Twilight Masquerade is the Pokemon card set for video game fans

Carmine with Ogerpon Pokemon background.The Pokemon Company / Game Freak

It’s always an exciting time for the Pokemon for the Pokemon community when a new expansion set announcement or product drop. At the time of writing, we’re just days away from the Twilight Masquerade launch and it’s proving to be a hot topic with Pokemon fans.

So far, the set has been relatively divisive, especially when compared to newer sets like Paldean Fates or 151. Some Pokemon card collectors recently got into this online, exploring the conflicting nature of Twilight Masquerade and why it seems to be splitting the community.

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Some Pokemon card collectors are nonplussed by Twilight Masquerade – or even worried that it could be a disappointing set. Others are excited to get their hands on the latest chase cards and build new decks with them anxiously awaiting the official release day.

The original poster reached out to the community, asking how they were feeling about Twilight Masquerade and noting that they’d “Been seeing tons of hate on this set”. The response was mixed.

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Some readers chimed in with the particular cards they were hunting for, painting Twilight Masquerade as a set with one or two good cards amidst a handful of trash. A collector noted, “Only card in the whole set I even mildly care about is the Greninja SIR. Which I’ll buy as a single and save lots of money”.

Other cards that players were excited about include the duo of Perrin and Hisuian Growlithe, along with the Illustration Rares for Pinsir and Eevee. Twilight Masquerade has some cards that are likely to stack up quickly in price in the next few weeks.

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One player attempted to tackle the naysayers, stating, ” I feel like the main reason it seems to be getting meh reception is because a lot of people in the TCG community haven’t played the Kitakami DLC the set is based on.”

Out of all the recent Pokemon TCG sets, Twilight Masquerade has some of the clearest theming and ties to the Pokemon video games. Temporal Forces had nods to Scarlet & Violet, but Twilight Masquerade carries Kitakami’s lore and aesthetic masterfully with the set aesthetic and Pokemon Abilities.

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Area Zero DLC Pokemon artwork with characters and Pokemon in a festival.The Pokemon Company
Official artwork from Pokemon Scarlet & Violet – The Teal Mask DLC.

Sets like Paldean Fates and 151 felt almost like fan service for TCG players – but in a good way. These sets played into what Pokemon card collectors tend to crave from new expansion sets, like Shiny Pokemon, beautiful full-art pieces, and punchy Attacks, without acknowledging too much from the video games.

Twilight Masquerade and the recently announced Shrouded Fable are both more aligned with the current generation of Pokemon video games, leaning into lore and storytelling much more than previous expansion sets. As the Reddit commenter above noted, it’s possible that exclusively TCG fans aren’t as excited about this set for that reason.

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That’s not to say that this upcoming set won’t have anything for TCG players to get excited about, though. There are some intensely powerful Trainer cards to look forward to, along with some heavy-hitters like Wellspring Mask Ogerpon ex and Dragapult ex that could be Charizard killers.

If you’re not sold on Twilight Masquerade yet, be sure to check out our expansion set guide. This set will be released on May 24, 2024, and it’s lining up to be one of the most influential Pokemon TCG releases this year.

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