VMAX Climax was just officially revealed during the livestream of the Kyoto Champions League!
The set’s secret rares will feature “Character Rares,” which were originally introduced in 2019’s Dream League. These are full art cards that feature a Trainer in the Pokemon’s artwork.
The set will also introduce a new rarity called “Character Super Rare,” as you can see on Pikachu VMAX.
#223 Pikachu VMAX
As we previously revealed, the main set will contain 184 cards. Most will be reprints. However, Duraludon VMAX and Rayquaza VMAX will have new artwork. Other Pokemon should too.
Each pack of VMAX Climax will contain a guaranteed chase card: a Pokemon V, VMAX, V-UNION, or secret rare. Each booster box will cost 5,500 yen and contain 10 booster packs, with 11 cards per pack.
Despite preliminary reports, it doesn’t appear the set will focus on shiny Pokemon. It seems that info was conflated with the shiny Zacian V and Zamazenta V decks (preliminary sell sheets often cram the details of multiple products together). However, some of the other info we posted in August has now been confirmed, so the rest may also be accurate:
The preliminary information we’ve received says the main set will feature 184 cards.
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. (Note: This was likely conflated with Start Deck 100, where we now know Ultra Ball is being reprinted.)
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.”
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.”
Knowing the history of Cosmic Eclipse, those will replace rev holo slots. Don't exceed your expectations. Also, V-Union will be as promos, we've seen 4 of them already.
Like it happened before, I doubt we'll get "V in every pack" like Japan. These will get split between two sets and a bunch of boxes or, like with Sun & Moon, we'll see them released months after the next generation already started.
My guess is that the majority of the set will be skipped since they are reprints and the secret rates will be sprinkled onto the Diamond and Pearl/Arceus era cards.
That poor doctor looks sicker than many of his patients probably will. No wonder he needs to have a Gardevoir around, he appears to be on the verge of falling asleep on his keyboard.
Also, who else noticed the Nidorino picture on the side of the tray that Eevee is lounging in?
Part of me is hoping we'll get another shiny vault for next year's High Class Set featuring Pokémon from Sinnoh/Hisui, but I suppose we'll just have to wait and see!
As usual, this era is producing superb artwork!
Like steffenka said, it's simply a Doctor class from SwSh, but it is peculiar that they've used a generic Trainer class for a "Character Rare" and that it's the only example revealed so far. I don't think anyone care about male Doctor's extremely important role of giving the player a bike.
LITERALLY MY TWO FAVORITE HUMAN CHARACTERS (N & Elesa) AS CHARACTER RARES OMGGGGGG IS THIS REAL LIFE????
I'm gonna be so sad if we don't get these in English ;_; although I suppose I can just buy the ones I want the most, but I wanna complete them all like I did with Cosmic Eclipse ahhhhh,,
ALSO Blue is on the pack art, maybe we'll get a CSR of him with Gmax Blastoise?? If that happens I will freak OUT
Very glad to see Character Rares return! And I'm thrilled to see Elesa with Flaaffy, N with Zekrom, and of course Gardevoir, though I wish it was with an actual character and not a no name NPC. Regardless, the artwork is great on all of these!
This is super interesting and the art on these revealed cards so far is amazing! I wonder if there will still be shinies in this set like the leaked sell sheet revealed earlier this summer? Maybe the shiny mew, rayquaza, etc. v/vmax will be part of a gift set or gift box coming out towards the end of the year/beginning of next year? Part of me also feels like they could be making this one HUGE secret rare set and having the shiny v/vmax cards, etc as part of the secret rares also as one last huge hoorah as the 25th anniversary year comes to a close. We will just have to wait and see!
Very glad to see Character Rares return! And I'm thrilled to see Elesa with Flaaffy, N with Zekrom, and of course Gardevoir, though I wish it was with an actual character and not a no name NPC. Regardless, the artwork is great on all of these!
To be fair, it is technically not a no name NPC. There is a Doctor named Graham who uses a Gardevoir in Sword/Shield (I looked it up, when I looked up the doctor sprite)
I really like the character cards- the art makes me so happy! I am hoping maybe for some more... These are nice, but maybe make one with may with torchic/combusken/blaziken, or even bonnie with dedenne
