This summer, the Pokemon Trading Card Game is officially taking things back to the Unova region. After months of leaks and details about Japan’s plans, The Pokemon Company has pulled back the curtain on the next English sets for the TCG. In a surprising move, The Pokemon Company will not be combining Japan’s sets, as many had predicted. Instead, Pokemon Black and Pokemon White will each be getting an individual set released: Pokemon Scarlet & Violet – Black Bolt and Pokemon Scarlet & Violet – White Flare. The Pokemon Company is referring to this as a “split expansion,” and it will be released on July 18th.
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The Black Bolt and White Flare sets will each feature more than 170 cards. Black Bolt will have more than 65 Illustration Rares, and White Flare will have 70. Both sets will have more than 5 Pokemon ex cards and more than 5 Special Illustration Rares. The Unova region introduced 156 Pokemon in total, and these new sets will highlight every single one of them, from Snivy all the way to Genesect. Each Pokemon will even have their own dedicated Illustration Rare.
Since Black Bolt and White Flare will be released as special sets, that means Pokemon fans cannot expect to see booster packs sold individually in stores. Instead, both of these sets will be offered alongside new TCG products, including items like tins, binder collections, and Elite Trainer Boxes. Obviously Zekrom and Reshiram will get the majority of the spotlight in terms of these products, but the tins will also feature art highlighting Unova favorites like Axew, Chandelure, and Volcarona. A preorder date for some of these products has not been announced, as of this writing.
While some of the products will be available on July 18th, fans can expect a staggered release, as we’ve seen with other special sets like Prismatic Evolutions. That means some products will be released later on. This is the second time that we’ve seen a special set dedicated entirely to one region, as we saw a similar TCG theme last year, when Scarlet & Violet – 151 focused on Kanto. It’s not clear why The Pokemon Company decided to jump over the Johto, Hoenn, and Sinnoh regions to do Unova next, but fans of Pokemon Black and White should be pretty happy, regardless.
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Pokemon TCG products have been notoriously difficult to find in stores over the last year, and special sets have been no exception. The Pokemon Company has talked extensively about its desire to make it easier for fans to obtain cards, as opposed to those willing to resell them on sites like eBay. Hopefully Pokemon Scarlet & Violet – Black Bolt and White Flare won’t be too difficult to find, especially for fans of the DS games that inspired them.
Are you excited for these two sets based on Pokemon Black and White? Did you ever play the Unova generation on Nintendo DS? Share your thoughts with me directly on Bluesky at @Marcdachamp, or on Instagram at @Dachampgaming!
[H/T: PokeBeach]
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Bob looking angry in Thunderbolts*
