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PokeBeach Podcast: Is “Battle Partners” A Little Disappointing?
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Lilly and N will save this set. And yes, its not what we hoped for so far.
Are we talking about a disappointment in the set from a collector or player standpoint. Pokemon has 2 vastly different sects, those who collect and those who actually play the game and care about the health of the game. Just on this preview alone we are seeing very playable archetype in Hop's revealed cards (not disappointing in the slightest). The opinions of collectors are like farts in the wind. Game play and archetypes are what we see on twitch streams, what bring the community together in wholesome friendly fun. Collecting is what leads to scalping product, children & players of all ages missing out on product due to availability, greed in pushing product and rating it based on maximum profitability. The latest (in the last 5-7 years) collecting wave that has been inflicted on the Pokemon TCG is what is ruining the game for players, who are the true heartbeat of the game. The Pokemon Company as a whole needs to stop printing cards based on secondary market collect-ability and profits and start printing sets that have an abundance of playable cards. Prismatic in these regards was the true disappointment as there aren't hardly any playable cards. Strictly collector set.
This feels like just an angry rant against collectors. I agree that printing playable cards is very important and TPC typically makes sure to take good care of players if the game. I mean playable cards are dirt cheap compared to literally all other TCG’s. The truth is that collectors make up 90% plus of this hobby. They are what puts money in Pokemon’s pocket and you’re out of your mind if you think Pokemon doesn’t pay attention or care about what they want. The players can build decks for $50 and there are significantly less of them than collectors.
The problem here is you are now suggesting all collectors are investors which is rubbish. There are people like myself who collect cards because we like them. I don't care about the value in the long term, but I do care about it in the short term as I am always hoping to spend as little as possible so I can get all the cards I want.
Investors are those who scalp product, buyout card stocks to mess with the market rates on cards etc.
Now as an actual collector, I am semi disappointed, but not entirely. I have posted my disappointments in other articles, but don't let that take spotlight away from the positives. I am happy with how these sets are shaping up so far, there is quite a bit of potential with what trainers could be used in the future in addition to what we already know so far.
I just hope you understand that not all collectors are pieces of you know what.
A little disappointing? I mean, it already looks leagues better than Gym Heroes, Gym Challenge and Vs. but those are remembered with a certain nostalgic fondness.
I guess the only thing I'm disappointed in are the trainer selections they chose to highlight. Like, Bump off, Hop. Iono, you're not my favorite either. I'm also disappointed they aren't doing Stage 1 Snorlax and things, like, come on guys there's a simple solution to making Baby Pokemon not worthless or broken, and you just won't do it
I guess the only thing I'm disappointed in are the trainer selections they chose to highlight. Like, Bump off, Hop. Iono, you're not my favorite either. I'm also disappointed they aren't doing Stage 1 Snorlax and things, like, come on guys there's a simple solution to making Baby Pokemon not worthless or broken, and you just won't do it
Nah I'm not a huge fan of the Gym sets (VS is cool) but at least those sets committed to their theme fully. Even with SP Pokemon, there was a set where it was all Team Galactic stuff, a set with all the Sinnoh Gym Leaders and Elite Four, a set with the Frontier Brains and Cynthia. Even though those sets weren't all SP Pokemon unlike Gym/VS they were still deliberate with what they were showcasing. It's the combination of this set having only four Trainers, the four Trainers having absolutely nothing to do with each other, AND having non-Trainer Pokemon thrown in too that makes it all a bit of a flop for me.
Like, it's called Battle Partners right? And three of the four characters are Rival-esque characters? Get Iono out of there and use other Rival characters like Barry, Cheren/Bianca, etc. Make it all Rival characters. Then in the Rocket set you can have Dark Pokemon and owner's Pokemon of hero characters like Red/Green, Ethan/Lyra and whatever the SM protags are named (due to the Rainbow Rocket thing in USUM). Then in Heat Wave Arena you can use Elite Four members and Champions with Cynthia being the headliner. The way it's being implemented so far is just whatever.
Like, it's called Battle Partners right? And three of the four characters are Rival-esque characters? Get Iono out of there and use other Rival characters like Barry, Cheren/Bianca, etc. Make it all Rival characters. Then in the Rocket set you can have Dark Pokemon and owner's Pokemon of hero characters like Red/Green, Ethan/Lyra and whatever the SM protags are named (due to the Rainbow Rocket thing in USUM). Then in Heat Wave Arena you can use Elite Four members and Champions with Cynthia being the headliner. The way it's being implemented so far is just whatever.
We are talking about potential value what else?
People have such unrealistic expectations. So spoiled lol. I don’t know why people expect so much from this set. The trainer gallery cards from sword and shield dont have much value and these are basically the same concept. The whole “stick a trainers face in a bubble next to a cgi clefairy” just isn’t very unique and exciting anymore when we have all these new illustration styles, tag team cards, etc. It’ll be a fun set but not every set has to be hyped up and be the next “eVoLViNg sKiEs”. Were gym hero and gym challenge even that popular compared to base set, team rocket, Neo , etc, back in the day? I remember those 2 bring the ones my brothers and I skipped. Every set that comes out nowadays is better then anything before sword and shield in my book, at least art wise. I’ll be happy no matter what.
At that time you didn't skip a set because it was banger after banger. Besides legendary collection reverse cards afcourse because those are fakes.
if they were truly unrealistic you would probably have been more specific about what it is anyone is being unreasonable about.
I’m kinda on the fence on how I feel about it. Personally, new sets are always exciting—ripping packs, checking out the new artwork, and hoping for some crazy pulls. I think we have been pretty spoiled and the vibe I get is that there will always be sets that "need" to be less favourable to make way for more popular sets.
Don’t get me wrong, there’s some awesome stuff in here (the art alone is
), but I can’t tell if it’s gonna grow on me or if it’s just not as memorable as some of the recent sets. Maybe I’m overthinking it, or maybe the last few releases just set the bar too high.
Don’t get me wrong, there’s some awesome stuff in here (the art alone is
), but I can’t tell if it’s gonna grow on me or if it’s just not as memorable as some of the recent sets. Maybe I’m overthinking it, or maybe the last few releases just set the bar too high.
As someone who doesn’t actively play standard but plays past formats casually both in-person and online, whether or not this set is disappointing depends on whether the current standard format will be worth playing alongside Battle Styles-Paradox Rift some day. And I’m kind of worried about the Hop archetype, though perhaps it won’t be more unfair than Roaring Moon ex. Also, I have a friend who’s hoping N becomes a good deck, and I’m just not seeing it yet without a way to OHKO even basic ex’s, much less the stage 2’s, without tanking a hit (An unlikely prospect against Charizard ex/Dusknoir).
As someone who collects cards “casually” (as in spends “only” a hundred or two dollars on individual cards a year instead of ripping open booster boxes, which is probably not most people’s definition of casual), this is a perfectly okay set that I will probably collect cards from when I’m ready to start collecting Scarlet & Violet era cards, but I feel like having at least six trainers represented would have been optimal. I’m guessing they want every trainer to have a featured ex, though, and they probably want only about half the ex’s to be trainer’s Pokémon. In any case, the Scarlet & Violet bug hasn’t bit me yet, despite the beautiful bulk artwork and its heavy influence on physical art mediums. I spent two hours sorting through someone’s Scarlet and Violet era bulk and still feel the burnout when I think about it. (He said I could keep as many as I wanted. It wasn’t worth it. I’d rather just pick out my ten favorites from each set on TCGPLAYER going forward.)
As someone who collects cards “casually” (as in spends “only” a hundred or two dollars on individual cards a year instead of ripping open booster boxes, which is probably not most people’s definition of casual), this is a perfectly okay set that I will probably collect cards from when I’m ready to start collecting Scarlet & Violet era cards, but I feel like having at least six trainers represented would have been optimal. I’m guessing they want every trainer to have a featured ex, though, and they probably want only about half the ex’s to be trainer’s Pokémon. In any case, the Scarlet & Violet bug hasn’t bit me yet, despite the beautiful bulk artwork and its heavy influence on physical art mediums. I spent two hours sorting through someone’s Scarlet and Violet era bulk and still feel the burnout when I think about it. (He said I could keep as many as I wanted. It wasn’t worth it. I’d rather just pick out my ten favorites from each set on TCGPLAYER going forward.)
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Darkrai! Really enjoyed listening this week! I'm really looking forward to the new owners set, I love all the trainers they picked, except hop, but the art for his card is so good I will still pick it up either way! I think they'll do like 4-6 trainers per set, with maybe some light theming, like with the rocket set. With Cynthia they may do the other elite 4 members of gen 4, or maybe just other elite 4 members from all gens. Keep up the great work and have a great week!
I love that they give legendary Pokémon’s lots of love here , we will prolly see N‘s Zekrom besides his reshiram and Lilie‘s solgaleo & lunala .
It’s not the strong start we hoped for but it’s a solid one and we will see more partner Pokémon’s with heat wave and rocket anyways so can’t complain a lot here.
It’s not the strong start we hoped for but it’s a solid one and we will see more partner Pokémon’s with heat wave and rocket anyways so can’t complain a lot here.
People might be putting it on a pedestal because it was the world's reveal when that's been reserved for the new mechanic these past few years
I don't think people would be happy no matter what the set was, every set some people are really happy then others always complain, no matter what the set contained people were gonna be vocal about their disappointment
Strictly from a collector's standpoint, I'm not interested in these new Owner's Pokemon cards. Part of it has to do with how clinical and restrained the basic card layout is for SV (especially compared to the ADV, PCG, DP, and DPPt eras). I'll chase SP cards and dual-type Rocket and Aqua/Magma stuff, but these just seem sterile in terms of presentation (full art cards withstanding).