Pokémon TCG Journey Together preview: A worthy successor
There is a level of mania currently surrounding the Pokémon TCG that I don’t think I’ve witnessed since the PlayStation 5 launched back in the late 2020s. Those of you unfamiliar or otherwise uninterested in Pokémon cardboard might think that’s hyperbole, but I assure you that I have seen it first-hand over the past couple of weeks.
Getting your hands on the current Pokémon TCG set, Prismatic Evolutions, is borderline impossible at this point in time. I personally visited every card shop within a 5km radius of where I live, and tracking down even a single booster pack was impossible.
Most of the shops even had signs outside stating that they were out of stock, assumedly so the staff that worked there didn’t have to answer the same question 50 times an hour. Out of curiosity, I even visited one shop before it opened, only to find a line of about 30 people patiently waiting outside at 9am on a Sunday– just so they could get their hands on a set that originally dropped in January.
The thing is, Prismatic Evolutions is a uniquely special set. Its focus on Eevee, whose face would probably be somewhere between Pikachu and Charizard on the Pokémon equivalent of Mount Rushmore, was what made it the most sought-after set in recent memory. So can Prismatic Evolution’s follow-up, Journey Together, replicate the same level of hysteria?
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Well, The Pokémon Company sent me a bunch of Scarlet & Violet - Journey Together stuff so I can try and answer that question ahead of time.
I received two Scarlet & Violet—Journey Together Build & Battle Box sets, and one Scarlet & Violet—Journey Together Elite Trainer Box. Combined, these contained a total of 17 individual booster packs.
First things first, let’s break down what you get. The Journey Together Build & Battle Box sets contain a pre-made 40-card deck, one of four unique foil promo cards, and four booster packs. These are what you’ll be able to get ahead of time from the 15 March onwards, if you’re competing in the Journey Together Pre-release events.
The Scarlet & Violet—Journey Together Elite Trainer Box is the main attraction here though, given all of the goodies it contains.
You get some neat little Pokémon TCG staples, such as a competition-legal coin-flip die, damage-counter dice and two condition markers. There are also 65 card sleeves featuring N and his Zoroark, as well as a handy player guide for the Journey Together set. Plus, the box itself is designed so that you can store cards in it after you’ve finished ripping out its contents.
Those are all just bonuses though. What you’re really after are the nine booster packs and the full-art foil promo card featuring N’s Zorua.
So, out of 17 total packs, did I pull anything good? Yeah... Yeah, I did.
Now I’m basing the quality of my pulls on the rarity of the Japanese version of Journey Together, so these comparisons certainly won’t be one-for-one. That being said, I’m still pretty confident I pulled some bangers.
The cards you’re after in this set are the trainer Pokémon, all of whom feature in the mainline games. The four trainers are Sun and Moon's Lillie, Black and White's N, Sword and Shield's Hop, and Scarlet and Violet's Iono.
As far as standard rares go, I got some good ones. Iono’s Kilowattrel, Hop’s Dubwool, Hop’s Snorlax and N’s Reshiram are probably top of the list.
But who cares about rares? I know the only thing Pokémon TCG collectors truly crave these days are special illustration cards, and I was lucky enough to pull a bunch of those too.
First up, I got a Dudunsparce ex. It's not a trainer card, but it's still a special illustration. I also pulled the special illustration Hop’s Wooloo, which genuinely might be the cutest Pokémon card I’ve ever seen in my life.
I pulled the special illustration rare of Iono’s Kilowattrel too, the artwork for which looks beautiful. And, I kind of happened to get one of the most sought-after cards of the entire set: the special illustration rare for Lillie’s Clefairy ex.
The funny thing is, I pulled so many incredibly rare cards, but none of the ones I was actually after. I want the special illustration Hop's Zacian cards, the special illustration Articuno and that cute as hell special illustration Furret.
Which neatly brings me to the question I posed at the start of this article; will Journey Together be as big of a hit as Prismatic Evolutions?
I don’t think so, but I do think it will be close. The Eevee crowd is simply too large and too insatiable, so I highly doubt we’ll see a set as popular as that one for a while. But personally, I think the chase cards in Journey Together are cooler.
I like Umbreon as much as the next guy, but the artwork in Journey Together is possibly the best I’ve seen in any Pokémon TCG set thus far. I think it’ll be a hit with the hardcore Pokémon TCG players for that reason alone.
And once it does release, hit me up if any of you pull either of the special illustration Hop’s Zacian cards. I’ll trade you my special illustration Lillie’s Clefairy for them.