Rise and shine trainers! All new boosters will be available in the coming days featuring new EX pokemon as well as some familiar, yet shiny faces. You read that correctly, shiny pokemon are coming to TCGP!

Boosters A2b will feature not only the aforementioned EX and shiny cards, but new trainer cards! Without further ado, let’s break down what you can expect to find in these new boosters.

The new boosters will feature a new pack design especially for them! Here’s the booster pack

The cards

Firstly,here’s the top chasers to find in these boosters;

How hard is it to get a shiny?

Well, it won’t be “easy”. There’s an all new rarity rating specific to shiny cards. Here’s a better look at that rating;

So these new ratings are generally being referred to as “rainbow rarity” where a regular shiny is 1 rainbow rarity and an EX shiny is 2 rainbow rarity. How difficult it will be to get these is currently unknown. It’s assumed to be rarer than 3 stars but less rare than a crown.

A new meta?

A lot of people are wondering how these cards will shake up the current Arceus infested meta. Truth be told, it probably won’t do too much. But the cards look fun to run and we can definitely expect to see a drop in the number of Arceus decks when these packs drop. Let’s take a closer look at the cards themselves.

Let’s start with the one everyone will want, Charizard;

Shiny Charizard EX - 2 Rainbow Rarity

So right out the gate, a lot of people initially saw the 150 and dismissed it as not being able to one hit KO (OHKO) an opponent’s EX. But realistically, most EX cards can’t do that and while this card is the first card we’ve seen in TCGP that requires 5...yes 5 energy to attack, it doesn’t lose the energy when it does, making it more consistent. The biggest drawback is that this is a stage 3 so consistency could be a serious issue.
Stoke will immediately add 3 fire energy to this card. That sounds like a lot but we’ll need to see if there’s a new Charmeleon. If not, it will have at least 3 energy anyway in most cases.
Do keep in mind though that Galade EX and even regular Alakazam and Eggxecutor MI will eat this card alive if they attack first. But hey, it’s worth it just for the flex of a shiny right?

Shiny Lucario EX - 2 Rainbow Rarity

We all run Lucario for the damage boost and it’s almost always a benched pokemon. But now we have a new EX (and EX shiny) that actually has some active play. The health is on the lower side for an EX and the damage is quite low but for 3 energy, you can hit not only your opponent’s Druddigon but also the Dratini they’re undoubtedly building on their bench.
Hitting for 100 will take out an uncaped Driddigon but cannot take out a Regirock so you will have to hit it twice. But hey, hitting it twice means 60 bench damage. If you can get this card out quick, it could be devastating for your opponent.
But you know what’s devastating for you? Literally any psychic pokemon. Alakazam, Mewtwo..even Jynx can cripple Lucario here. This weakness means a lot considering it’s a stage 2 EX. So it’s relatively easy to dispatch.

Red Trainer Card- 2 Star

Red is by far the most interesting non-pokemon card in these boosters. He boosts damage you do to EX cards by 20 for this turn. Imagine this with Sudawoodoo + Lucario against an EX like Arceus...110 damage total. Insane combo. Almost OHKO an Arceus. This card will be in every deck in the game without question.
Will it replace Geovani? Difficult to say. Geovani applies only +10 damage but it’s to all Pokemon and not just to EX. We may even see both. As we see a lot of trainers run Sabrina and Cyrus, we may see trainers run Geovani and Red. Time will tell.

But wait, there’s more!

New binder and starter deck missions!
From April 1st, we’ll be able to grab an awesome shiny Charizard binder!

The deck missions start from Thursday 27th March 11pm (PDT) and run until the 26th of April 10:59pm (PDT).
By completing missions, you can get deck tickets that can be exchanged for one of 9 starter decks. Once you decide on which, the 20 cards from that deck are added to your collection.

And…

Yes, ranked! Ranked matches are finally coming to shake up PVP in TCGP. It kicks off on March 27th at 11pm (PDT) until April 26th at 10:59pm (PDT). The first season will of course, feature Shining Revelry. Trainers will take on other trainers of similar skill in order to climb the ranks. You’ll receive an emblem for your rank at the end of the season. So better get prepping!

- SteveF90

Shining Revelry NEW SET

Ranked breakdown

New update 1.2.0 - More Decks!