Things aren’t just becoming clear, It’s starting to look…
Pokemon Black & White return to the Pokemon card game in Pokemon TCG Scarlet & Violet Black Bolt and White Flare sets, not just that but as the first ever twin set to be released outside of the Japanese TCG (OCG). The Black Bolt and White Flare sets make up the cards found in Japan’s sets of the same name, with almost the exact same card listings as well, making it an exciting yet challenging set for collectors of the trading card game with over 150 Illustration & Special Illustration rare cards combined. That means there is an art card for every one of the Pokemon available in the set, but will this adventure be worth the risk to find them all, especially with the introduction of the illusive trio of Black & White rarity cards?
The set is evenly split between the two themes, mirroring the cards found in the Japanese versions almost exactly with very little variation between the card lists. This is great to see as fans outside of Japan normally don’t receive all of the cards in booster packs as many become either promos or are taken out to be used in another set later in the release schedule. However, there is the addition of the Black & White (B&W) rare Red Victini card that was a promo for those that attended tournaments in the Japanese series. This has been added to both sets alongside a Reshiram, in White Flare, and Zekrom, in Black Bolt, as part of the B&W rarity of cards, some have even speculated that to pull a card of this rarity in the set you would have to open up over 1000 booster packs. That is quite possibly one of the lowest pull rates in recent years of the Pokemon TCG, in comparison the Umbreon EX from Prismatic evolutions had a pull rate of 1 in 1440 packs, making getting a specific B&W rare card roughly 1 in 3000!
This one is definitely for the collectors
Amongst these are the largest collection of art rare cards in a set to date, with each of the pokemon, across both of the sets, receiving an illustration or special illustration rare card. Many fan favourites get some lovely treatment with their artwork cards, especially the starting trio and their evolutions, with some fan favourites getting the spotlight for the first time in a long while, as seen with a personal favourite of mine in Golurk. But, this does mean that both sets suffer from what many special sets, such as those released at the end/start of the year, also have to deal with as a celebratory collection; the sets become bloated with these special rarity cards and become inflate the prices of the overall products from those looking to hunt down a specific card. This also causes problems for fans that are avid collectors that hope to build a master binder of the series, now faced with the daunting challenge of collecting every one of the artwork cards in the set.
Things aren’t just becoming clear, It’s starting to look…
Pokemon Black & White return to the Pokemon card game in Pokemon TCG Scarlet & Violet Black Bolt and White Flare sets, not just that but as the first ever twin set to be released outside of the Japanese TCG (OCG). The Black Bolt and White Flare sets make up the cards found in Japan’s sets of the same name, with almost the exact same card listings as well, making it an exciting yet challenging set for collectors of the trading card game with over 150 Illustration & Special Illustration rare cards combined. That means there is an art card for every one of the Pokemon available in the set, but will this adventure be worth the risk to find them all, especially with the introduction of the illusive trio of Black & White rarity cards?
The set is evenly split between the two themes, mirroring the cards found in the Japanese versions almost exactly with very little variation between the card lists. This is great to see as fans outside of Japan normally don’t receive all of the cards in booster packs as many become either promos or are taken out to be used in another set later in the release schedule. However, there is the addition of the Black & White (B&W) rare Red Victini card that was a promo for those that attended tournaments in the Japanese series. This has been added to both sets alongside a Reshiram, in White Flare, and Zekrom, in Black Bolt, as part of the B&W rarity of cards, some have even speculated that to pull a card of this rarity in the set you would have to open up over 1000 booster packs. That is quite possibly one of the lowest pull rates in recent years of the Pokemon TCG, in comparison the Umbreon EX from Prismatic evolutions had a pull rate of 1 in 1440 packs, making getting a specific B&W rare card roughly 1 in 3000!
This one is definitely for the collectors
Amongst these are the largest collection of art rare cards in a set to date, with each of the pokemon, across both of the sets, receiving an illustration or special illustration rare card. Many fan favourites get some lovely treatment with their artwork cards, especially the starting trio and their evolutions, with some fan favourites getting the spotlight for the first time in a long while, as seen with a personal favourite of mine in Golurk. But, this does mean that both sets suffer from what many special sets, such as those released at the end/start of the year, also have to deal with as a celebratory collection; the sets become bloated with these special rarity cards and become inflate the prices of the overall products from those looking to hunt down a specific card. This also causes problems for fans that are avid collectors that hope to build a master binder of the series, now faced with the daunting challenge of collecting every one of the artwork cards in the set.
As the sub-title suggests, I do strongly believe that the set is mostly aimed at collectors of pokemon rather than being aimed at the bigger audience; those that play the card game. A couple of significant reprints can be found throughout both sets; pokemon have brought back fan favourite trainer cards in Tool Scrapper and Air Balloon, giving players more versatility when building decks for play. Most notably, besides both Zekrom ex and Reshiram ex making their way into existing Lightning and Fire type box decks, a brand new deck has come out alongside the set featuring Jellicent ex and it’s unique ability that locks your opponent out from being able to play Item and Tool cards while Jellicent is in the active spot. Similar strategies have been seen before and proven to be quite meta relevant; the release of Prismatic Evolutions brought with it the baby pokemon Budew with a similar effect on its attack to Jellicent’s ability, but only for Item cards. Though not winning lots of tournaments, the Jellicent ex deck will be one to watch as we approach the newest block of main sets reintroducing Mega Pokemon back into the game.
The Final Verdict
Overall I feel this is an amazing set to hunt down some fan favourite pokemon cards in, with an art card for everyone’s favourites from generation 6 receiving either an Illustration or Special Illustration Rare. There are some fun new rouge decks that have popped up from this as well, but it is certainly targeted towards more casual fans of the game that would like to have fun playing and showing off the special artwork cards they have collected from packs. Much of the range of products come with great ways to store and show off your collection too, especially with the Binder collection that can hold up to 396 cards to display. This set is definitely worth collecting if you can get your hands on, maybe even a great place to start if you want to return to the pokemon card game and have fond, nostalgic memories of the games or show, but definitely not a set you should focus on collecting to build and play a deck for any major tournaments. That’s just fine, because this is a great celebration of the Black and White era of pokemon as well as a brilliant chance to see what a dual release set would look like outside of Japan.
Zatu Review Summary
Zatu Score
85%
