I Pulled a First-of-Its-Kind Pokemon Card

I’ve at all times needed to be the perfect that nobody ever was. I’m an Aries, in spite of everything, and we’re as aggressive as they arrive.

This arbitrary need for greatness has bled into my hobbies through the years, driving me to finish area of interest toy collections and excavate uncommon dolls and collectibles from storage gross sales, flea markets, and overpriced vintage malls. My Pokémon card assortment, as particular as it’s — I pleasure myself on my sprawling arsenal of ultra-cutesy playing cards some would possibly label “girly,” to no nice private offense — is not any completely different.

I’ve been accumulating Pokémon playing cards since they have been first launched within the U.S. all the best way again in 1999. (December 1998, technically. Am I unc? Are the children nonetheless saying unc?) Again then I had an enormous, white binder splattered with cheesy holographic merchandising machine stickers, within which contained my 1st. Ed. Base Set Charizard (no massive deal) and his buddies Blastoise and Venusaur, amongst lots of of different Pokemon in cardboard type, together with the primary card I ever traded for: Dragonair. (That binder was my prized possession. Don’t ask me the place it’s immediately; I’ll crash out and it’ll be attempting for all concerned.)

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Practically 30 years later and I nonetheless acquire Pokémon playing cards to at the present time. In fact, it’s one of many perfect and worst occasions for the pastime — finest contemplating all of the unbelievable merch, occasions, and video games accessible, to not point out the ever-growing fandom and neighborhood by way of which I’ve personally constructed great friendships; worst for, properly, simply the cardboard scalpers, actually. (Good luck discovering Pokémon playing cards in retail shops lately in case you reside in a extremely populated space and aren’t in an in-the-know Discord or can not wait round all day hoping for a restock. They fly off the cabinets earlier than they even hit them, however fortunately The Pokémon Firm and Nintendo are actively working to resolve the issue for followers.)

However again to it being the perfect time for the pastime: Within the midst of Mega Evolution, the present Pokémon TCG period launched in September 2025 along side the Pokémon Legends: Z-A online game, thrilling new Pokémon TCG enlargement units are rolling out practically each different month. The most recent set, out this month, is Pitch Black.

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Centered on the Darkish-type Legendary Pokémon Mega Darkrai, whose base type was launched again in Technology IV, Pitch Black is a dark-themed enlargement set that includes nightmarish themes and mysterious inter-dimensional Pokémon in a battle between darkness and light-weight (or lightning, somewhat, with Mega Zeraora). As ScreenCrush’s resident horror girlie and lover of all issues spooky, that’s proper up my alley.

The Pokémon Firm was sort sufficient to ship me among the product lineup from Pokémon TCG: Mega Evolution—Pitch Black to unbox, together with the Pitch Black Elite Coach Field, Pitch Black Booster Bundle, Pitch Black Booster Field, and Pitch Black Construct and Battle Field. I’m stoked to report I used to be in a position to pull a couple of of my private chase playing cards from the set, together with a somewhat historic card for the Pokémon TCG.

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Outdoors of playability — which as a collector, and never a TCG participant, I can not converse to, although I actually must get on with studying the sport already — there are a handful of uniquely hanging playing cards within the set. Let’s get into it.

The Slowbro Illustration Uncommon (087/081) offers one in all Pokémon’s silliest creatures an equally foolish card because of charming paintings by Mékayu. It’s positively pleasant (simply take a look at that doofy little face) and I would like it. Then there’s the Dhelmise Illustration Uncommon (091/084) I pulled, which options spooky nautical paintings (it jogs my memory of The Fog) and hidden Ghost-type Pokémon cameos (Pokaméos?) within the background. There’s additionally the daring Morpeko ex Particular Illustration Uncommon (117/084), which packs a visible punch because the hamster-inspired ‘mon practically pops off the cardboard in a match of hangry rage. (Relatable.)

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The star of the present is, after all, the Mega Darkrai ex Particular Illustration Uncommon (116/084). The cardboard, which positions the inter-dimensional Pokémon as an imposing, all-seeing eye straight from the depths of your darkest nightmares, options sinister, intricate paintings by Akira Egawa. The artist, who has been designing Pokémon playing cards since 2019, is understood for her effortlessly cool, painterly fashion and emphasis on motion, one thing she nails with the menacing Mega Darkrai, whose phantasmagorical shadows seem to oscillate straight off the shiny cardboard.

I didn’t pull the Mega Darkrai ex SIR throughout my frenzied ripping session. As a substitute, I pulled the Goldeen Illustration Uncommon (087/084), although by my response you’d have thought I pulled a gold Mega Hyper Uncommon. You see, Goldeen is without doubt one of the unique 151 Pokémon — the deeply nostalgic ones I grew up with as a child — and in practically three many years of the TCG, Goldeen has by no means been the topic of a full-art card. Goldeen’s serene, aquatic Pitch Black IR is the glamorous Water-type Pokémon’s first highlight of this nature, making it an extremely thrilling and lengthy overdue addition to the set. (She may be very attractive to me!)

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Pokemon TCG: Mega Evolution—Pitch Black is out on July 17. Good luck together with your pulls!