Shiny Vault Charizard-GX, Mewtwo-GX, Sylveon-GX from ‘Hidden Fates!’

Pokemon.com has revealed the shiny versions of Charizard-GX (SV49/SV94), shiny Mewtwo-GX, and shiny Sylveon-GX (SV76) from Hidden Fates!

They also revealed that “SV” stands for “Shiny Vault.” As we speculated over the past few months, most of the cards in this “Shiny Vault” won’t be legal for Standard because they’re “A” alternate art reprints.

Because the Shiny Vault cards are all from previous expansions, they are specially marked to indicate whether they’re legal for tournament play in the Standard format. As an example, let’s take a look at the Charizard-GX from Hidden Fates.

All cards in the Shiny Vault are marked with the Yellow A Alternate symbol (see callout A in the above diagram), meaning that each one is an existing card reprinted with a new illustration. Instead of the Hidden Fates expansion symbol, each card carries the symbol of its original expansion (callout B). This Charizard-GX has the expansion symbol from Sun & Moon—Burning Shadows, which signifies that it’s an alternate illustration of the Charizard-GX from that expansion.

Unlike regular Yellow A Alternate cards, the Shiny Vault cards have their own collector card numbers in order to denote that these cards are from Hidden Fates (callout C). When considering tournament legality, the important thing to look at is the expansion symbol. If the Sun & Moon—Burning Shadows expansion isn’t legal in the Standard format, then this Charizard-GX isn’t either.

By the time Hidden Fates is released, many of the Shiny Vault cards won’t be legal in the Standard format, but they can still be used in the Expanded format. And of course, they will still be awesome additions to your Pokémon TCG collection!