Pokémon TCG Legendary Treasures - TWO RARES per pack !?

I went in to a pre release this morning not expecting much form this set. Most of the cards are re-prints and the past few sets didn't really have spectacular pull ratios. In fact, the previous set, Plasma Blast, had by far the worst ratios in the entire Pokémon Black and White TCG series. I remember getting excited about my first Plasma Blast booster box, and even decided to do an unboxing video for it. It was horrid. Out of the entire box, the only ultra rare I pulled was a Virizion EX. No Other EX's, Full Arts, or even ACE-Specs. Don't believe me? Watch the videos here.

Anyway, so we get our 6 packs of Legendary Treasures for the pre release tournament, and in the first pack what do I pull? Victini EX, Meloetta EX, AND a Gyarados. Every getting all super excited, I figured surely they made a mistake and I got lucky with my pack. Nope. I went on to pull a Full Art Mew EX, Full Art Shaymin EX, and a few other rares and holos, notably Zoroark and Emboar. So, it seems that each pack will have TWO rares in it. That's right, not 1, but 2. They will also feature one card from the Radiant Collection, which has it's own rarity, and then of course the reverse holo. This means you have the chance of pulling up to FOUR rares in a pack, and you can even pull two EX's since Radiant Collection has it's own rarity scheme.

What this effectively means is that The Pokémon Company is being generous and letting everyone catch up to the game before the release of the X and Y sets in February. Okay maybe generous is too nice of a word, they're basically milking the set and the only way to make it worthwhile is obviously lowering the card rarities. Previous cards like Mewtwo EX and Genesect EX, which go for $20-40 online will see a price reduction as they become more common. Many other cards such as Garbotoxin Garbodor and Magic Room Gothitelle get re-prints to give newer players a fighting chance as well.

So I have to say, kudos to The Pokémon Company for actually making this set worthwhile. We can all get some pretty badass Pokémon Cards without delving too deeply into our pockets. The playing field can also be evened out between those who have thousands to spend on cards versus the less fortunate. My only complaint with this set, and a petty one at that, is the actual art on the packs. Coming from the previous plasma sets with amazing Deoxys and Lugia artwork, we have some pretty stale and plain looking 3D graphics here. Simplicity is nice I guess, but would it have killed them to choose something other than pokémon that have already been featured on previous sets in BW, especially Genesect which was in Plasma Blast? Although Mewtwo and Genesect are pretty big right now with the movie's release and all, so I guess that can slide. However, it would've been nice to see something other than Black and White Kyurem.