
 

Hunga

Oh no! Rotation in sight
Member
Sorry, but what the heck?
Why now?
Isn't it a bit late?
I was hoping for something like at least Gen 6 not something from way back...
 
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