Destined Rivals

What Destined Rivals is

Destined Rivals is the tenth and final main expansion of the Scarlet & Violet Series, released in English on May 30, 2025 under the set code DRI. It has 182 cards in the numbered set plus 62 secret rares, for 244 cards in total. Its theme is a face off between Team Rocket and a roster of heroic Trainers: Cynthia, Ethan, Arven, Misty, Marnie and Steven Stone all have Trainer's Pokémon in the set, while Giovanni and Team Rocket's Pokémon fill the other side of the checklist.

Team Rocket is the reason the set exists in collectors' minds. 83 cards relate to Team Rocket, including more than 45 Team Rocket's Pokémon, and the set as a whole carries more than 85 Trainer's Pokémon. There are 17 Pokémon ex, ten of them Trainer's Pokémon ex, and the special illustration section runs to 23 Illustration rares and 11 Special illustration rares, capped by six gold etched Hyper rares. Darkness is the most common type in the set at 37 cards.

The cards come from the Japanese Heat Wave Arena subset, the Glory of Team Rocket expansion and the two ex Starter Sets for Marnie's Morpeko and Grimmsnarl ex and Steven's Beldum and Metagross ex. Cards from the expansion were available before release day from May 16, 2025 in the Marnie and Steven Rival Battle Decks. Almost every card carries the I regulation mark.

What makes Destined Rivals different

• Team Rocket returns Team Rocket's Pokémon, Giovanni, Ariana and the Team Rocket Trainer cards make this the first modern set built around the organisation. Team Rocket's Mewtwo ex appears as a Double rare (81), an Ultra rare, a Special illustration rare (231, by Iwamoto05) and a gold Hyper rare (240).
• Prerelease promos that are in set variants For the first time since Evolutions in the XY Series, the Build & Battle Box focal cards were not alternate art Black Star Promos. Ethan's Typhlosion 34, Misty's Gyarados 49, Team Rocket's Mimikyu 87 and Team Rocket's Tyranitar 96 were printed on cosmos holofoil with a set logo stamp, plus non holofoil deck versions, and the staff stamped copies are now some of the most valuable cards in the set.
• Three Trainer Special illustration rares Ethan's Adventure 236 (Kariya), Team Rocket's Ariana 237 (Yoshioka) and Team Rocket's Giovanni 238 (Krgc) give the set three Supporter Special illustration rares, and the Giovanni is the Trainer card collectors chase hardest.
• Six gold Hyper rares Ethan's Ho-Oh ex 239, Team Rocket's Mewtwo ex 240, Cynthia's Garchomp ex 241, Team Rocket's Crobat ex 242, Jamming Tower 243 and Levincia 244 close the set as gold etched cards.
• A long list of retailer and event stamps Team Rocket's Zapdos 70 exists with GameStop (USA and Canada), EB Games (Australia and New Zealand) and Asian gift with purchase stamps; Team Rocket's Articuno 51 has a Destined Rivals stamped gift with purchase version in the USA; Team Rocket's Tyranitar 96 has a Pokémon Center stamp; and Team Rocket's Mewtwo ex 81 was a Premier Ball League Top 4 prize in Malaysia, the Philippines and Singapore.
• A leaked reveal The four booster pack artworks (Giovanni and Mewtwo, Cynthia, Ethan and Ho-Oh, and Team Rocket) appeared on gamescom latam 2025 passes posted on February 19, 2025, ahead of the official reveal, and were pulled the next day.

How Destined Rivals arrived

Japan released the material in two parts: the Heat Wave Arena subset on March 14, 2025 and the Glory of Team Rocket expansion on April 18, 2025, alongside the Marnie and Steven ex Starter Sets. The English set combined all of it into one expansion released on May 30, 2025, following Journey Together in March and preceding the Black Bolt and White Flare pair in July.

Prerelease tournaments ran on the weekends of May 17 to 18 and May 24 to 25, 2025. Each Build & Battle Box held one of four 40 card decks, four booster packs, a deck building tip sheet and a Pokémon TCG Live code card, with the deck's focal card printed as a cosmos holofoil, logo stamped variant of the set card rather than a Black Star Promo. Stores also received Hobby Co-Op Marketing Kits with a lenticular sign of Ethan's Ho-Oh ex and Cynthia's Garchomp ex, ceiling banners, lenticular stickers and Ultra Pro toploaders carrying a gold foil Team Rocket emblem.

Release day brought the Elite Trainer Box and Pokémon Center Elite Trainer Box in a red and black Giovanni and Mewtwo design, 36 pack display boxes (18 pack half displays in Europe), six pack Booster Bundles and a range of blisters. Team Rocket tins, the Team Rocket's Mewtwo ex Box, Cynthia's Garchomp ex Premium Collection and the Team Rocket's Moltres ex Ultra Premium Collection followed, each adding its own stamped or cosmos holofoil variants to the checklist.

Destined Rivals products and what came in them

The Elite Trainer Box holds nine booster packs, a Team Rocket's Wobbuffet promo (SVP Promo 203), 65 card sleeves, four dividers, 45 basic Energy cards, a player's guide, six damage counter dice, a coin flip die, two plastic Special Condition markers and a Pokémon TCG Live code card. The Pokémon Center Elite Trainer Box adds two more packs and a second Wobbuffet promo with a Pokémon Center stamp.

Single pack blisters carry Zarude (SVP 199) or Eevee (SVP 200), three pack blisters carry Zebstrika (SVP 201) or Kangaskhan (SVP 202), all on cosmos holofoil, and every blister except the three pack version includes a Fidough coin. Premium checklane and Stage 1 blisters reuse the Skeledirge, Togekiss, Rabsca and Gastrodon lines from Surging Sparks. The Team Rocket tins (Mewtwo ex, Nidoking ex and Persian ex) and the Team Rocket's Mewtwo ex Box round out the Team Rocket product line.

Collecting and grading Destined Rivals

Two markets run side by side in this set. The Special illustration rares (Team Rocket's Mewtwo ex 231 above all, then Cynthia's Garchomp ex 232, Ethan's Ho-Oh ex 230, Team Rocket's Moltres ex 229 and the Giovanni 238) behave like a normal modern chase set. The prerelease variants behave like promos: the staff stamped Misty's Gyarados 49, Team Rocket's Tyranitar 96, Ethan's Typhlosion 34 and Team Rocket's Mimikyu 87 command real premiums, and even the regular logo stamped copies grade into meaningful money from cheap raw prices. The checklist below tracks Staff, Stamped and Prerelease rows separately so the variants do not get mixed up.

The retailer stamps deserve the same care. A Team Rocket's Zapdos 70 can be a GameStop, EB Games or Asian stamp, and a Team Rocket's Articuno 51 can be a gift with purchase stamp, a Two Pack Blister cosmos holofoil or a non holofoil League Battle Deck print. Confirm the stamp and foil before you pay a premium.

Scarlet & Violet stock grades well when centered, but the textured Special illustration rares scuff at the edges and the gold Hyper rares show surface marks under angled light. Sealed product is plentiful and the set is still in print, so treat booster boxes, Elite Trainer Boxes and bundles as something to open, and let the sealed table above tell you what they trade for today.