EP 3: Set Critic: Base Set

 In this episode Theo, Judah and a special guest embark on a journey through Base Set.

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POLL! Leave your answer in the comments. Question: Do you think base set is overrated?

Option 1: Its a great set!

Option 2: Its okay

Option 3: Mechanically, playing Base Set felt less like a strategic card game and more like a chaotic playground scam. The rules were so wildly unbalanced that a single Professor Oak card let you discard your hand and draw seven new cards just because you felt like it. Matches were regularly decided by a literal coin flip on turn one. Worse, the game hated logic; it was mathematically smarter to beat your opponent to death with a basic Hitmonchan than to waste six turns evolving a majestic Blastoise.

Artistically, the set had the visual diversity of a DMV waiting room. Genius artist Ken Sugimori drew almost every single card using the exact same generic stock art we saw on lunchboxes and folders. Most backgrounds were just lazy, abstract color smears that looked like MS Paint mistakes. Yes, Mitsuhiro Arita’s holographic art was beautiful, but the other 90% of the set looked like a collection of clip art. Modern cards feature jaw-dropping, hand-painted masterpieces, making Base Set look ancient and empty.

Then there is the modern secondary market, which turned a harmless childhood hobby into a toxic playground for crypto bros and wealthy influencers. Logan Paul wore a Charizard around his neck like a millennial flavor flav, and suddenly everyone thought the bent Machamp in their attic was worth a mansion. The artificial scarcity is hilarious because Nintendo printed literally millions of these things. You are not buying a rare piece of history; you are paying a scalper for a piece of cardboard that smelled like old Scholastic Book Fairs.

Ultimately, Base Set deserves credit for starting a phenomenon, but it belongs in a museum, not on a pedestal. It gave us broken gameplay, repetitive art, and a modern financial bubble fueled entirely by mid-life crises. Every subsequent generation improved the formula, proving that the original blueprint was deeply flawed. Nostalgia is a hell of a drug, but it is time to admit that Base Set was just a shiny gateway drug to a much better game. Aka. Yes it is.

Transcript

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Hey, quick little editor's note before the podcast starts. Um, if if you heard if you watched the last episode, which you should, you'd probably know what's going on by now. But basically, we had to change our name from the Shadowless Podcast to Team Rocket because of copyright reasons. So in this podcast, we say Shadowless Podcast a couple times. Just a heads up, we are not changing our name. As a podcast, welcome to today's episode. We really hoped you enjoyed the first one. But now it's time to move on to a different type of episode called a set critic. In Set Critic, we're gonna go through all every Pokemon set ever released in sequential order and review everyone along the way. We're gonna talk about the best and the worst and the forgotten sets of Pokemon. So if we're going in sequential order, not counting Burger King promos, we have Basset. Today we also have a special gift, guest named Chip. First, let's go around and talk about what we like most about Basset and what we like least. Chip, you can go first. I feel like the base set, it really cemented, even though it's the first set they made, I feel like it really cemented their legacy in the world. Like it's a huge global thing now. There's like Japanese, there's Chinese, there's English, there's all types of cards. There's um Pokemon prints in somewhere around 15 or 16 different unique languages. I agree with all of that, and I would also like to add that another thing that I really like is the artwork. It is so much more um interesting, and it it has a lot more of a um Are you trying to say like sketchy? Yeah, so yeah, more sketchy kind of uh like you can look at that and go, I couldn't believe that someone drew that. Instead of the newer sets that are like, no way a person took out a pencil and drew that. Well, actually, the new sets, they're on like an online thing. Or they draw it online, but they can use stuff, it doesn't look like sketchy, it just looks perfect lines. Yeah, these ones look a little bit more like the for example, the Mewtwo card doesn't look like when we picture Mewtwo, we picture a perfect Mewtwo. This one's a little bit, it definitely looks like a like a little sketch that someone drew down on a paper and like put onto some cardboard, some thin cardboard. And but one thing that I don't like is it's very hard to get your hands on um these cards. Usually when you do find one, they're usually incredibly overpriced. So like a $30 Gyarados um first edition could be worth $50, even though it's not actually, and then you end up losing money. Yeah. Um I also I like um I I like base set because they were able to pull off such an amazing phenomenon when Pokemon wasn't really a huge thing. They didn't have factories and factories and tons of artists. They they just had a ragtag group of people. We will do an episode on the history of Pokemon, but um, but they they also they make incredible cards like the Charizard, which in a PSA 10 first edition can sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars. However, the one bad thing about base set is that it's so old that it's hard to find pretty much anywhere, like Judas said. For instance, I'm trying to do a 151 set, and bulk bins have been my best friend, but I knew that if I was um gonna try to do a master or complete set of base set, then bulk bins wouldn't have much, and I'd have to buy every card pretty expensive or pay the outrageous outrageous shipping free fees on TCG Player. So I'd like to say something like add on to Theo. So when you said the Charizard is grade PSA 10, it's hundreds of thousands of dollars. We actually just saw a grade 10 Pikachu Illustrator going sold for over 16 million dollars. Yes, I heard about that. That's a new Pokemon record. Actually, the last one was beaten by the same person for the same card. He bought it for 10 million a few years a few years back, and he um would use it on his neck when he would walk into like wrestling stuff, and he just recently sold it for 16 million. It's incredible. Another thing that I also like about the base set, a lot of the backgrounds they're shiny, and a lot of the Pokemon cards now, it's really just kind of blank. I really like the older cards because the backgrounds have more color and just look way more sketchy. Yeah, a lot more original. Uh-huh. Um the the one um the another reason why bait base set is really rewarding if you do a complete set of it, but to get there, um, you cannot rip packs unless you're willing to spend six hundred dollars a pack and probably get nothing. Like I said, bulk bins aren't your best friends, and if you're trying and if your definition of a master set includes the variants, it's been so long that every card has at least three or four variants. Yeah, even just the unlimited version is like $1,600 for a master set. And a lot of those cards are like pretty cheap, but it's like you could that but like if you tried to just finish the base set um unlimited, it might cost more than like some other modern sets. Alright, let's go now and let's say what our favorite card is from 151. This could be anywhere from a super cheap book card all the way to the Charizard or the Blastoise. Uh, Chip, you can go first. Um, I honestly I'm not saying the Charizard because it's expensive. I just like the art and it's more of like a pop culture icon now. Like there's the Cheetosard that it's um made after. There's so many things. Um, yes, I completely agree with that. And just so you know, you did say Pokemon um 151, this is base. But my favorite is probably the Dugtrio. It it's not a specifically expensive card or a specifically cool card that, like, oh my god, everyone knows that Dugtrio. You probably don't even know what it looks like. But when you look it up, it's honestly such a cute card, and I would love to add it to my collection, but I don't have one. Honestly, I think that the Doug Trio, even though it's cute and it's good, the only thing that's kind of bad about it is it's one of the only cards that doesn't look like it's sketched out. It was made on an animation process on a computer. So is a Clefairy's doll, though. The Clef the Clefairy's doll looks very um not sketched. I know, as I was saying, it's it's one of the few cards that was in Betheset that looks animated. My favorite card in the set, well, there there's actually two. The Ninetales, because the Ninetales from Mega Evolution is my favorite common ever, or one of my favorite non-secret rares ever. And this Ninetales looks like it inspired the Mega Evolution Ninetales, or looks very close to it. But my favorite card for the art is the Dragonair, just because how beautiful the background is, and Dragonair is a pretty cool Pokemon by itself. Yeah, when you get out of this, you should just go on to base set and just look through all the cards, even more than just the Charizard, because some of these artworks are like really beautiful, and a lot of people just look at like the top five most expensive cards, like the Charizard, um, and the Blast Joys, but there's a lot more to it than just that. Oh I and one other thing about base set is that it's a very old set, so most of the cards are in bad condition. Now, while this makes it so if you have a bad condition base set card, that does drag the price down a lot, but it makes it if you do have a good a good condition base set card, that brings the price up a lot because over the 20 plus years that it's been around, um, most of the cards have been damaged in some way, and that's why PSA 10s sell for way more. Um, and as he just said, um Theo just said, it's been going for 20 plus years. Actually, we just passed the 30-year mark of Pokemon. It's a big landmark for Pokemon, which started as just a game, and they made the cards like a oh look, the game's out, people are liking it, and look at it- look at us now. We've gone so many massive sets, massive hits like the Lovebirds or the Moonburgon, all from this one set. Do you guys think that there will be a 30th anniversary Pokemon set? I think that Pokemon is pretty full with is does have their hands pretty full with Mega Evolution, but maybe just maybe once they finish it, then the next era could have one. Um, I honestly think this, they yes, they would, but the it's probably gonna be like the championship deck where it's only like 73 cards, and it's much smaller than the other sets. Because it's a special one. Not to bring anyone's hopes down, but I really don't think they're gonna have a 30th anniversary. They just had their 25th anniversary, so I think they're probably gonna have a 50th, and the 50th is gonna be like a big set with like epic um cards in like boxes over 2,000, but like they just had their 25th. Why would they do another one just five years later? It doesn't feel as important if they're just gonna give them every five years. Hi and welcome- I'm Theo and welcome back to the Shadows Podcast. When we were last on, we were talking about base set and how we think it is a great set, and the art feels very good, especially for an old set. So now let's talk about the variants of cards. Most of these cards are very old, and they each have quite a few variants. Some cards, like the Charizards, like the Charizard, have variants outside of the initial print run, like Holofoil from the 1999 and 2000 copyright, jumbo from a from a promo, and a Metal Celebrations card, I believe, from a UPC. So, but every single card in 151 has different variations. There's the normal version, which is found in booster packs, this is what most people have. There's the first edition Shadowless, where um there were some errors where there wasn't a drop shadow below the picture for some of the very early print run packs and base set, and those no and those usually um cost the most. The cheapest card in normal, which is 35 cents, is $24 in a first edition shadowless, which it's not the cheapest card in a first edition shadowless. I believe the energies are, but it's still crazy how much of an increase that is. There's also unlimited shadowless, which means that they still didn't have the drop shadow in it, but it wasn't first edition. The difference between unlimited and normal, and the difference between unlimited and first edition is that first edition, it could be it it was only printed in a certain time frame. However, unlimited means that it could have been printed yesterday. Now they don't print base anymore, but it could have, and it still would count as a card. Now, how do you know if something's different? Well, um, normal cards j don't have anything special about them, they just look normal. First edition cards have a little stamp. For trainers, it's in the bottom left-hand corner. However, for Pokemon, it is in the middle left-hand corner next to the Pokemon's type, length, and weight. And how do you know if it's shadowless? Well, it's pretty simple. Look at the picture on the card. If there's a little drop shadow below the picture, that means that the card is not shadowless and it's probably um and it's probably unlimited. However, if there is no shadow under there, you could have yourself a hidden gem. Um, I like to add on something. When Theo said that they have kind of like reprints, so they do have reprints, and some they have the original drawings and sketches on the card, but there's some from 2008 or 2016 where it's this almost the same art for some of the cards, but it's just a reprint of the card. Yeah, like Evolutions was a great example where they had a different style of card, not too different, but it was very similar artwork, but in the bottom, how you can tell between Evolutions and First Edition is at the very bottom, in first edition it says 1995, 96, 97, 98, and all that stuff at the bottom about who it was made by. In Evolutions, it just says 2016. So if you find a card that looks like a first edition, don't get too hyped up because it might just be an evolutions card. Mm-hmm. Okay, now there's one thing that I think is um that it's been kind of nagging at my mind a little. So if you just take the normal versions or the holofoil versions of every card, um the unlimited, it's the set is not a one-hit wonder. However, if you look at the first, if you look at um some of the different types, the unlimited holo shadowless Charizard sells for two grand. While the Blastoise is 845. That's over half the price. Uh well, that's less than half the price of the Charizard, which means that 151 is kind of a one-hit wonder. Yeah, but to elaborate on the kind of part, it's if you pull a first edition Shadowless Blast Choice, you're not gonna go away crying unless you paid 200,000 for the um for the pack. But cause that's still a good card. If the if you opened a pack that was less expensive than that and pulled that, good good set. But the one hit is the Charizard. Everyone wants that Charizard. So that means so the chances of getting the Charizard are much lower. So there's still other expensive cards in the set, just not as expensive. Mm-hmm. Another thing that I do really think contributes to the price of base set is how recognizable the cards are. If I show any of the big cards, like the Charizard, Blastoise, Venusaur, Machamp, or Mewtwo, to pretty much anyone who's been collecting Pokemon or knows anything about it, they're gonna recognize it instantly and will probably have a price on it. Now, with most sets, I can probably determine what if a card's expensive or if it's not, but I probably can't tell you what set it's from or how expensive it is. And um, except for a couple sets, like base set, where the cards are super recognizable. Or yeah, or like um Evolving Skies is another one. It's one of those sets where you can show someone the Moonbrion and they will recognize it. They may not know the exact price or know what even what card it is, or know that it's called the Moon Brian, but it's become such a like a famous new um pop legend in Pokemon. First edition was one. Evolving Skies was the other massive hit that uh people are still flocking um to get some of that stuff, even though the pull rates are terrible. But the good thing about base set is that they didn't think that this was gonna be such an expensive set, so the pull rates actually aren't that bad. One in every three packs is a hollow. That's really good pull rates, especially showing what kind of cards are in that set. Mm-hmm. There is one um one thing. In Pokemon's early days, from about base set to 2008, or about 2012, they had some cards where they released in Japanese, but people thought that they were offensive or mean. Um, so in English, they released a safer version of it. For instance, the Japanese Sabrina's Gengar is in a graveyard with crosses, and people deem that inappropriate. So the English one just has a regular background. So for base set, there actually is a banned card. The Japanese Jinx, which is worth about $15, has completely black skin, which people recognized as which people interpreted as making fun of black folk art. So if you look at the Jinx in English base set, the skin is purple. Um, so it doesn't make make as so it doesn't um offend. Yeah, offend him. The black heritage. I would like to add on what Judah said. Um there is a few cards that have been reprinted, including in the evolution set. Like there's a there's two different Charizards. I think there's the Reverse Hollow, or is it the Hollow? There, yeah, there's one normal, there's a Hollow Reverse Hollow, and then there's also the Mega Charizard, which is the big hit of Evolutions. And even though Evolutions is probably one of the most famous sets of X X and Y, it wasn't actually that good of a set. Like the most expensive card is 120 bucks. It's looks like it would be a lot more, and it's like such a famous set for not like a flop, but not really the best set either. It's like kind of like Journey Together. Uh-huh. So another um another pretty cool thing about base set is a lot of the cards have been reprinted with the 25th anniversary stamp on it. And most cards, if they get printed with the 20th anniversary stamp, boom, it's like really um not it's not as expensive, not even close to as expensive as the non one, as the non-stamped one. However, if you look at the Charizard from Base Set, um, they have a stamped one in the 25th anniversary classic collection, um, which is a set that I've had my eye on for a while. And the Charizard from Base is about 492 at when this was recorded. And I believe the other Charizard from the 25th anniversary set is hovering around 182, which goes to show that that isn't that isn't a horrible card, even with the stamp. Most cards lose all of their pretty much all of their value and dip below a dollar if they've given the stamp. But the Charizard is such an iconic and popular card that even with the stamp, it's only it's about as a fourth of the value of the original Charizard. Hi, I'm Trips, and welcome back to the Chadless Podcast. So that's most of our episode as we reviewed Bay Set. Honestly, it's a great set, and it's no wonder it kicked off such an amazing thing. But now we're gonna do a quick little newsbreak. 151 has been skyrocketing recently after po after Pokemon announced that they're gonna stop printing it. Cards like the Charizard went from 250 to 500 in just a few days. The Blastoise peaked at 230. It started at 80. The Venusaur went up to 150, and many cards went to 130. However, after a long period of going up, I've noticed that the cards are slowly starting to go down. I think that they're not gonna completely go to where they started. I think that they will grow a little bit, but I don't think that it's sustainable to have all these super expensive cards in such a pretty new set. Well, I'm Theo. And I'm Chip, and I'm Judah. And we'll see you, trainers later.