Posted in: Card Games, Games, Pokémon TCG, Tabletop | Tagged: Brilliant Stars, pokemon, pokemon cards, Pokemon TCG, Sword & Shield

Pokémon TCG 2022 End-Of-Year List: Best Card of 2022

We have counted down the best Alternate Arts, the best Character Rares, the best promo cards, and the best sets of the Pokémon TCG in 2022… but what was the best overall card? It would be wild to pick one single winner in a year as important to the hobby as this, the final run of the Sword & Shield era, so let's narrow it down to three. These are, all three, the best Pokémon TCG card of the year… to me. Be sure to let us know your pick for the top slot in the comments below.

• Charizard V Alternate Art from Sword & Shield – Brilliant Stars: It was inevitable that Charizard, the king of chase cards, would eventually be featured on an Alternate Art. Brilliant Stars gave us an incredible card that stands out from the other Charizard chase cards of the Sword & Shield era, which are mostly recolored to be either Shiny or Rainbow Rare, with this creative scene of Charizard and Venusaur battling. The clean, highly rendered coloring and fine lineart by Ryota Murayama makes this look like a scene from a high-budget anime film I'd love to watch.
• Pikachu VMAX Character Super Rare (Trainer Gallery) from Sword & Shield – Lost Origin: This is the most iconic Character Rare in a year defined by this card type. Pikachu is a stunning Chonk in its Gigantamax form, Red looks badass and iconic with his hat-slide move, and the artwork by Souichirou Gunjima is a stunning burst of neon color. Complete eye candy!
• Giratina V Alternate Art from Sword & Shield – Lost Origin: Artist Shinji Kanda uses incredibly fine detail to show us what our brains shouldn't be able to comprehend: Giratina soaring through the fabric of reality itself. This stunning card is the only card outside of Sword & Shield – Evolving Skies to even come within hundreds of dollars of the Umbreon VMAX Alternate Art's value, with a current market value of just under $270. This is a major, major heavy-hitter of a card.

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