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

Pokémon TCG: Celebrations Expansion: Complete Review

After opening all of the products associated with this set, after putting the spotlight on all 50 cards… it's time to conduct a final, complete evaluation of Pokémon TCG's landmark 25th Anniversary set, 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. Does this set live up to the extreme hype?

The first thing to note about Celebrations is its size. The main set consists of 25 cards, all of which are quite easy to pull with the exception of the final card in the setlist… the Shiny Mew Gold card. The set includes 16 standard holos, four Pokémon-V, two Pokémon-VMAX, one Full Art Pokémon, one Full Art Trainer Supporter, and one Shiny Gold card. There are positives and negatives about such a small set, with the negative being that folks who open a lot of packs are going to end up with the same hits over and over again. However, I personally don't feel that applies to this set, as the number of products associated with Celebrations feels well-planned to avoid the set getting old to collectors. I personally opened one of each Celebrations item released by the Pokémon TCG and two extra Elite Trainer Boxes. This left me with every card in the main set except one (the Mew) and every card in the Classic Collection except three. Purchasing one of each associated item with the set is the perfect way to keep the pack openings fresh. Now, on the positive side, the set size is perfect for completionist collectors who don't want to break the bank. You could easily buy an Elite Trainer Box or two and then just purchase the rest of the set in singles without spending very much if your only goal is completing the set.

Now, for the quality of the cards in the set, there is a lot to admire in Celebrations but there are also elements to critique. The Pikachu cards, for example, marry the classic with the current in a beautiful way. The Pokémon-V and VMAX styles are applied to classic promo ideas like the Surfing Pikachu and Flying Pikachu, which makes for some of the set's best pulls. The strongest Pikachu card, though, is the Full Art recreation of Base Set Pikachu which sees original artist Mitsuhiro Arita return to extend his original illustration decades later. The only drawback of this card is that it's such a good idea that I end up wishing we had more classic cards expanded to Full Arts in this style.

One of the flaws of the main set is the holofoil style. Every card is holographic but this is a flat foil we're getting rather than a truly patterned holo. I don't know if this came down to budget, but using galaxy foil for the holos would've been a way to honor the Pokémon TCG's history. A few of the cards do look nice with the flat pattern, with the standard Mew card being the best example due to warm, vibrant background colors. However, cards like Dialga, Zekrom, Reshiram, and Palkia end up looking boring compared to the rest of the set.

The main chase card of Celebrations is of course the Shiny Mew Gold card which is not only the gem of the set but would rank as one of the most beautiful cards ever printed. Celebrating the 25th Anniversary with the franchise's first Mythical Pokémon in its Shiny form is a perfect choice.

Pokémon TCG: Celebrations made the right move by including the Classic Collection subset. Earlier in 2021, I wrote a piece hoping that they wouldn't make the 25th Anniversary set into a reprint set — especially not a Base Set reprint, as we'd just gotten XY – Evolutions five years prior. Celebrations manages to honor both the vintage and the modern again by creating the Classic Collection which reprints cards from every era of the Pokémon TCG. Where Celebrations wins, though, by not making these simple reprints but rather premium cards that have the velvety texture of a Full Art over the entire surface of the card including the text. This premium quality makes the Classic Collection feel less like another way to get access to hard-to-find cards like the Base Set Charizard and POP Series Umbreon and more like a way to honor those cards by printing them in a way that we've never seen before.

The Classic Collection was unfairly critiqued by some on social media for using the "McDonald's holo pattern." These cards emphatically do not use the same pattern. While it is similar at a glance, this is actually the same beaded pattern used in the beloved Radiant Collection subset from Black & White – Legendary Treasures. I think it's beautiful. In fact, the only miss here is that the Japanese versions of these cards have a feature that the English versions do not, and it seems like a pretty egregious miss. The borders of the Japanese equivalent of these cards are gold and holographic, creating an even more premium look. Why the English-language Pokémon TCG changed such an obviously superior aspect of this subset back to the standard look of the original cards is confusing to me.

Overall, I could Pokémon TCG: Celebrations as a strong way to celebrate the 25th Anniversary. It's collector-friendly due to its size and fun to open thanks to a dynamic subset of premium-quality cards. While some choices such as the flat foil of the main set and changes to the Classic Collection prevent this from being an all-time great set like the direct previous expansion Sword & Shield – Evolving Skies, Celebrations will be remembered as an entertaining collection that honored the past and embraced the present with equal warmth.

RATING: 7.5/10

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