Black Bolt

What Black Bolt is

Black Bolt is one half of the Unova pair that closed the Japanese Scarlet & Violet era, released on June 6, 2025 under the set code SV11B alongside its twin, White Flare. It has 86 cards in the numbered set plus 88 secret rares, 174 in total, and every card carries the I regulation mark. The set is built on the Generation V Pokémon of Unova, with Zekrom ex as its mascot and Serperior ex, Kyurem ex, Meloetta ex, Excadrill ex and Genesect ex as the other Double rares, 6 Pokémon ex in all.

The secret rares define the set. Every Pokémon in the numbered list apart from the six ex has an illustration rare, 72 of them from Snivy 87 to 158, followed by 8 Ultra Rares covering the six Pokémon ex and the Supporters N's Plot and Fennel, 7 Special Illustration Rares for the six ex and N's Plot at 167 to 173, and a single Black White Rare, the Zekrom ex at 174, a rarity created for this pair of sets.

Packs also carry two parallel holofoil treatments beyond the regular reverse holofoil, with a Poké Ball or a Master Ball etched into the background, and the Master Ball versions of common Pokémon such as Victini 12 trade far above their regular prints. Its English equivalent, Black Bolt, released on July 18, 2025 with 172 cards.

What makes Black Bolt different

• An art rare for every Pokémon All 72 regular Pokémon in the numbered set return as illustration rares from 87 to 158, so the secret rares outnumber the main set and the checklist reads as a full art Unova Pokédex from Snivy onward.
• The Black White Rare Zekrom ex 174 is the set's only Black White Rare, a rarity introduced for the Black Bolt and White Flare pair, and it is the most valuable card in the set ahead of the Special Illustration Rare Zekrom ex 169.
• Master Ball and Poké Ball foils Alongside the regular reverse holofoil, cards can appear with a Poké Ball or Master Ball pattern etched into the background. Master Ball versions of Victini 12, Maractus 8, Simisage 5, Amoonguss 11 and Litwick 15 rank among the set's top cards.
• The Unova split Black Bolt and White Flare released together as two halves of one expansion, each with its own Legendary and starter line, and between them they cover every Generation V Pokémon. The English localization moved the Pokémon White exclusives into Black Bolt and the Pokémon Black exclusives into White Flare.
• Localized as a special set Black Bolt is a Japanese main expansion, but its English version became a special expansion, the first international special expansion built from a Japanese main expansion.

How Black Bolt arrived

Black Bolt and White Flare released in Japan on June 6, 2025, seven weeks after Glory of Team Rocket on April 18, 2025 and eight weeks before Mega Symphonia on August 1, 2025 opened the Mega era. They were the final block of the Japanese Scarlet & Violet era and the first split release of its kind to reach Western markets.

The English Black Bolt and White Flare followed on July 18, 2025 as the fifth and final special expansion of the Scarlet & Violet Series, with Tinsel Holofoil Snivy, Tepig and Oshawott promos in the Poster Collection and a Professor Program stamped Professor's Research in 2026.

The pair marked the end of the Scarlet & Violet numbering in Japan. Mega Symphonia followed in August 2025 with the return of Mega Evolution, so Black Bolt and White Flare stand as the closing statement of the era, built entirely on nostalgia for Unova rather than Paldea.

Black Bolt products

Black Bolt was sold in booster packs and booster boxes, with White Flare released alongside it. The sealed table above tracks the products still trading today.

Collecting and grading Black Bolt

The Black White Rare Zekrom ex 174 leads the set, with the Special Illustration Rare Zekrom ex 169 behind it, then the Master Ball Victini 12, the illustration rares Seismitoad 109, Carracosta 111 and Timburr 131, more Master Ball parallels and the Special Illustration Rares N's Plot 173 and Kyurem ex 168. The live chase list above ranks every tracked card by PSA 10 value.

Japanese print quality keeps PSA 10 rates high, so graded premiums are modest across most of the set and concentrate on the two Zekrom ex prints. The Master Ball parallels are the scarce pulls, and because they exist for every common, uncommon and rare Pokémon, a Master Ball set is the long term project for Black Bolt collectors alongside the 72 illustration rares.

Sealed Black Bolt remains available, and the sealed table above tracks what boxes and packs trade for today.