‘Pokemon V’ Mechanic Announced: Zacian V, Zamazenta V from ‘Sword & Shield!’

A new TCG mechanic called Pokemon V was just revealed at Worlds! Portions of Zacian V and Zamazenta V were shown:

(Note that the Energy icons are excluded from these teasers because it would spoil Zacian and Zamazenta’s types.)

According to a press release from Pokemon, the “V” comes from “eVolve.”

We can see that Pokemon V will have a 2-card Prize rule like Pokemon-GX and EX. They appear to have black card borders and highlights. There is also a “V” in the top left corner of the card template (to the left of the Pokemon’s name).

After the Zacian V and Zamazenta V teasers, a preview for a V card with 330 HP was shown.

We see Pikachu and Zekrom (representing Pikachu & Zekrom-GX) staring at this V card before it zooms out to show its colossal size. This may be hinting that this V card will be the TCG’s equivalent of the Dynamax mechanic. This is further indicated by the fact there is a red sky over the card, like in the video games.

It should be noted that the “V” in the top left corner of the Zacian and Zamazenta cards and the “V” in the top left corner of the giant V card have different placement and colors. So there could be two parts to this Pokemon V mechanic. For example, perhaps Zacian V and Zamazenta V can evolve into stronger Dynamax “V” cards, like the one above with 330 HP. This would make the mechanic similar to Pokemon LV.X cards. But this is all speculation for now.

Update: Upon closer inspection, Zamazenta-Z’s Ability prevents all effects or damage from your opponent’s V-MAX Pokemon. You can just barely see “V-MAX” written at the end of its Ability text. So perhaps the 330 HP card is a V-MAX Pokemon and our two Legendaries are Pokemon V? Maybe Pokemon V can evolve into V-MAX?

A press release from Pokemon also just revealed (to no one’s surprise) that the first Sword and Shield set will be named Sword & Shield. An image of the set logo was released, as was booster pack artwork of Zacian and Zamazenta. There will be 202 cards in the set before secret rares.

We expect the first Sword and Shield set to release in Japan this December and then in America next February, based on past release patterns.

The corner of Zamazenta Z shows the appearance of a “D.” These are the card legality letters that we have been talking about all year.

These regulation marks will denote which cards are legal in future tournaments — for example, Japan may soon say “you can only use cards with B and C marks at tournaments, not A marks.”

Their use in the English TCG may be an indication that worldwide card legality will come in the future, as we have been speculating. This would mean Japan and the rest of the world attempt to keep the same cards part of the same blocks.