December’s ‘VMAX Climax’ To Feature Shiny Pokemon and More!

VMAX Climax will release in Japan on December 3rd! We first discovered its trademark in January and theorized it would be the name of an upcoming set.

The preliminary information we’ve received says the main set will feature 184 cards — and its secret rare portion will contain shiny Pokemon! As expected, the set will be Japan’s annual “High Class” set. This means it should feature reprints from the last year as well as a large number of secret rares (as with TAG All Stars, GX Ultra Shiny, and Shiny Star V).

The sell sheet apparently mentions shiny versions of Rayquaza VMAX, Duraludon VMAX, and Mew VMAX. They will be secret rares. This would make it the third “High Class” set in a row to include shiny Pokemon.

We will also see secret rares of Nessa, Bea, Allister, Raihan, Adventurer’s Discovery, a new Acerola, and Galar Friends. The latter should be similar to Alola Friends.

Some of the aforementioned Gym Leader will appear as their alternate designs from their League cards. Of the four, Nessa and Allister have different looks in the games:

Acerola will be printed with a new effect. (Either that or it’s a new card featuring Acerola, e.g. “Acerola’s Determination.”)

Ultra Ball will be reprinted in the set. The product sheet doesn’t say it will be a secret rare.

Each booster pack of VMAX Climax will contain 11 cards instead of the usual five, including a holo Energy card (this might mean a reverse holo). Booster packs will retail for 550 yen each. For comparison, Shiny Star V featured 10 cards per pack, cost 550 yen, and included one guaranteed Pokemon V or VMAX. No word yet if VMAX Climax will guarantee one too.

The selling point of these High Class sets are always their secret rares. Last year’s Shiny Star V featured 140 secret rares, 2019’s TAG All Stars featured 50+, and 2018’s GX Ultra Shiny featured 100. The sell sheet is already hinting at ten of them, which doesn’t bode well for the volume of secret rares — especially in a time when product is hard to obtain.

There doesn’t seem to be room to release this set in America for the foreseeable future, so we might see it as fall 2022’s holiday set. For example, GX Ultra Shiny was originally released in November 2018 and came to America in August 2019 as Hidden Fates. TPCi could also pull a Shining Fates and release it around February or March, but that seems doubtful since Legends: Arceus is releasing at the end of January. The TCG will likely promote the game for several months as well as any new mechanics it introduces — like VSTAR and the expected sets Star Birth and Battle Legion.

Note that this information was sent to us by a source who read the set’s sell sheet. We didn’t get to examine it ourselves, so some of this info could be inaccurate. We’ll find out in the coming months. As usual this information is preliminary and subject to change.

Also releasing November 5th is a “Special Deck Set Zacian Zamazenta VS Eternatus.” It will come with a deck case, coins, coin case, playmat, and the usual goodies.

Releasing December 3rd is a “Rubber Playmat Set Victor & Gloria” featuring the two playable characters from Sword & Shield. It’s the same product that was released for Bea in October. It will come with a card storage box, deck box, card sleeves, and rubber playmat. It will cost 5,170 yen.

Releasing December 17th is a “Sword & Shield Starter Deck 100.” It’s a 60-card deck and will come with the usual goodies.

It seems the end of this year will be winding down Galar as we transition into Sinnoh and then Hisui.