Everything You Need to Know About ACE SPEC Pokémon TCG Cards

It’s been a fantastic year to be a fan of the Pokémon trading card game. With countless incredible launches and new sets coming out alongside exciting holiday products, there’s been a lot for Pokémon fans to keep track of.

One recent piece of news that’s caused a lot of excitement in the community is the announcement that ACE SPEC cards will be returning to the game. This was announced during the 2023 Pokémon World Championships and on the official Pokémon TCG Twitter page, and it’s got a lot of people talking about this specific card type and what we can expect to see.

If you missed the trailer announcement or you’re unfamiliar with what ACE SPEC cards are, here’s everything you need to know about this card type and when you can expect them to be rejoining the Pokémon TCG world.

What Are ACE SPEC Cards?

Introduced in the Pokémon Black & White: Boundaries Crossed set back in 2012, ACE SPEC cards are a specific subcategory of Trainer cards and Item cards. 

These cards are mighty powerful, but they can be tricky to use in a proper strategy as (for the most part) you can only have one of them in your deck at a time. 

There aren’t many of these cards in existence as they weren’t around for long. They came out of circulation in 2013 with the Pokémon Black & White: Plasma Blast set. 

The full English-language ACE SPEC card list is as follows:

• Computer Search (Pokémon Black & White: Boundaries Crossed)
• Crystal Edge (Pokémon Black & White: Boundaries Crossed)
• Crystal Wall (Pokémon Black & White: Boundaries Crossed)
• Gold Potion (Pokémon Black & White: Boundaries Crossed)
• Life Dew (Pokémon Black & White: Plasma Freeze)
• Rock Guard (Pokémon Black & White: Plasma Freeze)
• G Booster (Pokémon Black & White: Plasma Blast)
• G Scope (Pokémon Black & White: Plasma Blast)
• Master Ball (Pokémon Black & White: Plasma Blast)
• Scoop Up Cyclone (Pokémon Black & White: Plasma Blast)
• Dowsing Machine (Pokémon Black & White: Plasma Storm)
• Scramble Switch (Pokémon Black & White: Plasma Storm)
• Victory Piece (Pokémon Black & White: Plasma Storm)

Despite their age, some of these cards can be pretty hard to get a hold of. According to Bulbapedia’s data, there are just as many Japanese ACE SPEC cards as there are English ACE SPEC cards.  

When Are ACE SPEC Cards Coming Back?

As mentioned in the official Pokémon TCG Twitter trailer, the only date that we currently have for ACE SPEC card releases is 2024. There are some rumors about when we might see the cards, but there’s been no official announcement or verifiable leaks yet.

It’s worth keeping tabs on the official Pokémon TCG social media pages for more information, as they tend to announce set drops and new cards fairly early in advance.

Currently, there isn’t much more to note about the ACE SPEC revival. The trailer only dedicated around 30 seconds of screen time to ACE SPEC cards, focusing mainly on the arrival of Paradox Pokémon cards, so at the time of writing it’s hard to say whether they’ll become a viable tournament deck component or not.

Regardless of how they perform in competitive play, ACE SPEC cards are almost certainly going to be hit collector’s items purely based on how long they’ve been out of the game for and how small the number of cards in circulation is.