Posted in: Card Games, Games, Pokémon TCG, Tabletop | Tagged: battle styles, Empoleon, pokemon, pokemon cards, Pokemon TCG

Pokémon TCG – Product Review: Empoleon V Striker Tin

Yesterday, the Pokémon TCG released a wave of new products to coincide with the debut of their new set, Sword & Shield – Chilling Reign. Today, I'll open up each of these new items to let fellow collectors know what to expect. This time, we have what was actually a Battle Styles era tin that ended up being delayed until now, with the Empoleon V Striker Tin.

The Promo

The promo is the Empoleon V, which is SWSH108 from the current, ongoing Sword & Shield Black Star Promos set. Both this and the Tyranitar card in the other tin are very similar to the Tyranitar V and Empoleon V from Battle Styles. We essentially see the Pokémon in a different pose. Unfortunately, Empoleon's pose is not different enough, and the promo ends up looking so, so much like the Battle Styles card. The only difference is that Empoleon is striking with a different arm (wing? flipper?) and the art is a bit sharper, removing the hazy blur effect of the Battle Styles V. While I think it's still worth collecting, this one ended up with the same issue as the Single Strike and Rapid Strike Urshifu V boxes earlier this year. Just a bit too similar.

The Pokémon TCG Packs

In both the Tyranitar V Striker Tin and the Empoleon V Striker Tin, I received the following packs:

• Two Sword & Shield – Battle Styles
• One Sword & Shield – Darkness Ablaze
• One Sword & Shield
• One Sun & Moon – Celestial Storm

As mentioned in the Tyranitar opening, other openings have shown that the Sword & Shield era packs always remain the same, with the Sun & Moon era pack being a wild card. While I received Celestial Storm, other collectors received Sun & Moon – Guardians Rising quite a bit. This is among the better offerings in mixed tins and boxes so far in 2021. We've mostly seen boxes or tins like this offer the standard, newer Sword & Shield packs with a Sun & Moon base set pack. The possibility of getting a Celestial Storm pack in here is quite thrilling, and Guardians Rising is also a decent set.

Overall

If you are only planning on getting one of the V Striker Tins, I'd say go for the Tyranitar due to the superior promo card. However, I personally find this worth picking up due to the above-average pack selection and the desire to complete the Black Star Promo set.

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