The current bubble of extreme hype is a wave, and it will come to its apex. It's brilliant for the TCG to use this time to spotlight newer species because the base - the true collectors who will remain in the hobby after the bubble pops - don't just care about Kanto. This makes some of the cards less valuable, which is a point of contention for some, but this review is written from the perspective of a collector. Hidden Fates honors the past while Shining Fates looks to build the future. This isn't true for every single card, but the difference in focus is obvious. The major difference here is that Hidden Fates' Shiny Vault has a major focus on Kanto, while Shining Fates shifts its focus to Galar. ![]() There are major differences, though, and while I've seen some collectors and influencers in the hobby criticize Shining Fates for these differences, I think it's a strength of the set. They have the same structure, in that they are special ("holiday") sets with a small standard set and a Shiny Vault. It's only natural to compare these two sets. ![]() Cards like the two Morpekos hanging out with his buddies and the Snom on a bench transcend just showing a Pokémon on a card, but do what the best cards do: tell a story. What does stand out to me, though, is the quality of the artwork of the common and uncommon cards. The VMAXes are new, which is nice, but it would've made the standard, non-Shiny Vault part of Shining Fates a more exciting experience to open if cards like Crobat V and Morpeko V weren't also able to be pulled in packs of other Pokémon TCG expansions. The cards of the standard set are nice, though the one flaw here is that many of the Pokémon Vs within the set are direct reprints from other recent sets. The Charizard is the most desired pull, but cards like the Shiny Ditto VMAX stand out to me as unique, beautiful, and memorable as well. The Shiny Vault Full Art style has somewhat changed in Shining Fates, with the V and VMAXes looking more textured, more silvery. The Shiny Charizard VMAX is going for hundreds of dollars, which we all knew it would, but beyond the value, it's simply a beautiful card. The cards themselves are terrific, including some of what I'd consider some of the most exciting pulls in recent Pokémon TCG history. Adding to that, this time around we have Amazing Rares which can also show up in the Reverse Holo slot. ![]() These cards can be pulled in the Reverse Holo slot, which makes the pack openings incredibly dynamic. The subset, as with Hidden Fates which introduced the Vault, is larger than the standard set. In particular, the Expanded format will be aggressively monitored because there are so many cards and potential combinations available to use.Shining Fates was destined to be a special set of the Pokémon TCG due to it being the second-ever collection with a Shiny Vault subset. Tournament results and community feedback will continue to be analyzed to maintain a healthy play environment. When this kind of strategy is effective and can be executed successfully a high percentage of the time, it creates an unhealthy environment. Similarly to Delinquent, which was banned from the Expanded format earlier in the year, there are combos with Jessie & James that can discard a player's whole hand before they take their first turn-especially in conjunction with Weezing. One card was banned from the Expanded format. It will be an extremely rare occurrence for cards to be banned from the Standard format. No cards were banned from the Standard format. The list of banned cards for the Standard and Expanded formats can be found here. Jessie & James ( Hidden Fates, 58/68 and 68/68) is now banned in the Expanded format. No changes have been made to the banned card list for the Standard format.
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