The new Pokémon set, The Glory of Team Rocket, comes out in Japan this week, and fans have their hands on the cards already, sharing their coolest pulls on social media. This gives us English-speaking Pokémon fans – who still have more than a month to wait for the set – the chance to see the coolest cards a little early.
While the photos aren’t brilliant quality, we’re seeing SIR and IR (or SAR and AR as they’re called in Japan) cards hitting social media all over the place, revealing upcoming Pokémon cards that haven’t been shown to the English market yet.
For clarity, The Glory of Team Rocket contains cards from the upcoming English Pokémon TCG set Destined Rivals. Specifically, the English set, which launches May 30, 2025, contains cards from a combination of the Heatwave Arena and The Glory of Team Rocket expansions.
But it’s the Team Rocket cards that fans really care about – partly thanks to nostalgia for Generation 1’s evil team and partly thanks to nostalgia for Ex Team Rocket Returns, one of the coolest sets in the game’s history.
The full art cards include Team Rocket’s Mewtwo ex, the face of the Destined Rivals set; and Team Rocket’s Moltres ex, the first SIR for this Pokémon (unless you count its Galarian form). People seem decidedly mixed on this latest rare version of the psychic type, while Moltres is receiving far more praise.
Two other Team Rocket’s Pokémon are getting Secret Illustration Rares: Nidoking and Crobat, and Giovanni looks as devious as he ever has in his SIR trainer card.
The slightly less prestigious Illustration Rares are solid too. Below are a couple of our favorites:
At a time when even the newest Pokémon set, the fairly average Journey Together, is snapped up like hotcakes, Destined Rivals is expected to be the biggest set of the year. It may even surpass the likes of 151 or Prismatic Evolutions, though how well matches up against those is going to depend on how sought after these full art chase cards are.
So what do you think? Did The Pokémon Company drop the ball on Mewtwo ex or is it everything you hoped for? Come share your view in our new Discord. And don’t miss our guides to the rarest Pokémon cards and the best Pokémon cards in the TCG.