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

Pokémon TCG: Brilliant Stars Pull Rate Quest Part Five

Too often, Pokémon TCG influencers will rush to make a sweeping statement about a new set's pull rates. It's going to be interesting to see how the latest set, Sword & Shield – Brilliant Stars, is seen because it has a special Trainer Gallery subset consisting of Character Cards, Character Super Rares, Full Art Trainers, and Black and Gold VMAXes that can be pulled in the Reverse Holo slot. This increases the number of pulls that one can expect to get in a Sword & Shield – Brilliant Stars opening. In the interest of dispelling the idea that we can establish pull rates so early in a set's existence, I'm here with Pull Rate Quest, a series at Bleeding Cool where I open Pokémon TCG sets to show that you win some… and you lose some. I love the idea that openings like this can help show people what to expect in a set, but remember… a lot of it comes down to the luck of the draw. Let's open another booster box of Sword & Shield – Brilliant Stars and see what we can get in this installment of Pull Rate Quest.

Box Breakdown

• Overall number of Holos or above: 14
• Overall number of Ultra Rares or above: 8
• Overall number of Trainer Gallery subset cards: 5

What we got

• Holo Rares: 6
• Pokémon-V: 5
• Pokémon-VMAX: 0
• Pokémon-VSTAR: 0
• Full Art Pokémon: 3
• Alternate Arts: 0
• Full Art Trainers: 0
• Rainbow Rares: 0
• Gold Secret Rares: 0
• Character Cards: 3
• Character Super Rares: 2
• Black and Gold VMAXes: 0

Another very atypical Pokémon TCG box here, which… you know, kind of continues to prove the theme of this multi-part opening. From the main numbered set, my general standard for an ideal booster box is three Full Arts and/or above and a couple of VMAXes. However, note that the VMAX pull rates have dramatically changed and that is likely because there are so few in the set. Sword & Shield – Brilliant Stars is a transition set that has the final few VMAXes and the first few VSTARs. These cards are seen as equal in rarity, essentially rarer than a regular V and less rare than a Full Art. I think we'll begin to see VSTAR rates stabilize in the next set when there are simply more of that card type to pull. With that said, I really enjoyed this box. Three Full Art Pokémon-V is unusual as they all share the same rarity, but it's terrific to me. The Pikachu Full Art is the best hit of this portion of the set for sure. Then, we have our Trainer Gallery pulls. I've suggested that you can pretty much expect an average of three to six in a box, with Character Super Rares, Black & Gold VMAXes, and Full Art Trainers in this subset being rarer than Character Cards. The Umbreon V CSR here is a box-making pull, as it is among the most desirable cards in the subset. To pull both that and the Urshifu VMAX CSR makes this quite a win. This spread shows just how much the Trainer Gallery subset improves the overall pull rates of this set.

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