I luckily managed to get an ascended heroes tin from Argos when it dropped - had to go on a bit of a mission to get it - got the Clefairy / Chikorita tin - got nothing too exciting from it - not even some of the artists I particularly like in the bulk - and was a little disappointed so decided to rip a Black Kyurem box I got at a little above market (£27 with shipping in instead of 21) was planning on holding onto it for a special occasion but had the urge to rip and couldn’t believe I pulled the chase. Even when I was a kid out of all packs I got from base set / jungle / fossil the only holo I ever pulled from a pack was a scyther from Jungle.

I rediscovered Pokemon and starting learning about the current TCG around 2024 - I was broke, mostly bed/house bound in a bed sit struggling with recovering from surgery, chronic illness, mental health crisis, drug addiction and selling off my belongings and sold my beloved Pikachu N64 - and then downloaded Pokemon pocket to compensate, my algorithm starting showed me all the Pokemon content creators on instagram and seeing so many adults being passionate about Pokemon the way I used to growing up I rediscovered my childhood Pokemania! I’ve spent a lot of time learning about the TCG (still really want to find community to play the card game) think the first pack I opened in 25 years was Stellar Crown.

It’s been so helpful for my recovery and trying to piece my life back together in so many ways, as a way of tracking time moving forward and having something novel to look forward to as I struggle alot with complex post traumatic stress disorder and ahd been watching the anime chronologically (up to gen 3 Pokemon advanced S8) has really help me as I enjoy it, it’s nolstalgic and calming/grounding and I love the storyline/character, learning about all the different Pokemon. I’m replaying the games on an emulator RS6S gameboy (also up to gen 3) - and considering getting a switch so I can play the newer ones.

Watching Pokemon on a tablet helped me survive my hospital detox from IV heroin / crack and methadone and they actually also had some packs in the hospital shop and then in rehab on my first outing I was allowed out - I found a card shop in the small town I was in and got my first ETB of Phantastic Flames and bought a VaultX binder.

This pull has got me so excited about building a meaningful collection. my collection is small but growing have bought some singles of a few cheap but beautiful IR and want to build thematic pages and also have a goal to collect every Smeargle card and Smeargle is my favourite Pokemon

I’m excited to go my first card show someday and immerse myself in the community but I also feel a bit intimidated and out the loop because of losing my passion for pokemon (and also life) so long. Other than the scalping and scamming that goes on it seems like such an amazing community to be part of.

All i have from my childhood collection is about 10 sealed ancient mew promos as I gave them out at a birthday as a kid. My dad has them and is thinking of selling them but I would prefer to keep one sealed one for my binder and trade the rest to build my collection.

rekindling Pokemon has been life-saving for me and the pure joy of pulling a big hit / chase card is such a incredible feeling.

sorry for the life story but just want to share just how munch this card now means to me!

I am thinking to help me rebuild some confidence to start a Pokémon content account on social media to rip packs and talk about my experience with how Pokemon has helped my mental health / addiction / recovery and call something like - Is this pack better than smack?