If you have been following the Pokemon Sword&Shield news, you might already know that this game has a new Shiny variant in it: Square-sparkle Shinies!
It’s not as crazy as you might think since we don’t get a new color variation, just the sparkle with which the Pokemon enter varies. It can either be the standard star sparkle (encounter chance is 1:4096) or the very rare square sparkle (encounter chance is 1:65536).
So here’s my point: What would you think if over the course of the Sword&Shield TCG sets, TPC introduces this feature to the card game? I could imagine it as a successor to Gold Star cards, with 2-3 Pokemon per set having that rarity (instead of the star symbol behind the name, it’s now a square symbol). And to stay true to the insane encounter ratio in the games, they would have an excuse to make the pull ratios extra low, too. Would you appreciate such chase cards in the modern card game?
I had the same thought when I saw the video, I was thinking a holofoil variation for shinies would be fitting. The same card overall, but the holofoil is different, maybe with those squares. Also make it really rare, like one per two cases.
Talking about master sets and completing modern sets being hard, that way one could arguably complete a set the same way, but there’s something to chase above it. Imagine Steam Siege Azumarill
as a standard reverse holo having an absurdly rare variant. I think I’d like it.
I’d love the idea, but i hope the pull ratio isnt just too high. Raw ‘‘hidden fates’’ zards are now selling for like $200…last PSA10 copy on ebay solds was 495$ best offer accepted (465$).
I feel like modern product, due to massive print runs is a no no…
I don’t know abut pull rates, but due to the high print runs of modern sets, it should be very, very low
I get your point, but personally I would prefer them as unique cards like the Gold Stars. The new Full-Art Shinies from Hidden Fates(Shiny Vault never really impressed me because they were reskins of normal Full-Art cards. But that might be nitpicking
Speaking of shinies… as a youth I only ever encountered one shiny in the gameboy games. It was gold version. I dont remember what pokemon it was now but I do remember seeing the sparkles around it when it appeared in battle. I had no idea what it meant or why it happened so I did nothing about it. I either defeated it or ran like normal. I never knew about shinies until I started collecting again a couple years ago. How were us 10 year old kids supposed to know about shinies back then? Did the game walkthrough guides you could buy tell you about them? Or the manual the games came with?
I’ve fired up old gameboy games in the last couple years and tried finding one but have not been successful. Though I havent gone at it long each time haha. It is a dream of mine to encounter a shiny one day though!
Something like this would be awesome. The new RR/SR/UR are great and all but really don’t hit that sweet spot it for me. It would be great it TPC pandered to collectors with those pull rates though, would actually give a reason to get into the never sets!
I wanna get this off my chest first:
Pokemon Sword and Shield is a very big game design failure that has broken to far away from traditional Pokemon. The whole slogan they used for decades has been decimated just to allow 3 year old battle animations in an unfinished game with features that shouldn’t be there. Pokemon S/S does not allow you to catch 'em all. Any design decision from S/S that flows into the TCG will be bad and degrade the TCG. I really am worried about this, it’s quiet possible that I’ll have no Bulbasaur to collect for another 2-3 years, which excluding Shining Legends, means Bulbasaur has not have a print since Dark Explorers. And this might apply for many more collectors that collect a specific Pokemon from the first 4 Gen’s.
And no. We do not need a Gold Star/Shining successor.
Sets are already to big and I doubt Pokemon is going to drop the ugly Rainbow Hyper Rare design, which on its own is a design failure. If they magically go back to sets without 30 ‘secret rares’ and introduce 2-5 Gold Stars, Shining or whatever chase card again that would be more interesting. And I mean real chase cards. Not a Charizard that is super playable, no just something fun like a Zubat. Like what they did in the Platinum Set.
Not all the Pokemon games have allowed you to catch them all (meaning you had to move Pokemon from other games) and I’m sure we are going to have them all on Switch at some point. It will just take a couple of games.
Also I don’t think it will affect TCG in the long run - the first Sword & Shield card sets surely will focus on the new Pokemon and those that appear on the games, but I’m sure we will see any Pokemon in the TCG sets. We are going to have a Rayquaza Sword & Shield Promo, and Rayquaza isn’t in the games, for example. I wouldn’t worry. But Alolan Pokemon are certainly done. Rip Alolan Vulpix
Pingu is Death Certificate. It’s for the weebs and players. Nowhere as bad as having fossils that used to be based on unique species combine together to be tedious genericism pokémon at finest dissapointment. In turn its a greater failure on Pokémon taking the designs at whole potential to it’s Britannic source. Gold Squares I believe will be a thing in one physical form or another, but to be in same rarity of size it used to be comparatively is collector nostalgia just, lul
Every gen since gen 3 has had a different art direction, and theres always been a good mix of some favorites and some left field designs. You’d be surprised at how many people love the pokemon you might dislike.
@mikejofthecoast, did you play Crystal when it came out? I was hooked on the Shining Pokemon rage when Red Gyarados was first depicted. I had assumed most others knew about it as well as my sister and I raved about it. My first shiny outside of Gyarados was Noctowl. Actually. I think it was the ONLY shiny I’ve ever encountered naturally in all of the games I’ve played. XD
I played gold version mostly. I ended up with a crystal version when I discovered my games later in life but I don’t ever remember playing it as a kid.
As far as the gyarados that was red, yeah I caught it, but I didnt know it was “shiny” or why it was different colored. And I assumed the stars that swirl around when it comes out was just another part of its specialness from being in the lake. I just remember the game saying something strange was happening in the lake. I thought whatever was happening in the lake was why the gyarados was red.
The game never specifically said that there was a chance for all pokemon to be “shiny” did it?
All very true and you’re right, it didn’t say Shiny. I guess my sister and I were a bit obsessed about it and read all the Pokemon magazines we could find on it. I remember that I read an article in a Pojo magazine about the concept of Shiny Pokemon and swooned.
