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The Sword & Shield Ultra-Premium Charizard Collection will be released on Oct. 28, 2022, featuring three new unique Charizard cards alongside booster packs and several other items that are Charizard-themed. This proves to be one of the most anticipated collections yet as scalpers attempt to seize as many as they can making it difficult for fans to purchase these collections at a reasonable price.
Charizard, as always, has some of the best and most valuable cards ever. One of its many amazing cards was the shiny variant of its Gigantamax form from the Sword & Shield — Shining Fates expansion for the Pokémon TCG.
Ball Guy (Full Art)
Ball Guy is a fantastic and fun card that every player and collector should want. This card features the Ball Guy from Sword & Shield who frequently gives the player different Poké Balls in the game.
Its effect allows the player to search their deck for up to three different item cards that have the word "ball" in their name and put them into the player's hand. The various ball cards in Pokémon TCG are incredibly helpful and with Ball Guy players can get more of them more quickly.
Galarian Rapidash
Galar has its fair share of alternate regional Pokémon and one of the most well-known ones is Rapidash. Not only is this card the Galarian Rapidash, but the artwork also depicts the Pokémon as its shiny variant.
Rapidash's ability is called Pastel Veil and allows the Pokémon to recover from all special conditions and cannot be affected by any other special conditions. Rapidash also has a single attack, Psychic, that deals 30 damage plus 30 more for every energy card attached to the Pokémon.
Suicune
Suicune is part of Johto's legendary beast trio, the mascot of Pokémon Crystal, and one of the best water-type Pokémon. This Shining Fates version of the Pokémon depicts Suicune in its shiny form and has been one of the most sought-after basic cards from the expansion.
While the Pokémon doesn't have any abilities, it does have two attacks with the first one dealing 20 damage. The second attack deals 120 damage and also forces the player to take two energies attached to it and place them into the player's hand.
Lapras VMAX (Secret)
Lapras has always been rather popular and is easily one of the best dual-type ice Pokémon. Both Lapras VMAX's normal full art card and its secret rare are amazing cards that every Lapras fan needs to own. While Lapras doesn't have any stunning abilities it does have one attack that players may find beneficial.
It's called G-Max Pump and deals 90 damage normally plus 30 damage more for every water energy attached to the Pokémon. This attack requires three energies to use, so if the player uses only water energies then this attack will do 180 damage normally. This can stack up as much as the player wants making this quite the powerhouse.
Skyla (Full Art)
Skyla has been a fan favorite for years now, so it isn't surprising that her full art from Shining Fates would be one of the most sought-after cards from the expansion.
Beyond its gorgeous art, this card allows the player to search their deck for a Trainer card and place it into their hand after showing it to their opponent. While Trainer cards can only be used once per turn this can still give a good advantage for players that are needing a specific Trainer card they haven't drawn yet.
Alcremie VMAX (Secret)
This secret rare version of Alcremie depicts the standing tall tasty-looking Pokémon in its Gigantimax form. It's not an incredibly rare card, but it is one many players want due to its design and strength in battle.
Alcremie has two attacks with the first allowing the player to attach 1 psychic energy to each of their benched Pokémon. The second attack deals 60 damage normally, but the player may discard any number of energy cards from Alcremie, for each card discarded in this way Alcremie deals 60 more damage.
Ditto VMAX
Ditto has and always will be one of the most useful Pokémon in the games. Because of this it is without a doubt one of the most popular and one of the best normal-type Pokémon. Unsurprisingly then this shiny version of Ditto VMAX has been one of the most desired cards from Shining Fates despite it not being an extremely rare card.
This Ditto card doesn't work too differently from most and its only attack requires three colorless energies that allow Ditto to use one of the opponent's Pokémon's attacks as its own. This could be an absolutely devastating blow to the opponent as they could have been conserving a powerful VMAX Pokémon on their bench with an impressive attack. Ditto cards like this one are great at using the opponent's own strategy against them.
Eternatus V (Secret)
Despite being mostly focused on shiny Pokémon one of the most desired cards from the Shining Fates expansion is this secret rare version of Eternatus V, the best legendary Pokémon from Generation 8. This card is one of many gold and black cards that are simply stunning to stare at.
This card's first attack called Power Accelerator deals 30 damage and immediately allows the player to attach 1 dark energy card from their hand to one of their benched Pokémon. Eternatus's second attack deals 120 damage plus an additional 120 if the defending Pokémon happens to be a VMAX.
Eternatus VMAX (Secret)
Eternatus VMAX isn't actually as rare as Eternatus V, but it is a powerful card to use in tandem with Eternatus V. Where Eternatus really comes in danger here is the mix of its ability with its attack.
Eternatus's ability allows the player to increase the number of their benched Pokémon up to 8 if all of their active Pokémon are dark-types and any Pokémon they add from thereon out must be dark-type.
With its ability in effect comes Eternatus's impressive attack which is best utilized by having the player's bench full. This attack deals 30 damage plus every dark-type Pokémon they have on their bench. This means Eternatus can deal up to 270 damage.
Charizard VMAX (Full Art)
There isn't any debate that the best card in Shining Fates is Charizard VMAX. This card depicts Charizard in its Gigantimax form as its shiny variant. This card has the best artwork, the most expensive, and has the strongest base attack. Charizard's first attack requires three energies and deals 100 damage, which is already impressive for one attack.
However, its second attack deals 300 damage which is still the highest base damage a card can deal in Pokémon TCG. However, to use this attack the player must discard two energy cards from Charizard. This makes the attack rather difficult to use as the attack requires three fire energies and two colorless energies to even use.