SWSH Retrospective - Pokemon Sword & Shield era Highlights & Lowlights

With Scarlet & Violet Base set just around the corner, we thought now was a great time to look back on the era of Sword & Shield in the TCG! For the past three years, SWSH has delivered some awesome expansions! Take a look at our brief recap of every SWSH era set down below!

Base Set

February 2020

Sword & Shield Base set is the one that started the entire era off! This was our introduction to V and VMAX cards, which replaced the GX cards of the Sun & Moon era! A notable addition was Zacian V that allowed the Arceus, Dialga and Palkia Tag Team, or ADP, to dominate the early part of the Sword & Shield era.

Rebel Clash

May 2020

After Base Set came Rebel Clash! This expansion has a bad reputation, but we think that it doesn't really deserve it. It introduced some great cards into the game including Scoop up Net and Boss's Orders, which see heavy play in many decks!

Darkness Ablaze

August 2020

Darkness Ablaze was the third instalment and was based around the super-popular Charizard! Although the set didn't offer a lot for competitive players, the allure of pulling that Charizard VMAX enticed a ton of Collectors.

Champion's Path

September 2020

Champion's Path was the first special set of Sword & Shield! Special sets stand out from regular sets in that they don't include Booster Boxes, and boosters can only be found in collection boxes and other products. Champion's Path was a smaller set than the preceding SWSH sets and collectors would often find themselves racking up multiples of quite a few cards whilst searching for the chase cards. The most notable of these chase cards were of course the absolutely stunning Charizard V and Charizard VMAX!

Vivid Voltage

November 2020

The last set of 2020, Vivid Voltage introduced some epic cards including the highly sought after Rainbow Rare Pikachu VMAX! The set introduced Amazing Rares, which definitely pulled some collectors back into the fold!

Shining Fates

February 2021

2021 kicked off with yet another special set in Shining Fates! The set featured a ton of awesome shiny Pokemon and cool products. The Premium Collections featuring Shiny Dragapult VMAX and Shiny Crobat VMAX were a particular highlight of the set! The set often draws comparisons to Hidden Fates and like that set, has a great reputation among collectors.

Battle Styles

March 2021

Battle Styles was the first regular set of 2021 and introduced an entirely new mechanic with Battle Styles: Single Strike and Rapid Strike. The set also saw the return of Alternate Arts, which was a massive boon to collectors! The main star of the set, Urshifu, got a massive 4 alternate art versions!

Chilling Reign

June 2021

Chilling Reign focused on the Crown Tundra DLC released during the prior year. As a result, both forms of Calyrex featured heavily and once again we were treated to 2 versions of the Elite Trainer Box: Ice Rider and Shadow Rider. The set also saw the debut of 2 popular cards in tournament scene with Melony and Path to the Peak!

Evolving Skies

August 2021

Coming next was the release of Evolving Skies! The set was notable for including a ton of Eeveelutions as well as the return of Rayquaza with the reintroduction of Dragon types back into the game! As you can expect, the expansion proved to be super popular with collectors as it combined three Japanese sets into one, bringing all of those epic alternate arts!

Celebrations

October 2021

In February of 2021, Pokemon celebrated its 25th Anniversary and the aptly-named Celebrations set released later that year. Celebrations included a great selection of reprints of some of the game's most iconic cards in the Classic Collection, including Shining Magikarp, Base Set versions of Charizard, Blastoise & Venusaur and Birthday Pikachu! Alongsider the Classic Collection, the special set also introduced Flying Pikachu VMAX, which saw a lot of play!

Fusion Strike

November 2021

Mew was the main focus of Fusion Strike, which expanded upon Battle Styles by introducing Fusion Strike Pokemon. There were 6 variants of Mew included in the set, with 3 Pokemon V and 3 VMAX, which was great news for fans of the first Pokemon. The biggest downside of the set is that it was released after Evolving Skies, so this otherwise great set pales in comparison.

Brilliant Stars

February 2022

Brilliant Stars was the first set to include VSTAR Pokemon, a replacement for VMAX Pokemon which were phased out following this set! The set was also notable for its inclusion of Black & Gold VMAX cards, which are stunning to look at. Another popular inclusion was the Trainer Gallery subset, which showcases some of iconic trainers in their artwork.

Astral Radiance

May 2022

Another popular mechanic was released with Astral Radiance - Radiant Pokemon. Even with the restriction that you can only include one Radiant Pokemon in your deck, these were super powerful and saw a ton of competitive play. The set also highlighted some of the themes from Pokemon Legends - Arceus with Hisuian froms as well as Origin Formes for Dialga and Palkia! It also continued the tradition of the Trainer Gallery introduced in Brilliant Stars!

Pokemon Go

July 2022

The next special set in the era was Pokemon GO, based on the mobile game. The set included an number of products based around the in-game teams and utilised artwork reminiscent of the GO Snapshot mechanic, blending together real environment with digital Pokemon.

Lost Origin

September 2022

The set was notable for reintroducing the Lost Zone into the game! The pack art and marketing leaned heavily on the impressive Giratina! The trainer gallery also returned and included some impressive Pikachu VMAX art with the iconic Red character from the Video Game Series.

Silver Tempest

November 2022

Silver Tempest was the last regular expansion to be released for Sword & Shield. The main highlight of this set was the immense Lugia V, which has dominated the competitive scene since its introduction!

Crown Zenith

January 2023

Crown Zenith closed off this terrific era and, according to some of our followers, this has turned out to be one of the best expansions of the era! Rounding out the rest of Japanese promos excluded from previous sets, this set has a ton of popularity.

While this post is a celebration of the era of Sword & Shield, we are also super excited for the upcoming release of Scarlet & Violet Base Set! Check out the related products section down below to place your pre-order! Alternatively, you can browse our entire range of Pokemon products by clicking the button below!