“Destined Rivals” Booster Pack Artwork Confirms Sets to Feature Team Rocket!

By: Water Pokémon Master · Posted Posted onFeb 18, 2025 at 7:59 AM · 54 Comments

The booster pack artwork for May’s Destined Rivals set has been revealed early on badges that will be given to attendees of Latin America’s “gamescom” event! (They show the Brazilian Portuguese logo of the set, named Rivais Predestinados.)

The pack artwork shows Giovanni, Executive Ariana, Executive Petrel, and two Team Rocket Grunts (all using their FireRed & LeafGreen and HeartGold & SoulSilver designs). The Pokemon presumably reveal the inclusion of Rocket’s Mewtwo ex, Rocket’s Koffing, Rocket’s Arbok, Rocket’s Murkrow, and Rocket’s Rattata.

The Destined Rivals booster pack artwork comes from Japan’s Heat Wave Arena set releasing on March 14th and The Glory of Team Rocket set releasing on April 18th. The latter hasn’t been officially revealed in Japan yet.

As we’ve posted before, our Destined Rivals set will source its cards from Heat Wave Arena, the Steven’s Metagross ex and Marnie’s Grimmsnarl ex decks, and The Glory of Team Rocket featuring Rocket’s Mewtwo ex.

As posted earlier this year, we’re also getting a special English set in July which should feature the cards from Japan’s Black Bolt & White Flare. This has raised some eyebrows about the possibility of a Black & White remake coming.

Trademarks have also revealed that Mega Brave and Mega Symphonia sets will release at some point in the future, presumably seeing the return of Mega Evolution cards to tie-in to Legends: Z-A.

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I am curious to see how good the Rockets Mewtwo ex will be. This destined rivals set is already shaping up to be better than Journey together by far. The Ethan deck looks very Playable. The Cynthia Deck looks really good. Though we haven't seen all of Destined rivals yet, cause we still need to see the Arven and Rocket cards, but so far this set is looking very, very good.
 
Matteloop said:
No jessie and james confirmed, they would be 100% on this artwork
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While I wouldn't mind them being in there, I don't miss them that much, because they have had a few random cards in other sets in the last years. Maybe they will even still have a card like Brock did in the last set.
What I wonder is whether we will only see "Rocket" as the Pokémon's owner, or also Giovanni. Probably Rocket and some sort of Giovanni trainer+FA.
 
I have a feeling this set will be readily available....being a main set in all
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I work in a mall in New York. Not a single store that sells Pokemon cards has had any set in stock since November.

This is why I can't even get excited about new card reveals anymore. Until the bubble bursts and the scalpers/hoarders move on, or TPCi actually does something besides making empty promises that they'll print more eventually [citation needed], it's not like I'll get any of these cards without providing a dark sacrifice to TCGPlayer's secondary market. Journey Partners sounds like it's a nothing set in terms of desirability and it's still sold out pre-orders within an hour on the Pokemon Center website multiple times since it was announced. I'm over it
 
Frost said:
I work in a mall in New York. Not a single store that sells Pokemon cards has had any set in stock since November.

This is why I can't even get excited about new card reveals anymore. Until the bubble bursts and the scalpers/hoarders move on, or TPCi actually does something besides making empty promises that they'll print more eventually [citation needed], it's not like I'll get any of these cards without providing a dark sacrifice to TCGPlayer's secondary market. Journey Partners sounds like it's a nothing set in terms of desirability and it's still sold out pre-orders within an hour on the Pokemon Center website multiple times since it was announced. I'm over it
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That the thinking, when this artificial bubble of popularity bursts...oh man the shelves will be overstocked, its not like we lived through this already just very recently...looking directly at Shining Fates something that got reprints all the way up until last year... patience is a virtue and now that SWSH era will no longer be printed after March because of it fully rotating out. Those who have been patient the most will reap the rewards... or we get scalper fire sales because they cant afford the bills from getting full allocations of main sets....
 
No Jessie/James?! Oh well, still super excited for this. You know there is going to be a BUNCH of super chases like PRE and SS!

Can't wait to see what komiya, egawa and kanda do for this.

My plan is to go a bit light on journey together to make sure I have extra funds for destined rivals! 🤟😎
 
Frost said:
I work in a mall in New York. Not a single store that sells Pokemon cards has had any set in stock since November.

This is why I can't even get excited about new card reveals anymore. Until the bubble bursts and the scalpers/hoarders move on, or TPCi actually does something besides making empty promises that they'll print more eventually [citation needed], it's not like I'll get any of these cards without providing a dark sacrifice to TCGPlayer's secondary market. Journey Partners sounds like it's a nothing set in terms of desirability and it's still sold out pre-orders within an hour on the Pokemon Center website multiple times since it was announced. I'm over it
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It can be frustrating to not be able to buy sealed booster packs and other products. People that just want the thrill of opening packs are the main group that suffers from scalpers.

Even with scalpers going ballistic lately, playing the card game hasn't been any more difficult than earlier sets. In fact, expensive staples like Buddy Buddy, Prime Catcher, Earthen Vessel, Teal Ogrepon ex, have all bottomed out in price thanks to Prismatic Evo reprints, with rip-happy scalpers offloading them at bulk prices. Sure the Charizard ex deck helped drop Prime from 30 to 17, but it dropped to 4 after Prismatic! It is a great boon to your average player.

The group that damages EVERYONE are the "investors" who buy sealed product and then never rip them. They artificially deflate the entire supply-side with no positive impact. They do so on a desperate gambit to re-sell them years later when the cards are no longer relevant to the game itself. Pack-rippers, collectors, AND card players all suffer when "investors" purchase pokemon products.
 
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