McDonald’s is dropping Pokémon TCG cards back into Happy Meals November 5 through December 9, and the timeline alone is already spawning chaos reports. Fifteen cards total, one four-card booster pack per meal with one holo and three commons, plus the usual choice between a toy or handbook, timed for the franchise’s 30th anniversary. PokeBeach broke it first with the dates and pack structure, and every collector account on X immediately started memeing the inevitable drive-thru lines and scalper runs.

Past runs already proved the formula: Japan’s last exclusive Pikachu promo turned into street trash and early shutdowns after people bought dozens of meals just for the chase card. US locations have added purchase limits in previous years, but nothing official has dropped yet on whether McDonald’s will repeat the six-meal cap or the “no calling stores” rule. The cards themselves stay a mystery—reprints with the Mickey D’s logo are the safe bet, but confetti holofoil versions of six of the fifteen cards are the shiny targets everyone’s already pricing out on eBay previews that don’t exist.

The real story isn’t the cards; it’s that McDonald’s keeps feeding the same hype cycle knowing full well the scalpers and FOMO parents will turn every location into a battlefield. Lines around the block are basically pre-sold. Whether this batch finally includes the burger Pikachu art or just more recycled holos, the promotion guarantees one thing: another month of happy meals nobody actually eats.