Column: Pokémon Company should drastically change our Theme Decks

Theme decks for Pokémon TCG have been around since the very beginning, teaching players how to play this nice card game.

It's always the same with each upcoming set for us. A new set will launch, and there are 2 theme decks available with a regular card in shatterfoil as the display. But are you really enjoying these theme decks each set? 

We want to emphasize that this article is based on the opinion of this author and that everyone can take a different view.

Theme Decks have evolved overtime 

A small introduction: Some collectors / players have complained for a long time theme decks were too bad for play. And yes, I personally agree. Alot of theme decks in the past were just not good enough to build a good deck on as a beginner.

They are meant for teaching the basics of the game, which is perfectly fine. But nowadays I think they are holding back on purpose, like a teaser for beginning players, to let you buy expensive products that include a GX card. 

They have started to begin releasing theme decks, starting with Mach Strike from Ultra Prism. Which featured 2x Cynthia, 2x Nest Ball, 1x Lucario and 2x Garchomp from the new Ultra Prism set. Lucario works great with Garchomp since it lets you find any card from your deck if you have Garchomp in play. In addition to that Garchomp was a very good card too. 

Since then they have changed up more recent theme decks with better cards that you can play with. For example the theme decks from Team Up and Unbroken Bonds. 

Battle Arena Decks

But I start wondering why Pokémon Company / Creatures Inc. doesn't change the Theme Deck formula. Of course, from a business perspective,

However; The last Battle Arena deck, Mega Charizard X vs Mega Blastoise also is very underwhelming. The last time they released a Battle Arena deck (Rayquaza vs Keldeo) before Mega Charizard X vs Mega Blastoise, it had alot of value. At the time of release it was worth at least $80. It included VS Seeker, Lysandre, N, Ultra Ball and more good cards at the time. Why did they hold back so much with the most recent Battle Arena deck? 

Japan

Where do I need to start?  Japan always had starter decks before that would include EX cards or something in that range. Last year in 2018 however, they released GX Starter Decks that would cost you around $5. The special thing about these products? They feature 1 guaranteed GX, but they also would gave you many playable trainer cards along with them. All in a 60 card deck. If that was not enough, they would also give you a sealed pack of 2 Lugia 237/SM-P Promo's as a promotion. 

These GX Starter Decks were so popular in Japan;

It contributed to Pokemon Centers in Japan selling out of all stock and many many new Pokemon TCG players emerged in Japan, These decks were a huge success. These new players contributed in a huge drought of packs, so hard that even Japanese card shops would re-stock boosterboxes from overseas stores from various markets (eBay etc.) so that their card shop would not be out of stock. And Pokemon Centers would be full of scalpers that would buy everything they could as soon as restocks would happen. 

If you bought for example 3-4 Lapras GX starter decks, you could absolutely make a very consistent good (Quad Lapras) beginners deck. All for the price of 1 theme deck here. 

What I want to see in the future

If theme decks were this way, I could teach beginners more easily to play GX decks. But the sad truth is of course they are most of the time tins or GX boxes that cost alot for a beginner.

In Asia (Korea, Thailand and etc.), they also include GX cards in their Theme Decks / Starter Decks. 

What I don't understand is that we get overcharged so much for a theme deck. If the MSRP would be around $10 without GX card here, it would be better. You can include bad cards like Raikou GX to let beginners feel comfortable with GX cards and to introduce what GX cards do during gameplay. 

It personally is not nice to say to new players that you have to buy packs or boxed products that contain a GX card and that you are not done with a theme deck alone. They will see a GX marker that is included in their theme deck, only to discover that you will have to pay more to get a GX card.  

Creatures Inc. should really include a GX/EX equivalent of the Sword & Shield TCG in their theme decks like the images below. 

What do you think what would change about these theme decks we have here? Let me know your opinion.