Two Meowth cards revealed for the big 30th birthday set
The Pokemon Company showed Meowth, Alolan Meowth and a special art version of each. The 30th Celebration set goes on sale everywhere on September 16.
Pokemon marked International Cat Day by pulling the covers off four more cards from 30th Celebration, and it picked the obvious mascots for the occasion: Meowth, Alolan Meowth, and an Illustration Rare for each of them. PokeBeach, which has been tracking the set's rollout card by card, published the reveals on August 8.
The timing is not an accident. Anniversary sets live or die on nostalgia, and Meowth is one of a handful of Pokemon that a lapsed collector who last opened a pack in 1999 will still recognise instantly. Pairing the Kanto original with its Alolan form gives the set a "then and now" beat that runs through most of what has been shown so far.
What we know about the set
30th Celebration products begin releasing worldwide on September 16. That is a notable detail on its own — anniversary products often stagger by months between Japan and the West, and a same-day global date suggests The Pokemon Company expects heavy demand in every region at once.
The reveals have arrived in a steady drip rather than one big product page, which is the pattern the company has used for its recent premium sets:
- Meowth and Alolan Meowth, plus an Illustration Rare treatment for both
- A 30th Celebration Futuristic Box for Japan, also dated September 16, at 27,500 yen or about $171
- Two Pikachu ex promo cards inside that box, one themed after day and one after night
- Espeon ex and Umbreon ex, revealed in the same announcement, which covered two products at once
The Espeon, Umbreon and Pikachu reveals surfaced during the annual Japan Championships, which is where The Pokemon Company has historically dropped its biggest card news of the summer.
Why the Eeveelutions matter here
Anyone who watched the secondary market during the Evolving Skies era knows what an Umbreon chase card does to a set's pull rates and its resale prices. Putting Espeon ex and Umbreon ex in the same anniversary box, alongside a Pikachu ex, is the closest thing the Trading Card Game has to a guaranteed sell-out formula.
What to watch next
Two things are still open. First, the full English product lineup has been previewed but not fully dated at retail, and no official price has been given for it. Second, it is unclear how much of the Japanese lineup crosses over intact. The Futuristic Box has a Japanese date and a Japanese price, and no English release has been announced for it at all.
With just over five weeks to the September 16 launch, expect the reveal cadence to accelerate. Anniversary sets typically finish their card-by-card rollout in the final fortnight before release.