Posted in: Card Games, Games, Pokémon TCG, Tabletop | Tagged: Celebrations, P25, pokemon, pokemon cards, Pokemon TCG

Pokémon TCG: Celebrations Early Opening: Collector Chest

Published Thu, 07 Oct 2021 17:12:12 -0500

Tomorrow, the Pokémon TCG will release its landmark 25th Anniversary expansion, Celebrations. Celebrations pays homage to 25 years of this incredible hobby with 25 all holo cards featuring iconic Pokémon from the past and present of the franchise. This set also features the Classic Collection subset, which consists of 25 reprints of iconic cards from every time period of the Pokémon TCG, including cards from Base Set all the way up to the Sun & Moon era. I am thrilled to tell you that the Pokémon Company reached out to me with a celebratory box for the occasion in exchange for an honest review of the set. Starting today, I will open every product sent and give you my take. This time, let's crack open a Pokémon TCG: Celebrations Collector Chest.

Mimikyu promo. Credit: Pokémon TCG — Mimikyu promo. Credit: *Pokémon TCG*

The Pokémon TCG: Celebrations Collector Chest is a lunchbox-style tin that includes:

a whopping three unique SWSH Black Star Promos. We'll get into those below.
6 Celebrations packs
1 Vivid Voltage pack
1 Battle Styles pack
unique items such as a coil, sticker sheets, a notepad, a mini portfolio, and more

This is the first Pokémon TCG: Celebrations products I've opened that included three promo cards. I've reported on the contents of these products for months but was stunned nonetheless to see these three cards in person. For the first time, I was more excited about the promos than the packs — but only a little, because my openings have been fire so far. The promos recreate classic card styles from the past with newer Pokémon and, this time around, some of these card styles were around when I was a kid collecting. Among these three cards are what I consider to be the best Pokémon TCG: Celebrations promo and the worst. The best is the Mimikyu Delta Species, which imagines Mimikyu as a Water-type with this mechanic which uses holographic gold borders and the holo on the Pokémon rather than the background. Close to it is Light Toxtricity, which uses the Neo Destiny card style that very simply shows Pokémon being extra sweet. Lovely. Then, the worst Celebrations promo isn't even bad, and is just a tad bit basic: the Hydreigon C.

Hydreigon promo. Credit: Pokémon TCG — Hydreigon promo. Credit: *Pokémon TCG*

Oh, and notably, the coin uses the starry holographic pattern from the original three English sets.

Now, I've opened over 20 packs at this point, so Celebrations is becoming a bit familiar. While the set is offering fewer outright surprises at this point, it's certainly still offering joys. In these packs, I pulled the Base Set Venusaur from the Classic Collection, which means I've now pulled two of the "Big Three" with only Base Set Charizard remaining. I hope this encourages all who are worried about the Pokémon TCG: Celebrations pull rate to get out there and crack some packs.