The Pokemon Trading Card Game has crossed over with Pokemon Go, bringing 78 new cards themed around the mobile hit to the world of collectible cards.
The set includes cards with art using a "photorealistic" motif designed to emulate Pokemon Go art, as well as new Trainer and Item cards for Pokemon Go features like Lure Modules, Egg Incubators, and the game's signature PokeStops. The three Pokemon Go team leaders--Candela for Valor, Blanche for Mystic, and Spark for Instinct--all appear on Supporter cards, each with their own powers.
The Pokemon Go expansion highlights multiple Pokemon via the card game's super rare V, VMAX, and VSTAR versions, including Melmetal, Dragonite, Conkeldurr, and the legendary Mewtwo. Pokemon featured on holographic rare cards include the legendary birds Articuno, Zapdos, and Moltres, Snorlax, Sylveon, and Charizard.
The Pokemon TCG Pokemon Go expansion is available now for prices ranging from $5 for a pack of 10 cards to $50 for premium box sets. We recently opened nearly 50 packs from the new expansion--including some from the Elite Trainer Box, the Team Mystic Special Collection, and the Radiant Eevee Premium Collection. These are our favorite cards pulled from those packs.
Tyranitar
The fan-favorite Tyranitar has a holographic rare in this new set, picturing the massive Pokemon standing in front of a fiery explosion. The reverse holo version makes the art pop, making this behemoth look super intimidating.
Blanche
The Pokemon Go expansion features three Special Collections box sets, each one themed after one of the game's three teams: Valor, Mystic, and Instinct. Each box set features a gorgeous full-art version of the corresponding team's leader, like Team Mystic leader Blanche posted here. The card text is the same as what's found in standard packs, but that art is too good to pass up.
Gyarados
Gyarados also lands as one of the holographic rares in the set, but the sea monster is portrayed bursting out of a city square in one of the set's most impressive uses of photorealistic art. We don't know how we'd feel about this giant suddenly appearing in the middle of a city, but it does make for a fantastic picture.
Mewtwo V
Mewtwo is the star of the Pokemon Go set, with four different versions of Mewtwo V and a Mewtwo VSTAR card all featured. The standard version of Mewtwo V (left) features the genetic Pokemon priming an energy ball, while an alternate photorealistic version (not pulled, sadly) depicts it floating among city skyscrapers in a throwback to Pokemon Go's first trailer. The other variants are also impressive, with the rainbow version (middle) featured in the Elite Trainer box and another variant (right) found--along with that sweet Mewtwo coin--in the V Battle Deck: Mewtwo vs Melmetal box.
Alolan Exeggutor V
The palm tree is back! Alolan Exeggutor--the Pokemon so large it can't fit on the Pokemon Go screen--appears as one of the super rare V cards in the Pokemon Go expansion. It also receives a special honor as the featured card in the Alolan Exeggutor V box set, though the art in the box set (right) is different than the version pulled from packs (left).
Conkeldurr V
Recent Pokemon TCG sets have featured secret (and much more rare) alternate art versions of other cards in the set. Conkeldurr V is one of the lucky recipients this in the Pokemon Go set, depicting the concrete-wielding creature under the lights of a battle stadium getting ready to fight. The normal V card is also cool-looking in a "this is the last thing you see before Conkeldurr makes you go splat" sort of way.
Ditto
Ditto's inclusion in the Pokemon Go set is one of the more unique cards in Pokemon TCG history. Some reverse holographic cards will sport a small Ditto symbol in the bottom left corner (Bidoof in this example). If you see that symbol, you can peel off the top layer to reveal the hidden Ditto card underneath, much like how Ditto will randomly surprise Pokemon Go trainers. It's a really cool idea, and we hope future TCG expansions include more one-off ideas like this.
Dragonite V and VSTAR
Dragonite has seen plenty of V cards in the Sword and Shield sets, most recently in Evolving Skies. Incredibly, however, it had never seen a VMAX or VSTAR card... until now. Both of these cards are gorgeous, but there's something about the holo effects on that VSTAR that make it one of the best cards in the set.
Melmetal V and VMAX
Melmetal--and its pre-evolution Meltan--will forever be linked to Pokemon Go, as it's where the Steel-type legendaries made their Pokemon debut. As such, it's fitting the massive metal Pokemon is represented with new V and VMAX cards, with some striking art to boot. The variant found in the V Battle Deck: Mewtwo vs Melmetal box set (middle) is particularly cool.
Radiant Blastoise, Charizard, Eevee, and Venusaur
Radiant cards--rare cards featuring shiny versions of Pokemon--made their debut in the previous set Astral Radiance. Pokemon Go continues the trend, but this time the final evolutions of the first-ever starter Pokemon all get the Radiant treatment, and each card looks amazing. Also featured is Radiant Eevee, which can only be found in the Radiant Eevee Premium Collection, but it's just as pretty as the Radiants found in the packs.
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