Posted in: Card Games, Games, Pokémon TCG, Tabletop | Tagged: Chandelure, Fusion Strike, pokemon, pokemon cards, Pokemon TCG

The Cards Of Pokémon TCG: Sword & Shield – Fusion Strike Part 5

The Pokémon TCG has outdone itself with its latest release, Sword & Shield – Fusion Strike. Fusion Strike, which was released in November 2021, is the largest expansion that the Pokémon TCG has ever released with a whopping 264 cards before Secret Rares. The set is partly based on the Japanese expansion Fusion Arts but also adapts several key Japanese promo cards as well as cards from sets like Eevee Heroes that were left out of that set's English equivalent, Sword & Shield – Evolving Skies. Sword & Shield – Fusion Strike is notable for its focus on the Mythical Pokémon Mew and Gengar VMAX, as well as its introduction of a new Battle Style to the competitive TCG with Fusion Pokémon now joining Rapid Strike and Single Strike. Now, let's take a journey through the best cards in this staggeringly large set of Pokémon cards.

• Vicitini: Did Victini get robbed here? It's debatable. I think this Victini should've been a holographic card, but then again… the Pokémon TCG does sometimes release holographic versions of non-holos as tie-in promotions. This will sometimes happen in collection boxes or through a company like GameStop. I only bring this up because the soft artwork here would be beautifully accentuated by the galaxy foil style of holographic foil used for promos rather than the main Sword & Shield-era holographic bars.
• Chandelure V: With the exception of Mew, this has to be the best V in the set. Chandelure is an incredibly designed Pokémon that doesn't get the features it deserves in the TCG as often as it should. Take this in for a second. Chandelure featured on a standard EX back in Black & White – Legendary Treasures but never, ever on a Full Art. There was a highly sought-after Chandelure chase card featuring the Shiny version of the Pokémon in Black & White – Noble Victories, but it took until now to give Chandelure the full feature.
• Chandelure VMAX: …Whoa. I always want to try to avoid extremes, but this may well be the best artwork we've seen on a VMAX. The POV, the painterly style, the standard VMAX colors that somehow look deeper and more impressive on this card — overall, it's a buck against the trend of VMAXes falling into a niche by all looking a certain way. The only shame here is that this card comes at the end of the VMAX era. Hopefully, the Pokémon TCG brings this dynamic style to their VMAX replacement next year with the V-STAR mechanic.

Next time, the spotlight on Pokémon TCG: Sword & Shield – Fusion Strike continues with more cards from the set. You can follow this spotlight series by clicking our Fusion Strike tag.

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