I'm more excited about Shiny Collection since those arts are AMAZING! The EBB arts are also very cool though, generally better than most of the arts we've got in English sets so far. The art on them is so unique and I love how they have several cards revolving around the same scene but from different perspectives. To hell with complaining about reprints when the art on the cards are so good. I hope future card arts are this good.
Been doing a bit of research on the Japanese equivalent of this sets and it seems both EX Battle Boost and Shiny Collection had increased pull rates. EBB had 5 EX per box of 20 packs while Shiny Collection had 3 EX and 3 Full art per box of 15 boosters, of course with Meloetta being the only EX, that card is probably the most common EX out there, getting 3 per box. The odd thing though was that SC FA cards were all secret rares, so technically it had 3 SR per box, a bit inflated, but at least it was easy to collect the extended set. It's better than most sets though where even with the same number of Full Arts as EX the FA, you'd only have 1 or 2 per box AND they would be part of the set too. With the currently rarity of FA cards in English sets I do think they should all be secret rares, since it makes collecting the actual set much harder. It's the other side of the coin with SC, the SRs are so common they should be a part of the set instead of being secret rares. It would also help with the inflated amount of Meloetta EX.
My real pet peeve with this set though is that Radiant Collection will be a subset. It worked alright with the Arceus subset since there were only 9 cards and all of those cards had exactly the same rarity. Having a variety of rarity and secret rare cards in a fairly large subset is going to be a problem. First of all there's no guarantee that there will be a RC card in every booster pack of Legendary Treasures, even then pulling rares like Gardevoir will be difficult and it's going to be worse for Meloetta EX and the secret rares. I don't mind if they decide to remove all reverse holos from this set to give RC a place but even so the different rarities in the subset will be a problem. One solution might be to make every card in the RC subset the same rarity and then have equal pull rates for EVERY card in the set, but that would again inflate the amount of Meloetta EX and the secret rares. They've really dug themselves deep with this one.
This set is either going to be a very good set or a very bad one depending on what they've decided to do. My solution would be to replace the 5th common with a RC card and then sort the rarity so that you can complete the extended RC set with 2-3 Legendary Collection booster boxes. Cases will still be a good buy and people won't feel cheated with a single booster box. I'm really looking forward to set and If I do invest in it then I intend to get at least a couple of boxes since this is a large set, however I will wait for pre-release to see whether this will be worth the effort. If they intend to milk us for money so they can sell more booster boxes then I will have nothing to do with this. And yes I know a different group does the cards and stuff for us in the west but what's to stop them from just giving us exactly the SAME same sets that the Japanese get. I'm sick of getting the dog end of the stick, but I'm somewhat grateful that we at least get this set. I'm trying to look on the bright side of the coin here but it ain't making it easy for me.
End of Rant
Legendary Treasures itself is looking to be a good set if they only have the 2 gold cards as secret rares since we won't understand those Japanese trainers if they bought them out in English. I'm wondering whether the XY starter decks will have LT cards in them. If so then I might buy the Fennekin one or all 3. Of course the card I'm most looking forward to is the Charmander line. They'll be the first base set starter cards I'll have gotten for ages and the artwork on the Charizard makes me explode with excitement.
Been doing a bit of research on the Japanese equivalent of this sets and it seems both EX Battle Boost and Shiny Collection had increased pull rates. EBB had 5 EX per box of 20 packs while Shiny Collection had 3 EX and 3 Full art per box of 15 boosters, of course with Meloetta being the only EX, that card is probably the most common EX out there, getting 3 per box. The odd thing though was that SC FA cards were all secret rares, so technically it had 3 SR per box, a bit inflated, but at least it was easy to collect the extended set. It's better than most sets though where even with the same number of Full Arts as EX the FA, you'd only have 1 or 2 per box AND they would be part of the set too. With the currently rarity of FA cards in English sets I do think they should all be secret rares, since it makes collecting the actual set much harder. It's the other side of the coin with SC, the SRs are so common they should be a part of the set instead of being secret rares. It would also help with the inflated amount of Meloetta EX.
My real pet peeve with this set though is that Radiant Collection will be a subset. It worked alright with the Arceus subset since there were only 9 cards and all of those cards had exactly the same rarity. Having a variety of rarity and secret rare cards in a fairly large subset is going to be a problem. First of all there's no guarantee that there will be a RC card in every booster pack of Legendary Treasures, even then pulling rares like Gardevoir will be difficult and it's going to be worse for Meloetta EX and the secret rares. I don't mind if they decide to remove all reverse holos from this set to give RC a place but even so the different rarities in the subset will be a problem. One solution might be to make every card in the RC subset the same rarity and then have equal pull rates for EVERY card in the set, but that would again inflate the amount of Meloetta EX and the secret rares. They've really dug themselves deep with this one.
This set is either going to be a very good set or a very bad one depending on what they've decided to do. My solution would be to replace the 5th common with a RC card and then sort the rarity so that you can complete the extended RC set with 2-3 Legendary Collection booster boxes. Cases will still be a good buy and people won't feel cheated with a single booster box. I'm really looking forward to set and If I do invest in it then I intend to get at least a couple of boxes since this is a large set, however I will wait for pre-release to see whether this will be worth the effort. If they intend to milk us for money so they can sell more booster boxes then I will have nothing to do with this. And yes I know a different group does the cards and stuff for us in the west but what's to stop them from just giving us exactly the SAME same sets that the Japanese get. I'm sick of getting the dog end of the stick, but I'm somewhat grateful that we at least get this set. I'm trying to look on the bright side of the coin here but it ain't making it easy for me.
End of Rant
Legendary Treasures itself is looking to be a good set if they only have the 2 gold cards as secret rares since we won't understand those Japanese trainers if they bought them out in English. I'm wondering whether the XY starter decks will have LT cards in them. If so then I might buy the Fennekin one or all 3. Of course the card I'm most looking forward to is the Charmander line. They'll be the first base set starter cards I'll have gotten for ages and the artwork on the Charizard makes me explode with excitement.