Posted in: Card Games, Games, Pokémon TCG, Tabletop | Tagged: Brilliant Stars, pokemon, Pokemon TCG, shaymin, Star Birth

First Look At Shaymin V-Star From Pokémon TCG Japan: Star Birth

In January 2022, the Pokémon TCG will release the next Japanese set, the Arceus-themed Star Birth. Star Birth will debut the VSTAR mechanic with cards featuring Charizard, Shaymin, Arceus, and Whimsicott. The set, the first major release of the year, will partly be the basis for the next English-language expansion, Sword & Shield – Brilliant Stars which will be released in February 2022. We cover both English-language and Japanese-language releases here on Bleeding Cool, as the Japanese sets will give us a peek into the future of what is coming down the line for international releases. Today, let's take a look at some of the first cards we get to see from Star Birth.

In today's Star Birth preview, we get to see one of the first-ever VSTAR cards. We've seen Charizard and Arceus from this set as well as Black Star Promos featuring Glaceon and Leafeon. Now, we see the Mythical Pokémon Shaymin receiving not only one of the first VSTARs but also a standard Pokémon-V. VSTARs will replace VMAXes in some ways as the Pokémon TCG begins to phase those out. These are considered rarer pulls than Vs and a bit less rare than a Full Art just like VMAXes, and they will indeed be textured. You can see in the gorgeous Shaymin VSTAR grooves on the card, which will showcase that texture. Also notice that VSTARs don't depict the Pokémon as Gigantamax or Dynamax like VMAXes did, so we're going to get to appreciate the base design of the species on both their V and VSTAR cards. Shaymin is a terrific choice, as the Pokémon TCG cycled through Mythical V and VMAXes in the first waves of sets, depicting Mew, Celebi, and Victini. I'd love to see if the cute Mythicals like Jirachi, Meloetta, and so on will follow in Shaymin's steps and get their own VSTAR appearances.

Stay tuned for more Pokémon TCG news daily right here at Bleeding Cool! You can follow our Star Birth coverage using our official tag for the set and our Sword & Shield – Brilliant Stars coverage using this tag for the set.

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