Alot Of The Newer Cards Are The Old Cards With Diffrent Names
For Example
Mom's Kindness: Draw 2 Cards
Bill: Draw 2 Cards
Same Card Diffrent Name
Bill wasn't a Supporter. Bill was awesome, while Mother's Kindness is abysmal.
I've given a lot of thought to the situation with trainer reprints recently, looking at why our format is the way it is right now, and I've realized that there are various patterns that one can see when they look at the Japanese metagame in comparison to the rest of the world's metagame. With Japan's metagame being something like FR/LG-on, why would they need to print more abusable trainers and stadium cards? Sets like Unseen Forces and Team Rocket Returns have given them a huge string of trainers to work with. In fact, with a FR/LG-on metagame, here are just some of the trainers the Japanese can (and probably do) use and abuse:
- EXP.ALL
- Life Herb
- Pokemon Reversal
- VS Seeker
- Pokemon Retriever
- Pow! Hand Extension
- Surprise! Time Machine
- Swoop! Teleporter
- Curse Powder
- Energy Root
- Fluffy Berry
- Protective Orb
- Sitrus Berry
- Solid Rage
- Holon Transceiver
And some stadiums:
- Mt. Moon
- Meteor Falls
- Cursed Stone
- Giant Stump
- Strange Cave
- Power Tree
As the DP sets have been released, one thing that stands out is the fact that they contain hardly any game-changing trainer or stadium cards. I don't count staple cards here because those cards are probably always going to be in the game. Let's look at the new trainer or stadium cards introduced with the DP sets (not counting our DP6):
- Night Pokemon Center (never used)
- PlusPower (a Base Set reprint)
- Pokedex Handy910is (rarely used)
- Dusk Ball (practically the same as Master Ball)
- Night Maintenance (hmm, I know I've seen this one before, haven't I?)
- Quick Ball (actually good)
- new Fossil Trainers
- Time-Space Distortion ($$$)
- Amulet Coin (rarely used)
- Leftovers (rarely used)
- Premier Ball (rarely used)
And stadiums:
- Speed Stadium (nothing game-changing here)
- Moonlight Stadium (to go along with Phoebe's Stadium)
- Dawn Stadium (actually good)
After looking at the cards that DP gave us, I think it's clear that the Japanese metagame - at the time DP sets were released - did not need anymore game-breaking trainer and stadium cards. I think it's safe to say that the card creators played it "safe" with this one. This, of course, was probably a good thing for the Japanese. But outside of Japan, we've felt the strain of a limited card pool for way too long.
I too agree with the OP that trainer reprints would make this game more interesting, but PUI/POP needs to consider adopting new practices to prevent this from happening again. If they don't, I can almost promise you that in a couple of years we'll all be saying the same thing over again. Our game-changing cards will be rotated out, and while Japan will continue to have a versatile metagame, ours will suffer.
ooooooooooooo
