Hi there. In this post I cover the art cards from Pokemon Japan's Black Bolt & White Flare special sets.
Prismatic Evolutions was pretty big with the Eevee cards, reprinted cards and Master Ball holographic cards. It was so big that scalpers have entered this space. They buy low on mass and resell.
Black Bolt & White Flare featured all of the 156 Unova region Pokemon. Each of the 156 Pokemon get an illustration rare card. These two sets combined make the special sets really big.
Since there are so many art cards, I show the full art cards and the special illustration rares only. If you want to see the others then go here.
Black Bolt & White Flare release in English on July 18, 2025.
Full Art Rares From Black Bolt Set
Serperior ex, Kyurem ex, Zekrom ex
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Meloetta ex, Excadrill ex, Genesect ex
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N's Plot, Fennel
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Special Illustration Rares From Black Bolt
Here are the special illustration rare cards. There are some really good art cards here.
Serperior ex, Kyurem ex, Zekrom ex
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Meloetta ex, Excadrill ex, Genesect ex, N's Plot
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Zekrom ex As A Black & White Rare Card
Zekrom ex has a special Black and White rarity card. I would not know the pull rare for this card nor the market price of this card. Some people will go crazy for this card.
Full Art Cards From White Bolt Set
Whimsicott ex, Reshiram ex, Keldeo ex
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Jellicent ex, Hydreigon ex, Bouffalant ex
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Harlequin, Hilda
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Special Illustration Rares From White Bolt
Whimsicott ex, Reshiram ex, Keldeo ex
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The Whimsicott ex Special Illustration rare is actually kind of nice. It is colourful and cute. The Keldeo card is okay and the Reshiram is colourful.
Jellicent ex, Hydreigon ex
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Jellicent ex looks okay here with the blue and pink ones. This Hydreigon ex Special Illustration rare looks well done. The dark, rain and thunder background goes well with Hydreigon's menacing aerial pose and scary faces.
Bouffalant ex & Hilda
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The Bouffalant ex card is okay to me. It is colourful but it looks somewhat cartoony to me.
This Hilda card will be fairly popular for collectors and for players. Hilda will be played a fair bit and there are players who will bling out their decks with this version of Hilda. (Yes there are people who will make their decks more expensive with max rarity cards.)
Reshiram ex As A Black & White Rare Card
Zekrom ex was in Black Bolt with the Black and White rarity card. In White Bolt, it would be Reshiram ex.
Who knows what the price of this one will be.
English Versions of Zekrom ex & Reshiram ex Black & White Versions
As of June 11, 2025, there has been a first reveal of the English Black & White versions of Zekrom ex and Reshiram ex.
Closing Notes
One more special rare card is this Victini promo card in red.
The English versions of Black Bolt & White Flare set also have regular reverse holo cards, Pokeball Reverse Holos and Master Ball Reverse Holos. People who do Master collections will have a lot of work to do to catch them all. (Good luck to your wallets too.)
From a player's perspective there are some cards in this set that are good for competitive play. You have Genesect ex, Hilda, Meloetta ex, and maybe Zekrom ex and Reshiram ex.
For me I don't plan on getting sealed products from these sets. Prices are getting out of control and I would rather buy single cards for stuff I want.
Thank you for reading.