M Rayquaza-EX · Ancient Origins (AOR) #98

5 comments

1. 

   jared

   (5 years ago)

   ooga booga me want

   Reply
2. 

   firebird

   (5 years ago)

   amazing card

   Reply
3. 

   Nago

   (5 years ago)

   It not an amazing rare though!

   Reply
4. 

   Nosredna

   (5 years ago)

   Interesting that it’s classified as a secret rare but isn’t above the set number. I thought that was the defining characteristic of a secret rare.

   Reply
   • 

     AmbassadorNosredna

     (3 years ago)

     Going by contemporary standards¹, one of the apparent criteria of a secret rare card is that it is an alternate art card that is completely redundant to a card in a main set² and so you might consider them “optional” to collect since they’re de facto the same card. Despite this card, alongside Primal Kyogre EX AOR 96 and Primal Groudon EX AOR 97, appearing to have all the trappings of Secret Rare cards and seeming to be redundant to Primal Kyogre EX PRC 149, Primal Groudon EX PRC 151, and M Rayquaza EX ROS 105, they’re not treated as secret rares because they’re not actually redundant to those cards. It’s easy to miss, but the Ancient Traits are different, and that’s probably why TPCi decided not to give them secret rare numbering – though for whatever reason PCL did³.

     ¹ I say contemporary but the cards in question are about 8 years old now..
     ² I say *a* main set and not the *the same* main set because that’s also malleable. CRZ Origin Forme Palkia VSTAR is redundant to the card of the same name and functionality in ASR, with no equivalent in CRZ’s main set.
     ³ To my chagrin, these cards’ Japanese prints *are* secret rares in XY7, with no non-secret equivalent print. I wonder if PCL didn’t keep track of Ancient Traits and consider these cards identical despite this difference? Or, simpler, it’s just deliberately breaking the rules and we can be relieved we didn’t see more of this down the line. As awful as PCL’s gotten about cramming each modern set full of secret rares, so far almost all of them are “optional” for the reasons I’ve described, which helps keep the game fairly affordable for those actually playing it.

     Reply