Upcoming Pokémon Set Releases

2023 has been a great year for Pokemon The trading Card game, with the introduction of Tera Pokémon first and of Future and Ancient Pokémon just at the end of the year in the Paradox Rift set. All the new features impacted the game quite substantially, pushing the Trainers to find new strategies in order to win and making the TGC even more fun for everyone.  

With the start of the new year just behind us, everyone is looking to the release schedule to guess if Pokémon TGC 2024 will be as filled with amazing new products as last year has been. Even if we don't know all the details of late year releases, I think we can already say that 2024 started in the best possible way with the release of Paldean Fates, the new special set filled with shiny Pokémon. The first core set, Temporal Forces, will follow closely on the 22nd of March while the second one, Twilight Masquerade, will arrive on the shelves on the 24th of May. Of course, there will be plenty of interesting additional products released in parallel to the main sets to provide a lot of fun to both collectors and players.

Considering how many products have been anticipated so far, including some that are already available on Magic Madhouse shop, we thought it would be great to have a quick summary of some of the key upcoming Pokémon Set Releases to help everyone planning accordingly.

January/February 2024: Scarlet and Violet - Paldean Fates

Paldean Fates is a special collector set for the Scarlet & Violet series featuring Shiny Pokémon that reminds of the “Shining Fates” expansion released in 2021 as part of the Sword & Shield Series. In this new set, however, the Shiny Pokémon have a special rarity designations of their own (a sparkling gold start silhouette) and two level of rarity (rare and ultra rare). Most of the cards of this set were released in Japan as part of the “Shiny Treasures” ex collection and they can be pulled from single booster packs, booster bundles and a ton of different tins, tech sticker sets and the usual Elite Trainer Box.  

Overall, the standard set includes only 91 cards of which 41 are new cards and 50 are reprints. The majority of the set is composed by Shiny Pokémon (132) together with 16 Illustration Rare Pokémon and 6 Gold Cards for a total of 245 cards. Considering the average pull rate of a Shiny Rare is 1 out of 4 packs, Paldean Fates will prove to be a great set to collect although it will take some time to get them all. In terms of Gameplay, the set only includes a few good cards that can be used in competitive decks. Mew-ex, Gardevoir-ex and the Supporter Iono are the most notable ones although the set also include the Dark Charizard that is ALWAYS a good card.

March 2024: Scarlet and Violet - Temporal Forces

“Temporal Forces” will be the first Pokémon TGC core set of 2024 and it is expected to include cards from the two Japanese sets “Cyber Judge” and “Wild Force” that have been released in January. The main feature of this set will be the addition of more Ancient and Future Pokémon to continue in the direction set by Paradox Rift. Two of the most notable among them, Walking Wake-ex (Ancient) and Iron Leaves-ex (Future) are featured on the artwork of the Elite Trainer Box and they are the Paradox form of Suicune and Virizon respectively. Among them, Iron Leaves-ex seems the more interesting due to his ability to be switched directly with your Active Pokémon once played and to get any amount of Energy from the previous active Pokémon in the process.

Together with a lot of new interesting Pokémon, Temporal Forces will also see the return of ACE Specs cards, a type of cards we have not seen since the Black and White era. These cards are known for being so powerful that players will be able to have just one of them per deck and they will be printed with a new magenta background to make them stand out. The new ACE Specs cards impacted massively the meta game in Japan and they are expected to be extensively used in all UK competitive games too as soon as the set releases. It is very likely we will see at least a Master Ball or a Hero Cape in many decks, although I think Prime Catcher will be the one we will see the most considering its ability to swap both player and opponent active Pokémon at the same time.

In addition, Temporal Forces will include the new cards from the Koraidon-ex and Miraidon-ex Starter Decks released at the end of January in Japan. Although they will not shift the meta, the cards from these decks will be quite interesting to support your current Koraidon and Miraidon-ex.

May 2024: Scarlet and Violet - Twilight Masquerade

Twilight Masquerade is expected to be the second core set of 2024 and, unfortunately, at the moment we only have bits and pieces of information on it. It is likely that the set will include cards from “Crimson Haze” and “Mask of Change”, two Japanese sets planned to be released in March and April respectively.

 Basing on this, we expect Twilight Masquerade to include “BloodMoon Ursaluna” that has been already leaked from Crimson Haze together with a few other very interesting cards. Mask of Change on the other hand is expected to include Ogrepon, one of the main characters of the DLC “The Teal Mask” released recently for Scarlet and Video, the video Game. If you are not familiar with the story (spoiler alert), Ogrepon is a Legendary Pokémon that can take four different forms by wearing four masks. Each of the forms add a second type to Ogrepon and fans are speculating we may see this kind of mechanics in the TGC by having the masks as Pokémon Tools. Ogrepon also has a Tera form thus there are high expectations to see the set being centred around this Pokémon.

Although we don't really have many details on the set, Twilight Masquerade will likely not add any new big feature to the game although we can expect it will have for sure a good competitive value at least basing on the few cards that have been showcased so far. The Pokémon Company has also announced a special bundle focused on Ogrepon that will include a number of promo/foil cards and that has the potential to be very valuable for all collectors.

February-May 2024: Scarlet and Violet other notable releases

Together with the core and special core set mentioned above, other exciting products will appear on the shelves in the first quarter of 2024. From a player point of view, for example, we will see the release of four Deluxe Battle Decks featuring Melmetal-ex, Houndoom-ex, Ninetales-ex and Zapdos-ex. These decks will all be Level 2 (advanced) products with a limited competitive value although some of the cards included may be interesting to boost your decks.  

Collectors will instead need to keep an eye on the “Combined Powers Premium Collection” that will feature the three Legendary Pokémons from the Johto region in their EX form: Ho-Oh Ex, Lugia Ex, and Suicune Ex. The set will include a foil card of each of these Pokémon plus a foil card featuring Mr. Mime and 3 foil Pokémon of the Tool cards “Sun seed”, “Scorching Charcoal”, and “Drops in the Ocean”. Unfortunately, the Promo cards included in this Premium Collection cannot be used at official tournaments but they will have a good collectible value.

The best value for your collection, however, will come from the Paldea Adventure Chest, releasing on the 1st of March. This box will come with 7 foil promo cards including a full art Pikachu, a Sprigatito-Ex, a Pawmi, a Pawmo, a Pawmot-Ex, a Tandemaus, and a Maushold-Ex. Inside the box you will also get 1 sheet of tech stickers, 1 mini portfolio, 1 squishy toy Pikachu, and 6 Pokémon TCG booster packs from Scarlet and Violet Base Set, Paldea Evolved, Obsidian Flames and Paradox Rift. I personally would have preferred the Booster packs to come from Paradox Rift only or from Paldean Fates but there is still a chance you will pull some very good cards from the older set anyway.

Overall, the beginning of 2024 looks filled with amazing products for all Pokémon fans and they can all be found on Magic Madhouse. As usual, my recommendation is to pre-order them as soon as possible to avoid the frustration of missing out or to have to wait to see them arriving at your door.