Grass Energy · Ruby & Sapphire (RS) #104

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1. 

   Ambassador

   (1 year ago)

   Up until this set, the EN TCG had been sorting Basic Energy cards by alphabetical order. For JP cards, though they usually hadn’t been numbered at all, a convention existed by this time for the way Basic Energy would be *understood* to be ordered. However, EX R&S has its own sort order that’s completely different from both;
   · EN alphabetical: {F}, {R}, {G}, {L}, {P}, {W}
   · JP conventional: {G}, {F}, {W}, {L}, {P}, {F}
   · EX Ruby & Sapphire: {G}, {F}, {W}, {P}, {R}, {L}

   Where did this order come from? It’s worth pointing out that in Japan, EX Ruby & Sapphire came with 3 preconstructed theme decks;
   · Treecko’s deck contained Grass and Fighting Energy
   · Mudkip’s deck contained Water and Psychic Energy*
   · Torchic’s deck was Fire and Lightning Energy**

   And now you can sort of see what happened here. (Incidentally, all cards in this set with H in their e-TCG ID number come from these theme decks. When you sort them alphanumerically, you get the cards in approximately this same order – the cards in Treecko’s deck, then the cards in Mudkip’s deck, then the cards in Torchic’s deck.***)

   * It also had Metal Energy but let’s just focus on Basic Energy for now..
   ** It also had Darkness Energy but same caveat as prior..
   *** Almost, anyways. For some reason the 2 Aron and Lairon from the Mudkip deck swap order with the 2 Electrike and Manectric from the Torchic deck. Error? Adopted an earlier draft of the decks? I don’t know.

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   • 

     AmbassadorAmbassador

     (8 months ago)

     In addition to bringing back the lower case Pokémon 𝒆𝒙 of the ADV&PCG era of the card game and a card template with features reminiscent of the Gen III card template, the first three preconstructed theme decks of the era brought back the exact same typing combinations – Sprigatito, like Treecko, has a Grass and Fighting deck, and the theme decks of the other two starters match the typing combinations of Mudkip and Torchic. This is such a weird deep cut reference to make that it’s easy to dismiss as coincidental, but I think you can expect at least a few more nods like this throughout the SV era (though who knows if you’ll actually be able to pick up on all of them).

     https://www.pokemon-card.com/ex/sva/ || https://archive.is/wip/XUbLC

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