Say goodbye to your friends from Alola in style with this Limited Collection Master Battle Set. This premium product came out exclusively in Japan last month, and was one of the most anticipated final Sun & Moon products to release for the end of 2019.
This product was an Pokemon Center Online exclusive and costed originally $113 and reservations was only available at the Pokemon Center Online from August 16, 2019. The reservation period of course, was closed a long time ago.
What is in the box
- Promo Card "Pikachu"
- Promo Card "Alola Friends"
- Holographic Deck Sleeves 1 Set (64)
- Holofoil faux Leather Deck Box 1x
- Holofoil Playmat 1x
- Synthetic playmat case 1x
- Metal damage counter dice 12x
- Holofoil faux leather Dice case 1x
- Metal GX marker 1x
- Status marker (Poison / Burn) 1 each
- Pokemon Flip Coin 1x
- Telescopic ballpoint pen 1x
Promo cards
The most anticipated aspect of this product, are of course the promo cards that are only found exclusively in this specific product. These are the Alola Friends 401/SM-P and Pikachu 400/SM-P promo cards.
These are currently quite expensive for their young age, and will likely become a sought after promo card in the future. It's somewhat similar to the Giovanni's Scheme 277/XY-P and Here Comes Team Rocket! 278/XY-P promo cards that were only obtainable in the very limited 20th Anniversary Team Rocket Special Case.
Alola Friends in the Japanese market is currently priced around $115 and Pikachu around $70. Can you imagine what resellers on eBay would list these cards for. It's safe to say, these promo cards pay for the product itself.
The effects on both promo cards are absolutely to die for, Pikachu has a holo effect with the thunderbolts along with the texturing on the card, it's absolutely beautiful when holding it against light. The Pikachu promo illustration perfectly highlights the Sun & Moon TCG, an era where Tapu Lele GX, Buzzwole and Pikachu & Zekrom GX were top tier cards. (Pikachu & Zekrom still wins tournaments now!)
Alola Friends is also textured very nicely, very subtle texturing, they have done it very good, it's quite a busy card, so they did not go overboard with the texturing. I'm sure you can imagine what this illustration means, it's a goodbye card, saying goodbye to Generation 7.
We are sure these promo cards will stay exclusive similar to the 20th Anniversary Team Rocket Special Case. If you want these cards, we highly recommend getting these now and grade them at PSA. This product won't come back, and orders were closed a long time ago. This isn't a ordinary product.
Card Accessories
Finally I will get to review the card accessories of this product. This product comes with premium tcg accessories to show how much of a premium product you will buy.
All of the products are made from faux leather. While this feels and looks very nice, I am not sure how durable the upper will be, after opening and closing these items many times. Time will tell if the material will degrade overtime around the folding area. The design of all of these items are also very clean and minimalistic. It looks very premium.
We will start with the deckbox. The deckbox is very very big, compared to a regular sized deckbox, it's like a giant.
This Deckbox will easily store triple sleeved 60-card decks and still have some free space. This Deckbox will hold a double sleeved 60-card deck + the Damage Counter case (I will explain the brilliance of this product too later). It's very well thought out during the design. The closing magnets are very good too, when shaking the Deckbox, the lid won't come open unless you try really hard. This is by the way with all products that have a magnestic closure.
The Damage counter case and the Deckbox were made for each other. However the Damage counter case has some surprises too. This item has been designed with maximum efficiency, while keeping it's very nice premium looking design.
The lid has a small faux leather pocket to store your solid metal GX marker in, the removable tray is meant to line up your solid metal damage counter dice, additionally you can store the Telescopic ballpoint pen (which is from the brand Zebra, very nice pen!) in there too, and finally you have some room to fit a flip coin and status markers. All while storing this Damage counter case in your Deckbox.
The status markers are of decent quality, the damage counter dice are of very nice quality, they are very solid and have some weight to them. The flip coin is made of plastic, which is understandable. You don't want to use a metal flip coin since it may cause damage to your cards (I recommend using the coin-flip die anyway you get in Elite Trainer Boxes).
I have not opened the Deck sleeves, these are made from glossy plastic similar to the Pokemon Center Japan Deck sleeves. I highly recommend keeping them sealed. These are glossy plastic and are not durable enough for shuffling during TCG matches, there are way better alternatives for that (Dragon Shield, Ultra Pro, Ultimate Guard). If you really want to use them, you can buy special outer sleeves for them, so you can still play them.
The Playmat is made of a very nice material. The holographic material on it, is made of a rubber-like material. It won't scratch very easily unless you rub it against a dirty surface. It's very cool they could embed this holo effect in all products and certainly contributes to the premium feeling. It also comes with a playmat storage case which is made of the same materials as the deckbox and the damage counter case. It's faux leather and I am also very curious how long the fold will hold out before it will wear out.
The general major concern personally with official Japanese playmats from Pokémon, is that the rubber is very thin compared to our official Pokémon playmats you can obtain officially (please see the pictures in the gallery for a comparison).
The rubber is almost twice as thin as our official playmats. This thickness is important because you can slide off and pick up cards much better compared to the Japanese playmats. These are also smaller sized compared to ours, so you can't use this storage case for your other playmats unless they are official Japanese Pokémon Card Game sized playmats.
Verdict
Let's be honest, the main reason you have probably bought this product, is because of the limited promo cards that already pay almost double for the product itself and will absolutely rise in the future. You can see the merchandise as a bonus if you had pre-ordered this product back in August. The TCG accessories this box comes with are despite some of the general flaws, absolutely a joy to use.
Especially the Deckbox and Damage counter case in combination with the other items that fit within the Damage counter case, is a wonderfully well thought out and efficient design. I will personally use these items myself for matches.
If you are in doubt of unsealing this product because of the high price it now is, please unseal this box and use the items in there. The promo cards are the main reason on why this box is so expensive at resellers.
The Limited Collection Master Battle Set is a winner.
Final score
Design 9.5/10
Build quality 8.5/10
Wow factor 10/10
Price 8/10
Final score 9/10
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