Pokémon TCG: Sword and Shield—Brilliant Stars

Theme Decks at the Prerelease: A better value?

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Additionally, the Nightfall deck is a great one for some players who don't have much basic Metal/Darkness Energy, since they're not quite as plentiful as the other 6 types.
 
I was just waiting for someone to notice this before I posted it, but here you go:

Scipio said:
Speaking about Eevees, anyone noticed how Espeon (Non-Prime) has that odd Rotom-y foil look?
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The reason is that the Theme deck Espeon and Umbreon have a different foil treatment than the ones in the set. When I did the set scans for the gym, I only had the Espeon from the theme deck. So as collectors, that's another reason to get a theme deck - unique foil cards!
 
Yup. As far as the Umbreon & Espeon go, for collectors there are 4 different versions to track down. Normal holo, reverse holo, deck holo (The Rotom-y splinter holo), and the nonholo that also came in the deck. :) Yay!
 
I'm impressed. Instead of buying 4 Sages for the likely $2 each I'll expect to pay, I can buy two theme decks for ~$20 and also get Energy Exchangers and other stuff.
 
Also, out of 12 Themes today at our PR, 4 had Primes in the packs. Not that this is going to be the standard, but interesting that this worked out this way. They are a great bargain IMHO!!
 
I bought a theme deck today at my local Target which had, Undaunted cards out early, and I was very impressed at what came in them. I also like how the deck is pre-shuffled so it is ready to play.
Very well done TCPi on these theme decks.

I especially liked the new T/S/S selection that the decks have in them.
 
MrMeches said:
Also, out of 12 Themes today at our PR, 4 had Primes in the packs. Not that this is going to be the standard, but interesting that this worked out this way. They are a great bargain IMHO!!
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I think this falls back onto another great improvement from TPCi, the increasing of the number of Primes in a box (compared to Lv.Xs in some sets).

Almost everyone at the Pre-Release I attended walked away with one part of a Legend or a Prime (or both, or more than both).
 
The good thing is that Primes replace the reverse holo card instead of the rare, which makes them much easier to get than they may have been in Japan. That is definitely one good thing about the US release.
 
And since the Legend half takes the other slot, theoretically it's possible to pull both a Prime AND and Legend in one pack. Dunno if anyone's done it yet, but it should be possible.
 
And Slowking Prime was given out at Domino's Pizza. XD

Just because they're super ultra hard to find in Japanese doesn't make them good in English. :/ If it were, like, Mysterious Pearl and co, then I'd be excited about getting said super rare card. As it is, I love the pictures, but the cards themselves aren't that great.
 
P_A said:
Unless you are a collector too, then you'll notice a few cards that can't be gotten in packs - like Bellossom and Togekiss (rare instead of holo), special holo treatment cards that are different than in the set - or maybe even someone who likes to keep up to date on the latest rulings with the newest rulebook, ...... Hmmm, still looks like decent reasons to do the Theme Deck Challenge - in my opinion.
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Urgh, hate different versions of the same card (I give away all of my RH cards) but must have non-holo cards (I like them better than holos most of the time)

PokePop said:
Has anyone noticed that the Raichu Prime is a very rare promo card in Japan?
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This is why I fully support the current set strategy of fillers.

I'm glad PokePop pointed out how good the decks are so that peop;le actually pick them up :thumb:
 
Shino Bug Master said:
If that Bellosom had been a Vileplume I would actually have bought a theme deck. xD Though gotta give credit, it is much improved from old theme decks.
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The new Vileplume is amazing isn't it? I love it and I might even run it in a joke deck for a fun tech. But on topic I still think Americans get ripped compared to Japanese starter decks which give primes and crud like that. Just buy 4 starter decks lol. Oh well I guess we have tins. :rolleyes:
 
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The thing about the Japanese starter decks, IIRC, is those cards are ONLY available in the decks. So you couldn't pull 2 from a pack andbuy 2 decks to get a full set, you'd HAVE to buy 4 or trade. I for one wouldn't like that much.
 
Actually picked up a couple of the theme decks yesterday, and I was surprised when I sat down and played them at the synergy that was actually present in them, Nightfall especially.

Nightfall is all about discard pile abuse. Sage's Training and Mawile give you extra cards while strategically discarding cards off the top of your deck, cards that can be recovered with Lairon's Scrap Attack, Sableye's Pull Out, or Burned Tower, or feed Honchkrow's Vengeance. Metagross gives you a big hitter in your secondary energy type, and Skarmory and amusingly enough the Umbreon line are filler to pad out the deck, though Skarmory is potentially very useful if Special Metal Energy is added.

Daybreak on the other hand is meant to be much more of...I guess a control deck? You have a lot of healing (Bellosom, Togekiss, Espeon), Dodrio as a bench sitter to give every Pokémon in the deck free retreat, and Team Rocket's Trickery for disruption. Oh, and some special condition abuse there as well. And Espeon actually works well as a focus of the deck, Solar Suggestion is a very impressive damage shift for 1 energy. It does have a weakness in that its biggest attacks are either conditional (Muk's Pester) or flippy (Bellosom's Dance 'till Dawn, Togekiss' Air Slash).

That's not to say that they're at all competitive, but they are good for showcasing the sort of strategies that are possible in the set, and are excellent for bringing new players into the fold. Getting a Sneasel and Special Metal Energy in Nightfall's booster and another Espeon in Daybreak's helped too.
 
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