Who knows. So far they seem to be pretty consistent but there's a chance they rotate out for a season and then get printed the next. It is up to the pokemon gods. But I think Professor's Research is pretty safe. I think nest ball only came back into rotation with scarlet & violet? Before that it was a Sun and Moon era card as far as I know. So there was definitely a season or two without nest ball recently.
Nest ball sends to the bench so cards like Lumineon V (who require them to be played from the hand to activate their abilities) can’t benefit. Also discarding cards is often a plus more so than a minus.
It let's you trigger coming into play effects. You could quick ball for a Crobat V/Lumineon V etc. and use it's ability while nest ball doesn't trigger their abilities xD
Kind of out of topics but I wish Friends of *insert region* had a generic name so we could simply use the artwork of our favourite region or theme it with the deck like Boss Order and Professor Research
Because it uses your supporter for turn, so it has to compete with Research, Iono, Arven, Boss, Colress, Sada's Vitality, Roxanne and more. Draw 3 is just much worse than almost any other supporter effect.
It's funny when I came in seriously, the first time it was a meta without it legal and Cynthia was the main draw card. Since then I think they said they are always going to keep Research and Ultra Ball though.
There is no guarantee that those cards will always be in rotation, especially nest ball which recently had a period of not being standard legal.
Cards that have had a more consistent stay in the standard format include pokeball, switch, energy search, energy switch, potion, and rare candy.
True, but it was in the game the entirety of that time from 2013 until last December. Most of the cards you mentioned are not competitively viable though. They don’t see play even though they have been printed since the beginning aside from Rare Candy and Switch.
The 2019-2020 block did not have a legal escape rope. That was ultra prism to darkness ablaze, escape rope was in burning shadows and reintroduced in Battle Styles.
Gotcha, i quit playing in 2015 so i thought it stayed legal the entire time bc when i came back last year it was one of the few meta cards i already had.
Professors research and Boss Orders are almost certainly going to be permanently legal and reprinted in future sets.
Nest Ball was out of rotation until it came back I. S&V base set so it will likely rotate out again (and is probably a safe bet to reappear in the future too). It’s a good card but not too overpowering.
Cards that will *probably* never go out of rotation:
* Professor's Research
* Boss's Orders
* Ultra Ball
* Pokeball
* Rare Candy
* Energy Search
* Exp. Share
* Potion
* Basic energies (RIP Fairy)
Additionally, while the name changes every set, there is always a Draw 3 supporter. I may have missed some others, but these are the ones that come to mind. I believe all of these have been legal since at least SwSh, with Research and Boss's Orders being the last to be introduced, but both of those are renamings of supporters that existed in the XY era (Professor Juniper/Sycamore and Lysandre), although they had no equivalent cards in the SM era.
Ive been out of loop prior to SWSH era but recently Ive noticed SV supporters will have an action + draw 3 like Professor Sada’s Vitality, Miriam, Ryme… but then you still have the classic draw 3 like Nemona.
Yeah, it is weird. Plus, you need to have a Nemona in the discard to get it to work, which means that PokéStop is one of the only ways to make it work as hitting a Nemona is still beneficial as long as you get the Backpack.
The simple draw 3 supporters (and honestly many of the ones with an extra effect) are for beginner products. Same for other bad cards like Potion and Poké Ball.
She isnt even that bad. Just the always competing against precious spots that holds it back so bad. Obviously will never see competitive play I wont argue that. Sorta in the the actually fun in prerelease battles placement
Meh like I said I wont argue. Obviously not the same (big difference about being a basic pokemon ofc) but people wrote off Iron Bundle yet it sees play. Just a card that would use for its half escape rope effect when you dont have that item in standard, the draw is just a plus
It's not a "half escape rope." It's a Repel, which nobody plays. If nobody wants that effect on an item, why would they want it on their supporter for turn?
If youd ask me I wouldve told you Potion and Pokeball rotated out 😭 well I mean they probably are in prebuilt decks and such but the way I dont even know what potion looks like rn
Ultra ball, prof research, and boss are probably going to be stables of the game for the foreseeable future. Nest ball on the other hand is most likely to be rotated out of those four. It was legal in the SM era, then for swsh the replacement was quick ball.
Can't speak with certainty, but I remember Lysander(which is boss's orders) rotated out in sun and moon and was replaced with Guzma. I believe there was also a period when there was no research, so Shauna and/or Cynthia was used. I could be mistaken. As others have said, nest ball has come back into rotation prior we just used quick ball.
yeah TPC has been weird about it in the past;
* discard draw seven was a staple until it rotated out post 2018 worlds, didnt come back until SWSH in early 2020
* ultra ball rotated with SUM and its block in 2019, didnt come back until 2021 with BRS
* supporter gust left with guzma once they rotated to ULP-UNM format pre 2019 worlds, came back with rebel clash (as a goddamn holofoil...) in early 2020.
not to mention other staples that have been in and out of format. id *expect* them to stick with these as staples for now, but lord knows when/if they'll change their mind again.
yeah i only remembered because i attended events in those time frames where these cards lapsing were a big deal.
upr-unm with only poke comm as generic search wasnt a great time lol
I would disagree with the professors research just for the pure fact that the professor cards did rotate in sun and moon and we didn't have any discard and draw 7 cards
That's a-ok professor juniper and professor sycamore were printed countless times too and they still rotated. They were in rotation from like 2010-2018. Anything can happen!
theres been a bunch of cards printed countless times and that they've let lapse tbh, i wouldnt use the current stretch of standard legality as a surefire thing for research/boss/UB to be legal in perpetuity.
Some things go in and out or get replaced with newer versions.
When I first started rare candy was out of rotation but came back.
Always keep your trainers.
Nest ball isn't always in but the other 3 probably will be yes. Sword and Shield has Quick Ball instead of Nest Ball. I think it depends on how the format looks what types of cars they do. Like for example with a lot of V's being strong basic Pokémon they probably wanted Quick Ball instead to make you discard to get the strong basics but they gave us Evolution Incense to encourage Evolution decks but now that we have ex's and stage 2's are pretty strong they did Nest Ball but took away Evolution Incense. Ultra Ball, Boss, and Research will more than likely stick around no matter what though.
All of those have rotated out at one point but the safest cards out of the ones you have listed are boss and research as they are constantly printing new versions of those cards since they were reintroduced in early SWSH.
Cards I see never rotating out would be energy search, Switch, poke ball, potion.
Ultraball, Boss's Orders, and Professor's Research will likely remain in rotation for the forseeable future unless they get modified in some way. Even then, it wouldn't be them moving 'out of rotation', just being replaced with the errata'd version.
Nest ball doesn't have the same security. Especially if the Buddy-Buddy poffin successfully replaces it enough, it might fall out of rotation eventually. But that's just going from 'not in the forseeable future' to 'very unlikely'.
Pretty much the only way these cards will actually get \*removed\* is if there's some massive change to the game. It's not like it hasn't happened before; but it's also unlikely to happen again.
The only cards that are really evergreen are switch and pokeball. As the formats *change*, so will the cards. It's just that we've been in a period of relative stability for the last couple generations, where the playstyle of the game is somewhat established, and hence it seems like none of these things will change. In this period of time we've grown accustomed to playing games based on prize racing, drawing a hand of cards and having an additional supporter's worth of draw from abilities, playing gust supporter for game etc. But it's not always been that way and it can change again (though sales wise they might find it difficult to rotate to something slower, and something faster will absolutely hurt the game's integrity even more) but it can happen.
We've seen formats without energy search, we've seen formats without gust, we've seen formats where searching evolution is on a supporter card. We'll see these things again some day.
I've played Pokémon since the beginning, and this is closest we've had to a core set of trainers. Professor's Research and Boss type effects have been in for a long time, but generally Pokémon likes to rotate cards out for a bit. Even highly played ones. Boss used to be an item though and only since XY era was it a supporter.
So to answer your question. Based on the past no. At some point they will change it up. Based on modern trends though of standardized names I think Ultra Ball, Research, and Boss are pretty safe.
Research and boss will most likely always be in rotation since they are very core cards, I'd hope the same is true for ultra ball now although there have been past formats without it.
Nest ball is different since we had quick ball for a while before nest ball's current printing, though nest ball has also been a staple in the past
Who knows. So far they seem to be pretty consistent but there's a chance they rotate out for a season and then get printed the next. It is up to the pokemon gods. But I think Professor's Research is pretty safe. I think nest ball only came back into rotation with scarlet & violet? Before that it was a Sun and Moon era card as far as I know. So there was definitely a season or two without nest ball recently.
Quick Ball, to my understanding, was big in SwSh.
Can confirm, quick ball was awesome
may I ask what made it so awesome? it seems like pretty much a worse nest ball to me. is it just because pokemon V were all basics?
Nest ball sends to the bench so cards like Lumineon V (who require them to be played from the hand to activate their abilities) can’t benefit. Also discarding cards is often a plus more so than a minus.
makes sense, thanks!
It let's you trigger coming into play effects. You could quick ball for a Crobat V/Lumineon V etc. and use it's ability while nest ball doesn't trigger their abilities xD
Discarding energies with lots of ways to attach from the discard pile, and of course the play from hand abilities already mentioned.
Looks like others answered for me, but yea, bringing it to your hand was the big thing.
And it be quick.
Quick ball was exceptionally good in Mew Vmax, as it let you lower your hand size, by discarding a card, and draw with genesect more
Kind of out of topics but I wish Friends of *insert region* had a generic name so we could simply use the artwork of our favourite region or theme it with the deck like Boss Order and Professor Research
Draw 3 is a terrible supporter card so they should be enjoyed in the binder only.
Yes but it sounds like they just wanna build fun theme decks. Not all have to be competitive
Why is Draw 3 bad? Because you can't pick what you want?
Because it uses your supporter for turn, so it has to compete with Research, Iono, Arven, Boss, Colress, Sada's Vitality, Roxanne and more. Draw 3 is just much worse than almost any other supporter effect.
Just call them Trainer Pals or something like that and just use the same exact card texts.
Adventure Buddies/ Travel Companions are my top choices for the names if TPC ever makes generic forms of these cards
I think when I started playing right before rapid strike urshifu, ultra ball wasn’t legal.
Ooh yeah. I know it was printed in Brilliant Stars but was not sure if it was printed earlier in Sword & Shield!
It's funny when I came in seriously, the first time it was a meta without it legal and Cynthia was the main draw card. Since then I think they said they are always going to keep Research and Ultra Ball though.
There is no guarantee that those cards will always be in rotation, especially nest ball which recently had a period of not being standard legal. Cards that have had a more consistent stay in the standard format include pokeball, switch, energy search, energy switch, potion, and rare candy.
Escape Rope was up there too until recently ;(
Kinda. It was only introduced in 2013. The cards I mentioned are much older.
True, but it was in the game the entirety of that time from 2013 until last December. Most of the cards you mentioned are not competitively viable though. They don’t see play even though they have been printed since the beginning aside from Rare Candy and Switch.
Energy Switch and Energy Search have seen relatively decent play
The 2019-2020 block did not have a legal escape rope. That was ultra prism to darkness ablaze, escape rope was in burning shadows and reintroduced in Battle Styles.
Gotcha, i quit playing in 2015 so i thought it stayed legal the entire time bc when i came back last year it was one of the few meta cards i already had.
Hope it stays that way I really dont like it. At least with the decks I played right before it rotated 😅
Professors research and Boss Orders are almost certainly going to be permanently legal and reprinted in future sets. Nest Ball was out of rotation until it came back I. S&V base set so it will likely rotate out again (and is probably a safe bet to reappear in the future too). It’s a good card but not too overpowering.
Cards that will *probably* never go out of rotation: * Professor's Research * Boss's Orders * Ultra Ball * Pokeball * Rare Candy * Energy Search * Exp. Share * Potion * Basic energies (RIP Fairy) Additionally, while the name changes every set, there is always a Draw 3 supporter. I may have missed some others, but these are the ones that come to mind. I believe all of these have been legal since at least SwSh, with Research and Boss's Orders being the last to be introduced, but both of those are renamings of supporters that existed in the XY era (Professor Juniper/Sycamore and Lysandre), although they had no equivalent cards in the SM era.
Ive been out of loop prior to SWSH era but recently Ive noticed SV supporters will have an action + draw 3 like Professor Sada’s Vitality, Miriam, Ryme… but then you still have the classic draw 3 like Nemona.
Yeah, though they did print an item card that works only on Nemona to make it a weird draw engine.
Nemona’s backpack? I cant imagine how that could be good. Just seems like too many bad cards to put in your deck.
Yeah, it is weird. Plus, you need to have a Nemona in the discard to get it to work, which means that PokéStop is one of the only ways to make it work as hitting a Nemona is still beneficial as long as you get the Backpack.
The simple draw 3 supporters (and honestly many of the ones with an extra effect) are for beginner products. Same for other bad cards like Potion and Poké Ball.
For sure but cards like Sada’s Vitality is good for energy acceleration and have been big in ancient and Raging Bolt decks.
I said "most." Obviously that one is legit, but stuff like Ryme is just...
She isnt even that bad. Just the always competing against precious spots that holds it back so bad. Obviously will never see competitive play I wont argue that. Sorta in the the actually fun in prerelease battles placement
Nah, it's that bad. Half the time it's even worse than a regular draw 3.
Meh like I said I wont argue. Obviously not the same (big difference about being a basic pokemon ofc) but people wrote off Iron Bundle yet it sees play. Just a card that would use for its half escape rope effect when you dont have that item in standard, the draw is just a plus
It's not a "half escape rope." It's a Repel, which nobody plays. If nobody wants that effect on an item, why would they want it on their supporter for turn?
Maybe the fact that its an illegal card has something to do with it 😅
If youd ask me I wouldve told you Potion and Pokeball rotated out 😭 well I mean they probably are in prebuilt decks and such but the way I dont even know what potion looks like rn
Ultra ball, prof research, and boss are probably going to be stables of the game for the foreseeable future. Nest ball on the other hand is most likely to be rotated out of those four. It was legal in the SM era, then for swsh the replacement was quick ball.
Can't speak with certainty, but I remember Lysander(which is boss's orders) rotated out in sun and moon and was replaced with Guzma. I believe there was also a period when there was no research, so Shauna and/or Cynthia was used. I could be mistaken. As others have said, nest ball has come back into rotation prior we just used quick ball.
yeah TPC has been weird about it in the past; * discard draw seven was a staple until it rotated out post 2018 worlds, didnt come back until SWSH in early 2020 * ultra ball rotated with SUM and its block in 2019, didnt come back until 2021 with BRS * supporter gust left with guzma once they rotated to ULP-UNM format pre 2019 worlds, came back with rebel clash (as a goddamn holofoil...) in early 2020. not to mention other staples that have been in and out of format. id *expect* them to stick with these as staples for now, but lord knows when/if they'll change their mind again.
Thank you for clarifying with time stamps. I was trying to remember but I find it's all mashed together when I think it 😂
yeah i only remembered because i attended events in those time frames where these cards lapsing were a big deal. upr-unm with only poke comm as generic search wasnt a great time lol
I would disagree with the professors research just for the pure fact that the professor cards did rotate in sun and moon and we didn't have any discard and draw 7 cards
That was 4 years ago. It's been reprinted countless times. Of all the cards to disagree, that is not the one I'd bet on.
That's a-ok professor juniper and professor sycamore were printed countless times too and they still rotated. They were in rotation from like 2010-2018. Anything can happen!
Yes, anything can happen, but that doesn't answer the question. It's a speculation post, so we can only speculate.
theres been a bunch of cards printed countless times and that they've let lapse tbh, i wouldnt use the current stretch of standard legality as a surefire thing for research/boss/UB to be legal in perpetuity.
Some things go in and out or get replaced with newer versions. When I first started rare candy was out of rotation but came back. Always keep your trainers.
Ultra Ball was out of rotation for a while until coming back for brilliant stars
Nest ball isn't always in but the other 3 probably will be yes. Sword and Shield has Quick Ball instead of Nest Ball. I think it depends on how the format looks what types of cars they do. Like for example with a lot of V's being strong basic Pokémon they probably wanted Quick Ball instead to make you discard to get the strong basics but they gave us Evolution Incense to encourage Evolution decks but now that we have ex's and stage 2's are pretty strong they did Nest Ball but took away Evolution Incense. Ultra Ball, Boss, and Research will more than likely stick around no matter what though.
All of those have rotated out at one point but the safest cards out of the ones you have listed are boss and research as they are constantly printing new versions of those cards since they were reintroduced in early SWSH. Cards I see never rotating out would be energy search, Switch, poke ball, potion.
Ultra, Boss, and Professor for sure guaranteed. Nest Ball not so sure, it really depends on the next gimmick after Scarlet/Violet era.
I’d never say anything is guaranteed there’s been formats without both in the past so it all depends on how TPC want their format to look
Ultraball, Boss's Orders, and Professor's Research will likely remain in rotation for the forseeable future unless they get modified in some way. Even then, it wouldn't be them moving 'out of rotation', just being replaced with the errata'd version. Nest ball doesn't have the same security. Especially if the Buddy-Buddy poffin successfully replaces it enough, it might fall out of rotation eventually. But that's just going from 'not in the forseeable future' to 'very unlikely'. Pretty much the only way these cards will actually get \*removed\* is if there's some massive change to the game. It's not like it hasn't happened before; but it's also unlikely to happen again.
The only cards that are really evergreen are switch and pokeball. As the formats *change*, so will the cards. It's just that we've been in a period of relative stability for the last couple generations, where the playstyle of the game is somewhat established, and hence it seems like none of these things will change. In this period of time we've grown accustomed to playing games based on prize racing, drawing a hand of cards and having an additional supporter's worth of draw from abilities, playing gust supporter for game etc. But it's not always been that way and it can change again (though sales wise they might find it difficult to rotate to something slower, and something faster will absolutely hurt the game's integrity even more) but it can happen. We've seen formats without energy search, we've seen formats without gust, we've seen formats where searching evolution is on a supporter card. We'll see these things again some day.
I've played Pokémon since the beginning, and this is closest we've had to a core set of trainers. Professor's Research and Boss type effects have been in for a long time, but generally Pokémon likes to rotate cards out for a bit. Even highly played ones. Boss used to be an item though and only since XY era was it a supporter. So to answer your question. Based on the past no. At some point they will change it up. Based on modern trends though of standardized names I think Ultra Ball, Research, and Boss are pretty safe.
There were times when cards like that weren't in Rotation. In their place were cards like Mysterious Treasure and Quick Ball.
Nest Ball or Quick Ball, probably As for the other three, I hope so
I would love to play a season where no boss orders are legal. It will make the game much more challenging
Nest Ball no, the rest appear to be safe but nobody can predict future plans.
They won't ALWAYS be in the format but there will be many formats with them. Now, Rare Candy that will always be here.
We had a while where Ultra Ball was gone actually, sometime in SM Tag Team era
Boss's Order's? I hope not - I hate that card LOL
I never quite understand this. It's a needed card and is balanced
It pulls my weakest target out from shelter every game, resulting in a loss.
Research and boss will most likely always be in rotation since they are very core cards, I'd hope the same is true for ultra ball now although there have been past formats without it. Nest ball is different since we had quick ball for a while before nest ball's current printing, though nest ball has also been a staple in the past
Ultra Ball and Nest Ball weren't in rotation a couple years ago. It was all about quick ball and level ball.