“Destined Rivals” TCG Set Officially Revealed, Features Team Rocket, Misty, Ethan, and More!
Prepare for trouble, twerps!
Destined Rivals has been officially revealed as our tenth Scarlet & Violet set! This is following last week’s reveal of Japan’s The Glory of Team Rocket.
As posted before, Destined Rivals will release on May 30th. Prereleases will take place from May 17th to May 25th.
There will be no Enhanced Booster Box for Destined Rivals.
The Elite Trainer Box promo will be Team Rocket’s Wobbuffet, which is obviously a reference to Jessie and James. As usual, the Pokemon Center version will come with both a stamped and regular copy, whereas the regular Elite Trainer Box will only contain the latter.
Our Destined Rivals set will include:
- Over 240 cards
- Over 85 Trainer’s Pokémon, including over 45 Team Rocket’s Pokémon
- 17 Pokémon ex, including 10 Trainer’s Pokémon ex
- More than 20 Trainer cards
- More than 45 Pokémon and Trainer cards with special illustrations
- 83 new cards tagged as Team Rocket’s
- 23 illustration rare Pokémon
- 11 special illustration rare Pokémon
- 6 hyper rare gold-etched cards
The prerelease promos reveal Team Rocket’s Tyranitar and Team Rocket’s Mimikyu. They haven’t been revealed in Japan yet, but will obviously come from The Glory of Team Rocket.
Strangely, the promos are stamped cards straight from the set. They don’t have promo numbering or feature alternate artwork. Perhaps this is the case because we’re starting the Mega Evolution block later this year (instead of January) and Japan won’t release a High Class Pack set from which our English promos can draw from. This is speculation, of course.
Our Destined Rivals set will source its cards from Japan’s The Glory of Team Rocket (releasing April 18th, 130ish cards), Heat Wave Arena (released March 14th, 93 cards), and the Marnie and Steven decks (released February 21st, 18 cards).
Thus, our English set will feature Owner’s Pokemon for Misty and Team Rocket (Gen 1), Ethan (Gen 2), Steven (Gen 3), Cynthia (Gen 4), Marnie (Gen 8), and Arven (Gen 9).
Previously, Journey Together featured N (Gen 5), Lillie (Gen 7), Hop (Gen 8), and Iono (Gen 9). This only leaves X and Y unrepresented — probably because of Z-A.
Based on the timing of set reveals over the past three years, TPCi would have normally revealed Destined Rivals one to two weeks ago. A simultaneous reveal with The Glory of Team Rocket was also possible, like with Twilight Masquerade and Scarlet & Violet. But this is now the shortest time between a set reveal and its release since 2022’s Pokemon GO.
Either TPCi is shifting its reveal schedule, or this “delay” was due to the reveal of Pocket’s Shining Revelry last week. From now on TPCi may be considering the marketing for Pocket sets when revealing new TCG sets; after all, the two are supposed to promote each other. We’ll see what happens with TPCi’s reveal pattern for our next few sets!
After May’s Destined Rivals…
We’re getting a special English set on July 18th which should feature the cards from June’s Black Bolt & White Flare. It will feature all 156 Unova Pokemon, presumably echoing 151 but for Generation 5.
The sell sheet for the Japanese set doesn’t mention Owner’s Pokemon, which means we’re probably done with the mechanic. After all, it was an obvious “stall” until the release of Z-A. The TCG has nothing left to promote from Paldea.
Then in August or September, we’ll be leaving the Scarlet & Violet era and entering the Mega Evolution era! This may also explain why there hasn’t been any Owner’s Pokemon for Generation 6 — to keep the upcoming block feeling fresh!
