Pokemon TCG Delta Reign: Hands-On Preview

Delta Reign Is A Big Comedown After The Pokemon TCG's 30th Anniversary Expansion Photograph by Sam Woods. Published Nov 2, 2026, 4:00 PM EST Sam Woods is TheGamer’s Senior Reporter. He’s been in games journalism since 2020 and has undertaken a variety of roles in that time. These have included roles such as SEO Editor, Managing Editor at DualShockers, and Global Head of Gaming, and he's also been seen on the BBC. He was promoted to the Senior Reporter position in 2025 following a series of high-quality reports and exclusives for TheGamer. Since 2020, Sam has written over 3,000 articles and specializes in telling the stories of the people behind the games. He’s interviewed the biggest game directors, some of the industry’s top talents, told the stories of how indie games came to be, and spoken to players about what really makes them tick. He’s also interviewed some of the world’s biggest musical artists to find out how the medium has inspired their work, and TV and Film actors about their roles in video game adaptations. He even hosted a PAX panel in 2021 and made a documentary in 2024 surrounding the creation of a Disney game. Alongside this, Sam focuses on breaking news. He got the scoop on Perfect Dark’s cancellation, provided context on some AI drama, and revealed that Lady Dimitrescu’s actress would love to step back into the character’s giant shoes. These articles have been picked up by the biggest gaming sites, including IGN, GameSpot, and PC Gamer. He also loves to dive into the numbers behind the games. Sam’s journey in games journalism has taken him all over the world. He’s covered Gamescom in Germany, Summer Game Fest in Los Angeles, and Tokyo Game Show in Japan, each on three occasions. He’s been learning Japanese since 2024 with the intention of identifying and translating Japanese-language news and bringing it to English-language audiences first, something he’s done countless times. Sam’s first review was 2020’s Battletoads reboot, and he’s since reviewed games in The Legend of Zelda, Super Mario, and Pokemon franchises. The Pokemon Trading Card Game is riding a real wave at the moment. If you set the scalping and stock issues aside, the 30th Anniversary Expansion is one of the best in a long time. It celebrates the TCG's history, with work from artists new and old and returning cards from some of the game’s most notable eras. Any set that followed would struggle, then: How do you match peak? Unfortunately, Delta Reign had that unenviable task, and despite one of the coolest Rayquaza cards in history, after going hands-on with it ahead of launch, it fails to even come close to matching the expansion that came before it. Pokemon TCG Delta Reign In A Nutshell Photography by Sam Woods. Like many recent sets, Delta Reign is a small one. With 141 cards, it sits well below many of Scarlet and Violet’s main sets in terms of size, but after years of begging for smaller expansions, I’ve realized that may not always be a good thing. Sure, smaller expansions mean less filler cards and ultimately, less bulk, but there is far less variety overall. Delta Reign has six SIRs: Two trainers, two that look like full art cards (Mega Golurk and Mega Golisopod), and two bangers (Raikou and Rayquaza). This seems fairly standard for the more recent sets, but it's almost half the amount from Destined Rivals, the last ScVi expansion. Sure, it’s great news for Master Set collectors, but not so much for those who just want to collect pretty cards. Thankfully, Delta Reign has one saving grace outside the very small chance of pulling Rayquaza: its IR selection is great—far better than Chaos Rising and Pitch Black. Of course, there are some misses with Pokemon like Pincurchin and Enamorus, but there are a lot of good ones. The Eevee, Growlithe, Sprigatito, and Zorua cards are very cute; the Groudon, Magmortar, and Electivire are great, and it's nice to see some random Pokemon like Azurill get a bit of love. The Pulls Photograph by Sam Woods. My pulls from my Delta Reign packs were certainly pulls. From 49 packs, I managed four full arts, five IRs, and an SIR. That’s not a bad haul; it just exemplifies my belief that the variety is not there in recent expansions (30th Anniversary and Ascended Heroes aside). I was delighted to get my hands on both the Eevee and Growlithe IR, but everything else I pulled ranged from whelming to underwhelming. The Mega Malamar full art is one of seven featuring pretty undesirable Pokemon, and the three trainers I got were fine. It just so happens that of the SIRs, I managed to pull the worst one in the set: Mega Golisopod ex. It’s a Pokemon that I have no affinity for, and the card itself looks like nothing more than a full art. I’m a big fan of SIRs that depict scenes, or at least have something going on. This just features the Pokemon in the same pose as its full art card, flipped, with slightly more color. I can’t really complain since the cards came courtesy of The Pokemon Company for review. However, if I’d spent ~$300+ to pull this, I’d be pretty disappointed. Closing Thoughts I’m aware that comparing Delta Reign to the 30th Anniversary Expansion is a little unfair. One is a holiday set with tons to love, while the other is a standard expansion. Even compared to other standard expansions, though, this new one falls a little flat. I felt similarly about Perfect Order, Chaos Rising, and Pitch Black. It feels like the TCG is in a little bit of a rut. Its popularity certainly isn’t waning, but from a personal perspective, I feel like some of the spark is missing—especially so here. It has a range of great IRs, but the SIRs generally let the set down. I’d like The Pokemon Company to find a better middle ground between whopping expansions and those that are too small to have a good mix of cards. Franchise Pokemon Original Release Date October 20, 1996 Player Count 2 Age Recommendation 6+ Length per Game Variable Franchise Name Pokemon