Team Rocket invades the Team Rocket's Pokémon to the game.

Nearly half of Destined Rivals is dedicated to Team Rocket, with 83 cards tied to the popular villainous team. Many Team Rocket cards follow a villainous theme, focusing on disrupting or delaying. Because of the sheer plethora of cards, there are bound to be a few viable decks that will emerge from Destined Rivals. Still, it feels like the Trainer's Pokémon gimmick is a bit undercooked, as most of the impactful cards in the set have nothing to do with Team Rocket or any other cards found within the set.

What's In The Destined Rivals Elite Trainer's Box

Box Includes Card Packs And Special Mewtwo-Themed Card Sleeves

We received an Elite Trainer's Box as part of our review material for the set. Like other Elite Trainer's Boxes, the Destined Rivals ETB contains nine booster packs, a promo card featuring Team Rocket's Wobbuffet, plus card sleeves, damage dice, box dividers, and Poison and Burn markers. The ETB obviously has a Team Rocket theme, with a large R emblazoned on the box and sleeves featuring Giovanni and Team Rocket's Mewtwo.

Personally, I would have liked the sleeves to match the red and black coloring of the box and dividers, but everything else in the pack matches what you'd find in other Elite Trainer Boxes. The complete list of Elite Trainer's Box content is as follows:

• 9 Pokémon TCG: Scarlet & Violet—Destined Rivals booster packs (11 if ordered through the Pokemon Center website)
• 1 full-art foil promo card featuring Team Rocket’s Wobbuffet (2 if ordered through the Pokemon Center website)
• 65 card sleeves
• 45 Pokémon TCG Energy cards
• A player’s guide to the Scarlet & Violet—Destined Rivals expansion
• 6 damage-counter dice
• 1 competition-legal coin-flip die
• 2 plastic condition markers
• A box to hold everything, with 4 dividers to keep it organized
• A code card for Pokémon Trading Card Game Live

Card Highlights From Destined Rivals Elite Trainer Box Pulls

Pulls From Our Packs Include Team Rocket's Meowth And Ethan's Adventure

The new set contains over 60 Secret Rare cards, ranging from gorgeously illustrated Illustration Rare cards to the more bland Full Art cards. The set highlights are the Special Illustration Rare cards tied to Pokemon ex cards. Team Rocket's Mewtwo ex and Team Rocket's Moltres ex will likely be the most sought-after cards, although another card may shoot up in price if tied to a powerful deck.

Regarding our card pulls, we ended up with two alternate art cards - a Full Art version of Ethan's Adventure and an Illustration Rare version of Team Rocket's Meowth. We also pulled Cetitan ex and Team Rocket's Crobat ex, for four "hits" out of nine packs. Not the worst pull rate for an Elite Trainer's Box, although the actual cards aren't among our personal chase card goals.

How Destined Rivals Will Shape Pokémon TCG Pocket

Team Rocket Decks Might Emerge In Tournaments But They'll Need Some Help

The biggest deck potentially coming out of Destined Rivals is Team Rocket's Mewtwo, which can deal up to 280 damage in a single turn. That's enough to one-shot a lot of weaker Pokémon ex cards, although not enough to take out Stage 2 heavy hitters like Team Rocket's Crobat ex or Cynthia's Garchomp ex. Team Rocket's Mewtwo has a significant drawback - a player needs to have at least three other Team Rocket Pokémon in play to attack. Luckily, some cards can help with that, including Team Rocket's Koffing (which pulls out additional Koffing cards whenever they're damaged).

Still, no deck immediately stands out in Destined Rivals. This follows a trend in Journey Together, featuring Trainer's Pokémon cards. While there were some nice synergies, only a few cards from that set found their way into meta-relevant decks, and none of the cards became the main driver of a powerful deck. While someone is going to try to make a Team Rocket deck happen, the issue with these Trainer's Pokémon cards is that there are no more synergies really on the way to boost their power output. While some cards in future sets will likely help, the only Team Rocket cards coming out anytime soon are in this set, and that's limiting.

In the end, I think Destined Rivals has a bit more potential than Journey Together, but the biggest cards in this set will likely only serve to accentuate the current dominant decks. There's some fun to be had with Team Rocket's frustrating and delaying tactics, but in the end, this set is a rather underwhelming finish to what's likely the last normal Pokémon TCG set of the Scarlet & Violet era. Trainer's Pokémon ended up being more of a shiny distraction than a true game changer, but that's to be expected with Mega Evolution on the horizon for this fall.