I love preconstructed gameplay experiences. Having what amounts to a “board game”-like way to play a TCG, one that’s been meticulously designed to play as-is, is essentially peak gaming for me. The Pokémon Company must be dialed in to players like me, because they’ll be releasing a premium, preconstructed experience that’s designed to travel with you.
Fun in a Box
The Pokémon Card Game Classic set features a foldable, fully portable two-player game board that includes everything you need to play. It includes three decks to choose from, plus all the accessories you could want, including counters, status trackers, and a unique way to resolve any card flip effects that your decks are packing. Players can roll metallic orbs down a chute, where they have a 50/50 shot of landing in a white or black bordered slot. One is heads, the other tails.
Combining Classic Nostalgia with Modern Design
While we do not yet know the complete contents of the decks, we do know that they will be combining nostalgic favorites with powerful, modern cards. Since they are being designed as a preconstructed experience, we can reasonably expect that they will be a more or less balanced experience out of the box.
The first deck is headed by everyone’s favorite Pokémon card, Charizard, back again with the same stats and artwork that it had in Base Set. The deck will also have a new iteration of the beloved legendary Ho-Oh ex. We also know that the deck will feature a special Item card called Blazing Charcoal that boosts Charizard’s attacks by 100 damage!
The second deck’s face card is the classic Venusaur, though it will also include the legendary Lugia ex. Like the Charizard deck, it will also include a power boosting Item called Sun Seed that has the same effect, boosting Venusar’s damage by 100.
The final deck, you may be unsurprised to hear, is lead by Blastoise, but it also has the exciting inclusion of Suicine ex. Like the previous decks it also includes a Blastoise-specific 100 power boost item, this time called Ocean Droplet.
The Definition of Quality
The gameplay experience aside, a notable amount of the draw for this boxed set lies in its quality. The Pokémon Company is well known for putting out premium products that are worth their asking price, and everything I’ve seen for this experience says much the same.
The game board itself looks to be sturdy in addition to its portability, with the included sleeves and deck boxes clearly designed to protect the game pieces and have a distinct aesthetic appeal.
The brightly-colored aluminum damage counters that are included ensure that it’s very easy to track how damage has been thrown around in a game, while again maintaining that high-quality aesthetic. The burn and poison markers similarly let you keep track of status with ease. All of this included out-of-the-box just feels good.
Base Speculation
Looking past the new design choices and the high quality game pieces, the most interesting thing about the Trading Card Game Classic box is something that we can only speculate on (right now, anyway): how many more Base Set cards will be soft-reprinted. Base Set is enduringly popular, and people are always hungry to see fresh takes on those original 102 cards.
Some speculate that we may be seeing the entire Base Set reprinted here, however I find it much more likely that it will share some DNA with the likes of Pokémon Celebrations, highlighting nostalgic cards of all kinds. The three decklists included are already clearly built to highlight the Kanto starters, so we can expect to see even more cards that put the spotlight on base set powerhouses.
Personally, I’m hoping that they will push that nostalgia another generation forward. With the inclusion of Ho-Oh and Lugia ex, we already have some notable nods to the Johto region, and I strongly suspect that the decks here will continue to feed on the nostalgia of players like myself.