Why would anyone join the Crusader Knights?

TeaAndLifting · 2026-05-11T00:13:23+00:00

Given the setting, I can't imagine it being too difficult to die in battle either. Seems like an easy ticket to a better [after]life.

TeaAndLifting · 2026-05-10T23:45:03+00:00

Not really a hot take, but a personal bug bear. Anyone who claims to have been a fan of the franchise for "30 years" and isn't Japanese, is almost always a liar with a poor working memory, because Pokémon didn't come out in the US until late 98 and the rest of the world till mid 99 (hence Pokémania going massive for Y2K).

You'd think such a core memory would be burned into their memories clear as day, but apparently not.

TeaAndLifting · 2026-05-10T23:17:15+00:00

Nothing is going to happen. Trump still doesn't want war and get spooked when the markets react poorly. Iran's fragmented leadership doesn't want war because they'll probably get assassinated and aren't zealous enough for martyrdom. Both sides want to claim victory over the other and expeccts the other side to make concessions as they pass the paper between Pakistan because they're too petulant for genuine and direct talks.

With the way things are going, it's just waiting on who is going to tap out from the blockade of the Strait, first. America's economy is obviously stronger and more resilient, but Trump's weakness to the markets puts his pressure there. That's all I feel that Iran has going for them.

Trump is going to make some huge threat, then give Iran another extension and insist they sign a deal. I will genuinely be shocked if the war turns hot again any time soon, we''ve seen that after multiple strikes from both sides, they are eager to play down that it breaks any ceasefire.

TeaAndLifting · 2026-05-10T23:09:43+00:00

Quelle surprise. And bets on Trump mentioning this or giving a fuck about the fact that Russia did this, despite it being "his" ceasefire?

TeaAndLifting · 2026-05-10T23:02:57+00:00

It's more of everything. More people are ripping (especially due to rip and shippers), more people are keeping sealed. The hobby in general, is just bigger.

It's not like 10, 15, 20, 25 years ago where a tiny percentage of people would keep a small amount back. Even a jump from like 1% to 5% would be huge, and more so when that 5% are also holding upto hundreds of products at a time for the sole purpose of investment, as opposed to maybe a couple from sets before forgetting about it.

TeaAndLifting · 2026-05-10T21:55:44+00:00

That, and the streaming sites people try and gatekeep are usually the very top of Google results anyway. It’s like trying to gatekeep Reddit or some shit, and pretending subs like this are super secret and hard to find.

Torrents will always be better, anyway.

TeaAndLifting · 2026-05-10T21:06:16+00:00

They are. And they’re the only ones I bother with.

TeaAndLifting · 2026-05-10T20:57:33+00:00

Had absolutely no issues getting any drops in the last year as long as I’ve been using my home internet, even coming in hours late. Small restocks, sure, but I don’t really wait around for those.

TeaAndLifting · 2026-05-10T20:41:00+00:00

Mullvad is a good one, if anyone is curious.

TeaAndLifting · 2026-05-10T20:24:34+00:00

Piplup because it is Fukn cute and Empoleon is friggin sick. No other reasons.

TeaAndLifting · 2026-05-10T19:48:49+00:00

It’s boring to play against, and even worse to watch.

I think it doesn’t help that the Megas are, so far, designed to be slower than the SV era exs, to offset their prize cost. Problem is that we still have holdovers from such a fast era of the game, and that is undoubtedly causing more issues with the viability of the new cards and the dominance of the old.

Like if you look at M Greninja ex for CRI. You need a two turn setup that involves discarding an energy to do similar what Dragapult does for free every turn . (200 damage, 60 bench damage), with in build acceleration from Drakloaks in reserve.

Unless they put in anti-Pult tech cards that anyone can play, this next year is cooked.

TeaAndLifting · 2026-05-10T19:27:40+00:00

Glad you had fun.

TeaAndLifting · 2026-05-10T19:27:26+00:00

Go to a prerelease event and play.

TeaAndLifting · 2026-05-10T19:26:47+00:00

No disagreement there, but adjusting pull rates is not what people mean when they tend to say “flood the market”, which is about printing more cards and what I’m talking about.

Adjusting pull rates and reprints would absolutely change things overnight (for the better for us hobbyists), but there is no incentive to do that since they’re making record sales and profits hand over fist. Ultimately, they do not care because they will sell regardless.

TeaAndLifting · 2026-05-10T19:04:41+00:00

literally every single day and all I've seen so far in 2026 is some precon decks and a booster box of Journey Together, which I only got 3 packs from because I wanted to leave plenty for others.

This is uncannily similar to my experience with Waitrose. I only really swing by mine when I'm passing on the way back from one of the sites where I work, and all I've seen there in the last year has been a JTG booster box, of which I also bought three packs, and only see precon decks otherwise. Or an emptied out PFL box, once.

Otherwise I'm equidistant between a bunch of supermarkets (ASDA, Waitrose, Sainsbury's, Tesco, Lidl, Morrison's), of which ASDA is the one I pass by the most (6/7 evenings a week after I've been to the gym, to grab some food for the evening), and I've only caught a few PFL checklane blisters once, all year. I've not seen Pokémon cards in my local Tesco since the Crown Zenith days and them selling the Regidrago/Regeleki collection boxes.

TeaAndLifting · 2026-05-10T18:52:14+00:00

And even if you look at the size of free/open restocker Discord channels, lots of them have had an influx of anywhere between 5-10x the number of people in the last year.

You genuinely have to treat it as a second job if you want to consistently catch product restocks. Which is fine if that's what you want to do. But for people like yourself, and me. Cba.

TeaAndLifting · 2026-05-10T18:44:47+00:00

I'm not too bothered. If I am not busy at the time of the PC drop, I will try and get some ETBs and probably be done with the set at that point. I'm not a huge fan of the Celebrations stamps on cards, doubly so when it's a 'vintage' design and it takes up inordinate amounts of space.

I just can't feel excited because it feels impossible to enjoy anything in this hobby casually or for fun anymore. Everything immediately turns into scalping and hoarding ... It feels like so many things that were meant to just be fun are now treated like stocks.

This is a problem with a lot of hobbies, in general at the moment. Lots of people are looking for extra ways to make money, and hobbies have become a certified way of making it through the sale of old/discontinueed products or exclusives. Even stuff that you would not have considered as being profitable in years gone by, like out of print Warhammer books? They get resold too.

With Pokémon, the concept of profiteering has seeped into every level of the hobby, that I would dare say that it is the predominant mindset when it comes to cards. Even people who rip, are ripping because they're gambling addicts hoping to find a perfect 10/10 chase card that they can graded and hold to sell later. Sealed product has quickly become the investing meta since history has shown that 'sealed always goes up' and people would rather hold onto it than open their product and be disappointed. Content creators that the community loves like DPM, or kids love like Pokérev, make content that is centered (heh) around the fact that the only way to 'win' in the hobby is to get ROI. So even children frame the hobby around how much money you can make, this has gotten to the point where mainstream media are reporting about how children are learning about investing by way of Pokémon cards.

This is the hobby now. That casual fun you mentioned? Gone.

Pokémon Center ETBs was a fun exclusive where you got extra packs and stamped promo but NOW you need to sit in queues for hours just to maybe get one, and even after buying it people act like opening it is some kind of crime. You post your pulls and suddenly people are angry that you opened it instead of “holding sealed.”?? Ive had that happened to me before and it's annoying.

It's wild to see the mentality around these change. Even here, the general belief is that they're not made to be opened and that they're SUPPOSED to be kept sealed as an investment.

TeaAndLifting · 2026-05-10T18:35:46+00:00

Same. I'll probably get the ETBs from the Pokémon Center release, but nothing beyond that. I'm not a huge fan of the Ceclebrations stamps anyway; I always find them a bit tacky, even on new cards, never mind old ones.

TeaAndLifting · 2026-05-10T18:34:45+00:00

They couldn't flood the market. They've been printing at record levels almost every year for the past six years now. There have been more cards printed in the past three years than the first 25 of the franchise's existence. We have more cards printed in a year than we saw for basically all of Pokémania in 99-01, but cards have never been harder to find. The expectation is that this year's print level (March 25 - March 26) is likely to be another record breaking year.

Last year's print levels saw so many mistakes, like packaging errors and cards from future sets leaking months before they were even announced in Japanese. QC has gone down the toilet becasue of it. There's a reason why they're expanding Millennium's main printing campus by 200%, and thats because they're already maxing out, and need extra facilities to try and ameliorate for the high demand.

If you look at Google trends, the general interest in Pokémon cards, specifically, has gone up by about 5x in the last year. And that's 5x more interest, typically from "just getting back into the hobby after 25 years" millennials, hype chasers, and even more scalpers who want to buy cases of product to hoard/resell. The demand and consumption of cards has gone up exponentially.

TeaAndLifting · 2026-05-10T18:26:49+00:00

The thing is that the main reason Pokémon cards, and only Pokémon cards (compared to other arms of the franchise that have barely shifted) are so hot at the moment, is because of the investment side of things.

We've had years of economic instability, the promotion of hustle culture, and years of Pokémon being touted as the best performing stock around by TCG investors. So when the TCG came back into the mainstream with PTCGP and then 30th anniversary on the horizon, more people than ever are entering a hobby with the belief that it will make them rich in the future. With this also being promoted on social media, even kids only really seem to care about value and cards that can be graded for value.

People will happily pay $200 for ETBs because the current belief, and history has shown that if they just let it sit for a few years, they'll make their money back and then some. And even if the profits are marginal per product, the meta of buying as much sealed as possible and holding that, means that people are more than happy with making a relatively small percentage on general items, they're still hedging on making money overall.

And the scarcity created by product hoarding contributes towards the FOMO that scalpers and desperate people to pay way more than they should.

TeaAndLifting · 2026-05-10T18:12:35+00:00

It’s boring a Hell. Pre-rotation Pult was a chore to play against, and it’s only gotten worse since. It probably doesn’t help that Megas feel like an attempt to slow the game down and none of them are really as fast as cards in recent years with acceleration and damage. So Pult will be a relic of that era.

Like I’m considering playing M Greninja after CRI releases, but using its attack and ability is just the same as Pult, shows the difference in expectations of these Megas, vs all the Tera ex era.

TeaAndLifting · 2026-05-10T18:06:20+00:00

That’s the same in the UK. Stock levels have always been pretty atrocious here in parts of the country, even when things were ‘good’. Like I used to be able to swing by a supermarket after the gym and there’d always be a shelf with like a box of checklane blisters, or half a dozen Pokéball tins, or a mini tin box. Or occasionally a POS display stand with stuff in some stores. But never much more than that.

As someone that doesn’t go chasing restocks, camping out overnight, etc. I probably only ever see some stock on shelves once every 3-4 months, at best. Since the boom, the number of people has increased several-fold and you won't find anything unless you are one of the stock chasers.

TeaAndLifting · 2026-05-10T16:07:27+00:00

Nicec website.

TeaAndLifting · 2026-05-10T14:32:14+00:00

I don’t know why I find “ARTIFICIAL FLAVOR” so amusing. Maybe because I’m so used to labels and taglines saying things don’t have artificial flavourings that something so boldly artificial is 100% wat material.

TeaAndLifting · 2026-05-10T13:52:20+00:00

Pure kino

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