The release of the Scarlet & Violet—Paldea Evolved expansion for the Pokémon TCG isn’t until June 9, 2023, but The Pokémon Company International was kind enough to send Marriland some product for the upcoming set for review purposes.
Let’s take a look at the Scarlet & Violet—Paldea Evolved Elite Trainer Box (Standard version) and you can decide if it is right for you! You can follow along with the video above, or just read the article below with some pictures if you’d rather just get to the point.
Additionally, if you want to take a look at all of the cards in the Paldea Evolved set, the Marriland TCG Database now has a page with a complete listing and details on the entire set, as well as 186/279 card scans of Scarlet & Violet—Paldea Evolved, which you can view from the link down below:
The Different Elite Trainer Boxes
Unlike the Scarlet & Violet Elite Trainer Boxes, which contained a total of four possible versions, Paldea Evolved has just two versions: a standard version and the Pokémon Center version, the latter of which retails only on the official Pokémon Center website.
The contents of these two Elite Trainer Boxes are mostly the same and are detailed further below, although in a nutshell, you get two extra booster packs and an extra Promo card in the Pokémon Center version. Please note that the product being reviewed in this article and video is from the standard version.
What Do You Get In An Elite Trainer Box?
Booster Packs
A staple of any Elite Trainer Box is the fact that you get booster packs of the matching set within it. The Scarlet & Violet—Paldea Evolved Elite Trainer Box comes with 9 booster packs of Scarlet & Violet—Paldea Evolved in the standard version or 11 booster packs in the Pokémon Center version.
The amount of booster packs contained in most Elite Trainer Boxes has increased starting with Scarlet & Violet—regular expansion sets now contain one extra booster pack than before, where it used to be 8 for a standard version or 10 for the Pokémon Center version, although this number could be higher for special expansion sets. Of course, the price has also increased to go along with this, not to mention the cost for booster packs have risen as well.
Promo Card(s)
One cool thing in this Elite Trainer Box is a special Promo card. This one, Pikachu (027), is a lovely special illustration card that also features the three starter Pokémon from Scarlet & Violet on it—Sprigatito, Fuecoco, and Quaxly.
The Pokémon Center Elite Trainer Box comes with an additional copy of this Promo card, although it has a special “Pokémon Center” logo stamped on it. Otherwise, it is the same card, just with the stamp.
Card Sleeves
There are a total of 65 card sleeves contained within the Elite Trainer Box (either version), and these matte-finished sleeves feature the three Paldean starter Pokémon on them. A standard Pokémon TCG deck contains 60 cards, so this gives you 5 extra sleeves in case one gets damaged or misplaced.
Coin-Flip Die and Damage Counter Dice
The Elite Trainer Box should contain six “damage counter dice” and one “competition-legal coin-flip die,” although the contents of the Elite Trainer Box I received for review contained an extra set of them. Weird! Just keep that in mind if you’re watching the video review above.
The damage counter dice are used to keep track of how much damage your Pokémon has taken. They are smaller and have various denominations on them. These are not to be used for flipping coins, though; that’s what the competition-legal coin-flip die is for, with odd numbers counting as tails and even numbers counting as heads. The “ex” on the coin-flip die is where the “1” pip would be and thus counts as tails.
What’s nice about the coin-flip die is the neat colors on it, with three stripes of colors along the center of it. There’s a green, orange, and blue stripe, although you can only see it when looking at it from certain angles. It’s a cool effect that is hard to describe and looks very nice when viewed in person, so I commend them for that.
Special Condition Markers
You’ll get two of the new Special Condition markers in the Elite Trainer Box. These are the versions that were present in the Scarlet & Violet Elite Trainer Box, which are now plastic as opposed to the old acrylic. They look quite nice, though, and are used to keep track of if your Pokémon becomes Burned or Poisoned.
Basic Energy Cards
There’s a nice pack of 45 Basic Energy cards. These are standard in every Elite Trainer Box, but at least all of these are of the new look for the Basic Energy, which shows the name and also has the silver border instead of the old yellow border. Every booster pack also comes with a Basic Energy as well, but this can be a good way to get more Energy cards for building decks with, especially if you’re just starting out.
Player’s Guide
Something that I find particularly useful in any Elite Trainer Box is the Player’s Guide that comes inside of it, which showcases various cards and strategies from the set, and also has a checklist with pictures of each of the cards in the set, including any of the secret rare cards.
The Player’s Guide included in the Paldea Evolved Elite Trainer Box does a good job at explaining some of the strategies and synergies, such as Baxcalibur and Chien-Pao ex, Weavile and Jet Energy, and the United Wings combo of Wattrel, Murkrow, and Flamigo.
Card Storage Box and Separators
Of course, you also get a really nifty box to keep some of your cards and/or accessories in. The Elite Trainer Box actually compresses to about half its unopened size due to how it’s packaged, meaning that, once you’ve opened it, you get a really nice-sized box to store stuff in.
This one features the trio of starter Pokémon on it, and is otherwise the same as other Elite Trainer Boxes. The cardboard separators—which are just used to separate cards—are also fairly basic, with that same starter Pokémon artwork, although they don’t look quite as flashy or regal as the ones from the base Scarlet & Violet set in my opinion.
TCG Live Code Card
Lastly, a code card for Pokémon TCG Live is contained within the Elite Trainer Box. As Pokémon TCG Online will officially be shut down by the time Paldea Evolved launches, you obviously won’t be able to use that for the old service, although any of the Scarlet & Violet series only work with the new TCG Live anyway, so it’s not surprising.
As this code could not be redeemed until the day before the set officially launches, I cannot verify exactly what you get with it, but it’s presumably sleeves and the promo card.
The Pokémon TCG: Scarlet & Violet—Paldea Evolved set, including the Elite Trainer Box shown in this post, launches worldwide on June 9, 2023. You can check out a complete listing of all of the cards in the set over on the Marriland TCG Database Paldea Evolved page.
DISCLAIMER: The product covered in this review was provided by The Pokémon Company International free of charge. No monetary or financial compensation was exchanged for this review by either party, and all thoughts and opinions are independent.