The Capsule Corp Power Pack was one of the coolest releases of the RetroDBZ CCG. It was halfway between a starter release and an expansion, and the closest the game got to a “game in a box” release. For those that don’t remember (or weren’t around), the Capsule Corp Power Pack was a card storage box that game with a few packs, but also had a complete set of promos mostly comprised of personality sets that didn’t fit in with the current saga based releases. It’s what brought us some tournament-tier personalities like Master Roshi, Bardock and Lord Slug. As cool as it was, it was still largely a peripheral release back in the day, but with the current direction that Panini America’s Dragon Ball Z TCG is going, it would now serve an even more important purpose and could serve to be an integral part of game releases.
To prove my point let’s take a look at the Heroes & Villains release and apply my old friend mathematics to it (something we know that Panini America’s design team has had multiple catastrophic and game breaking issues with for every release so far).
One of the best ways to introduce new play styles and archetypes to the game is through the introduction of new Main Personalities. No doubt that the game needs them, and needs them every set. The problem is, and it’s more exacerbated with the new Panini America ally rules, is that all these personality cards are “Limit 1 per deck.” When it comes to a Main Personality card, there is very little reason to need more than one copy (the same could be said of ally cards as well, if you aren’t packing the same ones in every deck). Further, unless they are foiled these cards are essentially worthless as trade fodder as well.
We didn’t notice this in set one since the set was so large, and most Main Personalities were only in starter decks. We did notice it with Mastery cards though, since those are available in booster packs and it was one of the biggest (non-gameplay) complaints of that set. It’s one of the few complaints that Panini America acknowledged and pledged to fix. But here, they are doing nearly the exact same thing just with a different card type. Out of the 142 cards in Heroes & Villains, 27 of them are “Limit 1 per deck” (16 Main Personalities, 10 Allies and one Drill). That’s just shy of 20%, or one in every five cards, that you only need to pull one copy of. Your regular 12 card pack will contain on average two of these cards, which become next to worthless after your first pull. It’s like pulling two Mastery cards in every pack of Heroes & Villains.
We need more personalities. We want more personalities. Heck, most of the Virtual Cards are personalities. But we don’t want two dud cards every pack, so how does that get fixed? Having a separate release for personalities, allies and other “Limit 1 per deck” cards is the answer. Reviving the Capsule Corp Power Pack is the answer. A Capsule Corp Power Pack with all the new personalities of a given set would be an instabuy among players and something that’s sure to appeal to collectors. Keeping all the named cards and staples in traditional pack form will keep those releases in tact, with the added benefit of not having nearly as many untradable duds in packs (certainly less than the current 20%).
I for one would love to see the Capsule Corp Power Pack return. This time with a more practical purpose than giving us a playable Mighty Mask personality, but rather restoring the value to booster packs. I recently did a live box cracking on Meerkat in which I lamented all the doubles I was getting, and it was only my second box. I was sent three boxes of Premiere set and I still need more just to have a playset of certain cards for one deck. After just two boxes, I’m done with Heroes & Villains. Will set three be the same way?
What do you think? Let us know in the comments, on our Facebook group or send a response to RetroDBZccg@Yahoo.com, we might even publish it.
Later, BroZ!
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The Capsule Corp Power Packs were one of the best things about the original card game! I think this might be the way to go for releasing movie-based personalities like Bardock and Cooler along the way, or as the game goes on, releases characters from earlier story arcs such as Zarbon and King Cold.
I 100% agree with this idea. This game is starving for main personalities and has missed some great opportunities already with zarbon and recoome that the original game had at this point. Other’s like bardock, garlic jr, turles and possibly cooler and future gohan should be included in these power packs since they fit in with the timeline of the 2 sets already released.
I loved the power packs, but my main concern with them in the past was that I had to buy 3 ($90) to get full playsets of the non personality cards, then I’d have all these extra personality cards. If Panini did return the power pack, I wonder how they’d do the non personality stuff. You’d have to have named card support for new personalities. So would you make them “limit one” or make it so people had to buy 3? I could be wrong, but I believe the power packs didn’t sell as well as Score would have liked.
Like the power packs.
Agree they should come back.
Maybe throw in reprints of ultra rares.
Where were you buying CCPPs for $30? They were like $15.
The retail price was $30 for the power packs when they were originally released (look at the pictures for reference). Lucky you to find them for so cheap back in the day.
I think this is pretty spot on, Josh. Just one caveat: I think certain personality levels as Ultra Rares would be acceptable. Years down the line, Majin Vegeta and SS3 Goku are still highly sought after, and they never made an overwhelming impact on the game.
i wanna see rare personality’s again instead of common and uncommon personality’s. Who is with me? The foil rare personalitys are so awesome from score.