Posted in: Card Games, Games, Pokémon TCG, Tabletop | Tagged: Astral Radiance, Battle Region, pokemon, pokemon cards, Pokemon TCG

Pokémon TCG Japan's Battle Region Preview: Diancie & More

This week, the Pokémon TCG will release a special Japanese set titled Battle Region which is named after the Hisui region and its dangerous Pokémon. This is likely to be the basis, at least in part, for the next English-language set, Sword & Shield – Astral Radiance, coming in May 2022. Battle Region has been confirmed to feature the return of Shinies with a new card type: Sparkling Pokémon. It will also continue the VSTAR mechanic that debuted in January's Star Birth and will continue to feature Character Cards and Character Super Rares. Today, let's look at some of the more common cards in the set.

We're getting to the end of our Battle Region previews, but I want to make sure we don't just show the Ultra Rares and above. The set has quite a few beautiful common cards and holographic hits as well. Here, we have a Misdreavus, Mismagius, and Diancie. Personally, because I love Mythical Pokémon, I'm hoping we can get a Diancie V before the Sword & Shield era is over. It is likely that this era will wrap in November 2021 with the Scarlet & Violet era set to begin in February 2023. That means that we have just three English-language Pokémon TCG sets left and, amazingly, we already know the name of two of them. The May 2022 set is called Sword & Shield – Astral Radiance and the August 2022 set is called Sword & Shield – Lost Origin. (This, of course, does not include the Pokémon GO set we're getting in June as well as the Fall 2022 unbranded special set.) For all we know, we could be on the precipice of the V era ending! GX just lasted during the Sun & Moon era, so we could very well say goodbye to Pokémon-V in less than a year.

Japanese sets often give us early ideas of what the English-language sets may include, so be sure to keep an eye on our coverage. You can stay tuned for previews of Battle Region cards as well as updates on everything Pokémon TCG right here at Bleeding Cool.

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