The Mega Evolution era of Pokémon cards has challenged what we thought we knew about Pokémon releases.
In the past, throughout the Sword & Shield and Scarlet & Violet eras, English sets commonly had 200 cards or more, which were fed by 2-3 separate Japanese releases.
For example, the popular Evolving Skies set has a grand total of 237 cards, derived from 3 Japanese sets:
The Scarlet & Violet era continued this trend of larger sets, reinforced by the introduction of a large number of Illustration Rare and Special Illustration Rare cards in every release.
But, in the Mega Evolution era, the numbers changed drastically.
Take the latest main set release: Pitch Black. This is an 84 card set release that includes an additional 36 secret rare cards, for a grand total of 120 cards. Chaos Rising has 122 cards. Perfect Order has 124.
You get the point.
What's crazy here is not just that English sets have been small throughout the Mega Evolution era... but that these sets are small because the pace of sets releasing in Japan has been massively reduced.
Japan has often released smaller Pokémon sets, but, for more than a decade, Japan compensated by often releasing two smaller sets at the same time, as well as a more frequent release cadence. This started with separate Black Collection and White Collection releases to kick off the Black & White era in 2010, and continued through to the Mega Evolution era kick-off which consisted of the Japanese Sets Mega Brave, and Mega Symphonia.
It was also common for double set releases to be followed by a smaller "special" set that could have tighter themes.
Using Evolving Skies as an example, Blue Sky Stream and Skyscraping Perfection were a double set release, while Eevee Heroes was a special set centered almost entirely around the Eevee evolution line.
Other than the 30th Celebration set, there hasn't been a single special set released in Japan during the Mega Evolution era, and only the original Mega Brave and Mega Symphonia sets have been a double set release.
Instead, Pokémon Japan has only released single sets, and at a slower pace, than they ever have in past, enabling the English business to produce a single set, at the standard English cadence, albeit with considerably fewer cards.
One explanation for this change is that smaller sets are easier to print. In the face of a booming English Pokémon market, it would seem justified. But, if this is true, it means the Japanese Pokémon business has changed their core product design philosophy to accommodate for the English market.
I'm not sure I buy it.
For decades, The Pokémon Company in Japan would create its releases however it wants, and the The Pokémon Company International take whatever Japan created and repackages it into English releases. There has never been any indication that the Japanese business accommodates the English market and the idea that they would sacrifice their product design for the sake of the international market goes against these past trends.
But, I'll admit, I don't have any other explanation for this.
Perhaps when Pokémon Winds and Waves finally releases, we will see a return to the normal release schedule for Japanese Pokémon card sets, and a return to normalcy for the English sets based on them.
Until then, it's been a strange time.
As usual,
Thanks so much for reading the TCG Buyers Club newsletter. My name's Grey, I buy cardboard, and I'm on a mission to make collecting and investing in Pokémon simple.
Cheers 🍻
P.S. What do you think about this trend? Have I missed anything? Reply and let me know!