Pokémon TCG Pocket’s next Diamond and Pearl-themed expansion is out next week

Much to the delight of the game’s community, Pokémon TCG Pocket’s next expansion set, Space-Time Smackdown, has just been revealed and will be released shortly. The reveal trailer shows that the otherworldly expansion heavily features Palkia and Dialga.

This expansion set is due to come out late on Jan. 29 for NA players and early Jan. 30 for EU players, meaning fans won’t have long to wait until they can rip into the packs and add the new cards to their collection.

With a heavy Diamond and Pearl theme, the trailer snippet shows striking artwork for both of the fourth generation box legendaries, the Sinnoh starter Pokémon, and a host of other popular critters like Gible and Cresselia, pointing to a card list full of gems.

Much like the Genetic Apex trio of Mewtwo, Charizard, and Pikachu, legendary beasts Dialga and Palkia will be getting their own booster packs for this expansion set, giving fans even more choice on which cards they want to chase for their collection.

There will likely be exclusive cards for both booster packs in the same way that Genetic Apex had pack exclusives, but this is speculation on our part for now.

Both Dialga and Palkia will feature on ex cards, pointing to a significant shift in the competitive meta. Palkia ex looks particularly promising right now, as Water-type critters in Pocket have plenty of tools to help them succeed, like the Misty Supporter.

Dialga ex has an Energizing attack to help get Benched allies ready to move alongside a standard 100 damage attack, while Palkia ex features a mighty 150 damage attack that can also stack 30 damage onto Benched opponents.

A new Supporter card featuring Cynthia was also shown off in the trailer, with a card description reading “During this turn, attacks used by your Garchomp or Togekiss do +50 damage…”

Pachirisu ex was another highlight in the trailer snippet. The EleSquirrel Pokémon’s primary attack is Sparking Gadget, which stacks damage and also hints at one of the main additions of this new set being Pokémon Tool cards. No Pokémon Tool cards were shown in the trailer.

Space-Time Smackdown will be dropping shortly after the long-awaited trading function gets introduced into PTCGP, so it’s set to be an explosive week for both collectors and competitive players. Make sure to stock up on your Pack Hourglasses now so you can hop right into opening packs once the set drops officially.