Pokemon TCG Introduces Future And Ancient 'Mons In Scarlet & Violet: Paradox Rift

thegamer.com:

The Pokemon TCG’s fourth Scarlet & Violet set has been officially revealed. Paradox Rift, as the name suggests, will finally bring the time-travelling Paradox Pokemon to the trading card game for the first time, over a year after their video game debut.

Due to launch in November, Paradox Rift takes us into Area Zero to encounter Paradox Pokemon – monsters from different time periods who have found themselves in the Paldea region.

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According to the Pokemon Center website, so far four Paradox Pokemon have been confirmed: Iron Valiant ex and Iron Hands ex from the future, and Roaring Moon ex and Sandy Shocks ex from the past. However, at last week’s Worlds finals in Yokohama, Japan, we also saw Scream Tail, Iron Bundle, Iron Moth, and Brute Bonnet as regular, non-ex cards.

In a lot of ways, Future and Ancient Paradox Pokemon appear to be this era’s version of Sword & Shields’ battle styles. Future and Ancient Pokemon both have their own unique frames, and some cards have abilities that relate directly to having one of the two in play. We shouldn’t expect it to be as big a theme as battle styles were, though, simply due to how few Paradox Pokemon there are to bring to the game.

Elsewhere in the expansion, it’s also been confirmed that Garchomp, Mewtwo, Gholdengo and Armarouge will be getting the ex treatment as well. This suggests the expansion will be taking cards from the Japanese Raging Surf expansion, which will bring back Technical Machines back to the game after last being seen way back in the Platinum era. Whether we’ll see these come to Paradox Rift, or if they’ll be held back for 2024 or later, has yet to be confirmed.

A running theme throughout the Pokemon