First look at the Pokémon Terapagos ex Ultra Premium Collection

Players and Collectors of Pokémon Trading Card Game have seen a refreshing large variety of cards released since the start of the Scarlet and Violet era. As the name suggests, the various expansions released recently focused on the characters, Pokémon, and locations found in Paldea including those discovered in the DLC settings of the video game. This led to the introduction of mechanics like Past/Future Pokémon and Tera Pokémon ex. Moreover, Scarlet and Violet sets also saw the return of some older mechanics like the ACE SPEC cards creating a very nice and balanced mixture.

One of these expansions in particular, Stellar Crown, marked the debut of Stellar Tera Pokémon ex, a uniquely powerful type of card with a special powerful attack requiring three different types of Energy to use, including some not aligned with the Pokémon type. Basing on what we learned in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, all Stellar types, and the Terastal phenomenon in general, were created by Terapagos, a unique Pokémon with three different forms: a Normal form, a Terastal form, and a unique Stellar-type Terastallized form.

The new Terapagos Pokémon actually plays a central role in the video game story in a similar way Eternatus was involved in the Dynamax mechanics and the story traced in the Sword and Shield arc. It makes absolutely sense therefore for the Pokémon Company to give Terapagos the centre stage for the Ultra-Premium collection of 2024.

Terapagos Ultra-Premium Collection: Components

Terapagos ex Ultra-Premium Collection is another show-stopping product released on November 22nd, 2024 and it includes tons of booster packs, premium items and accessories. Among these last ones, the box includes a Deck Box, a Coin and a playmat with an exclusive design inspired by Terapagos. The artwork chosen for this components is really beautiful and depicts the Pokémon in its very colourful Stellar form. In addition to this, there are 6 sparkling Damage Dice, 2 standard acrylic condition status tokens, and a magnetic card protector with enough space to show three of your cards. Interestingly, there are no card sleeves in the set as seen with the Mew collection last year.

The size of the card holder is designed to fit the three foil promo cards included in the premium box: Terapagos ex, Lapras ex and Cinderace ex. Among them, Terapagos is a new addition to the game while the artworks of Cinderace ex and Lapras ex were previously seen in the Stellar Miracle set, although not in the golden version. In addition to the three main promo, the set includes also a full set of Basic Energy cards featuring a Crystaline Foil finish (commonly known as the “cracked ice”).

To top all these high-quality accessories and nice promo cards, the Terapagos ex Ultra-Premium Collection also includes 18 booster packs featuring Scarlet and Violet sets ranging from Obsidian Flames to Stellar Crown. Each of these sets offers the opportunity to find valuable cards with competitive value that are still very relevant for the game. The value of each of these booster is not obviously comparable to the 151 ones we had in the last Ultra-Premium Collection but I think the amount of them should compensate at least a little for this.

How much is the actual value of this Collection?

Reviewing a unique set like the Ultra-Premium Collection is not always simple as there are multiple factors to consider. In term of accessories for example, most of the players and collectors will likely already possess the generic ones (damage dice, status tokens etc) and they probably have also some alternatives to those designed specifically for the Ultra-Premium Collection (playmat and coin for example). I personally like to have a number of different playmats and deck boxes and it is clear that the exclusive design of the Terapagos ex Ultra-Premium Collection adds value to these components anyway but I can understand other Pokémon fans may think some of these components are redundant.

Leaving the accessories aside for now, we should consider that most of the value of the Terapagos ex Ultra-Premium Collection comes from the booster packs and the promo foil cards, including the set of basic energy. In the first case, 18 booster packs should build-up around 50% of the RPP price of the Terapagos ex Ultra-Premium Collection even considering the lower end of their price range. This does not consider obviously any hit you can pull from those boosters that should be considered a bonus.

The three promo cards are also holding-up a good value on the secondary market although they may not be as valuable as other promo cards we had previously in this type of product. There are a few reasons for this but we should still remember that these cards are exclusive to this collection and, as such, they will retain a decent level of rarity and their value for while. We should also not forget the box comes with a full set of holographic basic energy that is quite collectible among the fans.

Overall, I think the Pokémon Terapagos ex Ultra-Premium Collection offers a good value for its price, in particular now that it has been on the market for a couple of months. Magic Madhouse for example offers a very competitive 15% discount with free shipment that is a pretty good deal considering also the product qualifies for free shipment. The real problem today is actually finding any Terapagos ex Ultra-Premium Collection as the soaring demand has pretty much emptied the shelves of most of the shops in particular those like Magic Madhouse that offered the best price for this product. As usual, my personal recommendation is always to pre-order these quality sets before the release date to avoid the disappointment of not finding any stock left.

However, if you pre-ordered this Pokémon Terapagos ex Ultra-Premium Collection while stock was still available, you were definitely able to secure a very nice and collectible product. And you clearly also had a chance to open a lot of booster packs and perhaps, if you were lucky, to pull one of those amazing Charizard cards in the Obsidian Flames packs too!