The Pokémon Company has revealed an SIR/SAR promo Pokémon card for Mega Gallade and it is seriously badass. The card – a reprint of an ex from Chaos Rising – features art by Akira Egawa, whose scratchy, sketchy, dynamic, detail-filled drawings have quickly become one of the most recognizable art styles in the Pokémon TCG.
As announced by The Pokémon Company on June 26, this Gallade card is being awarded as a tournament prize in Japan, but we don’t yet know where else it might be appearing, and crucially, when it’ll be released outside of Pokémon’s homeland.
Fortunately, this is not about to become some ultra-scarce rare Pokémon card. Contrary to some of the misinformation I’ve seen drifting around the internet, there are far more than 2,000 copies of the card up for grabs.
Indeed, the SAR will be awarded to any trainer who wins three games in a sealed tournament at a Card Gym location, a local game store participating in Pokémon Japan’s sanctioned tournament and prize system. After the winners have been announced, one more card will be awarded to whichever of the remaining trainers wins a rock-paper-scissors tournament. Yes, that really is how this card is being officially distributed.
A further 2,000 copies can be won by fans who play sealed games at home. They can enter a lottery system by submitting their deck and sharing their impressions of the experience. This separate lottery seems to be what caused the ‘2,000 copies’ rumor to spread.
The Mega Gallade campaign runs from July to October, so it seems like a good number of copies will be handed out. If you want a Japanese version of this card, I think you’ll be able to find one at a reasonable price.
What’s less clear is when (or even if) this exclusive promo will trickle down to the rest of the world. Since the Japanese website says the Mega Gallade tournament was announced to celebrate the launch of Storm Emerelda, perhaps it could be tied into the English equivalent release? This might be a promo card for Delta Reign, which launches on November 6.
Then again, it looks like the Mega Gallade cards won’t actually be awarded to tournament winners for many months. They won’t receive their prizes until December 2026. So perhaps instead, this SAR is going to be a promo for an early 2027 Pokémon set?
Source: Wargamer
