Destined Rivals vs Mega Forces Tins: Which $125 September Opening Is Right for You?
By Dexhaul Team · September 6, 2026
Both products are sitting at roughly $125 this September. That is where the similarity ends.
The Destined Rivals Elite Trainer Box is a lottery. You pay $131, open nine SV10 booster packs, and you might pull a Team Rocket's Mewtwo ex SIR currently listed at $492 to $1,150 by independent merchants.
You might not pull anything above bulk.
The Mega Forces tins set is the opposite. Every tin in the set comes with a guaranteed oversized Mega ex promo card. No lottery, no variance, and you know exactly what you're getting.
This guide breaks down what's inside each, runs the numbers on both, and tells you which one matches your collecting goals.
What's Inside a Destined Rivals Elite Trainer Box
Destined Rivals is the tenth main Scarlet and Violet set (SV10), featuring the Team Rocket villain faction for the first time in the modern era.
An ETB includes nine SV10 booster packs, one full-art Destined Rivals promo card, a 65-card Destined Rivals deck box, 45 Destined Rivals card sleeves, six damage-counter dice, one competition-legal coin, two acrylic condition markers, and one card storage box. The accessories have real utility for competitive players. For collectors, the nine packs are the entire point.
The set's card count sits at 182 in the main set, with Secret Rares numbered beyond that. The pull pool includes illustration rares, special illustration rares (SIRs), and gold hyper rares. The Team Rocket theme means nearly every SIR depicts a Rocket-owned Pokémon or a villain character, which makes this set highly thematic for anyone who collects around the lore.
The SIR Chase: What Destined Rivals Can Pull
The top card is Team Rocket's Mewtwo ex, card 231/182. Current listings from independent merchants run $492 to $1,150 for a near-mint copy.
That spread tells you everything: supply is thin, and seller confidence varies widely. This is the card driving ETB demand in September.
Below that, Rocket's Nidoking ex (233/182 SIR) lists at $300. Cynthia's Garchomp ex SIR is in the $260 to $265 range. Team Rocket's Moltres (229/182) sits around $84 to $98.
Yanmega ex SIR is listed near $100. Ethan's Adventure SIR runs around $48. Giovanni SIR is in the $30 range.
Seven cards cover a price range from $30 to $1,150. Pulling any one of them from an ETB is a meaningful result. Pulling the Mewtwo ex SIR specifically is a low-probability event.
SIR cards in SV-era sets appear at roughly one per booster box (36 packs) on average, based on community tracking. An ETB's nine packs means you're opening roughly a quarter of a box.
If you buy four Destined Rivals ETBs, you can roughly expect to see one SIR across the four. Which SIR you pull is entirely random. That four-ETB total comes to about $524.
You could also skip the packs and buy the Giovanni SIR single outright for $30. The choice between opening and buying singles defines your entire relationship with this set.
What's Inside the Mega Forces Tins
The Mega Forces set launched August 28 and includes three separate tins: Mega Darkrai ex, Mega Zeraora ex, and Mega Dragonite ex.
Each tin contains a guaranteed foil Mega ex promo card for that tin's featured Pokémon, plus Mega Evolution series booster packs. Every single buyer gets the promo. There is no SIR lottery inside the promo.
The Mega ex cards are the reason to buy these tins, and you are guaranteed to receive them.
The Mega Evolution (ME) series is a separate product line from the standard Scarlet and Violet sets. The booster packs inside are ME series packs, not SV packs.
If you're hunting SV10 SIRs specifically, these packs won't deliver them.
The Dragonite tin is priced above the other two at most sellers. Mega Dragonite ex is the only card in the three-tin set depicting a Pokémon without a canonical Mega Evolution in the main games.
Dragonite, Darkrai, and Zeraora all lack Mega forms in the video game series. These are TCG-exclusive Mega ex designs.
Some collectors find that novel. Others consider it a minor strike against long-term interest. Worth knowing before you buy.
The Price Math: Where Both Products Actually Land
The "roughly $125" comparison looks clean on the surface. Here's the actual breakdown.
Destined Rivals ETB: $131.00 at Hobbiesville, with other sellers in a similar range. You get nine packs plus the accessories.
That works out to roughly $14.55 per pack if you assign zero value to the accessories, or about $10 per pack if you value the deck box and sleeves at retail.
Mega Forces set of three tins: $79.43 at Precision TCG, $89.95 at MHDEALSPLUS, $99.00 at Card Dynasty with a September 30 ship date.
If you're buying individual tins, KanZenGames has Mega Darkrai ex and Mega Zeraora ex at $29.45 each. Mega Dragonite ex runs higher at $46.95 (Lazarus Games) or $48.00 (Psydeck). Buying all three individually works out to around $105 to $108, which is more than the cheapest set listing.
The set-of-three listings at $79 to $89 are the better deal if you want all three promos. The individual-tin path makes sense only if you want specific characters and not others.
Mega Zeraora and Mega Darkrai at $29.45 each are competitively priced. Mega Dragonite alone at $46 to $50 reflects that it's the rarest single-tin listing in the set.
For the Serious DR Collector: The Booster Box Option
If the ETB's nine packs feel too few for meaningful SIR odds, the Destined Rivals booster box is the next step up at $434.99 (AllPokeTCG).
A booster box contains 36 packs. Based on community-tracked SIR pull rate data for SV-era sets, you're in range for roughly one SIR per box.
That's a meaningful improvement over the ETB's odds, but it costs three times as much. The SIR pull is still not guaranteed, and which SIR you pull remains random.
The Mewtwo ex SIR, if it appears, substantially affects the box's theoretical return. The Giovanni SIR at $30 does not. Plan around the range, not the top card.
The booster box is the right call if you're opening for competitive play, or if you're deliberately committed to the SIR chase and want the best single-box odds available.
Which One Should You Buy
Buy Destined Rivals if you want SIR odds and Team Rocket lore
You're a variance-tolerant collector who accepts that an ETB might return bulk. You're opening for the chance at Team Rocket's Mewtwo ex, Nidoking ex, or Moltres.
You love the Team Rocket theme and want cards in the SV illustration style. Or you play competitive SV-format and need the card pool.
Buy Mega Forces tins if you want guaranteed promos and Mega Evolution coverage
You're building a Mega Evolution collection and want one of each Mega ex promo without rolling dice. You'd rather spend $79 to $90 and know you're holding Mega Darkrai ex, Mega Zeraora ex, and Mega Dragonite ex than spend $131 and potentially hold nine packs of bulk. The certainty premium over the DR lottery is worth it to you.
The products are not actually comparable as opening experiences
The $125 price proximity is a coincidence. It is not a sign that these products compete for the same buyer.
Destined Rivals ETB buyers are betting on pack variance. Mega Forces tin buyers are paying for specific promo cards. Knowing which outcome you actually want makes this an easy call.
Find both Destined Rivals products and Mega Forces tins from independent Pokémon shops at dexhaul.com. DexHaul is an independent Pokémon search engine: not affiliated with or endorsed by Nintendo, Game Freak, Creatures Inc., or The Pokémon Company.