Phantasmal Flames Elite Trainer Box Review 

Pokémon Trading Card Game‘s newest set is Phantasmal Flames, the first expansion following the previous Mega Evolution set that kickstarted a new era of the TCG after Scarlet & Violet‘s multi-year run. This means Phantasmal Flames continues the new Mega ex card trend, highlighting Mega Evolution mechanics once more. It also coincides well with the release of Pokémon Legends: Z-A, the latest game that also brings back the popular gimmick.

As with previous sets, Pokémon TCG: Phantasmal Flames comes with an Elite Trainer Box. This time around, Mega Charizard X gets the cover of the box, although it includes a promo card featuring an Illustration Rare of Charcadet. Once again, the packaging is slightly different, following in Mega Evolution‘s footsteps of switching to a plastic packaging inside rather than the cardboard divider we’ve previously seen. However, the items inside the Elite Trainer Box are still (mostly) what fans have come to expect.

What’s Included In Phantasmal Flames’ Elite Trainer Box

Card Dividers, Promo Card, & More

The Phantasmal Flames Elite Trainer Box for the Pokémon TCG contains the following items:

• 1 booklet guide to Phantasmal Flames
• 1 competition legal flip-coin die
• 1 plastic coin featuring Mega Charizard X
• 1 full-art promo card of Charcadet
• 6 card dividers
• 9 booster packs
• 40 Energy cards
• 65 card sleeves featuring Mega Charizard X

As usual, everything comes wrapped in a cardboard collector’s box for storage. For those who don’t already have dice or a coin, the ones in Phantasmal Flames are admittedly pretty cool with their black-and-blue design and the Mega Charizard X featured on the coin and sleeves. The card dividers are always nice for organizations, but the card sleeves and booster packs are the usual standouts.

New Mega Ex Cards Include Iconic Designs Like Charizard & Gengar

Powerful New Cards Come To The Pokémon TCG

Phantasmal Flames has some of the coolest cards to date, even if you’re not lucky enough to get one of the Mega ex Special Illustration Rares. Standard Mega ex cards of Pokémon like Gengar and Charizard X are still highlights, and even standard Rare cards of Pokémon like Vileplume and Zacian feature some nice artwork.

During my own time with Phantasmal Flames, I managed to pull both a standard Mega Gengar ex and Mega Sharpedo ex along with the Mega Lopunny ex Special Illustration Rare. All from the same Elite Trainer Box, which seemed to have pretty decent pull rates. Because the set is smaller than some of the recent ones in 2025, you can expect to get more duplicates than usual, but this is only really an issue if you’re opening up multiple packs well beyond what the ETB offers.

How Phantasmal Flames ETB Compares To Previous Elite Trainer Boxes

Is The Newest ETB Worth It?

In terms of all past Elite Trainer Boxes, the one for Phantasmal Flames is pretty nice. The Charizard X coin is really cool, as are the card sleeves, but how much you like these items will, of course, mostly depend on how you feel about Charizard X to begin with. Charcadet is one of my favorite Gen 9 Pokémon, so it’s great seeing it getting love as the promo card here, even though a card of a Mega Evolution might’ve drawn more attention.

As a set, Phantasmal Flames is one of the better additions to the Pokémon Trading Card Game this year. It builds off the Mega Evolution base set in a great way, while offering plenty of new Pokémon to acquire for deckbuilding — and some nice cards to collect too. No matter which side of the TCG spectrum you land on, there’s plenty to enjoy here.

Released

April 10, 2000

ESRB

e

Developer(s)

Hudson Soft

Multiplayer

Local Multiplayer