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Our Pokémon TCG Value Watch series reports on the first set of the Scarlet & Violet block in April 2024 over a year after its release.
Posted in: Card Games, Games, Pokémon TCG, Tabletop | Tagged: pokemon, pokemon cards, Pokemon TCG, Pokemon Trading Card Game, XY
A Holographic History Of The Pokémon TCG: BREAK
Over the years, the Pokémon TCG has featured many different patterns used on their holographic cards. Some patterns lasted for years, while others had short stays, making them markers for their short time in the franchise. In this next installment of A Holographic History of the Pokémon TCG, let's take a look at a style of card that came out during the last leg of the XY era: the Pokémon BREAK.
Pokémon BREAK were first introduced in the 2015 set, XY – BREAKthrough. They continued through five sets in the last leg of the XY era, showing up in XY – BREAKthrough, XY – BREAKpoint, XY – Fates Collide, XY – Steam Siege, and XY – Evolutions which closed out the era. This was an interesting and unique style of card for multiple reasons, a few of which you'll notice from the picture above. First, note that the card is being held sideways. It was playable as as an evolution card that would be placed over the artwork box of its previous form. For example, look at this Raichu BREAK and Raichu from XY – BREAKthrough.
To play this card, one would then arrange the cards like this:
From a collector's perspective, BREAK cards weren't received as a highly desired pull. The rendering of the Pokémon in full, trophy gold with CGI artwork left little variety in this style of cards, and the square prism holographic style led to these having a sort of samey look to them. One thing that was awesome about this era and BREAK cards, though, was that these cards could be pulled in the reverse holo slot. Newer collectors can relate this to the Amazing Rares from Sword & Shield – Vivid Voltage or the Prism Stars from the Sun & Moon era. While BREAKs themselves didn't become a standout card style for collectors, they did make openings more dynamic, drastically increasing the number of pulls one could get from a booster box by adding something interesting in that reverse slot.
Next time in our journey through the Pokémon TCG, we'll take a look at Prism Stars.
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