White Flare

What White Flare is

White Flare is one half of the Unova pair that closed the Japanese Scarlet & Violet era, released on June 6, 2025 under the set code SV11W alongside its twin, Black Bolt. 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 Reshiram ex as its mascot and Whimsicott ex, Keldeo ex, Jellicent ex, Hydreigon ex and Bouffalant ex as the other Double rares, 6 Pokémon ex in all, and Tepig and Oshawott carry their lines to Emboar and Samurott.

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 87 to 158, followed by 8 Ultra Rares covering the six Pokémon ex and the Supporters Harlequin and Hilda, 7 Special Illustration Rares for the six ex and Hilda at 167 to 173, and a single Black White Rare, the Reshiram 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 parallel versions of Trainers and common Pokémon such as Cheren 84 trade far above their regular prints. Its English equivalent, White Flare, released on July 18, 2025 with 173 cards.

What makes White Flare 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 with the Oshawott 102 and Tornadus 158 art rares among its most collected.
• The Black White Rare Reshiram 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 Reshiram ex 168.
• 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. The Poké Ball Cheren 84 and the Master Ball Swadloon 2, Simisear 15, Accelgor 9 and Leavanny 3 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 lines, and between them they cover every Generation V Pokémon. The English localization moved the Pokémon Black exclusives into White Flare and the Pokémon White exclusives into Black Bolt.
• Localized as a special set White Flare 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 White Flare 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.

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.

White Flare products

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

Collecting and grading White Flare

The Black White Rare Reshiram ex 174 leads the set, with the Poké Ball parallel Cheren 84 and the Special Illustration Rare Reshiram ex 168 behind it, then the Oshawott 102 illustration rare, the Special Illustration Rare Hilda 173, a run of Master Ball parallels, the Tornadus 158 illustration rare and the Special Illustration Rares Hydreigon ex 171 and Keldeo ex 169. 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 Reshiram ex prints. The Master Ball and Poké Ball parallels are the scarce pulls, and because they exist for every common, uncommon and rare Pokémon, a parallel set is the long term project for White Flare collectors alongside the 72 illustration rares.

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