This is a great write-up, I especially enjoyed the quirky statistics you included at the beginning because it showed a good deal of research. I also hadn't considered the complete nonsensical nature of the set name, that was a good bit of humour.
I actually had skipped over that Weavile when previously looking at the set, it could be a good partner for Honchkrow in a casual deck.
I'm not too bothered about evolution lines being in the 'wrong set', for me it's preferential to the situation were they have printed a redundant Alolan Vulpix for this set to be paired with the new Ninetales, but we all know no one will choose it over the GRI Vulpix. I also really love the new FA Lycanroc, it's almost as beautiful as the previous FA Lycanroc.
I'm with you, Marshadow is my favourite card in the set. It previous looked a bit 'off' in the video game, but they printed some good artwork for it here. I think its green fighting aura helps because otherwise its face looks misshapen. I like how it gives any deck an attacker of an alternate-type to deal with weakness. 'Peerless Hundred Blows' is an awful name for an attack though.
This is probably the first time the TCG has had back-to-back sets that were this good for a while. This set opens up a lot of deck possibilities and I would love to make them all. I think the best I can manage on my current budget is to incorporate Tapu Fini into my Lapras deck though. I'm also planning to make a fun deck with the new Wobbuffet and the Alolan Dugtrio from SM Base.
tl;dr Great write up, Marshadow is cool, this & GRI have been good sets back to back.
The stats took a long time, so it's good someone noticed them :)
Tearing into nonsensical details like the set name or the fact that last set was Guardians Rising and only included two of the four guardians is basically always going to be my first paragraph. I have a tendency to get a bit ranty (although that is a good thing), so that fits perfectly.
Weavile, Darky, Baby Icetails, and even Necrozema are pretty niche cards, but in the right circumstances they can be ridiculous anti-meta techs. Ninetales is the best of the bunch by far imo though.
I'm running Decidueye/Icetales right now, so for me teching in a baby Icetales is a natural fit to further improve the already decent Metagross (and by extension Gardevoir) matchup, as well as make the Volcanion matchup at least tolerable (right now it's probably 80/20 to Volcanion). Even Metagross decks seem to be running an Alolan Vulpix or two these days, so throwing in a Tales could stall a bit against faster decks.
The lack of pre-evolution thing is more bothersome in prereleases than anything. All of those cards take up the Rare slot of one of your prerelease packs, so you are already out 1/4 of your best cards just by pulling one. In my case, it was Machamp.
Marshadow <3
I mean, I'd argue that the best string of really good sets in a row was the entire freaking HGSS series, but these two are very unusual in a really good way. While GRI is still an objectively better set, BSH looks cooler and is nearly as good, so I'll take it.
Thanks for commenting though! Knowing someone read my article through all the way really means a lot to me.
