I feel like I blink and a month has passed since the last time I did a round up of new set announcements. There's been a bunch of new announcements since then, most of which are team sets. One of them is already in stores but most of the rest won't be out until June.
- The set that's already in stores is a 30 card Tigers team set from Bandai. This set is being sold in packs of two cards that include two vanilla cream wafers so Jambalaya has referred to this as the "Twin Wafers" set. It looks like there's a 20 card base set featuring various Tigers players along with card for the team's mascots along with a 10 card subset with card numbers that start with "R" (for rare maybe?). The "R" cards feature additional card of nine players who are in the base set (Teruaki Sato, Koji Chikamoto, Shota Morishita, etc) plus a card of manager Kyuji Fujikawa. The cards are only available in Kansai. (I should mention that the first series of Bandai's other NPB cards for 2026 - the collectible card game Fan Stars - came out a few weeks ago and are pretty attractive for CCG cards).
- Speaking of Collectible Card Games (ok, maybe not the smoothest transition), Bushiroad is apparently still pumping out their DreamOrder cards. There'll be a booster pack set called "Zone Impact" (or possibly "Impact Zone") released on June 6th. I think there are 180 "regular" player cards - 84 "common", 48 "rare", 36 "super rate" and 12 "zone rare" along with 30 "Tactics" cards - 29 "common" and 1 "rare". There's also the usual bewildering batch of parallels.
- Epoch has announced that the 2026 edition of their flagship "NPB" set will be out on June 27th. After the size of the base set shrunk in each of the last two years, it was nice to see that it'll be 240 cards again this year (still way too big of a drop from the 432 cards the set was from 2018 to 2023) which works out to 20 cards per team. There is a "retail version" of the set as well has an additional 12 "rookie variation" cards listed under the "regular card" section of the add. There's some other differences between the "standard" and "retail" versions. While both sets have parallel versions of all 240 base cards, the "standard" version also has two 12 card insert sets - "NPB Stars" and "Walk-Off Win" while the "retail" version only has parallel versions of the 12 "rookie variation" cards. Both sets have 178 different autographed cards available but the "standard" version also offers 12 of Epoch's ubiquitous "GEM" premium insert cards. I do not know if the "retail version" is exclusive to FamilyMart as it was two years ago.
- Epoch has announced two more of their 2026 "Premier Edition" team sets. The Baystars set will be out on June 6th and the Buffaloes will be out a week later on the 13th. As usual, the sets are very similar except for the size of the base set. The Baystars set has 49 cards in its base set (including 10 cards for OB players) while the Buffaloes set has just 41 base set cards (although only two of them are OB players so both sets feature 39 active players). There's a "hologram" parallel available for each of the base set cards. Both sets have the usual large batch of inserts that all the "Premier Edition" sets have- three varieties of "Regular Foil Signature" ("silver", "gold" and "hologram") (18 cards each), two varieties of "Regular Decomori Signature" ("hologram" and "hologram parallel") (18 cards each), five varieties of "Time To Shine" ("A","B","C","D","E") (six cards each) and three varieties of "Decomori Signature" ("gold","green" and "hologram") (six cards each). I think all the inserts are serially numbered. There are also the "GEM" and "BLACK GEM" "special insert cards" (nine cards in each) that I think are much more limited. Both sets have five different types of autographed cards - "Authentic" (40 for DeNA, 39 for Orix), "Star" (5 and 6 respectively), "Rookie" (6 for the Baystars and 10 for the Buffaloes), "Legendary" (10 for DeNA and 2 for Orix) and "Combo"(8 and 4).
- Lastly, BBM has announced four more of their "comprehensive" team sets for 2026, bringing the total number announced for this year to nine. As usual, each set has a base set of 81 cards, most of which are "regular" player cards featuring the manager and the players on the 70 man roster plus a couple subsets (which may not be fully defined yet) to fill out the set. Each set also has 18 non-premium insert cards split into a variety of sets which also may not be fully defined yet (or may have title that doesn't translated to something that makes any sense). The sets also have two or three types of premium inserts that are serially numbered - Treasure, Esperanza and Admirar. BBM also introduced a new premium insert called "My Fave" with this year's Giants set so all four of these sets also have those available. There will be rare parallel versions of some of the "regular" player cards that will feature photo variants or different backgrounds.
| Release Date | Team | Regular Cards | Subsets | Inserts | Other |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Late May | Hawks | 65 | Inheritance(6), Fight! Kyushu(3), Next Cannon(2), Speed Baller(5) | Easygoing and Self-Reliant(9), Craftsman(3), Young Gun(3), Next Wave(3), Treasure(24), Esperanza(9), Admirar(6), My Fave(18) | Autograph & Memorabilia cards |
| Mid June | Baystars | 68 | Veteran Sluggers(3), Leading Candidates(3), Master-Disciple Duo(3), Early Highlights(3) | Main Players(9), No. 1 Draft Picks(3), Veterans(3), Rookies(3), Treasure(23), Esperanza(9), Admirar(6), My Fave(18) | Autograph cards |
| Mid June | Fighters | 69 | Re: Evolution(2), Middle Infield(1), Slugging Catcher(3), Hokkaido Association(5), No-hitter(1) | Dominate(9), Three Arrows(3), Next Up(3), Momentum(3), Treasure(24), Esperanza(9), Admirar(6), My Fave(24) | Autograph & Memorabilia cards |
| Late June | Tigers | 68 | Promising Young Players(3), Memories Of Jersey Numbers(3), Solid Contribution(3), World Tigers(3) | Glory To Tigers!(9), Mighty Relievers(3), Contenders(3), Gush Out(3), Treasure(24), Esperanza(9), Admirar(6), My Fave(24) | Autograph & Memorabilia cards |
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