Without giving Pokémon Trading Card Game collectors a chance to fully recover from the chaos surrounding Prismatic Evolutions and Pokémon 151 set releases, the Black Bolt & White Flare sets are preparing to shake things up again. Releasing on June 6th in Japan and July 18th worldwide, this dual-set release is something like a Pokémon 151-type of set, specifically for Unova.

While the full set list has yet to be unveiled, it has been confirmed that this will be another massive launch. We've already received the exciting and shocking news that Pokémon TCG Black Bolt & White Flare sets will include a special alternate art card for every Gen 5 Pokémon. It's a big point of attraction, but this surplus of alternate art cards could also lead to some major problems.

Illustration Rare & Special Illustration Rare Cards For All Unova Pokémon

All Gen 5 Pokémon Will Receive An Alternate Full Art Card With Unique Pull Rates

While no official set list has been released for the Black Bolt and White Flare sets yet, several cards have been revealed, including some of the Illustration and Special Illustration Rares for Gen 5. For anyone that doesn't already know, Illustration Rare cards and Special Illustration Rare cards are alternate full-art versions of other cards in the set with varying rarities, following the change in defining rarities that took place with the debut of Scarlet & Violet in Pokémon TCG. For this set, PokéBeach has confirmed that all 156 Unova Pokémon will receive an Illustration Rare or Special Illustration Rare.

Before Gen 9, Pokémon TCG cards were broken down into mainly circles, diamonds, and single stars to define rarity. Unfortunately, this led to a large amount of confusion among new collectors who didn't understand that, despite sharing the same star symbol, cards may not share the same pull rate, resulting in some being worth significantly more than others. Now, however, new sets provide a bit more clarity about the value of their cards.

In addition to the usual identifiers, which are circle for common, diamond for uncommon, and a black star for rare, new sets also feature two black stars for Double Rare, two white stars for Ultra Rare, one gold star for Illustration Rare, two gold stars for Special Illustration Rare, and three gold stars for Hyper Rare. Each rarity gradually reduces in pull rate, with Hyper Rare having the lowest pull rate and being the most easily identifiable, as it typically appears as a golden card.

Illustration Rares and Special Illustration Rares also fall under the newly dubbed Secret Rare status, which applies to anything Ultra Rare or higher. This means that the card numbers will go above the set list number. For example, you could pull a Secret Rare labeled 170/165.

Every Gen 5 Pokémon will have an alternate full art with a pull rate dependent on whether it is an Illustration Rare or a Special Illustration Rare. Illustration Rare will be used for any regular Pokémon, while Special Illustration Rare will be specifically for those in this Unova set that appear as an ex card, which, unfortunately, has already been confirmed to include Serperior ex and not the other two starters' final evolutions.

Black Bolt & White Flare Already Sound Like A Collector's Nightmare

156 Illustration & Special Illustration Rares May Be Impossible To Collect

Anyone who has tried to get their hands on the Pokémon 151 TCG set, or any recent Pokémon TCG set for that matter, knows that it has become a near-impossible feat to accomplish. With Pokémon only continuing to grow in popularity while also holding on to its longtime fanbase, supply and demand have already become disturbingly out of balance. When you throw in scalpers and other factors, Pokémon TCG drops suddenly feel like something you need to spend months preparing for.

While some sets are worse than others in of this issue, with Prismatic Evolutions being a prime example of one of the more hectic releases, there's no doubt that Black Bolt and White Flare will fall into this situation as well. Unfortunately, while collectors typically only have to seek out maybe 10-15 big cards from a set, if that, with White Flare & Black Bolt offering an alternate full-art illustration card for every Gen 5 Pokémon, that's over 150 Secret Rare cards in one set to collect.

As if things weren't going to be hectic enough with these sets, Black Bolt & White Flare will also be unveiling a new Pokémon TCG card rarity, BWR, which will consist of monochromatic editions of Zekrom, Reshiram, and Victini.

If you're the type of collector who likes to complete a set, this could easily end up being one of the most expensive and nightmarish sets to complete. There is some speculation that pull rates for these cards will be higher for this set, which could certainly help. For those that are looking to collect all 156 Gen 5 alternate full-arts, it's still going to be no easy task, especially since the amount of available product is going to be significantly less at launch than anticipated, according to PokéBeach.

Too Many Cards In A Set Can Lead To A Lot Of Problems

Frequent Releases Of Oversaturated Sets Lead To Chaos In TCG Communities

In the overall TCG scene, there's often a sweet spot when it comes to how many cards to include in a single drop, how the rarities should be divided up, and how many sets will be produced overall. When companies go too limited with rare cards, like Magic: The Gathering producing one unique The One Ring card, or too saturated, it often leads to a mixture of chaos and frustration among collectors who will do anything to get their hands on what they need or simply accept defeat before they even start trying.

With Pokémon TCG releasing new sets every few months, it's nearly impossible to complete sets with upwards of 200 cards or more before the next one drops. Furthermore, because collectors have to purchase more products to attempt to complete these massive sets, we're seeing more shortages in supply. This then leads to necessary restocks, ultimately resulting in a lower print for the next set as suppliers work to catch up with restocking past sets, repeating the cycle.

It's great that Pokémon TCG is trying to give more variety to collectors, and I honestly love that some forgotten Pokémon will be getting alternate full arts as part of the complete Unova collection. Even so, this is already likely to be a disaster in the making. For now, all we can do is wait and see how this unfolds, and while I don't want to discourage Pokémon TCG from offering something like this again in the future, perhaps there can be a better way to go about releasing and distributing it.

Source: PokéBeach (1, 2)