Pokemon Trading Card Game Announces Next Expansion

The Pokemon Trading Card Game is returning to the Kalos region.

The Pokemon Company officially announced details about the next TCG expansion, which will be called "Forbidden Light." The new set will feature Pokemon first seen in Pokemon X & Y, along with some powerful Pokemon from more recent games.

According to Pokemon.com, the new expansion will contain over 130 cards, making it one of the biggest card sets yet. The set will contain GX cards featuring Lucario, Greninja, Zygarde, Yveltal, Naganadel, and the fearsome Ultra Necrozma. Ultra Necrozma will also serve as the main mascot for the new set.

Prism Cards will also make their return in "Forbidden Light." Prism Cards are as powerful as GX-Cards but only cost one Prize Card when defeated. However, once a player loses a Prism Card, it goes into a special discard pile called the "Lost Zone" that permanently removes them from the game. Players can only have one of each type of Prism Card in their deck in order to keep the cards from being too overpowered. This set will include Prism Cards featuring Volcanion and Arceus.

The set is already available in Japan, so we already have an idea of which cards will be the most sought after by Pokemon TCG players. One intriguing card is Naganadel-GX, which has a GX-Move that could shorten games dramatically. The Stinger-GX card forces both players to shuffle their prizes into their deck and then replace them with their deck's top three cards. In essence, this cuts down the time a normal Pokemon TCG game, because players potentially only have half as many cards they need to win.

As with other expansions, the "Forbidden Light" expansion also comes with a new Elite Trainers Box and will also have several pre-made theme decks for trainers who want to jump right into the game.

The "Forbidden Light" expansion officially hits stores on May 4th. Some game stores will have special pre-release events that will let players get their hands on the cards a couple of weeks early.