A Future 25th Anniversary Pokemon Promo Has Been Pulled from a ‘Darkness Ablaze’ Booster Pack — What?

A holo Chimchar promo has been pulled from the rare slot of a Darkness Ablaze booster pack. Though rare, this is not the first time we’ve seen upcoming cards accidentally mixed into the wrong product.

The Chimchar is a holo reprint from Ultra Prism and has a McDonalds set symbol and holofoil pattern. Its copyright date is 2021. It is card #12 of 25. This means we should be getting a 25-card McDonalds set next year.

What’s more, there’s a Pikachu stamp in the corner of the artwork. The cheeks on this Pikachu are stylized as a “25.” This means the promo is celebrating Pokemon’s 25th anniversary, which is coming up on February 27th. (It makes sense there would be 25 cards in this set!) This means we’ll probably get the McDonalds set in February.

The card is #12 out of 25, which is rather late for a Fire-type card to appear in a set — that’s halfway through! But this could be because the set will feature every Starter Pokemon — plus Pikachu — for a total of 25 cards.

If true, the set list would be #1 Bulbasaur, #2 Chikorita, #3 Treecko, #4 Turtwig, #5 Snivy, #6 Chespin, #7 Rowlet, #8 Grookey, #9 Charmander, #10 Cyndaquil, #11 Torchic, #12 Chimchar, #13 Tepig, #14 Fennekin, #15 Litten, #16 Scorbunny, #17 Squirtle, #18 Totodile, #19 Mudkip, #20 Piplup, #21 Oshawott, #22 Froakie, #23 Popplio, #24 Sobble, and #25 Pikachu to top it off. And #25 also happens to be Pikachu’s Pokedex number!

Thanks goes to Eric M., Jeffrey S., and Jeremy G. for pulling the card and reporting it!