Obsidian Flames

What Obsidian Flames is

Obsidian Flames is the third main expansion of the Scarlet & Violet Series, released in English on August 11, 2023 under the set code OBF. It has 197 cards in the numbered set plus 33 secret rares, for 230 cards in total. Its central card is a Darkness type Charizard ex, and the set introduced type shifted Tera Pokémon ex to the game: Charizard, Tyranitar, Eiscue, Vespiquen and others appear with a Tera type different from their usual one, using their normal Energy types to attack while taking Weakness and Resistance from the new type.

The checklist holds 15 Pokémon ex and six Tera Pokémon ex, 12 Illustration rares, 12 Ultra rare full art Pokémon ex and Supporters, six Special illustration rares and three gold etched Hyper rares, one of them the Charizard. The cards come from the Japanese Ruler of the Black Flame expansion, released July 28, 2023, plus the ex Special Set and ex Start Decks, two Japanese promo cards, leftovers from Triplet Beat, Snow Hazard and Clay Burst that had not been localized in Paldea Evolved, and two reprints from the Scarlet & Violet base set. Every card carries the G regulation mark.

It is also the set where two cheap cards became famous: Umbreon 130 and Espeon 86 are ordinary Uncommons in the pack, but their retailer stamped and reverse holofoil versions grade into some of the highest PSA 10 values in the set.

What makes Obsidian Flames different

• The first type shifted Tera Pokémon ex Obsidian Flames and Ruler of the Black Flame were the first sets where Tera Pokémon ex carry a type other than their usual one, which is why the headline Charizard ex is a Darkness type. Attacks still use the Pokémon's normal Energy, but Weakness and Resistance follow the shifted type.
• Charizard ex four ways Charizard ex appears as a Double rare (125), an Ultra rare (215), AKIRA EGAWA's Special illustration rare (223) and the gold Hyper rare (228). The 125 print also exists as a European gift with purchase jumbo and as Play! Pokémon Prize Pack Series Four, Five and Six prints.
• A numbering quirk Cards are normally ordered by type and then Pokédex number, but the Ultra rare Absol ex 214 comes before Charizard ex 215 even though Charizard is number 6 in the Pokédex and both are Darkness types here. The Japanese set puts Charizard first.
• Umbreon 130, the stamped Uncommon Umbreon 130 exists as a reverse holofoil with a GameStop stamp (USA and Canada), an EB Games stamp (Australia and New Zealand) and an Obsidian Flames stamp (Europe), plus a Trick or Trade BOOster Bundle 2024 jack o' lantern version, and those stamped copies are graded chase cards in their own right. Espeon 86 has a matching Best Buy stamped reverse holofoil in the USA.
• Six Special illustration rares, two of them Trainers Eiscue ex 222 (Toshinao Aoki), Charizard ex 223, Revavroom ex 224 (Souichirou Gunjima) and Pidgeot ex 225 (Jerky) are joined by Geeta 226 (DOM) and Poppy 227 (Ryota Murayama).
• A long stamped tail Toedscruel 22, Tyranitar 66, Lunatone 92, Claydol 95, Charizard 125, Pidgeot 164, Letter of Encouragement 189 and Town Store 196 exist as Play! Pokémon Prize Pack prints; Geeta 188 was a Regionals 2023 promo with a staff version; Eiscue ex 42 carries a snowflake stamp from the 2024 Holiday Calendar; and Larvesta 40, Volcarona 41, Salandit 139 and Salazzle 140 exist as Battle Academy 2024 deck stamped cards.

How Obsidian Flames arrived

Japan released Ruler of the Black Flame on July 28, 2023, and prerelease tournaments for the English set began the same day. Each Obsidian Flames Build & Battle Box held four booster packs, a 40 card deck built around one of four SVP Black Star Promos (Palafin 036, Cleffa 037, Togekiss 038 or Mawile 039), a tip sheet and a code card, plus non holofoil deck prints of Palafin 62, Toxtricity 72 and Togekiss 85.

The English release followed on August 11, 2023, between the 2023 McDonald's Collection and the Play! Pokémon Prize Pack Series Three, and Traditional Chinese, Korean, Thai and Indonesian versions followed between August and October 2023. Stores received a combined Obsidian Flames and 151 Hobby Co-Op Marketing Kit with a Charizard fabric banner, a Tera Tyranitar and Tera Dragonite poster, lenticular bookmarks, book covers and pens for this set alongside 151 puzzles and sleeves.

The set's cards kept appearing in later products: cosmos holofoil Rowlet 13 and Dartrix 14 in the Decidueye ex Box, Bounsweet 16 and Steenee 17 in the Tsareena ex Premium Collection, mirage holofoil Charmander 26 and Charmeleon 27 in the Charizard ex Premium Collection, Larvitar 105 and Pupitar 106 in the Tyranitar ex Premium Collection, Greavard 100 in the Houndstone ex Box, Froakie 56 and Frogadier 57 in the Shrouded Fable Greninja collection, Pawniard 148 and Bisharp 149 in the Shrouded Fable Kingambit collection, Scizor 141 in the Meddling Sparks collection and Darkrai 136 in the Triple Whammy tins.

Obsidian Flames products and what came in them

The Elite Trainer Box features Charmander and holds nine booster packs, 65 card sleeves, 45 basic Energy cards, a player's guide, six damage counter dice, a competition legal coin flip die, two plastic Special Condition markers, four dividers, a Pokémon TCG Live code card and a full art Charmander promo (SVP Promo 044) that had not yet been released in Japan. The Pokémon Center Elite Trainer Box adds two more packs and a second Charmander promo with a Pokémon Center logo stamp.

Single pack blisters carry Pawmi (SVP 040) or Paldean Wooper (SVP 041), three pack blisters carry Houndstone (SVP 042) or Eevee (SVP 043), and every blister except the three pack version includes a jumbo Sprigatito coin. Early three pack blisters used smooth cosmos holofoil for the Houndstone and Eevee promos and mid 2024 runs switched to pixel cosmos holofoil, so two versions of each exist. Premium checklane and Stage 1 blisters reuse the Annihilape, Kingambit, Houndstone and Revavroom lines from the Scarlet & Violet base set. Display boxes hold 36 packs (18 in European displays), the Booster Bundle holds six packs and the Collector's Kit adds a paper album, a poster and playmat and one pack.

Collecting and grading Obsidian Flames

Charizard ex 223 is the graded chase and the live prices above show the gap between raw and PSA 10. The surprise is the middle of the list: Illustration rares such as Cleffa 202, Scizor 205, Ninetales 199, Gloom 198, Lechonk 209 and Pidgeotto 208 grade into PSA 10 values that rival the Pokémon ex from far lower raw prices, and the stamped Umbreon 130 promos and reverse holofoil Espeon 86 sit among the most valuable cards in the set despite being Uncommons in the pack.

That makes variant checking essential. Umbreon 130 alone exists as a plain reverse holofoil, a GameStop stamp, an EB Games stamp, a European Obsidian Flames stamp and a Trick or Trade jack o' lantern version, each with a different market, and the Charizard ex 125 Prize Pack and jumbo prints trade apart from the pack pulled Double rare. The checklist below tracks Stamped, GameStop, EB Games, Jumbo and Cosmos Holo rows separately.

Scarlet & Violet stock grades well when centered, but Special illustration rare textures chip at the edges and the gold Hyper rares show surface marks under angled light. Obsidian Flames was printed in volume and sealed product remains plentiful, so booster boxes, Elite Trainer Boxes and bundles are for opening, and the sealed table above shows what they trade for today.