Crown Zenith

Status: Released (January 2023)

A Royal Sendoff for Sword & Shield

The Sword & Shield was concluded on January 20, 2023, with the special holiday set Crown Zenith . Designed as a "victory lap" for the generation, the set focused almost entirely on artwork and collecting. It introduced the "Galarian Gallery," a massive 70-card subset featuring alternate artwork for many popular cards from previous sets. This allowed players to bling out their decks with stunning new versions of staples like "Giratina VSTAR," "Arceus VSTAR," and "Origin Forme Palkia VSTAR."

The Gold Cards and the Future

The crowning achievement of the set was the quartet of gold alternate art cards: Giratina, Arceus, Palkia, and Dialga VSTAR. These four cards, when placed together, formed a larger mosaic, a first for the TCG. While the set offered little in the way of new mechanics, it is widely regarded as having the best overall art quality of any set in Pokémon history, providing a perfect, celebratory end to the VMAX and VSTAR mechanics before the Scarlet & Violet era began.