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The Pokémon TCG has announced the new Ultra Rare card type and mechanic for Pokémon TCG at this year’s 2022 World Championships. The big shocker, though, is that this isn’t really a new mechanic. The TCG is bringing back the original, lowercase Pokémon ex in 2023. This card type will return with the Scarlet & Violet base set with a brand new design that visually evokes the (uppercase) EX cards from the XY era, even though they are firmly functional as the lowercase.
This is the biggest reveal of the year for Pokémon TCG fans, because this new mechanic and card type will be in place for almost certainly the next three years. This card type will replace Pokémon-V as the Ultra Rare of the Scarlet & Violet. While we do not yet know many details regarding this upcoming release, there are a few hints we can glean from the trailer, which you can watch here:
- GX and V used an almost-Full-Art style for their standard Ultra Rares, so this is the first time that we are back to an art box-style card since the XY era.
- Note the stars that play across the cards in the foil. This speaks to a return to the old-school starry holo pattern used only in the first three sets of the English-language Wizards of the Coast Pokémon TCG sets. This pattern came back with a slight alteration as a nod to the classics in XY: Evolutions but only as a specialty release. Now the question is: will this starry holo pattern be used only in Pokémon ex or will it also be used on the actual normal holographic cards?
- Other ex that are previewed in the video include Mimikyu, Lucario, and Magnezone.
- The end of the video teases a more sparkly version of the ex logo, perhaps hinting at the powered-up version of the mechanic that is likely to use the Terastal Pokémon phenomenon. Think of this as the VMAX to ex’s Vs.
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