Pokémon Unite Release Date & New Playable Character Announced

With everyone going crazy, looking all over the internet for clues about the release date for Pokémon Unite, the Pokémon Company was not in a rush to give this information out. This created suspense, hype, and some frustration throughout the community. But they said it would be released in July and they’re delivering on their promise. Today a tweet went up from the PokemonUNITE Twitter account saying this.

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

Pokémon Unite is confirmed to be coming out on July 21st for the Nintendo Switch. That’s less than a week away! Along with the tweet was an exciting trailer showing more gameplay and features in the game.

Not only does this finally give players a release date. It shows more info on customization features such as your Pokémon trainer, teams, and Pokémon themselves. At the end of the video, it also showcases a new playable character. The Electric-type, Mythical Pokémon, Zeraora! If you want to unlock this character you must act quickly because you can only get it before August 31st.

Playing Zeraora

Zeraora is a close range combat character. It’s classified as a speedster as is it has a high mobility stat and can deal a lot of damage to enemies. It’s Unite ability is a powerful AOE (area of effect) electric attack that damages all enemies around it.

Best Products in 25th Anniversary Celebrations Pokémon Set

New Classic Cards?

The new Pokémon TCG set has been announced and it’s celebrating 25 years of the franchise. Everyone remembers XY Evolutions because it brought back some of the most nostalgic and memorable cards in the game. This new set will similarly bring back classics such as Surfing Pikachu, Flying Pikachu, and many more. They’re even bringing back some special edition base set cards. Celebrations booster packs will not be sold individually, so you’ll need to get them in special collections and boxes. Most of these are pin collections but there are several other boxes that have unique loot in them aswell. The pack art for the Japanese 25th Anniversary Collection has been revealed to be Mew and Pikachu, so these Pokemon may also be featured on VMAX and/or chase cards.

A major change in this set is that the booster packs are going to have four cards instead of the usual 10. This is most likely due to all cards in the set being holographic. Usually in other PTCG booster packs you get one holo card out of the pack, and sometimes a regular rare card. These packs will never disappoint and it’s one of the many reasons to get hyped for this set’s release. Though there have been many sought after Pokemon TCG sets in 2021, the Celebrations set may top all of them. This isn’t just another set of Sword and Shield, this is a Pokemon TCG set that will feature Pokemon from some of the best sets of all Pokémon regions in the last 25 years and will be collectable for decades to come.

The three main products everyone’s talking about are of course, the Elite Trainer Box, the new Ultra-Premium Collection, and the Golden Anniversary Box.

3. Elite Trainer Box

First on the list of products to look out for when this set is released is the ETB. The elite trainer box will feature the usual ETB gear such as card sleeves and a coin, along with 10 Celebrations four-card booster packs and 5 other booster packs. The other booster packs have yet to be named and they may be random. This is a great deal compared to many other products releasing in this set as it gives you a total of 15 booster packs for a low price. This will be released with many other products in the set on October 8th, 2021 for $49.99 USD.

Pokémon's new TCG 25th Anniversary Celebrations Elite Trainer Box

This box contains:

  • 10 Celebrations four-card booster packs
  • 5 other Pokémon TCG Booster Packs
  • A special foil card featuring Greninja
  • 25th anniversary-themed card sleeves
  • 45 energy cards
  • A players guide
  • A TCG rulebook
  • 6 damage counter dice
  • A Pokémon coin
  • Condition markers. (Poison/Burn)

2. Ultra-Premium Collection

The Ultra-Premium Collection box is the second product on this list that everyone is talking about. This will contain two metal cards featuring Base Set Pikachu and Base Set Charizard. No pictures have been released of these metal cards yet but we already know everyone will want to get their hands on them. It also comes with 17 Celebrations four-card booster packs and 8 other booster packs! This will be released 2 weeks later on October 22nd, 2021 for $119.99 USD.

Pokémon's new TCG 25th Anniversary Celebrations Ultra Premium Box

This box contains:

  • Metal cards featuring Base Set Pikachu and Base Set Charizard
  • Special gold version of Pikachu V
  • Special gold version of a PokéBall
  • Charizard and Pikachu enamel pins
  • An anniversary-themed metal coin
  • 17 Celebrations four-card booster packs
  • 8 other Pokémon TCG booster packs
  • A player’s guide.
  1. Golden Box (OCG)

There’s a third one of a kind item fans are keeping their eye on with this release. This is the gold collection box. This has been announced as an OCG exclusive, meaning this will only be released in Japan. Technically it’s not appart of the TCG Celebrations set, but it’s too good to leave off this list. Regardless of location, this box comes with plenty of loot that everyone wants and it’s all gold colored. This golden collector’s box will cost ¥17,600 (yen), which is about $160 USD.

Pokémon's new OCG 25th Anniversary Golden Collector's Box

This box contains:

  • A deck of 60 holo cards
  • 25th anniversary themed card sleeves
  • A foil-stamped rubber playmat
  • 12 metal damage dice
  • Metal condition markers (Poison/Burn)
  • A leather deck case
  • A Leather playmat case
  • A Leather case
  • A Pokémon coin
  • 5 25th Anniversary packs

With this being one of the most anticipated sets in a while, there may be an issue with scalpers targeting these products. Scalping is when people buy out products on release so the supply is restricted and normal collectors don’t get a chance to buy it. Normal collectors will then have no choice but to buy the product from these resellers and scalpers, sometimes for double the price. We recommend not buying from resellers that over value products. Keep your eyes peeled for these products when they release on official websites and retailers for your chance to get this one of a kind set!

Pokémon Unite Character Stats Explained

When Pokémon Unite releases many players will choose to play a Pokémon just because of how they look. With stats, you’re able to base who you choose on your own play style. Picking the character you’ll play based on aesthetics or who’s your favorite Pokémon may lead to you having unsuccessful matches or unsatisfying gameplay. Instead, base your main character around how you play in-game. In similar MOBA games, If you usually like to roam solo and go for kills, you may want to look for a Pokémon with a high offense rating. If you do this with a Pokémon that has a low offense stat, you’ll surely not have the experience you were looking for. On the Pokémon Unite website, you can view stats for each character. Pokémon’s stats are displayed with a 5 star rating system. 1 star being the lowest, 5 star being the highest. There are five different stats listed for each Pokémon: Offense, Endurance, Mobility, Scoring, and Support. The problem is none of these are explained. We created an effective guide that explains each stat and what they mean. This will allow you to choose a character you know will fit your play style and beat the competition.

Pokémon Unite Offense, Endurance, Mobility, Scoring, Support stats explained

What is Offense?

The offense stat tells you how much damage this Pokémon can do. Characters with a high offense rating can often be found on the front lines of battle. A strong offense Pokémon is similar to ADC in other MOBA games (Attack Damage Carry) because these characters can deal a lot of DPS (Damage per second)

Pikachu and Venusaur have the highest offense stat with 4.5/5 stars.

Offense stat explained. Pikachu and Venausaur have the highest offense stat in Pokemon Unite with 4.5 stars.
Endurance stat explained. Snorlax has the highest endurance stat in Pokémon Unite with 5 stars.

What is Endurance?

Pokémon with a high Endurance stat can take a lot of hits because they have a lot of HP and higher health regeneration. These are often defenders and are considered tanky.

Snorlax has the highest endurance stat with 5/5 stars.

What is Mobility?

The Mobility stat is based on how fast a Pokémon is. Speedsters will have high mobility because they’re often faster than others, while defenders are slower.

Talonflame has the highest mobility stat with 5/5 stars.

Mobility stat explained. Talonflame has the highest mobility stat in Pokémon Unite with 5 stars.
Scoring stat explained. Talonflame has the highest scoring stat in Pokémon Unite with 5 stars.

What is Scoring?

The Scoring stat in Pokemon Unite is a rating on how easy it is for that Pokémon to score. This means the higher your scoring stat is, the easier it is for you to score. Speedsters on average have a higher scoring rating because they can get to the goal faster that other characters.

Talonflame also has the highest scoring stat with 5/5 stars.

What is Support?

If you’re playing a character with a high support rating, you may need to concentrate on sticking with teammates and slowing down your opponents. A character with high scoring may be similar to a jungler in other MOBAs as they can focus on defeating adds or wild Pokémon for points.

Wigglytuff has the highest support stat with 4.5/5 stars.

Support stat explained. Wigglytuff has the highest support stat in Pokémon Unite with 4.5 stars.

I Pulled The Rarest Card From Chilling Reign

This year has been huge for the Pokemon TCG and people have been buying up every Pokemon pack and box they can get their hands on. This is something I’ve also taken a part in this year, buying packs and elite trainer boxes from every Sword and Shield set that gets released. This time around, the plan was to buy a booster box and an elite trainer box so I could open 36 packs and still have a sealed collectable to have on my shelf. I opened the 36 packs that come in the booster box and got some decent, exciting pulls such as Celebi VMAX, Galarian Articuno V, and Galarian Moltres V.

All amazing looking cards but nothing too crazy from 36 packs. After opening the booster box, I was happy with what I drew but still not fully satisfied. Booster boxes aren’t a small investment by any means, usually costing ~$120 on release, so I usually look for any secret rare cards I can get. This and the fact that I just needed a Galarian Zapdos V to complete my legendary bird collection made me want to open more. Who doesn’t want to open more Pokemon packs? Already having bought the elite trainer box, I decided to open that as well and I’m glad I did!

After just a few packs into the box, I ended up pulling the Secret Rare Blaziken VMAX with alternate art. When a new set comes out I try not to look at all of the secret rares until I’ve already opened packs so at the time, I didn’t even know this card existed. Not only does this card look amazing, I immediately knew this wasn’t like any other secret rare pull because this was the first Blaziken card I’ve ever owned. I immediately put it in a sleeve and looked up more information about the card. With a market value of ~$150, this is the most valuable and arguably the rarest card in the Chilling Reign set.

If you have sealed Pokemon packs and elite trainer boxes lying around, there’s always a chance that the rarest cards you can find are hiding in there. Having multiple sealed Pokemon products myself, I find myself always wanting to know what’s in them. Sometimes you have to fight that urge and remind yourself the odds of that happening are slim, but I’ve proven to myself that it’s definitely possible.