Summary
Afterthe Japanese versions were revealedover the weekend, The Pokemon Company has now shared its first details on the English versions of the newPokemon TCGexpansions, Black Bolt and White Flare.
The new expansions will follow the uncommon naming convention of sharing a name with its Japanese equivalent, seen for the first time since 2018’sForbidden Light. They will also introduce a first, never before seen in the English version of the Pokemon TCG.
Pokemon TCG Black Bolt And White Flare Officially Unveiled, First Expansion Ever To Be Split In Two
Pokemon Black Bolt/White Flare is going to be split into two separate products. There will be individual Elite Trainer Boxes, Booster Bundles, and Collection Boxes, each of which will only contain their corresponding Booster Packs. As this is a special set, there will be no Booster Boxes.
This will mark the first time a dual set has been released in English in the history of the Pokemon TCG. Some expansions have contained two Elite Trainer Boxes, likeScarlet and Violet baseandEvolving Skies, but the Booster Packs inside remained the same.
So far, Elite Trainer Boxes, Poster Collections, Booster Bundles, Tech Sticker Collections, and Mini Tins have been officially revealed, with Tornadus and Thundurus appearing as the promos inside the ETBs. Theproducts are due for release, starting on July 17, 2025.
The expansion is confirmed to include cards of every single Pokemon fromBlack and White’sUnova Region, with each one getting an Illustration Rare or Special Illustration Rare.
The Pokemon Companydescribed the split as follows: “Black Bolt will feature the Legendary Pokémon Zekrom, while White Flare will feature the Legendary Pokémon Reshiram. Each expansion will include three different parallel foil sets, two of which will feature either a rainbow Poké Ball or Master Ball pattern shimmering across the card.”
Black Bolt and White Flare will include different variations of noteworthy cards, which are:
Below, you’ll find every special card revealed so far:
It’s unclear whetherPokemon Trading Card Game Pocketinfluenced the decision to split the expansion in two. Since the game launched late last year, it has achieved widespread popularity, with each of its major expansions split into two different booster packs (sometimes three, in the case ofGenetic Apex). It’s easy to imagine that The Pokemon Company was reluctant to split English expansions into two, but the popularity and reception of TCG Pocket made them take the plunge, but this is speculation, of course, and the turnaround times could have come too close, given sets are planned and printed months in advance.
Let us just hope that Black Bolt and White Flare will beeasier to come by than previous sets.
