Battle Styles in February 2022

The Pokémon TCG is an ever-changing and unpredictable market. Over the past two years, we’ve seen renewed interest in the hobby due to a number of factors including the 25th Anniversary, strong Sword & Shield-era sets featuring stunning Alternate Arts, influencers, box breaks, COVID-19 lockdown pushing people to find hobbies, and more. For a time, sets and cards that were readily available quickly became difficult to find. Now that the hype is settling down, let’s see where modern sets stand. Every month, I will do an installment of this series, Pokémon TCG Value Watch. This series is not financial advice but is rather a way to help collectors know the trajectory of a card’s availability so that Pokémon TCG completionists like myself know when to strike. Today, let’s see how the cards of Sword & Shield – Battle Styles, which came out in March 2021 are doing now in February 2022.

Here are the top valued cards of Pokémon TCG: Sword & Shield – Battle Styles with market values observed on TCGPlayer as of this writing:

1. Tyranitar V Alternate Art 155/163: $70.40
2. Rapid Strike Urshifu VMAX Alternate Art 170/163: $63.41
3. Single Strike Urshifu VMAX Alternate Art 168/163: 34.76
4. Shiny Houndoom Gold Secret Rare 179/163: $26.62
5. Empoleon V Alternate Art 146/163: $23.57
6. Rapid Strike Urshifu V Alternate Art 153/163: $16.97
7. Single Strike Urshifu V Alternate Art 151/163: $16.61
8. Rapid Strike Urshifu VMAX Rainbow Rare 169/163: $15.76
9. Single Strike Urshifu VMAX Rainbow Rare 167/163: $15.01
10. Level Ball Gold Secret Rare 181/163: $14.76
11. Cheryl Rainbow Rare Trainer Supporter 173/163: $13.72
12. Phoebe Full Art Trainer Supporter 161/163: $13.50
13. Shiny Octillery Gold Secret Rare 178/163: $12.64
14. Victini VMAX Rainbow Rare 165/163: $12.13
15. Victini VMAX Rainbow Rare 171/163: $11.57

This is another set that seems to have already bottomed out. The chase card, the Tyranitar V Alternate Art, has dropped from its 2021 heights of $120 to $70 and it seems to be idling there. The rest of the set has also completely fallen with even the other bigger chase cards priced quite low. The only slight rise that I’ve noticed is in the Urshifu VMAX Alternate Arts but even those, just by mere dollars. We still may see those two Alt Arts fall more, but as for the rest of the set? I personally believe they’re safe to go after single cards, and I’ve done so myself.