TCG fans call out Pokémon for Prismatic Evolutions mess

Pokémon fans are dubbing Prismatic Evolutions as the “latest problematic set” ahead of this Friday’s release, with fans struggling to find products at retail price.

The first Pokémon set of 2025 in the West, Prismatic Evolutions, is based on last month’s release of Japan’s Terastal Festival. The festival was incredibly popular, and the market has surged, putting prices out of reach for many.

There are stories of scalpers raiding stores for pre-order products and listing them online for way above the retail price on resale sites, leading many to skip the set entirely. But that’s not the only problem that Prismatic Evolutions is facing.

The set has already been referred to as “Traumatic Evolutions” by fans due to signs of the pull rates being horrendous, while The Pokémon Company has attracted criticism for letting the set reach this level of hype without printing enough to cope with the demand.

For those who have been in the hobby for a while, this sort of situation is familiar and brings back memories of “Evolving Cries,” referring to the last incredibly popular Eevee-themed set, Evolving Skies, and “Chilling Pain,” referring to Chilling Reign from the Sword and Shield era.

A thread on the topic on Reddit caused a stir, where Pokémon were criticized for a “total greedmonger move” by creating a set with 32 SIR cards and zero IRs yet maintaining “similar, or even worse, pull rates.”

Another expressed relief at leaving the collecting end of the hobby and focusing on playing the TCG now, saying that “dealing with scalpers and price gauging on the sets sounds like a nightmare.”

While three sets, in particular, were cited as examples of the trend, these are far from all the examples. Surging Sparks, the last set released in the West, has also been difficult for fans to find products for, while 2023’s 151 set attracted plenty of scalpers.

Fortunately, Prismatic Evolutions is here to stay, and plenty of other products will be released over the year, so we hope the issues subside. The attention on Pokémon makes it difficult, however, which is already indicated by the resale market for Journey Together, releasing in March.