Eevee Heroes (Japanese: 強化拡張パック イーブイヒーローズEnhanced Expansion Pack: Eievui Heroes) is the name given to the sixth subset released during the Sword & Shield Era of the Pokémon Trading Card Game. It is an enhancement of the dual sixth main expansion, Silver Lance and Jet-Black Spirit, and focuses on the Evolution Pokémon Eevee and its various Evolutions.
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Enhanced Expansion Pack: Eevee Heroes is a subset containing 101 cards and was first released in Japan on May 28, 2021. The subset primarily focuses on the eight evolved forms of Eevee as of Generation VIII, which all feature as Pokémon V. Separate products available from the same day included Pokémon VMAX versions of the Eeveelutions not incorporated into the subset. Eevee Heroes contains a number of Trainer cards that support specific Eeveelutions; several also support either the Single Strike style or Rapid Strike style mechanic.
The subset was released in Taiwan and Hong Kong on June 11, 2021, in Thailand on June 25, 2021, in South Korea on August 11, 2021, and in Indonesia on October 1, 2021. The Chinese, Thai, and Indonesian language releases were also accompanied by an Evolution V Starter Deck.
In each of the five available languages, Eevee Heroes packs contained five cards from the subset. Japanese and Korean packs also included one puzzle card as part of a Pokémon Card Puzzle (Japanese: ナゾトキ ポケカ; Korean: 포켓몬 카드 수수께끼) campaign. Ten puzzle cards were available in Japanese packs, each of which has a collection number, while seven unnumbered cards were included in Korean packs. The reverse of the Japanese puzzle cards included a solution hint and a QR code for the campaign companion website;[1] the Korean cards included a QR code for the official Korean Pokémon TCG YouTube channel. The puzzles featured on the Japanese cards were also included on the companion website complete with hints, multiple-choice answers, and their solutions. As these puzzles were self-contained to each card, they were labeled 'exercises' as a prelude to the puzzles on the website, which required the use of cards from Eevee Heroes. To this end, images of some cards on the Pokémon Card Game Trainers Website were altered to remove elements pertinent to puzzle solutions. Puzzles featured on the Japanese companion website also provided the basis for the puzzle cards enclosed in Korean packs.
Japanese Pokémon Card Puzzle logo
The card-specific puzzles on the Japanese website comprised several stages of increasing difficulty. Stages with multiple puzzles only required users to solve one before they could progress. Unlike the exercises, these puzzles required users to input an answer, the majority of which spelled out a Pokémon's name. Stage 01 offered seven puzzles; stage 02 offered four; stage 03 offered three; stage 04 offered two. A battle scenario followed the fourth stage, which required users to identify which opposing Pokémon would be Knocked Out by their own and discern a word by correctly intersecting lines between them. Moving onto a subsequent stage would also add cards to an album, which were clues used to form the question for the final stage. Upon clearing the final stage, users could enter a lottery to win one of 100 Pokémon Card Puzzle Eevee Flip Deck Cases by following the official Pokémon Twitter account and posting the link on the clear screen. Entries were accepted between May 28 and June 17, 2021[2] and winners received their prizes in late July 2021.[3][4] Users could then attempt an extra stage, which required reviewing the solutions from completed puzzles and noting characters that appeared within certain star graphics. Users could submit the phrase in the final stage's answer field and, if correct, would be presented with another clear screen and the option to share another achievement post.
The Japanese version of Eevee Heroes was subject to overwhelming consumer demand due to the increased profile the TCG experienced over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic. Pre-orders for the subset went live on the Pokémon Center Online on May 7, 2021 and stocks for booster boxes, the Eevee Heroes Eeveelution Set, the Eevee Heroes VMAX Special Set, and Gengar VMAX & Inteleon VMAX High-Class Deck Double Box all sold out in a short space of time. This activity, speculated to have been driven by Western-based groups utilizing software agents, prompted The Pokémon Company to issue a statement on May 12, in which an apology was made to people unable to secure pre-orders and that the most popular products would be given a higher priority for subsequent manufacturing runs.[5] Another statement was issued the same day to address how the release of certain products would be handled in the short term. Actions included limiting the sale of the affected products to the Pokémon Center Online and handling further pre-orders with the implementation of a lottery system. The application period was open between May 14 and 18, 2021 and those successful were notified after May 27. Pre-orders secured on May 7 received their products on release day and were ineligible to participate in the lottery. Pre-orders through the lottery were scheduled to receive their products between mid-June and mid-July.[6]
