“Rival Battle Decks” Featuring Marnie and Steven Pokemon Revealed for May, Reveals Info About “Destined Rivals!”

By: Water Pokémon Master · Posted Posted onFeb 25, 2025 at 9:58 PM · 14 Comments

Surprisingly, similar to Japan, Marnie and Steven will be getting their own decks in English called the “Rival Battle Decks!” They will release on May 16th. Each deck will contain 60 cards and the usual theme deck accessories.

If you zoom-in above, most of the Marnie and Steven Pokemon in these decks will actually be reprints from our Destined Rivals set, such as Marnie’s Grimmsnarl ex and Steven’s Metagross ex. Their card numbers reveal our Destined Rivals set will have 182 cards before secret rares. However, the two Illustration Rares will be promos exclusive to these decks.

This means our Destined Rivals set will indeed combine the cards from Japan’s Heat Wave Arena, The Glory of Team Rocket, and the Marnie and Steven decks.

These numbers mean the Japanese set The Glory of Team Rocket will have around 100 new cards before secret rares.

View thread (14 replies)
BulbaRipz said:
Ok this was definitely a swerve. But I guess the Rocket set is gonna be big enough to combine with Heat Wave Arena to form Destined Rivals

These will definitely be sought after for the wrong reasons because of those IRs, especially Marnie
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This actually confirms that these cards will be in Destined Rivals, because if you look closely they all have the set symbol for Destined Rivals (DES) and the number they are of the total set number (182). The IRs are promos though.
 
gigano34 said:
This actually confirms that these cards will be in Destined Rivals, because if you look closely they all have the set symbol for Destined Rivals (DES) and the number they are of the total set number (182). The IRs are promos though.
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Oh cool didn't notice that. But yeah the IRs were expected to be part of the set too, guess not. Looks like these will be some of the best selling theme decks in recent memory lol especially since the Marnie one is already hard to get in Japan
 
These are awesome. The decks are solid starting points for new or returning players or players who want a cheap deck with clear paths for upgrading and sweet full arts, with a low chance of the decks getting price-gouged. The only real issue I have with these is now Arven, which should be in every starter deck moving forward, but they shouldn't be too hard to obtain. Excellent stuff!
 
Looks like some Destined rivals cards are getting released b4 their primary set street date, not to mention, during prerelease weekends starting May 16th, no less?

OK.

Choice:

Do you want a card with a meta chance(Steven's metagross) guaranteed right then, or a chance at the obvious winner(Cynthia's garchomp) that's not guaranteed?
 
gigano34 said:
This actually confirms that these cards will be in Destined Rivals, because if you look closely they all have the set symbol for Destined Rivals (DES) and the number they are of the total set number (182). The IRs are promos though.
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The set code actually appears to be DRI.
 
Are these the same list as the decks from Japan? Are we REALLY getting closer to 1:1 Japan:tpci ?! Also …FINALLY decks need more than an alt regular ex to SELL THEM and this is a fantastic step in the right direction for once and not just tons wasted cardboard to stay on shelves/pegs not selling forever (because I still see V battle decks out on shelves that NEVER moved) 😮‍💨
 
Jdbeardsmith said:
Are these the same list as the decks from Japan? Are we REALLY getting closer to 1:1 Japan:tpci ?! Also …FINALLY decks need more than an alt regular ex to SELL THEM and this is a fantastic step in the right direction for once and not just tons wasted cardboard to stay on shelves/pegs not selling forever (because I still see V battle decks out on shelves that NEVER moved) 😮‍💨
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No, they aren't. Bith our decks have: +3 Drayton, -2 Iono, +1 Buddy Buddy Poffin, +1 Rare Candy, +1 Exp. Share and -4 Nemona.
 
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