I understand this is unlikely to get accepted, but I'd just like to address a few things.
Jephon wrote:No!!! I’ve been so excited for TCG to be included in the mod! Not only is it a single mod for players to download, it’s getting TCG some much needed love and attention.
The majority of players use a modpack, of which would contain a separate TCG mod, that players would still use. The reason I proposed this is for servers and players to be able to not use TCG if they so decide, instead of forcing it upon them. For example, a whole story-based server loses it's feel once players get ahold of TCG, unless you somehow change your story to add them, which is not something we should have to accommodate for. At the very least, an option to disable TCG would be nice.
SKyTheThunder wrote:Having it as a separate mod would make integration much harder. For example, adding TCG shops to villages requires overriding the template pools for village houses, so any and all changes in base Pixelmon would need to be reflected there as well. Same goes for loot tables and other integrations.
TCG already IS a separate mod, it's just hosted in the same Pixelmon jar. NPC shops are handled by TCG as if it were any sidemod, using Pixelmon as a dependency. As far as I can tell from looking at it, nothing would change. All that would change is splitting them into 2 different jar files, giving both players and servers options.
As for the other suggestions/discussion to do with card sets, I believe they belong in a separate thread.