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Oliver Brandt is a Contributing Pop Culture Writer based in Tasmania, Australia. Their focus is reporting on video games, film, and TV. They have extensive knowledge of video game history and communities both in Australia and abroad, animated films and television shows, and international cinema. Oliver joined Newsweek in 2024 and has previously worked at Men’s Journal, Parade, and more. They are a graduate of Curtin University. You can get in touch with Oliver by emailing o.brandt@newsweek.com. You can find them on X and Bluesky @chocobalt. Languages: English.
Contributing Pop Culture Writer
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The Pokémon Company has revealed the next expansion coming to Pokémon TCG Pocket, and fans of Legendary Pokémon are in for a delightful treat.
The next Pokémon TCG Pocket set is called Secluded Springs, and is focused on Pokémon from the Johto region, including the region’s key legendary Pokémon trio: Suicune, Entei, and Raikou.
This follows on from the prior expansion that launched in the game late last month, the Wisdom of Sea and Sky expansion, which featured box legendaries for Johto’s Gold and Silver versions, Ho-Oh and Lugia, respectively.
The last expansion wasn’t without controversy, though — a strange alleged plagiarism scandal saw the expansion’s two rarest cards, immersive rares of Ho-Oh ex and Lugia ex, stripped of their artwork just hours before the set launched. The Ho-Oh ex card in particular looked to be extremely similar to a prior fan work, with near-identical features shown when the artwork was overlapped.
The cards were eventually replaced with new artwork from the same artist, who The Pokémon Company reiterated is not at fault for the alleged plagiarism. In a statement following the initial removal of the artwork, the company said that illustrator SIE NANAHARA was provided with “incorrect reference materials” upon which to base her illustrations for those cards.
Secluded Springs, unlike the prior expansion, will be a limited single-booster set, which is usually made up of about 100 cards total. This differs from main expansions, which offer two or more boosters and boast a card count of well over 200.
The Secluded Springs expansion will be released on mobile devices on August 28, 2025.
