I really like how the Pokemon Trading Card Game kicked off the Mega Evolution era. The aptly named Mega Evolution expansion was chock-full of stellar cards, most notably its SIRs. For me, most impressively, though, is that the set wasn’t as obnoxiously large as many of Scarlet and Violet’s were.
Only six weeks after the launch of Mega Evolution, the Pokemon TCG is gearing up to release its next set, Phantasmal Flames, and I got to go hands-on with it a little early. It’s another set, like so many have been recently, that is brimming with potential.
The Good
Let’s address the rather large fiery monster in the room to start. Charizard is the star of this set, or Mega Charizard for that matter.
As has so often been the case, The Pokemon Company is kicking off one of its earliest sets of a new era by focusing on the talismanic Pokemon. We saw it with Scarlet and Violet’s Obsidian Flames, and before that, there were Darkness Ablaze, Burning Shadows, and Flashfire — all sets that helped kickstart a new era. Phantasmal Flames is following suit.
Admittedly, I’m not a huge fan of Charizard myself (Blastoise all the way), but these cards are nice. Like really nice. The Charizard SIR is undoubtedly going to be worth a fortune, and probably rightly so. Artist Danciao understood the assignment with this one.
It’s not just the Charizard SIR that is fantastic, though. While a little more understated, Rotom, Mega Sharpedo, and Mega Lopunny all have great SIRs. Unsurprisingly, the IRs are great, too, with Piplup, Flygon, and Meowth personal highlights.
After an utterly dismal run, starting with Prismatic Evolutions and ending with Black Bolt and White Flare, I’m happy with my pulls from Phantasmal Flames.
I hit an SIR for the second expansion in a row (although likely the least valuable one for the second expansion in a row), and hit two of my three favourite IRs, too. Throw in a pair of full arts, and it’s a pretty good haul.
The shining light of Phantasmal Flames, though, is its size. In an era when sets are getting more and more bloated, Phantasmal Flames shrinks things down to a measly 130 cards. It’s the smallest expansion in over eight years, when Sun and Moon’s Crimson Invasion clocked in at 124 cards.
Now, that doesn’t mean it will be cheaper for master set collectors; the two big Charizard cards are going to cost more than most master sets alone, but it’s a step in the right direction.
The Bad
I really don’t have a lot of bad to say about Phantasmal Flames, but maybe it’s missing a couple of extra chase cards.
Four Pokemon SIRs is a little slim, especially when three of them don’t feature particularly popular Pokemon, and only one SIR trainer is a little light, too, for those who collect them.
When the expansion was announced, there was some expectation that Mega Gengar would be getting an SIR, given its spooky name, and it even has a regular EX in the set. Sadly, that hasn’t come to pass. I think that, and that alone is stopping Phantasmal Flames from becoming generational, but it’s another great expansion at the start of the Mega Evolution era.
No Mega Gengar SIR
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Author: 360 Technology Group
