It’s also a 7-card pack, they haven’t announced it yet but IIRC the last regular expansion with 7 card packs was 151 and that had Pokéball / Master Ball reverses
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we are so back.
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Oh you know what? I do hope they get PB/MB then the AR/SAR will be cheaper in comparison.
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Absolutely crazy to see them do something like this. It’s a real treat to species collectors as one day their obscurer favourite might get a Art Rare or similar special treatment in the future.
The big question is now is if we’ll get our western version as one set, or split the same as Japan is doing.
For context - The biggest set we’ve ever had (numbered cards) is Fusion Strike. If we were to get Black Bolt and White Flare as one expansion, you are looking at 328 cards minimum, crazy.
Love this so much!!! Every Mon with a AR/SAR is crazy!!! I wonder if this will bring back in bw era. Collectors?
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Oh, yeah, it’s all coming together. 
This is massive news! BW era went from having one of the lowest ar/sar count to now being 100% (unless theres something im missing)
This is a huge boost to those who wanna do a nat dex ar/sar binder
This is nothing short of incredible. However, is too much of a good thing actually bad? AR/SAR are special because they only feature a handful of Pokemon. They stand out from the rest and can be prized. If every Pokemon can be available in an AR/SAR, will it eventually make the consumer base blind to its beauty?
This happened in MTG. At first, foils were the most prized possession of collectors and players. But then foils became more common in the sets. Then it was extended art and full art. But those too became more common in the sets and collector boxes. Then it was textured art. Then it was serialized cards. Then it was…
Do you see the point? Collectors are insatiable, and if you give them too much of what they like, they get bored with it and demand something new. It can be a slippery slope and difficult to navigate.
For collectors like myself that focus on art for modern, this is perfect. Hopefully the cards will remain affordable.
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If they brought back the old holo rare treatment… Imagine if they do the same for full arts or (one can dream) shinies 
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I have considered that a bit, if there are too many it becomes so overwhelming as to dull the senses. But TCG Pocket has demonstrated early on that it is the complete opposite for Pokémon. Special arts are desirable and this generation becoming a complete package for the fans who grew up with Black & White 15 years ago have earned an extremely collectable set. Just like gen 1 with 151 and Base Set, that made people want to collect every single card, solidarity as a theme makes it very engaging
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On the contrary, the physical side of the TCG has been pretty meh for months now.
I’d say since Terastal Festival’s lack of any ARs. Tera hats have been crap for the whole generation.
This is a set that the physical side really needed after Pocket has been smashing it out of the park with set after set of phenomenal and digital only art.
At this stage some may point to the manipulated market and no stock to sell- but I personally don’t think that has anything to do with the actual art in the set. It’s just hype and manipulation mostly by investors and scalpers with no real interest in the contents.
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I don’t disagree that it’s appearing to be an amazing set and has high collectability. My concern is with the precedent that it sets moving forward. Because the TCG has monetary value assigned to physical cards by collectors/players, I think the effect of this set on the psyche of modern collectors will be a little different.
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Not necessarily, there is a multitude of ways to make a set special that doesn’t require numbers. 156 AR/SAR of one of the less popular generations is IMO about as impactful for that generation as 16 SA V/VMAX in Eevee Heroes/Summer Campaign was for Eeveelutions. I don’t think price of these chases will be affected by the numbers as they’re carried by the fandom of each Pokémon. Future sets likely won’t repeat this though, as they will move on to Mega Pokémon for the next year so their chase cards will be more concentrated
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I might be a little greedy but imagine if Hoenn got this treatment…
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@Dyl I don’t think Pokemon will make a habit of this. They love to create extra demand by making sets with a few chases and awful pull rates (not the Japanese side though) IF we get a whole special art set again it will be at least a few years, I think.
Although by the time we get another full dex AR/SAR set we’ll have 3 more shiny sets with purgatory bg baby shinies and awful CGI main shinies.
@biirdbots This! Hoenn is my favorite reigon as well
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If this is intentional, then I’m all here for it. Even if desirable cards are abundantly available and affordable (second hand), they will continue to sell product, it’s a win win in my opinion.
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You all made good points. I don’t think that this will be a common choice for every set (yet). Maybe one set per year or one set per generation for the time being. It is undoubtedly a win/win for TPC/TPCi and collectors who just want beautiful art. But I do continue to feel that this approach will devalue AR/SAR/IR/SIR as a chase tier due to saturation, and I think that it may bore our gambler bois who just want to pull something of value.
On a related note, it does make me wonder what the next chase will be.
At some point, TPC/TPCi will pivot to spice things up. Historically it was: Holo → Shining → Crystal → ex → Gold Star → Lv.X. → Shiny → Full Arts → EX and Mega → Shiny Pokemon Specialty Sets → Amazing Rare and Rainbow Rare → Alt Art…
Is enriching a set with all AR/SAR/IR/SIR their next big pivot for specialty sets? Will we see a new rarity variant? I’m thinking both could be true in the coming years.
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