Pokemon TCG: Sword & Shield – Crown Zenith Special Collection – Pikachu VMax

Boasting the gorgeous 70-card ‘Galarian Gallery’ sub-set, containing numerous cards that were previously only available in Japanese, as well as being the final Sword and Shield Pokemon card set, Crown Zenith has a lot going for it. Numerous Crown Zenith products will continue to be rolled out until May 2023, but one of the most exciting of these is the Pikachu Special Collection box. Featuring two exclusive Pikachu full-art cards, a jumbo Pikachu, 5 booster packs and a code card for the TCG Live, I pre-ordered this product as early as I could. By obtaining it, I knew I would have the perfect opportunity to display my exquisite Pikachu bedding.

The height of taste.

Japanese Comic Exclusives

There is a fascinating story behind these Pikachu cards. Before the release of this box, these Pikachu artworks had only been made available in the Japanese comic CoroCoro. If you wanted the Pikachu VMAX, you had to buy the correct edition of the comic book, but the Pikachu V was even harder to get hold of. This Pikachu V (which is a counterpart to an Eevee V in the same style) was only given out to people who won a competition in the magazine. Needless to say, it would be an incredibly hard card to get inside of Japan, nevermind anywhere else. Thankfully, this box has made them much more available, and how stunning they are…

As far as I am aware, the Pikachu VMAX is mechanically unique, with it’s ‘Tail Charge’ move allowing it to ‘Attach up to 3 electric energy cards from your discard pile to 1 of your Pokemon’. While it hasn’t made a big impact on the meta, this could be a fun card to build a deck around; who doesn’t love a Pikachu deck? There are plenty of options for Pikachu and Pikachu V cards still around under the new regulations, or you could even go wild with some Celebrations Pikachus!

My Pulls

Above is a picture of all of my note-worthy pulls from the booster packs.

I have had better out of Crown Zenith, but even this is a lot of excitement from five packs, such is the power of this special set. In two of my packs was a ‘Galarian Gallery’ card, which can be pulled from the reverse holo slot (of which there is still only one in this set, unlike the two you see in Scarlet and Violet series packs). All 70 of these cards are just stunning, and I keep finding that I get a new favourite every time I pull one. The same card having multiple Pokemon in the background often occurs in this sub-set, but something about that Kricketune really speaks to me: all the local Pokemon are gathering in the park, socializing, and listening to Kricketune’s lullaby. The Wooloo are dozing off, the Rufflet is perched on a lamp on high, the Bunnelby are playing excitedly in the bushes, and Snom is, being Snom (I.e, being the best feature of the card). Inspiring artwork by Nurikabe.

This Dunsparce is also a fantastic illustration, and with the ability ‘Mysterious Nest’, it is also quite playable (although there is a normal Dunsparce with this exact ability).

Alas, the rare slot was not so kind to me, with four non-holo rares and a Trainer card. However, this isn’t a normal Trainer card, this is a signed Leon. Do you remember that signed Marnie card, the one that was exclusive to the Marnie Premium Tournament Collection? The concept that nearly everyone really liked, but they inexplicably made similar products without the signed cards? Well, the Galar trainers have finally put pen to card, often over half of the artwork. I was incredibly excited to pull some of these, even more so that some of the full-art Pokemon, so I was very happy to pull Leon (who is one of my favourite characters from Sword). Shame he has just been rotated out…

Now, is that Leon worth it for all the non-holo rares? Probably not. I did get a reverse-holo Tapu Lele, and Dubwool is one of my favourites, but I would hope for more from a special set. To be fair, I have had some excellent luck in other Crown Zenith packs, including the other amazing Pikachu in this set (160/159), so perhaps this is simply balancing out. Nevertheless, I’m pretty happy with my pulls in this box overall, with a shout-out to that Bidoof, which is a better version of the one we need for that great Bibarel (and has probably made more of an impact on the meta than the promo cards).

Open Or Keep Sealed?

If you are a fan of keeping your Pokemon TCG products sealed, then this box makes an excellent display piece. It has fantastic box art and has a sturdy construction. Yes, I know it is just cardboard, but it’s nice cardboard. It’s smooth cardboard. It’s the sort of cardboard that you feel and say,

“Hmm, yes. That is nice cardboard.”

Then again, I suppose that is the entire premise of a TCG anyway…

If there is one thing that bugs me about this set, it is that all the packs have the same artwork. This was never the case before, with sets like Shining Fates and Champion’s Path having the normal four artworks. Then Celebrations came along, and special set packs have all looked the same since. It isn’t like this artwork is bad or anything, I just like to have some variety in my cardboard wrapping paper. That being said, that may be a plus point if you like uniformity in your sealed products.

If you want to open it up, then that is also an excellent decision. If you purely want packs, then there are slightly cheaper ways to buy them (such as a Crown Zenith Elite Trainer Box, which have been superbly reviewed here on Zatu by Rob Wright). However, you probably want this for the exclusive Pikachu promos, which are absolutely worth the money. That is, unless you are an avid and lucky reader of CoroCoro.

Final Thoughts

Even though I had a fair bit of hype for this product, I was not disappointed at all. Even mediocre Crown Zenith packs are full of fantastic artwork, and this box is packed with guaranteed (and potentially more) brilliant Pikachu cards. It would be an excellent choice for children on the slightly higher end, or adults who love Pikachu and interesting stories about Japanese magazines. You also get a good TCG Live code card.

If only my pulls in real life were as good as the one I got on there…