Rarity of Trainer cards

S

signofzeta

Aspiring Trainer
Member
How come trainer cards are mostly uncommon, and sometimes common? What happened to all the rare trainer cards? How come recently, they don't print powerful trainer cards and put them at rare?
 
I can't help but assume is still has something to do with the extreme backlash circa the Base Set when younger collectors were disappointed in their boosters when finding a rare trainer. I know that was over 10 years ago (and when the TCG was distributed by WotC), but it could have had lasting effects. It does seem, however, that some trainers are found fewer per box than their rarity would indicate, so perhaps that's Nintendo's way of giving rarity to trainers without them taking the rare spot in a booster?
 
Wow, did I hate getting that Thought Wave Machine in my packs as a kid. Sure, they were decent, (Computer Search anyone?), but some were just terrible and it was a disappointment, a tragedy, a waste of money. I'm so glad that they are no longer existent, (Trainers in Rare form), but I do agree that I feel I get less Trainers in my boosters nowadays.
 
I got truckloads from my DE box... None of them seemed to be particularly rare (contrasted with Catcher and the Hammer from EP/NV?).

I believe I got at least a full play set of each trainer.
 
I don't think Trainers are EVER shortchanged. You can get anywhere from 0 to 6 uncommons in a box... it's all luck, and when people are actively hunting down important cards like Catcher, "only" getting three in a box makes it seem like it's rarer than usual but it isn't. I've watched box openings where people didn't pull a single copy of uncommon cards and they weren't even T/S/S.

But yeah, I'm glad there's no rare Trainers anymore. It really was traumatizing as a kid when you finally saved enough lunch money to buy a pack of cards and you got something lame like Clefairy Doll as your rare.
 
Well, there is one...N FA. Haha, it's so that getting Trainers isn't extremely hard, and still some are in short print or are just a tensy wincey bit harder to pull (Catcher).
 
Catcher is definitely rarer than the others. Pretty sure Crash Hammer is too. I've got over 400 cards from each of the BW sets (bar DEX), and I've only got one Catcher and one Crash Hammer. I have four or more of every other trainer. Excluding DEX, I have 5 or more of every trainer.

Interestingly, in my box, per chance I only got one Palpitoad and one Yamask - both in my second to last pack. That was a bit unlucky! Good thing I didn't particularly need any...
 
Yeah I wasn't too sure about Crash Hammers - thought that might just be me. Catcher's another story though.
 
You sure about that? Go buy 10 EP packs and see that you got no Catcher and pretty much all of the uncommons, only a handful of people at PR got a Catcher, and Catcher is still rarely pulled.
 
Yes I am sure. There are 29 cards in the set, which means that you should get a specific one in an average of every 10 packs, but that's just an average.

People think that there are less Catcher, because they just look at Catcher and not Catcher.
 
Catcher really seems like it is rarer than an Uncommon. In over two booster boxes of EP between me and my siblings, we only pulled three Catchers. Whereas we got playsets and moer of Bianca and Cheren.
 
Blui129 said:
Well, there is one...N FA.
Click to expand...
Don't forget the Golden Catcher.

I think that's a perfect example of what would happen to the price of trainers if they were made secret rares. If there wasn't normal Catcher, you'd have to spend over 200 dollars for a playset of them, over 40 for a playset of N, etc.
 
I think N was rarer in Noble Victories too, wasn't it? Standard N? It was originally thought that Eviolite was rarer than other trainers, but I think that was false?
 
Only the FA version, at PR (it's the easiest place to see what's in short print and all) most of us got +2 ar the NV PR. lol Eviloite was +3.
 
I've just had bad luck with N then :p

Looking at all the trainers from BW on...

I have 3+ of all BW trainers (3 of Full Heal, PokeBall, 4 of PP, Dex). I have 15 Energy Search and 17 Communication (Decks). [450 cards]
I have 1 Crushing Hammer, Catcher and 2 Recycle, 4+ of everything else. [409 cards]
I have 2-5 of all NV trainers. [389 cards]
I have 3 Heavy Ball, 7+ of everything else in NXD. [493 cards]
I have 3 N, and 4-6 of every other DEX trainer (very evenly distributed). [370 cards].
 
lol. Everyone I know has at least 4 of each Trainer (bar Catchers and FA N). :p guess I know alot of highly comp. players (haha, I know Chris K.)
 
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