How would you adjust the Pokemon in the early WOTC sets?

General
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We all know there are some oddities in the early WOTC sets. For example, why are Pokemon like Magneton and Raichu randomly appearing in the Fossil set?

So, how about a topic where we essentially make our own adjustments to the early WOTC sets?

Here is how I would have done Base, Jungle and Fossil (you don’t have to do these three; you can do any sets you want):

BASE SET HOLOS(new additions in bold)
Alakazam
Blastoise
Charizard
Clefable
Gyarados
Hitmonchan
Hitmonlee
Machamp
Magneton
Mewtwo
Mr. Mime
Ninetales
Pidgeot
Poliwrath
Raichu
Venusaur

Remove: Chansey, Nidoking and Zapdos.

Why: Clefairy as a holo in the Base Set never made much sense. Why not just include Clefable instead of waiting until Jungle? Also, why is Hitmonchan in Base but Hitmonlee didn’t appear until Fossil? What is so “Fossil” about Hitmonlee? As for Mr. Mime? A mime being in the jungle just doesn’t add up. lol. I also don’t see why we had to wait to get Pidgeot. Chansey literally appears in the Safari Zone, so she gets moved. Nidoking joins Nidoqueen in Jungle. Zapdos gets moved, as well.

JUNGLE SET HOLOS
Chansey
Flareon
Jolteon
Kangaskhan
Nidoking
Nidoqueen
Persian
Pinsir
Rhydon
Scyther
Snorlax
Vaporeon
Venomoth
Victreebel
Vileplume
Wigglytuff

Remove: Clefable, Electrode, Mr. Mime, Pidgeot.

Why: How Electrode landed in Jungle is beyond me. It literally is one of the last Pokemon you would expect to encounter in the Jungle. Already explained Mr. Mime. Persian’s artwork would look AWESOME with a holo (Tauros, who got completely shafted in the WOTC era, is another candidate to get a holo). Rhydon is just too powerful of a Pokemon to be a mere uncommon. Come on, WOTC. Chansey also gets in Jungle because, again, literally the only place you could catch her in Red and Blue was the Safari Zone.

FOSSIL SET HOLOS
Aerodactyl
Articuno
Cloyster
Ditto
Dragonite
Gengar
Golem
Kabutops
Lapras
Magmar
Moltres
Muk
Omastar
Tentacruel
Zapdos

Remove: Haunter, Hitmonlee, Hypno, Magneton, Raichu.

Why: Does anybody realize that Magneton has more holos in the WOTC era than any other Pokemon? What was with WOTC’s obsession with a Pokemon that isn’t even that popular? Haunter was another head-scratcher. We already have a holo Gengar in this set. Why give Haunter a holo instead of Golem, which was, for some reason, an uncommon like Graveler? And what about poor Omastar? Kabutops gets a holo, but not everyone’s favorite nautilus? Cloyster didn’t get a holo until E-Series for some reason, so it gets one here. As for Magmar and Tentacruel? They fill the gaps. Oh, and Hypno gets moved to Base Set as an uncommon or non-holo rare. Not sure why WOTC decided to separate it from Drowzee early on. Raichu also gets removed for obvious reasons. Already mentioned Hitmonlee earlier.

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I think the reason why WOTC did this was to build hype. The idea of having to wait for Pokemon like Dragonite and Gengar just made people want to buy the Fossil Set even more.

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Excellent point! That was a great strategy on their part if done on purpose and how could it be anything but on purpose? There is no other reason to do it in this way. I do agree that some pokemon would specifically fit better in other sets though, such as Chansey in Jungle and Electrode in Fossil.

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How did wotc have anything to do with it? They pretty much followed the Media Factory lead.

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I think it is borderline blasphemy to suggest changes to the original sets. Part of their charm are those presumed irregularities in rarity designation, set compositions and choice of cards between sets, as well as a completely broken game design overall. However, if I could make any changes it would be to include the holo and non-holo black star promo mews in Fossil, like in the Japanese release. Then Jungle and Fossil would have had the same number of cards. I also think it is a shame Rocket did not have a Dark Venusaur and that the gym sets did not have a Blastoise. A Rocket’s Articuno instead of a Blaine’s Moltres would also have been neat. And I think Neo Destiny would have been a better set with just 1 or 2 shining pokemon instead of 8.

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I honestly think WOTC did a great job with set design. My main adjustment would be making the 1st Edition and Unlimited print ratio the same throughout.

A dream concept set would be a Southern Island 2, where they made other pokemon in the photos into their own cards. :blush:

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I think Neo Destiny had to expand on Shinings. Otherwise, it would not have stood out as much from Neo Revelation.

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Very true!

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The other thing that probably drove the decision to release certain pokemon as holos in base was the popularity related to the early release of the manga, the coming up release of the tv show, and how quickly these pokemon show up in the games/manga. I realize they didn’t release in english till after base set was released, but in japan its still the same storyline. I mean pikachu-raichu, clefairy was the main pokemon in episode 2 or 3? chansey main pokemon center pokemon? Id imagine this had some kind of pull when picking, but I digress.

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Add Dark Venusaur to Team Rocket and Misty’s Blastoise to Gym Heroes.

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This guy WOTC’s!

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Take gym challenge and heroes and just replace them with better sets

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I was late to the party. Looks like it was mentioned above.

I agree it was weird to go Clefairy over Clefable. If the theme stayed the same, Meowth could have been a holo in Team Rocket. You could also argue moving the Rocket cards out of gym and into the Rocket set; or making them Giovanni instead of Rocket since he has the Gym Leader holo card in the set.

This is a good topic. It could dig deeper into the common/uncommon realm.

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What theme would you have replaced them with?

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Clefairy was the original intended mascot of Pokemon. Maybe that had something to do with it being a holo in base set? That’s my only guess!

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well looking back now why didnt they include all pokemon in base set just grinds on me should have all 150 pokemon and then in fossil put in the mew promo non holo and holo for the pull. and i can’t believe no one has mentioned it drangonair rare in base should be a holo.

the trainers in base should be trainers in the tv series linking them better so should have brock ash ect. pikachu should of been the holo in base set instead of rachiu because its pretty much the most important pokemon in the series so many more cards i would move from different sets but over all think they did a good job

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The only thing that could have been better would have been releasing the VS series in English or better yet creating their own Elite Four set. All the effort each of us put into Pokemon was not only to Catch 'em all, but to become a Pokemon master. The only way to achieve this title was to defeat the Elite Four. Leaving this out of the TCG has left a hole in my heart that will remain forever…

My prediction is an ex-WOTC employee working at Nintendo will make amends between the two companies for WOTC’s 25th Pokemon Anniversary, commissioning WOTC to print one last Pokemon TCG set. This set will be known as Pokemon Elite. or have subsets: Pokemon Indigo, and some mix of the other elite 4s. Indigo Plateau is really the only one that matters…

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You have a better chance of seeing @scumbagpratte in a coat and tie. Never happen.

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I think the doubling up of electric Pokemon is due to the general lack of them in the original 151. In order to create greater balance in types for play, there was no other option.

The only change I would make would be to reduce the number of rare trainers in base set (make them lower rarity) and bump more Pokemon up to non-holo rare level (Arcanine, Jynx, Magmar, Starmie are some good candidates off the top of my head).

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Not that I completely disagree, and I’m sure they had their reasons, but I’ve always wondered why noctowl got a shining card in destiny. He’s the only shining in the (Destiny) set that previously was not a rare and a holo. Since each type of pokemon is represented between the two sets featuring shinings, I feel like dragonite would have been much cooler as a shining then noctowl. Or if it was a generation 2 pokemon they wanted to fill the normal type slot, ursaring would have been pretty cool!

I also think it would have been cool to have had reverse holos since the start!

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