The latest Pokémon TCG expansion set launches tomorrow with Paldean Fates. Ahead of time, I was sent over a bundle of the new packs, which feature Shiny Pokémon for the first time in the Scarlet and Violet area of the card game alongside tons of fresh full art designs, new Paradox Pokémon, and more.
A closer look at Pokémon TCG Paldean Fates
Pokémon Paldean Fates was first announced back in November, marking the sixth expansion to the Scarlet and Violet era of the trading card game. It follows up all of the previous releases to share the Fates naming scheme with the same focus of including Shiny Pokémon – a first for the 9th generation of the franchise. The set includes one of the larger assortment of cards in recent memory because of that, with 245 different artworks in total. There’s the main set with only 91 different cards, but then a whopping 154 secret rare releases.
You’ll only have to wait until tomorrow to get your hands on the assortment of new cards, too. But in the meantime, we’ll be breaking down what to expect from the latest expansion when it does launch tomorrow on January 26, 2024.
Like I said above, the focus this time around is on Shiny Pokémon. The steep number of secret rare cards is to accommodate all of the different color swapped Pokémon, many of which are getting the Shiny treatment for the very first time. There’s also plenty of other cards that continue the Scarlet and Violet era’s focus of adding new EX cards, as well as continuing to deliver a fresh batch of Paradox Pokémon.
Shiny Pokémon take the spotlight
As for those Shiny Pokémon themselves, Paldean Fates is doing things at least a little bit differently. Each of the artworks of course feature alternate colors for each of the Pokémon who have made the cut, letting you score blue Mews, lime green Smolivs, blue Wugtrios, pink Lechonks, and tons of other 9th Generation mons.
New this time is that each of the Shiny Pokémon cards have holo borders. It’s a little extra flair that accompanies the usual flourish of stars that surround each of the different creatures. Even the full art cards keep up that design, and end up offering some of my favorite artworks in recent memory.
Latest TCG expansion coming January 26
The new Pokémon TCG Paldean Fates set will be officially hitting store shelves to close out the month on January 26. Pricing is very much right in line with what we’ve come to expect from past TCG expansions, with Elite Trainer Boxes clocking in at $59.99 and the smaller Booster Bundle hitting $26.99. We’re expecting to see some Amazon offers go live tomorrow for launch that should hopefully make the set more affordable.
In place of a traditional Booster Box, the Pokémon Company is offering quite a few different promotional packs. There’s some mini tins themed around different designs from Paldea, as well as larger tins, Premium Collections with a focus on EX cards, and even some Shiny Pokémon packs.
9to5Toys’ Take
The Pokémon Company was nice enough to send over some of the new packs for Pokémon Paldean Fates. In total, I opened around 30 booster packs of the new expansion set thanks to a mix of the Elite Trainer Box, tins, and other promo bundles. And my gut reaction is that I’m not entirely sold on the set.
Don’t get me wrong, the new artwork and Shiny Pokémon are definitely a welcomed addition to the TCG, I just don’t love the pull rates here. I know that locking Shiny cards behind the Secret Rare status isn’t anything new for the company, but in this case it felt pretty underwhelming. I also understand that Shiny Pokémon, by their very nature, are going to be harder to come across than their standard color variants. It just feels like for a set like this where have alternate designs is the whole allure, that you’d have a higher rate of actually pulling them.
In total, I only pulled five of Shinies. There were the two bonus ones I got from the tin and promo packs, but otherwise, it felt pretty underwhelming opening these packs. The quality of the cards that I pulled was solid overall, but I ended up with more of the full art cards then I did for cards that are the whole selling point of this expansion. I suppose that’s nothing to complain about there, but I really was hoping for a bit more as far delivery on the whole Shiny aspect of Pokémon Paldean Fates.
If you’re a little less keen on bringing home some color swapped artwork for Paldean Pokémon, this new set is going to be a bigger hit with you. I adore many of the full art cards that I pulled, and found myself being more excited by those hits than the actual Shiny cards.
Hands-on with other new Pokémon TCG expansions:
- Pokémon Paradox Rift debuts with first-ever Paradox cards, new trainers, more
- Pokemon TCG Obsidian Flames puts fan favorites in the spotlight with Tera EX cards, more
- Pokémon Lost Origin expands the Sword and Shield TCG with gorgeous full-art cards
- Pokémon’s Astral Radiance TCG expansion excites with all-new Hisuian artworks
- Pokémon’s new Brilliant Stars TCG set is now available, here’s everything you need to know
- Pokémon’s new Celebrations TCG gets in on the 25th anniversary fanfare
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