How to define a "2015" TCG collection?

[MegaWowEXwithAtomBomb]

So I got hooked on Pokemon last summer, and have now spent July 2014-July 2015 (and a lot of money) building a nice, big, beautifully-organized, oh-wow collection of Pokemon cards for me and my two young sons. Sucker's beautiful. But now I want to "close the binders" so I don't need to keep spending money on never-ending expansions. It will just be the family set, so to speak, for me and my three sons to battle with.

Question is, which expansions do I start and end this set with? Two main issues:

1) Do I start with Boundaries Crossed, as does the 2015 standard legal? Or would I really be missing out on a lot of awesome cards if I don't start with Black and White instead, as does the expanded legal?

2) Do I end with Roaring Skies, as do the 2015 legal sets? Or is Roaring Skies/Primal Clash and maybe even Phantom Forces too powerful to make the earlier cards any fun? (I note that Lysandre's Trump card, which is now illegal because it was way too game-changing powerful, was in Phantom Forces)

Any opinions out there?

 

[PaulTheProtist]

Question 1: You are missing a lot of awesome cards if you don't start from practically any set. But it's your choice from where to start. I've started with Base Set myself.

Question 2: OP cards don't really matter. The only truly OP card in that set is Lysandre's trump card, and in fact most of the cards commonly used in Unlimited (like Great Encounters Porygon2 and Seeker) come from before that era. Don't worry about them anyway, since you seem to be a collector rather than a competitive player.

 

[MegaWowEXwithAtomBomb]

defining the house set

Question 1: You are missing a lot of awesome cards if you don't start from practically any set. But it's your choice from where to start. I've started with Base Set myself.

Question 2: OP cards don't really matter. The only truly OP card in that set is Lysandre's trump card, and in fact most of the cards commonly used in Unlimited (like Great Encounters Porygon2 and Seeker) come from before that era. Don't worry about them anyway, since you seem to be a collector rather than a competitive player.

Thanks for the reply- I guess what I'm discovering is nobody really senses any sharp, natural "borders" between expansion sets, as though Set A through set J is a good system but set D through set M would be a bad system. Like the changes between expansion sets are gradual enough that it doesn't really matter where I start and end my "house set."

But it still seems to me like (1) the TCG is an inflationary system, where someone playing newer cards will beat someone playing older cards, and (2) there's a major shift in card power happening right now. Like when I was able to start using PCL's Swampert with Diving Search, it really changed the feel of the game for me. It was actually a bit of a downer, because it just didn't seem as "sporting" to be able to search my deck for whatever card I wanted and put it on top for next turn, over and over. Maybe my one-year perspective is just to narrow to judge such things correctly?

 

[PaulTheProtist]

Re: defining the house set

Question 1: You are missing a lot of awesome cards if you don't start from practically any set. But it's your choice from where to start. I've started with Base Set myself.

Question 2: OP cards don't really matter. The only truly OP card in that set is Lysandre's trump card, and in fact most of the cards commonly used in Unlimited (like Great Encounters Porygon2 and Seeker) come from before that era. Don't worry about them anyway, since you seem to be a collector rather than a competitive player.

Thanks for the reply- I guess what I'm discovering is nobody really senses any sharp, natural "borders" between expansion sets, as though Set A through set J is a good system but set D through set M would be a bad system. Like the changes between expansion sets are gradual enough that it doesn't really matter where I start and end my "house set."

But it still seems to me like (1) the TCG is an inflationary system, where someone playing newer cards will beat someone playing older cards, and (2) there's a major shift in card power happening right now. Like when I was able to start using PCL's Swampert with Diving Search, it really changed the feel of the game for me. It was actually a bit of a downer, because it just didn't seem as "sporting" to be able to search my deck for whatever card I wanted and put it on top for next turn, over and over. Maybe my one-year perspective is just to narrow to judge such things correctly?

It'so true that the TCG is inflationary, any cards from Base Set would be considered jokes in tournament play. There are still a few good older cards though, Rising Rivals Flygon for instance is still considered a great card.

As I said, it's up to you. If you want a really good modern-ish card, try nd Next Destinies Mewtwo EX or Dark Explorers Darkrai EX (both reprinted in Legendary Treasures, which means they're both legal under Standard).

EDIT: Sorry, they're both rotated, I just found out. New rotation begins with XY. Anyhow, Combustion Blast Charizard EX and Flashfire Shiftry are excellent cards.

 

[MegaWowEXwithAtomBomb]

Next Destinies through Flashfire?

Speaking of cards from Next Destinies/Dark Explorers and Flashfire… I wonder what you would think of a house set that went from Next Destinies through Flashfire?

How'd I come up with that, you might wonder. Well I've been looking at databases for "historical firsts" and found, for example, that the first EX (capital EX) cards showed up in Next Destinies.

Closer to the present, I notice Furious Fists was the first expansion with any of the new type-specific special energies, i.e. Herbal Energy. They've since come out with special energies for fight, psychic, fairy, and metal, but not yet for lightning, dark, or fire. So it doesn't really seem "fair" to close the set after Roaring Skies; I can either close out after Flashfire or go forward until the lightning/dark/fire special energies come out…

 

[PaulTheProtist]

Re: Next Destinies through Flashfire?

Speaking of cards from Next Destinies/Dark Explorers and Flashfire… I wonder what you would think of a house set that went from Next Destinies through Flashfire?

How'd I come up with that, you might wonder. Well I've been looking at databases for "historical firsts" and found, for example, that the first EX (capital EX) cards showed up in Next Destinies.

Closer to the present, I notice Furious Fists was the first expansion with any of the new type-specific special energies, i.e. Herbal Energy. They've since come out with special energies for fight, psychic, fairy, and metal, but not yet for lightning, dark, or fire. So it doesn't really seem "fair" to close the set after Roaring Skies; I can either close out after Flashfire or go forward until the lightning/dark/fire special energies come out…

If you'd like it, you could. Keep in mind every set has its firsts (Magestic Dawn introducing held items, Sandstorm introducing species-specific fossils, etc.).

 

[MegaWowEXwithAtomBomb]

Re: Next Destinies through Flashfire?

Yep, they do a good job of introducing new stuff at "random" times!

After some database-diving, it seems there are some things I can say about the Black and White series:
1) First restored pokemon (in Noble Victories)
2) First EX pokemon (in Next Destinies)
3) introduced Item cards and Abilities
4) First and only Ace Specs (in Boundaries Crossed through Plasma Blast)
5) Is the beginning point of the expanded legals for both 2015 and 2016
6) I was having fun

Some things we can say about the XY series:
1) First Megas, and spirit links
2) First Fairy types (and some dragons have weaknesses to them)
3) First type-specific special energies i.e. Herbal, Wonder, etc.
4) First I've seen of the alpha/beta/omega/delta ancient traits

A lot of people have told me it's not necessarily a good idea to divide according to the generations, but IMHO the BW is looking like a good house set to me!