Shining Fates Review

What’s Good In Shining Fates?! 

While we wait for our next main Sword & Shield set, Battle Styles, to release, Pokemon gave us a new “Special” set, Shining Fates! This set has some new cards, but mostly Shiny versions of cards we already have from Sword & Shield -Shining Fates! This set is great for collectors and has some Shiny cards that are already pretty good in Standard right now, but let’s look at what’s good and new in the set!

Rusted Sword:

Arguably the most controversial card in the set, Rusted Sword is a new Tool that can only be used on a Zacian V. While it is attached to Zacian V, it does 30 more damage! With cards like ADP, Galarian Perrserker & Leon, Zacian V is doing like 300+ damage which can take out most VMAXs! This tool, without a doubt, makes Zacian V stronger & gives it another new card that it can abuse!

Cramorant VMAX: 

My favorite card in the set is the brand new Cramorant VMAX! This card is, of course, an evolution of an already strong V card, Cramorant V! Cramorant VMAX for 3 energy flips a coin for each energy attached to it & does 80 damage for each heads. This, combined with cards like Porygon-Z & Triple Acceleration Energy, lets you flip a lot of coins! With only 4 heads, you can do 320 damage! This lets you KO most VMAXs & Tag Teams; just add a Powerful energy on top of that if you’re worried about Eternatus VMAX! This attack can be combined with the stadium Glimwood Tangle to re-flip your coins on your attack if you missed out on the knockout!

 

Ditto VMAX: 

Ditto VMAX is another strong colorless VMAX card! Ditto VMAX for 3 energy copies of one of your opponent’s active Pokemon’s attacks & uses it as this attack! This attack can be used against cards like Zacian V to OHKO it or to copy strong attacks like Tandem Shock or Ultimate Ray! This attack works with a Triple Energy, also meaning you can use it for a single energy! Ditto V is not bad either, as it can switch itself with a basic V card in your discard pile! This means you can get back fallen V cards acting as a Pseudo recovery card! 

 

Crobat VMAX: 

Yep, we got a VMAX version of Crobat. Crobat V is pretty much played in every deck right now, so now that we have a VMAX version, it makes things more interesting. This, of course, means you can evolve Crobat V to make it harder for your opponent to win the game, instead of just going Boss on your benched Crobat V! Crobat VMAX also has decent attacks with its attack for 2 energy to do 70 damage. Which also poisons your opponent’s active Pokemon, and then you switch Crobat VMAX with something on the bench. This can be good with cards like Lilie’s PokeDoll, Altaria & Toxicroak, which can add extra damage with its ability to increase poison damage! Crobat VMAX’s other attack does 180 damage for 3 energy which can be used to finish off your opponent’s active!

Manaphy & Celebi: 

These 2 new cards are very similar to our Team Up Jirachi! Instead of looking at the top of your decks for Trainers & going to sleep if it is in the active spot, These 2 cards look for Energy & Pokemon when in the active spot, respectively. Celebi looks at the top 6 cards for energy, while Manaphy looks at the top 6 for Pokemon! These abilities can be good to find certain cards you need, both are pretty situational, but both are arguably good in any deck!

 

 Amazing Rares: 

Continuing from Vivid Voltage, we got 3 new Amazing Rares; Reshiram, Kyogre & Yveltal! Reshiram for a Fire, Lightning, and Dark energy does 270 damage & Reshiram does 60 damage to itself! This attack is fairly cheap & is pretty easy to power up with Welder & Tapu Koko! This attack can be good as it pretty much One-Shots any Tag Team card! Combine it with Vitality Band, Leon & Galarian Zigzagoon, and you can even OHKO VMAXs! Kyogre for a Water, Metal, Lighting & Colorless Energy does 80 damage to each of your opponent’s Pokemon! This attack is powerful because that is a lot of damage to spread across the board! Combined with Telescopic Sight, this attack can do 110 damage to benched Vs & GXs! This attack can potentially win you the game in a few turns; if your opponent benched a few Pokemon, you can easily KO! Lastly, Yveltal for a Fire, Dark, Psychic & 2 Colorless energy, it just states that your opponent’s active Pokemon is knocked out! This attack is great since it can literally knock out anything in your opponent’s active; Tag teams/VMAXs especially are good! This attack does have a Twin Energy option in its attack cost, making it easier to power up!

Shining Fates, without a doubt, a set that adds a few new playable cards; while not format changing, it is nice to have new stuff, especially before March when Battle Styles is released!