Tournament Hobby Shops Can Now Sell Pokémon TCG: Astral Radiance

Today is the day! While Pokémon TCG: Sword & Shield – Astral Radiance will see its wide release this Friday, May 27th, you will begin seeing tournament-official hobby stores selling it today. The Pokémon TCG allows these stores to begin selling a limited set of items including booster packs, booster boxes, and Elite Trainer Boxes on the Monday of the set’s release to combat big box stores which are known for putting out products when they receive them regardless of the release date. Let’s take a look at what you should know about this new Pokémon TCG set.

Here’s what you should know when you begin opening up packs of Sword & Shield – Astral Radiance:

• Major hits: The major hits in this set focus on species introduced in the open-world RPG Pokémon Legends: Arceus. Some of the hits include Hisuian Typhlosion, Hisuian Samurott, Hisuian Decidueye, Origin Forme Dialga, and Origin Forme Palkia. You can find these cards in V and VSTAR form. Some of them even have Full Arts and Alternate Arts in the set.
• Trainer Gallery: Like Sword & Shield – Brilliant Stars, this set has a Trainer Gallery subset. This means you can pull Character Rares, Character Super Rares, Full Art Trainers, and Black & Gold VMAX in the Reverse Holo slot, which adds to your pull count in a major way. The Black & Gold VMAX featured in this set are Ice Rider Calyrex and Shadow Rider Calyrex.
• Radiant Pokémon: This set introduces Radiant Pokémon which are quite a lot like classic Shining Cards. The species is depicted in its Shiny form and both the actual character and the text box of the card are rendered in etched foil. What sets these apart is that a reverse holo pattern unique to this card type plays through the card.
• Gold VSTARs: There are three in this set, including Origin Forme Dialga, Origin Forme Palkia, and Hisuian Samurott.
• Alternate Arts: They’re still active and will likely be the major chase cards. Alt Arts in this set include Hisuian Lilligant, Origin Forme Palkia, Origin Forme Dialga, Machamp, Beedrill, and Hisuian Sneasler.