Anyone who says why did POP/PUI do this doesnt know that they have restrictions put on them by PCL.
No offense meant, Drew, in posting my contrary opinion. Maybe I'm just leery of these kinds of statements because the whole 15+ debacle was palmed off (adamantly!) by WotC as PCLs decision, when it was later admitted that this not the case at all.
The 'modified' format as an OP practice is not mandated by PCL. I'm pretty confident that is true. I would guess that behind 'modified' is a brand marketing assessment about how sets should be released (and not re-released) profitably in conjunction with the entire management of the intellectual property outside Japan.
Having visited the game in the ICU many times in 2002-2003, I'm sympathetic to the 'do less more sustainably' approach... if I'm guessing right.
Still the more the international meta drifts from the Japanese game the worse things will get IMHO.
Differing from the creator's intended card pool has been mostly fine, but there have been disasters (Neo Gatr + Trash Exchange) and it creates cycles of doldrums (BAR) like the current one we are in. The current situation is very much like the Blaze ex days where it was King with Gardy ex Queen, as a very distant second choice . Then, up jumped 'Magma'... our best didn't see coming it then. Is there something we're not seeing now?
Fair enough really if they have a delay in between DP4 and DP5 and we don't, and holding back some of DP4 makes sense in that respect. But the choice of cards is the frustrating part...
Good points; I hope it plays out like that and we don't get double secret probation delaying DP5 further outside Japan.
Regardless how 'caught up' we get, as Dom says, we'll never get any closer than 1 set behind (for logistical reasons of translation within their current creative system).
We'll most likely always have a smaller card pool due to PUI's more frequent rotations.
Why can they adapt to our format so quickly why we have good and great players bemoaning ours?
To be sure, there's room for improvement and the merits of certain choices for inclusion/exclusion in this set are most worthy of discussion (and those discussions _could_ influence future choices).
I'm guessing that PUI is very sensible of the impact of set selection decisions on the tournament players and takes this into account before they make them. That said, i also guessing there are overriding priorities related to economics... keeping those economics healthy is likely important to us so we can continue to enjoy this enormous OP program.