How can you possibly call this set terrible?  I will admit that this set was not the best that WOTC has released, but, for me and my Dark G8r deck, it is the best thing that I have ever seen!!!

First of all, let's look at what was excluded from the set.  Blastoise, Aerodactyl, and all of the Haymaker cards including the Trainers.  What does that leave us with?

Quite a lot for Modified, I'll have to say.  The old Venucenter deck makes its triumphant return with a new younger brother, Megacenter.  Big Fire gets a major power boost from Arcanine and Ninetailes, although neither of which will probably be used on account of Magcargo and many others.  Feraligatr gets a major power boost for a short period of time, with Pokemon Trader, Bill, and Pokemon Breeder coming back.  My Dark Feraligatr deck is now playable, with those prior additions.  Many of the old cards that did a lot of damage (i.e. Exeggutor) will now see play because of the slower environment which Modified is.

For Unlimited, it was nothing.  Don't waste your money on this set if all you want to do is play Unlimited.  There is nothing new to try out, aside from the Nintendo Power Mewtwo that was so rare before.

For Draft, it was OK at best.  Note here that I am talking about a Draft, where you pass the booster packs along.  But, the downside is that it is all too easy to counterdraft everyone else, what with there being 1 evolution to match 2 basics.

Sealed Play is where this set really shines!!!  Sealed Play is when you get 5 booster packs and an indefinite amount of energies and you make a 40 card deck out of whatever you get from those packs.  Again, with there being 1 evolution to match every 2 basics, it makes this format all the easier!!!

For collectors, unless you are looking for Box Toppers and Reverse Holos, don't waste your time.  Everything is exactly the same as prior sets.

This set, I believe, was created for the newer, younger players that did not have the chance to get the cards from the first sets.  It gives them a fighting chance in all formats, including Unlimited.  It gives them a sort of "ultra-rare" card that us older players never really had the chance to get.

In conclusion, was this set repetitive?  Yes, more than most people realize.  Was it meant for Unlimited play?  No, I believe that Unlimited is all but dead as a regular format.  Does it greatly help the Modified format?  Most definately.  It also gives the lesser-played cards a chance to be noticed by the world instead of sitting in binders and being switched with other cards more times than a pair of dice are rolled in a standard game of Monopoly. The main reason for creating this set was for the younger players, giving them the chance to collect the older cards that they never really had the chance to get their hands on.  Almost all formats were greatly enhanced with the creation of this set, most notably Sealed Play.

~Bullados
~~Bull23924@aol.com