Astral Radiance

What Astral Radiance is

Astral Radiance is the tenth main expansion of the Sword & Shield Series, released in English on May 27, 2022 under the set code ASR. It has 189 cards in the numbered set, 27 secret rares and a 30 card Trainer Gallery subset, for 246 cards in total. The set is built on Pokémon Legends: Arceus and the Hisui region: the Origin Formes of Dialga and Palkia appear as Pokémon V and VSTAR, and the final evolutions of the Hisui starters, Decidueye, Typhlosion and Samurott, appear as Hisuian Pokémon V and VSTAR alongside Kleavor and Hisuian Lilligant.

Astral Radiance introduced Radiant Pokémon, Basic Pokémon in Shiny coloring with a Rule Box limiting a deck to one Radiant Pokémon, in the spirit of the Shining Pokémon of the Neo Series and the Pokémon Star of the EX Series. Heatran 27, Greninja 46 and Hawlucha 81 are the first three. The set also carries the second Trainer Gallery of full art reprints showing Pokémon with a Trainer.

The checklist holds seven Pokémon VSTAR and two Pokémon VMAX, 30 Ultra rares (160 to 189) covering 21 full art and alternate art Pokémon V and nine full art Supporters, 18 rainbow rares (190 to 207) and nine gold cards (208 to 216). Grass and Water share the top spot at 26 cards each. Each booster pack holds ten cards, a Pokémon TCG Live code card and either a basic Energy card or a VSTAR marker card. The cards come from the Japanese Time Gazer and Space Juggler expansions, the Battle Region subset, the VSTAR Starter Sets, a couple of S-P promotional cards and some remaining VMAX Climax cards, and nearly all carry the F regulation mark.

What makes Astral Radiance different

• The first Radiant Pokémon Radiant Heatran 27, Radiant Greninja 46 and Radiant Hawlucha 81 introduced the mechanic. Radiant Greninja became one of the most played cards of the era, and its Pokémon TCG Gym stamped Present Pack print in Malaysia and Singapore is a separate collectible.
• Six alternate art Pokémon V Beedrill V 161 (Narumi Sato), Hisuian Lilligant V 163 (kodama), Origin Forme Palkia V 167 (Oswaldo KATO), Machamp V 172 (Shinya Komatsu), Hisuian Sneasler V 175 (OKACHEKE) and Origin Forme Dialga V 177 (Mitsuhiro Arita) carry alternate art prints. Machamp V 172 is the most valuable pack pulled card in the set.
• A Hoothoot led Trainer Gallery The 30 card Trainer Gallery is topped in the graded market by Hoothoot TG12, with Kingdra TG03, Starmie V TG13, Mightyena TG09 and Garchomp V TG23 behind it, a lineup that owes more to art than to the Pokémon on the cards.
• Nine gold cards including three Stadiums The gold secret rares are Origin Forme Palkia VSTAR 208, Hisuian Samurott VSTAR 209, Origin Forme Dialga VSTAR 210, Choice Belt 211, Jubilife Village 212, Path to the Peak 213, Temple of Sinnoh 214, Trekking Shoes 215 and Double Turbo Energy 216, and the three Oswaldo KATO Stadiums are an unusual gold run.
• Professor Program Supporters Kamado 149 exists as a reverse holofoil Professor promo and Roxanne 150 as a reverse holofoil Regionals 2022 promo, a staff version and a Professor promo. Both Professor Program prints trade far above the pack cards, Kamado mostly raw.
• Stamped and Collector Chest prints Hisuian Typhlosion 52 exists with an Astral Radiance stamp as a gift with purchase and as a GameStop promo, Hisuian Voltorb 2, Hisuian Growlithe 70 and Hisuian Sneasel 92 as Cosmos Holofoils from the Fall 2022 Collector Chest, and Origin Forme Palkia VSTAR 40 on gold foil card stock from a Battle Deck.

How Astral Radiance arrived

Japan released Time Gazer and Space Juggler together on April 8, 2022, following Star Birth and preceding Lost Abyss, with the Battle Region subset having arrived on February 25, 2022. The English set combined them with the VSTAR Starter Set and leftover VMAX Climax cards and released on May 27, 2022, three months after Brilliant Stars and a month before the Pokémon GO set.

Stores in the Play! Pokémon Retail Prerelease Program could host unofficial prerelease tournaments and sell Astral Radiance Build & Battle Boxes from May 14, 2022. Each box held one of four 40 card decks, four booster packs, a deck building tip sheet and a code card, and each deck included an alternate art SWSH Black Star Promo version of a card from the set: Hisuian Basculegion (SWSH 205), Wyrdeer (SWSH 206), Hisuian Samurott (SWSH 207) or Magnezone (SWSH 208), with non holofoil Keldeo 45, Wyrdeer 69, Absol 97, Hisuian Samurott 100, Magnezone 107, Adaman 135 and Irida 147. The Build & Battle Stadium followed on June 10, 2022 with two Build & Battle Boxes, four more packs and a sealed brick of 121 basic Energy cards.

The Collector's Album and Ultra Pro portfolios were delayed from launch, the album to June 10, and both broke the series pattern by using stock Ken Sugimori art of Dialga and Palkia and of Rowlet, Cyndaquil and Oshawott instead of the booster pack illustrations. The set's cards kept appearing afterwards: Misdreavus 58, Mismagius 59 and Nickit 103 with the Pikachu jack-o'-lantern stamp in the Trick or Trade BOOster Bundle, Stantler 125 with a silver snowflake stamp in the Holiday Calendar 2023, Irida 147 in the Lost Origin Build & Battle Box and several battle decks, and three pack hanger boxes of Astral Radiance packs at Walmart in late September 2023.

Astral Radiance products and what came in them

The Elite Trainer Box features Darkrai and holds eight booster packs, 65 card sleeves and four dividers in matching art, six damage counter dice, a coin flip die, two acrylic Special Condition markers, an acrylic VSTAR marker, 45 basic Energy cards, a rulebook, a player's guide and a code card. The Pokémon Center version holds ten packs, a different set of Darkrai sleeves, six metal damage counter dice and a jumbo Darkrai coin.

Three pack blisters carry Eevee (SWSH 212) or Sylveon (SWSH 211), single pack blisters carry Oricorio (SWSH 210) or Toxel (SWSH 209), premium checklane blisters reuse the Feraligatr and Swampert lines from Fusion Strike, and Stage 1 blisters the Steelix and Melmetal lines from the same set. Every blister includes a jumbo coin and a code card. The Collector's Album holds 60 cards and includes one pack.

Collecting and grading Astral Radiance

Machamp V 172 is the pack pulled card that matters, and the live prices above show the gap between a raw copy and a PSA 10. Origin Forme Palkia V 167 and Jirachi V 170 follow among the Ultra rares, and the Trainer Gallery adds Hoothoot TG12, Kingdra TG03, Starmie V TG13, Mightyena TG09 and Garchomp V TG23, most of them cheap raw cards where grading is the whole story.

The variant rows sit near the top of the PSA 10 list. The Professor Program Roxanne 150 and Kamado 149 trade far above the pack cards, Kamado mostly raw with no established graded market, and the holo Hisuian Growlithe 70, Hisuian Typhlosion 52, Luxray V 50 and Psyduck 28 show very high graded prices on thin markets built on sparse sales. Treat those numbers as noise and match the variant label in the checklist below before comparing prices.

Only a handful of tracked singles clear a meaningful raw price and the median raw card rounds to nothing, so Astral Radiance is an inexpensive master set outside Machamp V and the Trainer Gallery. Sword & Shield alternate arts show edge whitening and the Trainer Gallery foils scratch easily, so tilt each card under a light before submitting. The sealed table above tracks what booster boxes, Elite Trainer Boxes and blisters trade for today.