Last time, I talked to y’all about the negative impact of too many lower-rarity personality cards and the need for a more sensible way to release main personality cards (like a Capsule Corps Power Pack for instance). The community’s response to that article was fantastic and generated a lot of discussion, so much so that Panini America actually commented on the issue. That’s the power of community guys: keep it positive, have solution based input and work together! Do those things and you’ll find that you’re more likely to get the results you want to see.
Continuing the discussion, this week Panini America openly asked what the community thinks about Ultra Rare main personalities? Personally, I’m a little iffy on this. Of course the game is no stranger to Ultra Rare main personality cards, which were abundant in RetroDBZ. But there were also nightmares, like in Score Entertainment’s Epic Battles TCG where Mortal Kombat’s Dragon King was broken into a four-piece card with two of the pieces being Hidden Rares and the other two pieces NEVER BEING RELEASED. Yes, this actually happened. (Edit: I should point out that they were printed and eventually did find their way out.)
Now I don’t think anything as drastic as The Dragon King is likely to happen again, and I do actually like the idea of Ultra Rare personalities for many of the same reasons that I dislike common, uncommon and rare personalities. They are cards that you will seldom ever need more than one of, which balances out their rarer status. Also, Ultra Rare personalities have typically retained and even increased in value from RetroDBZ, making an Ultra Rare personality pull one of the biggest thrills when opening old product.
Obviously there are wrong ways to go about this too. Imagine that you’re a fan of a one-shot character like Tapion or Future Gohan, and the only way that you could play either of those characters is by collecting all of their Ultra Rare personalities. What I would like to see happen is that rather than being complete main personality sets (or being part of one), I would want any Ultra Rare personalities to be alternates of already playable characters. Use it to patch any holes in any current personalities that are lagging behind, like more versatile level ones for Gohan and Frieza. But for their first implementation, there are actually two really good candidates for Ultra Rare main personalities in a movie themed set 3.
Both SDCC Krillin and Super Saiyan God Goku are popular and powerful personalities in the current tournament scene, yet officially each of these cards were only available for a few hours on one day in a 10 x 20 foot space with very restricted access. Players just getting into the game now, or even players who have been involved in the game will find acquiring a Super Saiyan God Goku could cost up to $200! In the spirit that promos are reprints, I think it would be fair to introduce an Ultra Rare Super Saiyan God Goku and SDCC Krillin in future sets so that newer players would have an opportunity to use these characters.
They wouldn’t even have to be exact reprints of the image and version of the cards, in order to preserve the value of the originals and (most likely in the case of God Goku) avoiding the jump through licensing hoops. For instance you could make a “False Super Saiyan” Goku from the Lord Slug movie with the same power as God Goku by editing the top power levels to 1.5 Million and 2 Million (which gives him mostly the same effect, minus a few power-level checking cards and future updates to the Attack Table). SDCC Krillin is one of the most dominant personalities in the game right now, just remake him from nearly any point in the series or movies so everyone has a fair shot at him (ironically, an Ultra Rare SDCC Krillin would likely be more valuable than the original).
That’s my vote for testing the waters of Ultra Rare main personalities. After that, URMPs should be legacy content that updates personalities into the current meta (or at least gives them a better shot).
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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I like the idea of having ultra rare reprints/redos of promo cards. I severely dislike the idea of having a normal personality as an ultra rare. In this game you are required to have all 4 levels to play a character, in the score game you only needed 3 and the ultra rares were often level 4 or 5 so they were optional. Locking one level behind an ultra rare makes that character extremely expensive to play. This game is already prohibitively expensive for new players compared to yugioh,magic, pokemon etc. You have to make it reasonably easy to get new player favorites in order to keep an influx of player base.
I don’t like it keeping the URs as playable cards makes them more free to play with any personality I haven’t really liked villain and hero only cards as URs due the limit of the playability of hard to get cards the 2 spheres was lack originality and a pointless loss of a potential card. Heroic energy sphere and V energy sphere could have been printed together just by splitting the text, same with Stare Down / Confrontation. also why not have promos of the spheres or other URs. None of them are that great anyways.
I like the idea of ultra rare mps however I think they should be alternatives to already existing MP cards much like CC Krillin and God Goku. Give them different powers and even power stages.
I heard a fun idea. Make Lv5 UR MPs. The MPV rule would still be Lv4 with 5 anger, but the Lv5s would be there for Saiyan decks or others using “you can no longer in MPV” cards.
The only Ultra Rare Personalities I want to see are Allies.
Nappa and Gohan would have been good choices at UR, since they are effective reprints of staples City in Turmoil and Winter Countryside.
An Ultra Rare Ally that denies Event cards would be good.
This also fits into the Heroes/Villains only 1 per Deck scheme.
(No more 3 per deck Ultra Rares, guys.)
I would love to see alternate art ultra rare versions sdcc Krillin and sdcc God Goku. Either that or an alternate way of getting a card like those besides eBay which is pretty costly now. Good article btw!
I don’t mind Panini releasing art changes and promotional “Ultra Rare” personalities as they have done. What worries me is this game going back to Score roots where there was an UR personality (like Majin Vegeta L5) that you needed for your deck but couldn’t get it because of ridiculous rarity or pricing. Given that URs are 1/3 boxes and there are 2-4 per set, the probability of opening the personality you need to play is ridiculously low and will drive the secondary market too hard.
-Common and Uncommon personalities obviously flood your packs and make boxes worth less
-Rare personalities take up valuable slots for much more appropriate cards in decks like Black Scout Maneuver
-Ultra Rare personalities easily become degenerate as people desperately hope to get “that one level I’m missing” in their lineup
-Promo-only personalities caused problems in the old games if it was a true promo (e.g. can only be gotten at an event and is tournament legal)
The solution really does come down to properly constructed starter decks and special packs outside normal sets. For now, Common/Uncommon personalities are such a small nuisance compared to what R an UR personalities would do to the game that I’ll live with it.