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

Pokémon TCG: Brilliant Stars Pull Rate Quest Part One

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 a 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: 17
• Overall number of Ultra Rares or above: 9
• Overall number of Trainer Gallery subset cards: 5

What we got

• Holo Rares: 6
• Pokémon-V: 6
• Pokémon-VMAX: 0
• Pokémon-VSTAR: 0
• Full Art Pokémon: 0
• Alternate Arts: 1
• Full Art Trainers: 3
• Rainbow Rares: 0
• Gold Secret Rares: 0
• Character Cards: 3
• Character Super Rares: 1
• Black and Gold VMAXes: 0

Interesting, I've now opened twelve booster boxes of Pokémon TCG: Sword & Shield – Brilliant Stars and this was one of two that had an Alternate Art card. There were some individual boxes of Sword & Shield – Evolving Skies that had two and three Alternate Arts simply because there were more in that set. Because there are only four in Sword & Shield – Brilliant Stars, you're going to have a harder time finding them. Note, too, that this box has no VSTAR or VMAXes. I'm finding this style of card harder to pull than in the past, with Full Arts actually showing up more commonly than VSTARs. Overall, with three textured cards in the main set and two in the subset, this is a solid box. Lumineon V Alternate Art and Sylveon V Character Super Rare are both box-making hits.

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