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Elblanco
May 26, 2008
The current Digimon game is totally different than the old game, it's pretty good too.

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Turbinosamente
May 29, 2013

Lights on, Lights off
Quick and dirty trip report: local game shop still had left over build and battle boxes and because they're a specially partnered shop they can put the regular product out the monday of release week, so I got a 3 pack blister with espeon promo. Although I got a gold grass energy and an appletun V from those 7 packs pulls were kinda rough, there weren't any holo rares in there. Also lol at them selling the ultimate collection box at $300, the current market rate.

Also The new code cards do indeed have tcg live info on the back. And on this back is either a white border or black border. Black border appears to be the new indicator of a hit, at least it was for me.

Sorry for no pics yet, phone posting away from imgur.

Kalko
Oct 9, 2004

Toshimo posted:

M:tG is the undisputed King.
Pokemon is a distant 2nd.
Yu-Gi-Oh still exists.

That's 99% of the market, there.

In Asia, Cardfight Vanguard is still a thing.
Dragonball Super and Digimon still put out sets.

How has MtG Arena affected the physical game? I know MTGO has been around for decades (is it still?) but I always had the impression it never really ate into cardboard sales, and I have a vague memory that at one point it was costing them a lot because of the full set trade-in feature.

I haven't played for over 20 years but I used to still check out new spoilers whenever they appeared. I've lost interest in recent years though as the game has changed, with seemingly a lot more convoluted mechanics and so many cards that are just walls of text, especially all of the legends and stuff they print for the commander crowd. I know the game lives and dies on their ability to come up with a few new mechanics or keywords with every new set, and I do think they still do some of the best top-down design in the industry (second only to FFG's Arkham Horror) but so much of their bottom-up design, I guess you would say, just feels overtuned, like they couldn't leave well enough alone, as though every single card has to 'do something' with tokens or counters or flipping or activated abilities with five lines of text.

One thing I appreciated about the Pokemon card game when I started playing around 18 months ago is that when I looked at the back catalogue I could see that they've introduced a lot of new mechanics over the years, but the cards have all remained as clean and easy to understand as ever, with the possible exception of some of the more wordy GX effects. I know it's not a fair comparison because their target audiences are very different, but there's still a lot to be said for grokkability.

PleasantDirge
Sep 7, 2009
ASK ME ABOUT HOW NOT BEING A FUCKING ASSHOLE ON THE ROAD IS JUST LIKE BEING A JEW AT A NAZI GATHERING BECAUSE I CAN NOT UNDERSTAND HOW TO NOT BE A FUCKING ASSHOLE AND WHEN PEOPLE TREAT ME LIKE I'M A FUCKING ASSHOLE THAT IS JUST LIKE GENOCIDE

If anyone can't find them locally we have some build and battle boxes left last time I checked and our LGS will ship to you. I got a reg and FA greedent V and an inteleon Vmax so I feel good about my box but like previous posters said it's a huge set and I got super lucky

Agoat
Dec 4, 2012

I AM BAD AT GAMES
Lipstick Apathy

Kalko posted:

How has MtG Arena affected the physical game? I know MTGO has been around for decades (is it still?) but I always had the impression it never really ate into cardboard sales, and I have a vague memory that at one point it was costing them a lot because of the full set trade-in feature.

I haven't played for over 20 years but I used to still check out new spoilers whenever they appeared. I've lost interest in recent years though as the game has changed, with seemingly a lot more convoluted mechanics and so many cards that are just walls of text, especially all of the legends and stuff they print for the commander crowd. I know the game lives and dies on their ability to come up with a few new mechanics or keywords with every new set, and I do think they still do some of the best top-down design in the industry (second only to FFG's Arkham Horror) but so much of their bottom-up design, I guess you would say, just feels overtuned, like they couldn't leave well enough alone, as though every single card has to 'do something' with tokens or counters or flipping or activated abilities with five lines of text.

One thing I appreciated about the Pokemon card game when I started playing around 18 months ago is that when I looked at the back catalogue I could see that they've introduced a lot of new mechanics over the years, but the cards have all remained as clean and easy to understand as ever, with the possible exception of some of the more wordy GX effects. I know it's not a fair comparison because their target audiences are very different, but there's still a lot to be said for grokkability.

They have MTG Arena now, which seems to be very profitable. Game is very good!

Toshimo
Aug 23, 2012

He's outta line...

But he's right!

Kalko posted:

How has MtG Arena affected the physical game? I know MTGO has been around for decades (is it still?) but I always had the impression it never really ate into cardboard sales, and I have a vague memory that at one point it was costing them a lot because of the full set trade-in feature.

I haven't played for over 20 years but I used to still check out new spoilers whenever they appeared. I've lost interest in recent years though as the game has changed, with seemingly a lot more convoluted mechanics and so many cards that are just walls of text, especially all of the legends and stuff they print for the commander crowd. I know the game lives and dies on their ability to come up with a few new mechanics or keywords with every new set, and I do think they still do some of the best top-down design in the industry (second only to FFG's Arkham Horror) but so much of their bottom-up design, I guess you would say, just feels overtuned, like they couldn't leave well enough alone, as though every single card has to 'do something' with tokens or counters or flipping or activated abilities with five lines of text.

One thing I appreciated about the Pokemon card game when I started playing around 18 months ago is that when I looked at the back catalogue I could see that they've introduced a lot of new mechanics over the years, but the cards have all remained as clean and easy to understand as ever, with the possible exception of some of the more wordy GX effects. I know it's not a fair comparison because their target audiences are very different, but there's still a lot to be said for grokkability.

MtG sales have basically continued to steadily trend up over time. I've heard some rumblings that paper magic has tapered off in sales for about the last year or two, but that is almost certainly more directly attributable to COVID than any other factor. Arena, on the other hand, does gangbusters. Just a money printing machine. It's eating the paper market a bit now, but again, that's because people just don't play in-person as much.

The other half of it is that the most popular MtG constructed format is not available on Arena, sucks rear end on MTGO, and now people are playing it a lot on homebrew clients or via webcam, none of which require you to purchase cards. So, it really is A Land of Contrasts.


As to the level of complexity, here's an assortment of cards from various games:
Magic: The Gathering

Flesh & Blood

Final Fantasy TCG

Cardfight Vanguard/Future Card Buddyfight

Force of Will

Dragon Ball Super

Yu-Gi-Oh

Metazoo


And to compare, a pretty standard GX from PTCG:


M:tG, for what it's worth, is incredibly readable and easily translates after a quick read to a thematic interpretation that makes sense with the card. It also is representative of the highest rarity tier, which is where they tend to put the cards with the most complicated wordings/functions.

Some of those games do a better job of making the words work and some do much, much worse (looking at you, MetaZoo), but it's pretty illustrative of the fact that CCGs have just sort of grown more complex across the board over the last 30 years, and it's not very unique to M:tG.

Agoat
Dec 4, 2012

I AM BAD AT GAMES
Lipstick Apathy
Pokemon is fun and accessible until you play against a Leon's Charizard deck and the opponents turn takes 30 minutes.

Thankfully PTCGO has a really cool matchmaking feature for themed decks for casuals like myself.

Hot take: VMax sucks. I just got 2-turned by V-Max Suicune.

Agoat fucked around with this message at 05:32 on Nov 10, 2021

Kalko
Oct 9, 2004

Toshimo posted:

MtG sales have basically continued to steadily trend up over time. I've heard some rumblings that paper magic has tapered off in sales for about the last year or two, but that is almost certainly more directly attributable to COVID than any other factor. Arena, on the other hand, does gangbusters. Just a money printing machine. It's eating the paper market a bit now, but again, that's because people just don't play in-person as much.

The other half of it is that the most popular MtG constructed format is not available on Arena, sucks rear end on MTGO, and now people are playing it a lot on homebrew clients or via webcam, none of which require you to purchase cards. So, it really is A Land of Contrasts.


As to the level of complexity, here's an assortment of cards from various games:

M:tG, for what it's worth, is incredibly readable and easily translates after a quick read to a thematic interpretation that makes sense with the card. It also is representative of the highest rarity tier, which is where they tend to put the cards with the most complicated wordings/functions.

Some of those games do a better job of making the words work and some do much, much worse (looking at you, MetaZoo), but it's pretty illustrative of the fact that CCGs have just sort of grown more complex across the board over the last 30 years, and it's not very unique to M:tG.

Thanks for the effort post, that's all very interesting. I think MTG just turned into something that appealed to me less and less over the years, particularly as other card games have come along, both physical and digital. MTG has definitely always been the gold standard for templating with their highly consistent internal language, but it did take them a decade to get there, and I've always thought it was more a result of their market dominance providing the resources to maintain separate development and design teams. I think they're still the only ones in the industry that do that (or maybe Pokemon does too?)

Years ago when I still played L5R (before the FFG sale) the dev team caught flak all the time for their haphazard templating and a lot of players kept imploring them to adopt a dev model like WotC used for MTG, but they always said nah, it's pretty obvious what all the cards do and we can just keep making adhoc rulings to sort everything out. And that's kind of how everyone else does it, and I do think the reason for it does simply come down to money. MTG must be an extremely expensive game to produce, at least by industry standards.

Sidenote : A couple of years before the L5R sale, for one of the local tournaments here in Brisbane they actually invited the lead AEG dev to come down and visit, and he did! It was kind of surreal shooting the poo poo about a game I'd been playing since the late 90s with the lead dev at the time (though I did quit it around the same time I stopped playing MTG and only picked it back up a few years before it ended).

I remember telling him how much I enjoyed the olden days where my Phoenix Master of Fire could just summarily execute any of my opponent's characters, and he nodded and told me yeah it was fun but it wasn't really fun for the other player. Which, you know, fair point. Man, that game had some jank in it but damned if it wasn't the best multiplayer CCG of its generation. Huge, sprawling battles where the winner takes all, and my Crane guys fending off the combined efforts of the rest of the table the turn before I won on honour time and time again. That game lasted a lot longer than I ever would've thought back when it was fresh.

Kalko
Oct 9, 2004

Agoat posted:

Pokemon is fun and accessible until you play against a Leon's Charizard deck and the opponents turn takes 30 minutes.

Thankfully PTCGO has a really cool matchmaking feature for themed decks for casuals like myself.

Hot take: VMax sucks. I just got 2-turned by V-Max Suicune.

Mad Party did it for me. I used to just concede when I queued into them because I could win two more games in the time it took them to finish one of their turns.

Also, there is no Suicune VMAX, only V. Unless you meant some other VMAX in the Suicune deck?

Agoat
Dec 4, 2012

I AM BAD AT GAMES
Lipstick Apathy

Kalko posted:

Mad Party did it for me. I used to just concede when I queued into them because I could win two more games in the time it took them to finish one of their turns.

Also, there is no Suicune VMAX, only V. Unless you meant some other VMAX in the Suicune deck?

Sorry, you're right. Suicune V. Super frustrating.

Elblanco
May 26, 2008
2 things for that list, future card buddy fight played nothing like vanguard and buddy fight is also dead and gone. The other is I don't believe anyone actually plays metazoo, its so loving ugly I'm not sure what you could do to convince people that it's not a scam.

Kalko
Oct 9, 2004

So I'm checking out all the new stuff in Fusion Strike and there's a heap more amazing alt-arts. I don't know what you call this style but this is one of the sweetest I've ever seen :



I'll do an OP update in a week or so once I spend some more time with the set and make a new deck to try out the meta. The new Mew VMAX alt-art is going for like 45 packs at the moment, which is by far the highest I've ever seen a non-secret rare (the ones with the gold aesthetic). But then Mew is one of the most iconic Pokemon so I guess that makes sense. It's in what will probably be the top meta deck (it's been tearing through the Japanese meta) but it's not the actual busted card in that deck. That honor goes to the new Genesect V.





I really hope they keep making these alt arts, they're just incredible.

Turbinosamente
May 29, 2013

Lights on, Lights off

As promised lovely pic of everything I pulled from a build and battle and espeon three pack including promos. Quick ball is on top of the bulk stack because I enjoy the fact that it's an item card with a real background and not just a color gradient. Actually threw me off when first saw it. I do oddly pretty well in the BnBs but not as well as on TCGO:



Good to know this guy is potentially useable, I couldn't quite figure how to use alt art sylveon and haven't really looked at alt art galarian moltres either to know where to use it (my other TCGO alt art hits). I enjoy the alt arts immensely too, just would like to pull one irl someday.

Sea Lily
Aug 5, 2007

Everything changes, Pit.
Even gods.

Went to a prerelease event for Fusion Strike last weekend, and then got my ETB the monday after- and then was surprised by my dad with a gift of some more Pokemon TCG stuff when we met up for lunch the other day, so figured I'd share my pulls.

The prerelease event went pretty well for me:
https://twitter.com/jammerslammi/status/1457094846544498694

The ETB had less hits, but bigger ones, including my #1 most wanted alt-art card from the set:
https://twitter.com/jammerslammi/status/1457777314293370884

And then some non-Fusion-Strike stuff (mostly) from a Pikachu & Zekrom Gamestop exclusive box (which came with the top middle promo):

https://twitter.com/jammerslammi/status/1459324691953373192

Just been a great week for opening boosters for me. Debating if I wanna sell the alt-Genesect and Snorlax and maybe get some more Fusion Strike but. I kinda love those two cards. So maybe, maybe not.

Toshimo
Aug 23, 2012

He's outta line...

But he's right!
Just watched my cousin free farming Keep Calling Sobbles with Greedent VMAX and spongy gloves for 3 prizes each and it's so beautiful a response to Inteleon meta.

coelomate
Oct 21, 2020


I just learned about the Celebrations ultra premium metal base set charizard and I think I'm in love.

Lord help my wallet if I can't shake this quick...

Bean
Sep 9, 2001
I just got back into this and I'm so excited. All my cards are from the 90s. I play on my iPad right now though, which feels good. Some day when the world is less covid-ey I can't wait to get out and play some tournaments.

Kalko posted:


There are a few Discords, but the only one I've spent any time idling in is this one.


I cannot get the verify to work on this server. Every time it tells me I don't "share a server with the recipient" which is horse poo poo, so I have no idea.

EDIT: figured it out, I had to update Discord

Bean fucked around with this message at 05:21 on Nov 23, 2021

Moongrave
Jun 19, 2004

Finally Living Rent Free
hey so i bought some chilling reign because i decided i wanted to look at some cool cards and never owned TCG cards before and got a fancy case just incase i got something good, and i pulled this so i put it in there



hes cool right

Turbinosamente
May 29, 2013

Lights on, Lights off

Super Cool A++ would view again.




For real nice pull, congrats.

PleasantDirge
Sep 7, 2009
ASK ME ABOUT HOW NOT BEING A FUCKING ASSHOLE ON THE ROAD IS JUST LIKE BEING A JEW AT A NAZI GATHERING BECAUSE I CAN NOT UNDERSTAND HOW TO NOT BE A FUCKING ASSHOLE AND WHEN PEOPLE TREAT ME LIKE I'M A FUCKING ASSHOLE THAT IS JUST LIKE GENOCIDE

BARONS CYBER SKULL posted:

hey so i bought some chilling reign because i decided i wanted to look at some cool cards and never owned TCG cards before and got a fancy case just incase i got something good, and i pulled this so i put it in there



hes cool right

Excellent pull! I always get bummed when I pull SR energy cards instead of sweet cards like these bc having enough of any type is my budget for a whole deck in paper for pokemon

Jack B Nimble
Dec 25, 2007


Soiled Meat
Hey all, I used to play some MTG back in the 90's and 00's but know nothing about Pokemon, so I was hoping I could get some advice here. My SO saw a random Pokemon booster pack at a store and said she'd like to get some for her nephew, who is seven, but I told her there just has to be some cheap old starter decks that are not valuable to real players but would be fine for a kid to have fun with. Um, is that true? If so, can anyone recommend any? I absolutely don't at all need them to be tournament competitive or even legal, just any old starter decks that comprise a reasonably balanced playing experience. Maybe we could also buy a few booster packs and just dole those though to him over time?

Mmtheblue
Jul 25, 2007

...Out of this period a particularly cunning and strong Ork will emerge as the leader and the other Orks will gather round him...

Jack B Nimble posted:

Hey all, I used to play some MTG back in the 90's and 00's but know nothing about Pokemon, so I was hoping I could get some advice here. My SO saw a random Pokemon booster pack at a store and said she'd like to get some for her nephew, who is seven, but I told her there just has to be some cheap old starter decks that are not valuable to real players but would be fine for a kid to have fun with. Um, is that true? If so, can anyone recommend any? I absolutely don't at all need them to be tournament competitive or even legal, just any old starter decks that comprise a reasonably balanced playing experience. Maybe we could also buy a few booster packs and just dole those though to him over time?

I know my 9-year-old nephew was more into collecting the cards than playing the game (he got more excited for packs than a pre-made deck). Packs also give the thrill of potentially getting a Secret, Ultra-Rare, Full-Art, Ranbow-Holo card.

If they want to play the game, a good start could be a V Battle Deck set, which comes with two decks, and a couple fancy Pokemon-V cards. I can't speak to the quality of the decks, but they don't seem unbalanced (Vicitini looks like the "best" to me). Examples are: Venusaur vs Blastoise, Victini vs Gardevoir, or Rayquaza vs. Noivern. They also sell the decks individually.

They also used to have Theme decks, but stopped releasing new ones last year, with the V Battle Decks replacing them. They have a lot of basic cards, and they all have around the same power level. If you can find them, a good one is the Charizard Theme Deck (Charizard also very popular Pokemon itself), just if you're looking for balance, don't pair it with a Water, Grass, or Metal theme deck (due to the Rock-Paper-Scissors style weakness system).

The last one I feel worth mentioning are the League Battle Decks. Not gonna lie, these got some good cards. For example: the Inteleon VMAX League Battle Deck has two of the Inteleon line that many decks are running three to four of. The Zacian V League Battle Deck is about 70% of a popular meta deck last year. I wouldn't get these unless they are really into the TCG and want to play more competitively. Comedy option: Rapid-Strike Urshifu-VMAX vs Single-Strike Urshifu-VMAX League Battle Decks (both very meta cards with different playstyles).

With all that said, I feel like packs would be the way to go. If they're allowed to play the Online version of the game, that's a pretty nice introduction to how to play, and you can earn in-game currency for new decks and packs. They can also redeem codes from the physical packs to get extra packs in the Online version. Downside being that Pokemon TCG Online is gonna transition into Pokemon TCG Live in 2022.

Turbinosamente
May 29, 2013

Lights on, Lights off
I've just remembered that the Pokemon Battle Academy set/decks/box/whatever exists, isn't it tailor made for this situation of introducing kids to the tcg? None of the collectors want it so its readily available every where for its MRSP of $20 and is often the only thing left in stock at Target whenever I foolishly think I'm gonna get cards.

It's a shame they don't really do theme decks any more. I stumbled on the Let's Go Eevee/Pikachu one on sale a long time ago and the eevee deck was fun to play and rinse the AI opponents with on TCGO. It's old as hell now but can still be found for an okay price as long as you can find a reputable seller someplace. Here's a random Amazon result for it, just so you know what it looks like.

coelomate
Oct 21, 2020


FWIW I tried to teach my nephews (2nd and 4th grade) to play yesterday at Thanksgiving, and it... was fun, but didn't last long, and divolved into "trading" and "collecting" with the intro decks I had brought.

pksage
Jul 2, 2009

You are an experience!
Make sure you're a good experience.
Just posted this over in the TCG collectors' thread, but if any of y'all played during the heyday and/or like the legacy WotC-era sets, I have a bunch! Proudest pieces are my PSA-graded prerelease Clefable signed by the illustrator Mitsuhiro Arita, my set of square-cut Neo Discovery foils, and my near-complete set of black star promos that I really need to finish one of these days.

Man, I think I peaked in 2001-2003. Going to the various "Super Trainer Showdowns" around the US was so much fun.

Turbinosamente
May 29, 2013

Lights on, Lights off

pksage posted:

Just posted this over in the TCG collectors' thread, but if any of y'all played during the heyday and/or like the legacy WotC-era sets, I have a bunch! Proudest pieces are my PSA-graded prerelease Clefable signed by the illustrator Mitsuhiro Arita, my set of square-cut Neo Discovery foils, and my near-complete set of black star promos that I really need to finish one of these days.

Man, I think I peaked in 2001-2003. Going to the various "Super Trainer Showdowns" around the US was so much fun.

Holy poo poo we have a TCG collectors thread? I may go post some garbage in there. And I've always wondered how do people get Mitsuhiro Arita signed cards, just ebay them? I wouldn't mind a signed pokemon card or two but have no idea how to obtain one other than to shell out a lot of cash on an auction site.

pksage
Jul 2, 2009

You are an experience!
Make sure you're a good experience.
He signed stuff for me back in ~2002 at some regional TCG tournaments. Apparently he doesn't sign cards anymore, though. :(

Turbinosamente
May 29, 2013

Lights on, Lights off

pksage posted:

He signed stuff for me back in ~2002 at some regional TCG tournaments. Apparently he doesn't sign cards anymore, though. :(

Dang, though I can see two reasons as to why. One is time, the other is it must suck to always be wondering if the person you're signing poo poo for is a fan that's gonna keep it or a seller who's just going to flip it on ebay later. And I am a complete hypocrite on this, as I have bought signed MTG artist proofs and cards before, but only a pair of them were directly from the artist's website.

Jedi425
Dec 6, 2002

THOU ART THEE ART THOU STICK YOUR HAND IN THE TV DO IT DO IT DO IT

Turbinosamente posted:

I've just remembered that the Pokemon Battle Academy set/decks/box/whatever exists, isn't it tailor made for this situation of introducing kids to the tcg? None of the collectors want it so its readily available every where for its MRSP of $20 and is often the only thing left in stock at Target whenever I foolishly think I'm gonna get cards.

It's a shame they don't really do theme decks any more. I stumbled on the Let's Go Eevee/Pikachu one on sale a long time ago and the eevee deck was fun to play and rinse the AI opponents with on TCGO. It's old as hell now but can still be found for an okay price as long as you can find a reputable seller someplace. Here's a random Amazon result for it, just so you know what it looks like.

I actually just introduced my 6-year old to the game with this and it's a good intro. It comes with three decks (Pikachu, Charizard, Mewtwo) and a decent board to use as a playmat. For the price, it seems solid to me. It even comes with a book that scripts out your first game or two. It doesn't introduce some of the mechanics like conditions or type weaknesses though.

IG-88
Apr 21, 2019


I can't seem to find it but I thought we had a thread on TCG selling and what not? I'm going through eBay and listing a bunch of poo poo but I rather deal with goons (I think).

Charizard VMAX SV107/SV122 $99
Grimsnarl VMAX SV117/SV122 $5
Single Strike Urshifu VMAX 086/163 Battle Styles $5
Rapid Strike Urshifu VMAX 088/163 $4 x2
Celebrations Blastoise 2/102 $10 x2
Celebrations Luxray $4
Fusion Strike Cinderace VMAX 045/264 $5
Fusion Strike Gengar 157/264 $19
Fusion Strike Grass Energy Secret $13
Battle Styles Tapu Koko VMAX 051/163 $4
Darkness Ablaze Grimmsnarl VMAX 115/189 $4
Evolving Skies Duraludon VMAX 123/203 $4
Evolving Skies Noivern V Alternate Art $25
Pokemon Umbreon GX 80/149 Sun & Moon $5
Galarian Rapidash V Alternate Full Art Chilling Reign 168/198 Near Mint NM $20
Melony - #195/198 - Pokemon TCG:Chilling Reign Full Art Trainer Card $10
Celebi VMAX 008/198 Pokemon TCG Chilling Reign Ultra Rare Full Art Near Mint $5
Pokemon Fusion Strike Shauna Full Art Secret Rainbow Rare Trainer 278/264 M/NM $12
Blaziken VMAX 200/198 Pokemon TCG Chilling Reign Rainbow Rare Near Mint $17
Galarian Darmanitan VMax 187/185 Pokémon TCG Vivid Voltage Ultra Rare Near Mint $10
Pokemon Vivid Voltage Beauty 194/185 Rainbow Secret Rare Trainer NM/M Pack Fresh $10
Pokemon 25th Celebrations Gold Shiny Mew Secret Rare 025/025 MINT $45
Bronzong 223/198 GOLD SECRET RARE Pokemon Chilling Reign Full Art - NM/MINT $11
Pokemon Champion's Path Set SECRET RARE Suspicious Food Tin 080/073 - Near Mint $3
Pokemon Celebrations 25th Anniversary - Shining Magikarp 66/64 *Secret Rare* NM $20 x2

Shipping is $5 an order. Everything has been basically sleeved and put into a top loader straight from the pack.

I have a shitload of Celebrations dupes if you need those too. And a boatload of commons/uncommon/rares, etc. If you're looking for something specific from the last few sets to fill out your collection. Let me know.

(I hope it's okay to post this here - if not, I'm sorry.

katka
Apr 18, 2008

:roboluv::h: :awesomelon: :h::roboluv:
So I bought a pack of cards on a lark the other day cause I saw them and remember how much I liked them when I was a kid playing with the very first set released. I got some rainbow holofoil evee evolution and I’m told it’s a rare card?

Either way I’m kinda hooked back into now and want to start playing and collecting again. Anyway that’s my Pokémon card story, so now I guess I have another hobby to spend money on.

Kalko
Oct 9, 2004

The OP is now updated with Fusion Strike meta info.

Not too much in the way of news at the moment apart from the usual spoilers from Japan. Speaking of which, I have to post this one because 1) Mewtwo is my favourite Pokemon, and 2) I love this art! The first ability is called Life Sucker and it looks like he's drawing in blood to charge up a Shadow Ball. Pretty cool!

Turbinosamente
May 29, 2013

Lights on, Lights off
That is sweet art! I saw something else drawn by Anesaki Dynamic in fusion strike and liked it but I can't remember what mon it was. Though 170/414 is a terrifying number on that card. :stonk: I suppose usual Japan spoilers means my boy whimsicott finally had his vstar card revealed? I have been waiting to see what the art looks like for real.

Good signs at the local shop yesterday. Lots of stock and most things were at or near MSRP. I bought a Dragonite V box for the hell of it, but noticed they drug out a ton of old prerelease kits from storage like lost thunder and steam seige which was a lol. And in case you were wondering the upcharged items were $20 each for the mini tins with the starters on them and $210 for the big gently caress off celebrations box with a billion packs and the metal zard and pikachu plus black gold promos etc. I heard that's down from the scalper price of $300 it was.

Kalko
Oct 9, 2004

Yeah, it's from Start Deck 100 in Japan, which is a big reprint set with only 35 new cards and 19 alternate arts. It also reprinted a bunch of popular trainer cards with an F regulation mark, which under their new system means they've been refreshed for another two years in Standard. Unfortunately, Crushing Hammer is one of the cards!

Turbinosamente
May 29, 2013

Lights on, Lights off
Bleeeaah Crushing Hammer. And now the big set number makes more sense, I was legit in a state of mild concern. Fusion Strike's pull rate is bad enough at 263 base cards that I'm beginning to get on the "sets are too drat big" bandwagon. I know singles exist but I like ripping packs and it's feeling like the 90s again where regular holos barely show up never mind ultra rares or better.

At least it's happening when I'm cutting back the card budget and there's product appearing on shelves again so there isn't as big a drive to beat the scalpers. I don't feel the FOMO anymore which is good.

What is also good is rainbow chonk from vivid voltage is down to $160, anyone else welcoming the dip in prices?

Sea Lily
Aug 5, 2007

Everything changes, Pit.
Even gods.

I sold any vintage stuff I had that was worth something just before the prices started coming down, so, yeah. I'm happy to have more cards be more accessible to folks. Hopefully the brief "all your pokemon cards are worth ten thousand dollars" mania dies off entirely and it becomes easier to just get stuff you want without worrying about scalpers buying out the entire shipment of cards at a Target or wherever. Made it really difficult to recommend folks pick up some cards and try playing.

PleasantDirge
Sep 7, 2009
ASK ME ABOUT HOW NOT BEING A FUCKING ASSHOLE ON THE ROAD IS JUST LIKE BEING A JEW AT A NAZI GATHERING BECAUSE I CAN NOT UNDERSTAND HOW TO NOT BE A FUCKING ASSHOLE AND WHEN PEOPLE TREAT ME LIKE I'M A FUCKING ASSHOLE THAT IS JUST LIKE GENOCIDE

Turbinosamente posted:

That is sweet art! I saw something else drawn by Anesaki Dynamic in fusion strike and liked it but I can't remember what mon it was. Though 170/414 is a terrifying number on that card. :stonk: I suppose usual Japan spoilers means my boy whimsicott finally had his vstar card revealed? I have been waiting to see what the art looks like for real.

Good signs at the local shop yesterday. Lots of stock and most things were at or near MSRP. I bought a Dragonite V box for the hell of it, but noticed they drug out a ton of old prerelease kits from storage like lost thunder and steam seige which was a lol. And in case you were wondering the upcharged items were $20 each for the mini tins with the starters on them and $210 for the big gently caress off celebrations box with a billion packs and the metal zard and pikachu plus black gold promos etc. I heard that's down from the scalper price of $300 it was.

It's not a "scalper price" there is $300 worth of stuff inside a UPC and so ppl are charging that for the box set. That's not what scalping is, it's usually referred to as "sour grapes" but ymmv

Elblanco
May 26, 2008
Msrp is $120, $300 is definitely scalping.

Louisgod
Sep 25, 2003

Always Watching
Bread Liar
If it were a random nobody through TCGPlayer or some random nobody elsewhere I'd say it's scalping, but if a LCS is charging $210 (which isn't too horrible considering the value you get) then the idea is the LCS is trying to make up some lost margin due to the overflow of product they're sitting on specific to booster boxes and what they paid vs. what people are willing to buy. Some of the newer BBs (BS, CR, DA, ES, VV) can be found for $88/box, which is insane, but LCSs can't make money on them due to the other product they must buy to meet allocations (battle decks, toolkits, etc.) so they make up for it by upcharging for stuff people want. Here's a pretty good video on the concept:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLZKg7KpNWc

The more saavy LCSs will sit on older product for years and put it out when people are willing to pay a premium for it (Lost Thunder, Cosmic Eclipse, Shining Legends, Evolutions) and there will be a day where the aforementioned booster boxes will jump in price once the insane reprints stop. I wonder how Brilliant Stars will hold up, the leaked cards look very promising and pre-orders seem to be sold out at most places.

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Agoat
Dec 4, 2012

I AM BAD AT GAMES
Lipstick Apathy
Absolutely incredible that you can buy boosters for the digital card game for like ten cents.

Best game.

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