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The Pokemon Company announced a new feature for Ditto cards for the Pokémon Trading Card Game as part of the upcoming Pokémon GO expansion series. The Pokémon GO set was revealed earlier this year in March, marking the first collaboration between the beloved mobile game and the Pokemon Trading Card Game.
Set for release this summer on Friday, July 1, the Pokemon Go series marks the final set of the Pokemon Trading Card Game's Sword and Shield series. The new series will only be available in booster format throughout Japan, but international players will have the ability to collect the new series through special collector sets and bundles.
The new series, which goes by the name Trading Card Game x GO, will feature several new cards specifically related to the Pokemon Go mobile game, including PokeStops, commonly-seen Pokemon in the wild, and Trainer cards. In an announcement via the official Instagram account, the Pokemon Trading Card Game revealed a look at some of the new cards, including the newly-announced Ditto feature. Players who find the Ditto icon located at the bottom of the card will be able to peel back the front to reveal the Pokemon is the Transformation Pokemon, Ditto. The video demonstrates that a simple Bidoof can be a Ditto in disguise, and it's expected more basic Pokemon will share the unique trait in the series.
Pokemon cards have been a hot commodity since their inception in 1996, and the hype behind each new series grows in popularity upon launch. With the new Ditto feature, it's expected these cards will be considered highly valuable, especially considering how fragile stickers can be. With how some Pokemon cards can be worth upwards of $1,000, collectors can likely expect these exclusive Ditto cards to be a hot ticket and ones to hold onto, especially if their worth grows exponentially over time. With how some of the highest-valuable units are being sold for tens of thousands of dollars, Pokemon cards are considered by many to be a major investment.
It may be wise to stock up once the new series hits the market, as collectors and fans alike will likely be flocking to local card and gaming stores to pick up as many packs as possible. People who collect for the sole purpose of profit may want to hang on to this series, as it could re-sell for a large profit to the scale of a Pokemon Trading Card booster box selling for half a million. The Pokemon Company's most-recent announcement of the Ditto feature also included Pokemon such as Bidoof, Bibarel, Melmetal VMAX, and the Legendary Birds — Articuno, Zapdos, and Moltres — in their first-generation form.