Summary

• Pokemon TCG thrives online, accessible to all.
• Expansions introduce new cards, moves, regions.
• Best sets: Sword & Shield, Brilliant Stars, Dragon Vault.

With the increasing popularity of the online 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Pokemon TCG, the Pokemon brand continues to surge forward in all media and make c🤪ompetitive play more accessible to anyone who’s ever wanted to try it out. Overall, it’s a great card game. Each trainer has one active Pokemon at a time to battle with and a maximum of five Pokemon ready to go on the bench.

Expansions introduce new cards, moves, and regions into the TCG scene. Some of the biggest game-changers were EX, GX, and V cards, including others such as BREAK and Tag Team variants. Taking rare chase cards, total car♍d pool, bulk pricing, and significance into account🐎, here are the best Pokemon TCG expansions.

Updated March 20, 2025, by Ryan Hay: There are plenty of sets to collect in the Pokemon Trading Card game, and as more and more are introduced every year, the list of best sets continuously grows. While not every set can be the best, two amazing sets have been released since the last time we revisited this list. Prismatic Evolutions and Stellar Crown join the list, with some of the coolest and most beautiful cards around releasing in these sets. If you're on the hunt for something new to track down, you can always take a peek into these exceptional sets.

27 ෴ Sword & Shield Base Set 🌱

Release Date: February 7, 2020

With168澳洲幸运5开奖网: the Scarlet & Violet base set in the rear-view mirror, it's a great🔯 time to look back and appreciate the set that kicked off the previous generation.

The Sword and🐼 Shield era included the first V cards and had some of the st♛rongest ones ever released.

While the set isn't packed with pure power like others, such as Darkness Ablaze, the high end is sky-high. Zacian V, released in this set, is one of the best cards ever printed for the Pokemon TCG. With an incredible ability and a great attack, Zacian dominated the game. The coincidental Steel-t🌱ype synergy also boosted its usability.

26 Dꦜarkness Ablaze

Release Date: August 14, 2020

Darkness Ablaze from the Sword & Shield era will likelꦡy go down as one of the better sets of the game. Not only are its rare and legendary cards like Eternatus interesting examples of powerful competitive staples, but it features an exceptionally strong number of non-legendary cards that pack huge power to make it all-around powerful.

A great example is the Mad Party group of Pokemon, which were mostly commons and uncommon with an attack that could combo with other Pokemon with the Mad Party attack. Another incredible example is the staple Charizard VMAX, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:one of the best VMAX cards.

25 🌃 Shining Fates

Release Date: February 19, 2021

A set like Shining Fates that includes shiny forms of beloved Pokemon will always have value as it offers something unique. Since this Pokemon TCG expansion set didn't have booster boxes like normal sets, theꦫ scarcity and built-in collector value were there from the ꩲstart.

While this may seem like a flaw, it also happened to be one of the biggest sets during the Pokemon Sword & Shield era, with over 100 shi💖ny Pokemon cards and 30 others that were either V or VMAX, which are chase cards in their own right.

24 Champion's Path

Release Date: September 25, 2020

Leaning much more on the collector's end of the spectrum of Pokemon TCG sets is Champion's Path, a recent set that wa🐲s especially expensive out of the gate. This is because packs of this set weren't available as standalone products, instead being offered as additional content iꦓn packs like the Elite Trainer Box and Pin Collection Sets.

This set has tons of gorgeous V and V-Max card🅷s but also a large number of rainbow foil and shiny cards, such as the elusive Shiny Charizard V card. Many are extremely high-value, wh🎐ile others are just quite powerful, and getting a few of them can be a great addition to any serious Pokemon collector's binder.

23 🐓 ⛎ Prismatic Evolutions

Release date: January 17, 2025

The fourth special expansion from the Scarlet & Violet Series, this set focused heavily on Eevee and its Eevelutions, with tons of Tera Pokemon to collect. All the Eevelutions show up as Ex cards in this set, and since they double as Tera Pokemon, they have some unique Energy costs for their attacks, making them stand out among the lon✱g history of this special evolutionary line.

Perhaps the coolest featur🐲e of the set is the addition of special new foil types of cards featuring Poke Ba𓂃ll or Master Ball imprints etched into the foiling of special cards.

22 ෴ Hidden Fates ܫ

Release Date: August 23, 2019

Hidden Fates is a special set that garnered a lot of attention in recent years as collectors focused on landing many of the v🎀arious full-art shiny Pokemon ca🦂rds featured in the set.

Like most Pokemon Trading Card Game expansions, the 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:true chase card of the set is a C🐻harizard, with this one being a 💟full art display of his shiny black-scaled form.

Hidden Fates is more of a hobby/collector-focused release that doesn't commit to individual booster pack sales but instead shoots for 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:other types of products for consumers to get their hands on.

21 Dragon Vault ♓ 💧

Release Date: October 5, 2012

Dragon Vault is a set that will most likely be valuable to collectors more than anyone else, as it's an extremely small set with only one type of Pokemon. As the title suggests, that♛ would be the Dragon-type, but the main purpos🎉e of this set was to introduce the new Dragon Energy symbol that's still used in the game today.

This was an especially coܫntroversial set, as it brought a huge new element to the game that wasn't available in most standard packs. It's an odd piece of history that'll likely go up in value as time goes on and is even more novel for players who adore the iconic Dragon-type Pokemon it featured from the first few generations of the franchise.

20 💝 🥃 BREAKthrough

Release Date: November 4, 2015

As the first XY Break expansion, XY Breakthrough introduced the BREAK cards. Unlike other upgraded Pokemon card types, BREAK cards require the evolution mechanic to work. Still, by not sacrificing your turn, they provided a much better alternative to Mega Evolution for those wanting to 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:upgrade their base Pokemon.

Understandably, there are only 35 BREAK cards, 6 of which were introduced with Breakthrough. Despite this small pool, the booster packs don’t have a fantastic pull rate compared to some of the others on the list, meaning this set isn't as recommended for collecไtors as it is for players.

19 Forbidden Light ℱ

Release Date: May 4, 2018

Forbidden Light is the sixth 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:expansio🌃n released for tꦐhe Sun & Moon era, but it focuses on the Kalos region Pokemon rather than Alola. However, it does emphasize the Ul🐻tra Beasts, something we have seen very little of throughout the en☂tire TCG.

Forbidden Light holds a whopping 26 Pokemon-GX cards out of the total 146 in the set, making it a huge benefit ꦡfor anyone wanting to get into competitive play. On top of that, it introduces five 𝔍new Prism Star cards and has some entertaining theme decks for beginners, making this set great for all players.

18 Brilliant Stars 𝓡 ✱

Release Date: February 25, 2022

Brilliant Stars is a recent set, but it does have a solid case to belong on this list. In addition to a new mechanic and Pokemon card type in VSTAR, the set also includes incredible 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:full-art trainer cards displaying some of the series' most iconic trainers alongside t♔heir most notable Pokemon companions.

When a set can be valuable and interesting to both those who play the card game competitively and those who simply collect rare cards, you have a rather s꧟pecial expansion set on your hands.