I just picked up the usual 1-pack and 3-pack blisters for Ultra Prism, and noticed something interesting. Instead of being SM black star promos, all 4 promo cards use a classification I haven’t seen before. They seem to be numbered as alternate art prints of actual set cards:
Anyway, just thought that was an interesting change. Has anything like this been done before? Any idea why this release would be different from past ones? Maybe that’s just how they’re doing these from now on.
They have done something similar with some of the boxes before. I believe the box that had the full arts like team flare etc was one of them. I hope this doesn’t become a trend cause I’d have to move around everything in my binders every time a new alternate art reprint comes out. Though I think part of the reason they do it is to not extend the original card’s playability. Reprinting it as a regular promo would mean it’d be in rotation longer, or that they’d have to rotate out a bigger block of promo’s to get rid of it.
I don’t like that way of marking to be honest. Even if it’s just the same card like in the set with different art, I feel like it’s more clear when they have the SM Promo marking on the bottom.
I definitely agree. But at least they’ve added the “a”. With the movie promos of XY, the Shattered Holos of the XY Evolutions Theme Decks, or the recently released holo Shining Legends Pikachu the number was exactly the same as the one in the set. It’s annoying to search for those online (in comparison to just search for a promo number)… I honestly wouldn’t mind if they added “a” through “z” for every holo/stamp variation. 
Then again, this is a different artwork, so I can definitely see your point and it would have made a lot more sense if this was a promo number… 
Greetz,
Quuador
Oh, that’s a good point, I hadn’t thought about it from a gameplay standpoint. I wonder if they’re planning to do these blister pack promos this way going forward, or whether they had a particular rotation in mind for these and will just do it when necessary.
I was thinking about this again today and thought they should use the A marking with cards that have the same art as the card on a set, but are alternatives. For example, Theme Deck exclusive holos or non holos could have the A on the bottom of the card. And cards with different art but same attack could have the Promo marking. I think that would make more sense. But as @stephneechan said before they are probably doing this because of playability.
Not only are they using alternate arts in place of promos, but now starting with Forbidden Light 3 packs they will include 2 packs of the latest set and 1 of an older set. American TCG is going down, down, down…
2 packs of the latest set and one older is nothing new… I actually liked it when I was a kid. I remember getting the blisters for roughly Stormfront-Supreme Victors and getting packs of Crystal Guardians and Power Keepers. It was very nice.
They haven’t gone back to this for a while though, can’t even remember the last time it was 2 new and 1 old. When I was little I hated it because I always wanted the latest and the greatest. As an adult though I’d appreciate the variety more.