The folks behind the Pokemon Trading Card Game knocked it out of the park with the Mega Evolution: Ascended Heroes collection earlier this year. That special lineup delivered some of the best cards in years. It was always going to be a tough act to follow, but the show must go on. The next standard expansion for the Pokemon TCG: Mega Evolution run is Perfect Order, out March 27th. It’s a smaller product lineup and card list than its predecessor but will debut new cards for a few Megas first revealed in Legends: Z-A.
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Perfect Order features just 3 primary products, plus a set of Build & Battle boxes for Play Pokemon stores. The lineup includes a Mega Zygarde-themed Elite Trainer Box, a Booster Bundle, and a Booster Display Box. All pretty standard offerings geared at getting boosters out into the wild, without all the bells and whistles of a special collection. Indeed, Perfect Order is a perfectly adequate new addition to the Pokemon TCG. It offers a few standout Illustration Rares and features a few cards that will likely see some play. This isn’t the most impressive set we’ve seen in recent years, but it’s not the worst, either.
Rating: 3 out of 5
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Some stunning full arts with decent pull rates | Relatively small expansion with just 120 cards |
| A handful of solid, playable item and trainer cards | Fewer standout cards for both collectors & players compared to other recent sets |
| Good overall card variety per pack | Average to low ex pull rates |
Pokemon TCG: Mega Evolution – Perfect Order Has Some Adorable Card Art, But It’s Few and Far Between
My experience ripping packs from Perfect Order was a mixed bag, to say the least. In total, I opened 55 packs across the product line, which is nicely booster pack heavy without the kind of fluff you see in a special collection. Many of the common Pokemon, Trainer, and Item cards look fine, but don’t necessarily stand out. The print quality for the set looks good from my sampling, but the artwork for most of the standard cards didn’t really make me want to linger to appreciate them.
The same can’t be said for the handful of Illustration Rares I managed to pull, however. Quite a few of these are absolutely stunning (and adorable, I might add, for Pokemon like Spewpa and Espurr). I actually gasped at how adorable some of the cards I pulled were, so it’s safe to say there are some standouts in Perfect Order. But by and large, there aren’t likely to be any major chase cards from this set compared to other recent releases. There are just a few Special Illustration Rares in the mix and just one Mega Hyper Rare, and none of them feature particular fan favorite Pokemon.
The new Megas on display with this set are Mega Clefairy, Mega Starmie, and Mega Zygarde. Each of them has a Super Illustration Rare ex, with Mega Zygarde as the only Mega Hyper Rare in the set. The set also introduces an ex card for Meowth of all Pokemon, with a Special Illustration Rare in the mix. These cards make excellent use of color, but in my opinion, they pale in comparison to some of the more common cards in the set.
For those who like to try and complete sets, the small size of Perfect Order and the small number of rare chase cards will no doubt be welcome. The Illustration Rares are quite stunning and, in my experience, have pretty decent pull rates. I wound up with 8 of them from my 55-pack sample, plus one Ultra Rare and a single Special Illustration Rare.
Perfect Order Could Be a Good Chance to Add New Cards to Your Play Deck
Aside from the small card list being a win for completionists, I don’t think rare card collectors are going to go wild for this set. Some of those Illustration Rares are stunning, but the art for the more common cards does outshine the rarer varieties. That makes for a set that’s not likely to have too many big-ticket chase cards for collectors (or resellers) to covet. That can be disappointing if you love the thrill of hunting down a rare and beautiful card (hello, Ascended Heroes Psyduck Super Illustration Rare). But for those eager to refresh their Pokemon TCG gameplay strategy, this could be a welcome opportunity.
The cards in Perfect Order have some solid gameplay potential. The popular Poke Pad returns, and it seems pretty plentiful in the collection if my pulls are any indication. Perfect Order also offers some new Special Energy Cards that could be strategically interesting, provided you’re running a deck with the corresponding energy. By and large, there aren’t any massively impressive new cards from what I can tell, but there are plenty of perfectly decent ones. Given the fact that Perfect Order may be easier to find on shelves than many recent releases, that could be a win for Pokemon TCG players.
Along with having some good playability, the variety per pack seems solid for such a small set. I pulled quite a few different standard Pokemon in each pack, without having a handful of cards really take over. That’s good news for variety for gameplay and collecting purposes, as well. That said, if you’re hoping for a few more ex heavy-hitters, the pull rates there are definitely average to poor. I pulled just a handful of ex cards across 55 packs, and got several duplicates in the mix. So while standard card variety is good, the ex roster is looking pretty rough this time around.
Overall, there were a few great hits from this expansion that blew me away, but everything else felt pretty standard. Even if Perfect Order is pretty average compared to some other big hitters, it’s still likely to have something to offer Pokemon TCG fans when it arrives later this month.
ComicBook received sample product from the Pokemon TCG: Mega Evolution – Perfect Order line for the purpose of this review.
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