News New Legendary Battle Decks in September!

$19.99 is about what I thought. (In US pricing. It's probably going to be more like $30-40 here in Australia. >.>) I'm expecting something a little more akin to the Red Genesect Collection than the Battle Arena Decks. (Yes, the Red Genesect Collection was basically a Battle Arena deck, but it wasn't as competitively focused, despite a few reprints of playable cards. It was more "decent" than it was "good".) I do expect the Pokemon line-up in these to be nowhere near as horrible as the one in the Red Genesect collection, though. (Man that was a joke. It was the Mind Wipe theme deck's Pokemon lineup with a worse Genesect. >.>)


You know what, let's add a rant in here... Why are Pokemon theme decks (and similar products) so expensive? Yu-Gi-Oh! Structure Decks are cheaper, and actually playable out of the box. (To the point where getting a couple of copies could potentially build you a fairly competitive deck.) You're lucky to get half a dozen competitive-level cards out of a Theme Deck, and you're paying significantly more for anything that's competitively-focused.

You should have seen the MTG intro pack, $14.99 USD MSRP, with a piece of junk deck, competitive wise, and 2 boosters.

Let me make some predictions. I bet the Moltres EX deck will be Sky Guardian 2.0, Zapdos EX deck will be Storm Rider 2.0, and Articuno EX deck will be Aurora Blast 2.0, all with double the trainers and the EX card tacked on. LMAO.

A little off topic, but would you rather spend less on little, or spend more on more? For example, you have a favorite product, and it has a certain amount of MSRP. Let's also say boosters are $4. If that favorite product MSRP increased by $2, but it had one extra booster in it, would you like it, or do you not like it? Let's take the elite trainer box. There are 8 boosters and it costs $40. Would you pay $42 for it with 9 boosters? How about $44 for 10 boosters?

For MTG I liked collecting intro packs and when their intro pack went from deck + 1 booster for $12.99 to 1 deck + 2 boosters for $14.99, I was mad. Same with Fat Packs, 8 boosters + stuff for $34.99 to 9 boosters + stuff for $39.99, and now 10 boosters + stuff for $42.99.

Since MTG is changing their 5 per set intro packs to 2 per set planeswalker decks for the upcoming fall set, Pokemon should follow suit and change their 2 per set theme decks into a 1 per set deck that has an EX or now GX card as the cover card. The cover card would be exclusive to the deck.
 
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Is it okay to ask where you got the information about the battle decks? I tried to search the description with google, but the only other hits i found were just copied from this site. Maybe i missed it, but i don't see any source in the article here either. Do you have insider information about upcoming releases?
 
You know what, let's add a rant in here... Why are Pokemon theme decks (and similar products) so expensive? Yu-Gi-Oh! Structure Decks are cheaper, and actually playable out of the box. (To the point where getting a couple of copies could potentially build you a fairly competitive deck.) You're lucky to get half a dozen competitive-level cards out of a Theme Deck, and you're paying significantly more for anything that's competitively-focused.

Because Theme Decks are more an equivalent to Starter Decks than Structure Decks, they're not meant to be a serious tournament level deck, they're meant to teach new players how to play the game.

Battle Arena decks and these Legendary Battle decks are more like what event decks were in MtG, something you can pick up if you don't have a deck when goimg to FNM or a league that isn't going to win you worlds but has a pretty good shot at getting you a win or two compared to a Theme deck.
 
Hello my loves. Was waiting for you to come back. I wonder if these will be 3 EXs in Evolutions like how Zapdos EX and Moltres EX were thrown in Plasma Storm. I really hope they get full arts. Zapdos and Moltres haven't had one and while this is a long shot, I hope they are reprints of the FRLG exs.

Hopefully with the absolutely gorgeous foil pattern as well (shattered glass/Rotom foil covering the whole card, with cosmos on the border and art background).

~SS
 
ERMAGERD ARTICUNO!!! Finally, some Gen 1 Pokemon besides the Kanto starters, Charizard, and Mewtwo getting some attention!
 
Wonder if they are gonna tie this in promotion wise with pokemon go with the team leaders being the birds
 
Because Theme Decks are more an equivalent to Starter Decks than Structure Decks, they're not meant to be a serious tournament level deck, they're meant to teach new players how to play the game.

Battle Arena decks and these Legendary Battle decks are more like what event decks were in MtG, something you can pick up if you don't have a deck when goimg to FNM or a league that isn't going to win you worlds but has a pretty good shot at getting you a win or two compared to a Theme deck.

Yu-Gi-Oh!'s STARTER DECKS are also much, much better. And, more importantly, both are cheaper than Pokemon Theme Decks. I doubt it's the extra 17-20 cards over the YGO decks that increases the price, considering we already know from the Deck tins that 45 energy cards is probably about equivalent to the cost of 1 booster pack. And I don't think being a starting point is an excuse for the decks sucking to be honest. Sure, they don't need to be the best decks ever, but they're not even a good starting point for someone trying to get into the game from a cardpool standpoint. You won't be using anything from that Theme Deck other than like 4-5 Trainers and maybe a Pokemon or two, basically throwing your money away. (They're a step up from Trainer Kits, but still. I still don't get why they think having like 5 Trainers in a product aimed at teaching people the basics of the game is a good idea.)
 
Not a bad idea in my opinion. Maybe it'll draw more old fans back to the TCG. If the decks are designed like the Battle Arena decks then even better. Otherwise, Ill just keep my money in my pocket and keep on gaming. ;)
 
Yu-Gi-Oh!'s STARTER DECKS are also much, much better. And, more importantly, both are cheaper than Pokemon Theme Decks. I doubt it's the extra 17-20 cards over the YGO decks that increases the price, considering we already know from the Deck tins that 45 energy cards is probably about equivalent to the cost of 1 booster pack. And I don't think being a starting point is an excuse for the decks sucking to be honest. Sure, they don't need to be the best decks ever, but they're not even a good starting point for someone trying to get into the game from a cardpool standpoint. You won't be using anything from that Theme Deck other than like 4-5 Trainers and maybe a Pokemon or two, basically throwing your money away. (They're a step up from Trainer Kits, but still. I still don't get why they think having like 5 Trainers in a product aimed at teaching people the basics of the game is a good idea.)

I come from Yugioh so I figure that this is probably what I can comment on best. Yugioh Starter decks are appalling and a complete waste. This year, there was only really 1 good reprint in the starter deck, and 1 semi-playable exclusive card. While normally starter decks tend to be between £8-10, this one wasn't being sold at £7 from what I saw. Yugioh structure decks, on the other hand, have become incredible: you either get good exclusives and decent reprints, or a good theme on its own. The deck that won US nats this year was essentially made of 3 of them, a few £8 cards and a side deck. As far as I can tell, Pokémon doesn't really have an equivalent to a modern Yugioh structure deck.
 
OK, I was originally expecting these to be Gen 1 nostalgia cash-ins. But seeing that those pins aren't the high-quality metal ones, I guess this really IS a quick cash-in on GO's success. That's disappointing.
 
OK, I was originally expecting these to be Gen 1 nostalgia cash-ins. But seeing that those pins aren't the high-quality metal ones, I guess this really IS a quick cash-in on GO's success. That's disappointing.

How can you tell that these aren't the usual metal pins?
 
How can you tell that these aren't the usual metal pins?

The metal pins don't have anywhere near that much dead space around the Pokemon, even the more intricate ones like Mega Absol, and these don't appear textured. I'd expect these to be plastic, about the same as the old Xerneas, etc. league charms, since that's what they look like to me. Even if they are metal, the huge amount of dead space detracts from the look and perceived quality IMO.
 
It's sad to think most of these packs will be bought by Go fanatics and they'll have awesome pulls only to be trashed since they only want the pin to represent their oh so undying love for their team.
 
What's up with all the salt in this thread?

First of all, just because it shows "dead space" around the pin doesn't mean that it's the final image. That dead space could just be the plastic casing surrounding the pin for all we know.

Case in point:
pokemon-mega-shiny-gyarados-pin-pack-pokemon-usa-pre-order-ships-february-8__01073.1461393840.jpg
 
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