Spinarak · Neo Discovery (N2) #64

2 comments

1. 

   Ambassador

   (1 year ago)

   This set’s Hoppip, Spinarak, Wooper, Mareep, and Magnemite are all ‘orphaned’ Basic Pokémon with no apparent cards to evolve into, but only in the context of Neo 2. They actually end up filling in some evolution lines in the next two sets, which feature Evolution cards with no Basic Pokémon to evolve from, creating these cohesive evolution lines;
   · N2 Hoppip evolves into N3 Skiploom and Jumpluff.
   · This Spinarak evolves into N4 Dark Ariados.
   · N2 Wooper evolves into N3 Quagsire.
   · N2 Mareep evolves into N3 Flaaffy and Ampharos.
   · N2 Magnemite evolves into N3 Magneton.
   & N2 Igglybuff can evolve into N4 Jigglypuff (and Light Wigglytuff and/or Dark Wigglytuff).

   Excepting the Vending cards and miscellaneous promos, there is *generally* an endeavor throughout the Base~Neo eras to take this sort of approach; i.e. each evolution usually has its own Basic Pokémon to evolve from, even if it was across sets. For example, N1 Flaaffy has N1 Mareep to evolve from, and as mentioned, N3 Flaaffy has N2 Mareep to evolve from, rather than having to “share” N1 Mareep. (N4 Jigglypuff’s dual options for evolution are a deliberate, gimmicky “choose your destiny” twist on this.)

   Some kind-of exceptions are abound. For example, Fossil Dragonite is necessarily reliant on BS Dratini and Dragonair to evolve from, but Fossil Gengar got its own respective Gastly and Haunter to evolve from rather than rely on the BS prints, even though they were truncated. N4 also has some puzzling exceptions; I am not sure what Marill is Light Azumarill ‘meant’ to evolve from, and it seems odd for the set to have no Slowpoke (are Light Slowbro and Dark Slowking meant to ‘share’ with Rocket Slowpoke? If so, Light Machoke and Light Machamp got their own Machop rather than having to ‘share’ Rocket Machop with that set’s Dark evolution line, so it’s inconsistent.)

   This approach, I assume, fell out of favor because it sucks in booster drafts¹ – this is a pretty small set and at least 4 commons you could pull are effectively ‘dead weight’ pulls, and N3 and N4 have the opposite problem, with several uncommons, rares, and even holofoils potentially being dead pulls – but from a collector’s POV it was really need, and was a novel way of building up hype for future sets. With N2 and N3 teasing the return of Dark Pokémon and Spinarak still ‘orphaned’ after N3 came out, you could’ve been sure as that a Dark Ariados was coming before you even saw the set list.

   ¹ One thing I don’t understand is that this appears to have been *particularly* unpopular in North America (I’m not sure Japan ever did booster drafts?), but WOTC’s engineered set, Legendary Collection, replicates the problem. LC Seadra has no LC Horsea to evolve from.

   Reply
   • 

     TwylisAmbassador

     (1 year ago)

     The omission of Horsea from LC feels like an unintended oversight, to me. Probably easy to make a mistake like that when you’re insistently sorting your setlist by rarity and not grouping evolution lines together.

     Reply