Technologies

Pokemon TCG Pocket’s Celestial Guardians Expansion Will Launch Alongside a Special Event

The Pokemon Sun and Moon-themed will packs introduce the first immersive Supporter card, while the new event will highlight the legendary Rayquaza.

With so many strange and lovable creatures walking around, human characters often fade into the background of the Pokemon universe. But the human-featuring supporter cards are finally getting their time to shine in Pokemon TCG Pocket when the Celestial Guardians expansion set arrives on April 30.

There are more than 200 cards in the new set, making this the largest set expansion in Pokemon TCG Pocket since the original Genetic Apex set that launched alongside the game. Celestial Guardians will introduce players to exotic Alolan Pokemon, including starter Pokemon Litten, Rowlet and Popplio and legendaries Solgaleo and Lunala.

Regional variants of classic Pokemon also will be highlighted in this set, including Alolan forms of Meowth, Persian, Vulpix and Ninetales. Full art versions of Alolan Raichu and Alolan Marowak cards will be included in the packs.

The set will be split into Solgaleo and Lunala packs, with themed cards in each sub-set. For the first time ever, though, there will be different versions of the same Pokemon card in each sub-set — there are different variants of Litten, Rowet, Popplio and Oricorio in the Solgaleo and Lunala packs.

As one of the biggest sets in the game, Celestial Guardians will require a lot of time, dedication and luck to complete. It’s time to start saving up those Pack Hourglasses.

Lillie is the first immersive Supporter card

Immersive cards are some of the most sought after variants in Pokemon TCG Pocket. They’re a good example of why trading cards work virtually — there are things they can do that physical cards can’t. With immersive cards, that’s allowing players to inspect them to unlock an animated scene.

Previous Pokemon TCG Pocket immersive cards have largely focused on the most popular pocket monsters from their respective expansions. Genetic Apex included immersive cards for Pikachu, Charizard and Mewtwo, for example, while Spacetime Showdown featured Dialga and Palkia in their own animated cards.

If the Celestial Guardians set followed the same trend, we’d expect to see immersive cards for Solgaleo and Lunala — but that trend is getting bucked for a fan-favorite human character.

Lillie is the player’s companion from Pokemon Sun and Moon, and the friend and protector of the Cosmog named Nebby. She’s also the daughter of the main antagonist — Lusamine — and many Pokemon fans connect with her quest to be a better person than her mother.

Lillie is a natural choice for a Supporter immersive card, and opens up possibilities for new immersive Supporter and Trainer cards in future Pokemon TCG Pocket expansion sets.

What card will shake up the Pokemon TCG Pocket meta?

New Pokemon Ex cards and other important pulls often drastically change the Pokemon TCG Pocket meta. Their special gimmicks, high-damage attacks and Pokemon abilities often change the way the game is played.

This time around, it’s not a Pokemon that has people chattering about the meta shake-up: It’s a Trainer card. The Rare Candy card lets players bypass a Stage 1 evolution, placing a Stage 2 card from your hand onto an active Basic Pokemon.

This effect lets players ramp up their strength absurdly quickly — in certain cases, you can have some of the most powerful Stage 2 Pokemon Ex cards in play by your second turn. Certain Pokemon are themselves turned into powerful energy factories at Stage 2, like Shining Revelry’s Charizard Ex, and the Rare Candy will almost certainly become a mainstay pairing for these cards.

No one will be able to predict how the meta will shake out quite yet. With more than 200 cards being added to the game, including powerful new legendaries and Pokemon Ex cards, it will take some time and theory-crafting to figure out the best new synergies in Pokemon TCG Pocket.

The Pokemon TCG Pocket «Half-Year Celebration» event

Launching in tandem with the Celestial Guardians expansion on April 30 is Pokemon TCG Pocket’s Half-Year Celebration event.

Themed around Rayquaza, the generation three legendary Pokemon featured on the Pokemon Emerald box art, this event will introduce the Promo Pack A Series Volume 7 packs as rewards for beating special solo battles.

Several new cards will be available in these promo packs but the chase card is a new Rayquaza Ex. Every promo pack contains a single card, which encourages players to continually log-in over the course of the event to maximize their pulls. Event Hourglasses let players take on additional event battles. The solo battles — and their promo pack rewards — will be available until May 12.

Special missions will also be available starting April 30, and they’ll reward players with a separate full art variant of Rayquaza Ex alongside «a few other goodies.»

This split between battling and generalized missions adapts a similar structure to older TCG Pocket events, giving casual collectors a chance to pick up some cool card art without engaging in any battles. The special missions will run until May 28.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Mini Crossword Answers for Saturday, Feb. 21

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for Feb. 21.

Looking for the most recent Mini Crossword answer? Click here for today’s Mini Crossword hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Wordle, Strands, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Need some help with today’s Mini Crossword? It’s the long Saturday version, and some of the clues are stumpers. I was really thrown by 10-Across. Read on for all the answers. And if you could use some hints and guidance for daily solving, check out our Mini Crossword tips.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: Tips and Tricks for Solving The New York Times Mini Crossword

Let’s get to those Mini Crossword clues and answers.

Mini across clues and answers

1A clue: «Jersey Shore» channel
Answer: MTV

4A clue: «___ Knows» (rhyming ad slogan)
Answer: LOWES

6A clue: Second-best-selling female musician of all time, behind Taylor Swift
Answer: MADONNA

8A clue: Whiskey grain
Answer: RYE

9A clue: Dreaded workday: Abbr.
Answer: MON

10A clue: Backfiring blunder, in modern lingo
Answer: SELFOWN

12A clue: Lengthy sheet for a complicated board game, perhaps
Answer: RULES

13A clue: Subtle «Yes»
Answer: NOD

Mini down clues and answers

1D clue: In which high schoolers might role-play as ambassadors
Answer: MODELUN

2D clue: This clue number
Answer: TWO

3D clue: Paid via app, perhaps
Answer: VENMOED

4D clue: Coat of paint
Answer: LAYER

5D clue: Falls in winter, say
Answer: SNOWS

6D clue: Married title
Answer: MRS

7D clue: ___ Arbor, Mich.
Answer: ANN

11D clue: Woman in Progressive ads
Answer: FLO

Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections: Sports Edition Hints and Answers for Feb. 21, #516

Here are hints and the answers for the NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle for Feb. 21, No. 516.

Looking for the most recent regular Connections answers? Click here for today’s Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle and Strands puzzles.

Today’s Connections: Sports Edition is a tough one. I actually thought the purple category, usually the most difficult, was the easiest of the four. If you’re struggling with today’s puzzle but still want to solve it, read on for hints and the answers.

Connections: Sports Edition is published by The Athletic, the subscription-based sports journalism site owned by The Times. It doesn’t appear in the NYT Games app, but it does in The Athletic’s own app. Or you can play it for free online.

Read more: NYT Connections: Sports Edition Puzzle Comes Out of Beta

Hints for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections: Sports Edition puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: Old Line State.

Green group hint: Hoops legend.

Blue group hint: Robert Redford movie.

Purple group hint: Vroom-vroom.

Answers for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Yellow group: Maryland teams.

Green group: Shaquille O’Neal nicknames.

Blue group: Associated with «The Natural.»

Purple group: Sports that have a driver.

Read more: Wordle Cheat Sheet: Here Are the Most Popular Letters Used in English Words

What are today’s Connections: Sports Edition answers?

The yellow words in today’s Connections

The theme is Maryland teams. The four answers are Midshipmen, Orioles, Ravens and Terrapins.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is Shaquille O’Neal nicknames. The four answers are Big Aristotle, Diesel, Shaq and Superman.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is associated with «The Natural.» The four answers are baseball, Hobbs, Knights and Wonderboy.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is sports that have a driver. The four answers are bobsled, F1, golf and water polo.

Technologies

Wisconsin Reverses Decision to Ban VPNs in Age-Verification Bill

The law would have required websites to block VPN users from accessing «harmful material.»

Following a wave of criticism, Wisconsin lawmakers have decided not to include a ban on VPN services in their age-verification law, making its way through the state legislature.

Wisconsin Senate Bill 130 (and its sister Assembly Bill 105), introduced in March 2025, aims to prohibit businesses from «publishing or distributing material harmful to minors» unless there is a reasonable «method to verify the age of individuals attempting to access the website.»

One provision would have required businesses to bar people from accessing their sites via «a virtual private network system or virtual private network provider.»

A VPN lets you access the internet via an encrypted connection, enabling you to bypass firewalls and unblock geographically restricted websites and streaming content. While using a VPN, your IP address and physical location are masked, and your internet service provider doesn’t know which websites you visit.

Wisconsin state Sen. Van Wanggaard moved to delete that provision in the legislation, thereby releasing VPNs from any liability. The state assembly agreed to remove the VPN ban, and the bill now awaits Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers’s signature.

Rindala Alajaji, associate director of state affairs at the digital freedom nonprofit Electronic Frontier Foundation, says Wisconsin’s U-turn is «great news.»

«This shows the power of public advocacy and pushback,» Alajaji says. «Politicians heard the VPN users who shared their worries and fears, and the experts who explained how the ban wouldn’t work.»

Earlier this week, the EFF had written an open letter arguing that the draft laws did not «meaningfully advance the goal of keeping young people safe online.» The EFF said that blocking VPNs would harm many groups that rely on that software for private and secure internet connections, including «businesses, universities, journalists and ordinary citizens,» and that «many law enforcement professionals, veterans and small business owners rely on VPNs to safely use the internet.»

VPNs can also help you get around age-verification laws — for instance, if you live in a state or country that requires age verification to access certain material, you can use a VPN to make it look like you live elsewhere, thereby gaining access to that material. As age-restriction laws increase around the US, VPN use has also increased. However, many people are using free VPNs, which are fertile ground for cybercriminals.

In its letter to Wisconsin lawmakers prior to the reversal, the EFF argued that it is «unworkable» to require websites to block VPN users from accessing adult content. The EFF said such sites cannot «reliably determine» where a VPN customer lives — it could be any US state or even other countries.

«As a result, covered websites would face an impossible choice: either block all VPN users everywhere, disrupting access for millions of people nationwide, or cease offering services in Wisconsin altogether,» the EFF wrote.

Wisconsin is not the only state to consider VPN bans to prevent access to adult material. Last year, Michigan introduced the Anticorruption of Public Morals Act, which would ban all use of VPNs. If passed, it would force ISPs to detect and block VPN usage and also ban the sale of VPNs in the state. Fines could reach $500,000.