Finding any sort of Pokemon Trading Card Game products at retail price is a struggle. Finding stuff on sale? Damn near impossible.
And yet, Costco of all places came through! Advertised in their flyer for a stunning $38.99 CAD, that’s about half the price of what other retailers around here would sell the Kanto Power Mini Tins set for. However, I got antsy when word got out that Costco put the stock out early at its still-remarkable regular price of $44.99, still well below market value. Believing that Costco would run out before the start date of the sale, I immediately rushed to my nearest Costco and grabbed a set.
Featured in the box are five Kanto-themed mini tins. The outside of each tin features one or more famous Pokemon. Once their contents are emptied, you can use the tin to hold one 60-card deck.
Displayed above the tins are four promo cards based on Charizard, Pikachu, Dragonite, and Mewtwo. Though I haven’t had the chance to test out how effective these cards are in battle, they’re all nice cards with holo finishes.
Inside the tin, you’ll get a coin, two booster packs, and an art card.
If you collect all five tins, you can create one large image like this. Gotta catch ’em all!
All five tins featured one Sun & Moon base set booster pack and a Burning Shadows booster pack. If you’re looking for cards from this era of the franchise, this is a great way to grab them! That being said, I have seen videos of others opening these sets and they didn’t have the same booster packs as me. Your results may vary!
Also worth noting that Sun & Moon era cards are no longer tournament legal. You can still use these as part of the expanded tournament format, but if you wanted to use these cards in standard play at an IRL tournament or in Pokemon Trading Card Game Online, you’re out of luck. Nevertheless, every booster pack does come with an online code for an in-game booster, which you can use to unlock equivalent boosters in the digital game.
Steff and I opened all of the packs in one epic binge. We really appreciated being able to grab some evolutionary lines for Pokemon that haven’t ben readily available to us as new collectors who have mostly purchased new cards. From a design standpoint, I adore the reverse holo designs with the one large symbol justified left.
I’m not sure if Tangela or Tangrowth are actually competitive cards, but they seem really good to me! For just one energy, Tangela’s Bind Down can lock an opposing active Pokemon in place, which could easily them up for a knockout next turn.
Its evolution seems effective in a different way. With just one energy, you can dish out 30 damage while healing 30 from yourself. Tangrowth is a bit of a tank! Crosswise Whip is a huge gamble at four energy, but the potential for 200 damage at least gives it a bit of a chance against GX and V Pokemon.
When it comes to full art rares, we were a bit disappointed with our overall haul. Again, your results may vary. Even so, Steff stole the show when she pulled a beautiful Incineroar GX! Unlike many beefy fire Pokemon like Charizard, Incineroar does big damage without having to discard energy after each move. A maximum of 200 for its GX Burning Slam may make it a bit too weak to kill many V versions of Pokemon that dominate the current meta. However, with the potential for your opponent to take burn damage after, that would eek your total damage to the important 220 HP plateau. I’m pumped to incorporate this into a deck!
The Kanto Power Mini Tins Set is a great looking package that provides players with 10 booster packs, four promo cards, and five nice tins that can double as deck storage in the future. Its value is amplified by the insane Costco sale, but I understand that most won’t be as fortunate. Would recommend crunching the math on the cost of 10 booster packs and figuring out if this set is a better value. I personally wouldn’t pay much more for this set than the cost of 10 standalone booster packs.
Again, my one word of caution would be that the packs inside may vary. I got Sun & Moon era expansions, both of which are no longer allowed in standard tournament format IRL or online. If you’re a serious player, you may want to focus on newer cards that will stay in rotation for longer. But if you’re looking for a large bundle of cards and aren’t worried about their competitive status, this is a set worth checking out.
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In Third Person 