Cards that don't make sense in their respective sets

General
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What do you guys think are some cards that just seem out of place in their respective sets? Here is a list I came up with:

Electrode - Jungle Set
What exactly is “jungle” about a Pokemon that looks like a Pokeball? Not only that, but Electrode appeared in the Base Set as a non-holo rare. Why the heck did it show up in the Jungle Set? I guess WOTC wanted to give it a holo variant (could have just done that in Rocket), but still, this was just weird.

Magneton - Fossil Set
Okay; someone at WOTC must have had a strange obsession with Magneton. Think about this for a moment: someone can correct me if I’m wrong, but I’m fairly sure that Magneton has the most holo cards for ANY Pokemon in WOTC: Base Set, Fossil, Rocket, Gym Heroes, Neo Revelation, Aquapolis and Skyridge. Am I missing something here? And why the heck was Magneton even in the Fossil Set? It was already a holo in the Base Set, and there is nothing prehistoric about a bunch of magnets.

Raichu - Fossil Set
As I just said, the Fossil Set was supposed to have a prehistoric sort of feel, hence holo cards for Dragonite, Lapras, Kabutops, Aerodactyl, etc. So where does Raichu fit in that picture? What I find really odd is that Pikachu was in the Jungle Set (another one that didn’t really add up), but Raichu popped up in Fossil. Doesn’t really make much sense to me.

Haunter - Fossil Set
This one has always bugged me. Why did WOTC feel the need to give Haunter a holo in the Fossil Set when it introduced Gengar for the first time?

I also think Pokemon like Pidgeot, Mr. Mime, Clefable and Wigglytuff should have been in the Base Set, and in exchange, WOTC could have done something like move Nidoking and Chansey (remember: Safari Zone) to the Jungle Set and Mewtwo to the Fossil Set, but I guess that would have caused things to be pretty uneven in terms of holos.

What say everyone here?

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Zapdos - Base Set

Why did this bird get introduced by itself?

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Yeah that was odd, too. Especially considering it was also in the Fossil Set.

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I never understood this and it annoys me because it reduces the value of the Fossil set Zapdos ;-;

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Oddly enough, Zapdos’ value in that set is relatively similar to Moltres right now, which wasn’t the case a few months ago. I don’t expect that to last, though. And then you have Articuno, which is just in a class of its own.

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Cool topic and responses! I also didn’t understand the Fossil Raichu. I remember when Base-Rocket were the only sets released Raichu was in 3 out of the 4 total sets.

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Yep. And it was just so weird how Pikachu and Raichu were spread out. Why was Pikachu in Jungle while Raichu was in Fossil? Either put both in one of the two sets or leave them out altogether.

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Not sure if this counts, but the absence of a Dark Venusaur in Rocket upsets me. Because Charizard and Blastoise both got a Dark version.

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Nice topic I always think about this when looking at my WOTC cards…

Edit: This would have made more sense:

Base-

Charizard, Arcanine, Pidgeot, Machamp, Poliwrath, Alakazam, magneton, gengar, hypno,Jolteon, Vaporeon, Flareon, hitmonlee, hitmonchan, zapdos, Mewtwo

Jungle-

Venusaur, beedrill, nidoqueen, nidoking, vileplume, parasect, venomoth, victreebel, exeggutor, kangaskhan,rhydon, chansey, pinsir, Scyther, snorlax, Moltres

Fossil-

Blastoise, Sandslash, clefable, dugtrio, golem, onix, tentacruel, kingler, marowak,lapras , magmar, omastar, kabutops, aerodactyl, articuno, Mew

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Multiple Pikachu makes sense because it’s the game’s mascot imo.

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That’s fair, but what doesn’t make sense to me is why Raichu was then in a different set.

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I don’t think gastly and haunter should have been in base, they shuld have been left in fossil

Dratini and Dragonair should have been in Fossil with Dragonite.

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YES! Agreed. Rocket has some of the best artwork in the TCG, too, in my opinion. We missed out on a great Dark Venusaur.

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I’ll throw another one in: Neo Discovery Magnemite. It’s a holo, which I remember Scott saying was probably because it was one of the first Steel types.

What WOTC should have done in that case was simply have Magneton in that set as well instead of having a holo Magneton in Neo Revelation. That makes a lot more sense than making a holo out of a Pokemon that everyone else is familiar with as a common.

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As far as recent sets go I think they have been very consistently missing out on the completion of trios. As early as Rocket not having a dark venusaur there have been loads of sets showing just 2/3 of a trio. More of a card not making sense lacking a set than a card not making sense being in a set but it applies a little bit.

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Need we forget about Generations and only having a new Charizard.
Waiting for the 25th anniversary for our jungle reprint for Venusaur and the 30th ann for the fossil blastoise lol

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I’m gonna have to say deoxys from Calling Legends. It’s a nice card but it makes way more sense to put in shiny Giratina to complete the gen 4 trio.

Also any shiny Rayquaza card after Calling Legends. Seriously it’s getting ridiculous with how many of them we have yet giratina still doesn’t have a shiny card.

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As cool as they are, cards like Blaine’s Moltres, Rocket’s Moltres, Rocket’s Zapdos and Rocket’s Mewtwo confused me as a kid. How can you use a possessive noun before a Legendary Pokémon. It creates the impression that there are multiple ones. Did TR at any point own Mewtwo?

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I gotta pay more attention to the set. I don’t have all the cards in a binder so I’ve never been able to sit down and savor the art work.

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Giovanni/TR funded the project that created Mewtwo