Battle Styles

What Battle Styles is

Battle Styles is the fifth main expansion of the Sword & Shield Series, released in English on March 19, 2021 under the set code BST. It has 163 cards in the numbered set plus 20 secret rares, 183 in total, every card on the E regulation mark. It is built on Pokémon Sword and Shield and The Isle of Armor Expansion Pass, with the Wushu Pokémon Urshifu in both of its forms at its center.

The set introduced two card variants that ran through the rest of the era: Single Strike cards, which deliver powerful attacks meant to Knock Out in one blow, and Rapid Strike cards, which rely on sneaky, technical attacks. Single Strike Urshifu V and VMAX and Rapid Strike Urshifu V and VMAX headline the checklist, alongside Tyranitar V, Empoleon V, Victini V and VMAX, Tapu Koko V and VMAX, Mimikyu V and Corviknight V and VMAX. Fighting is the most represented type at 31 cards.

The checklist holds 12 Pokémon V, six Pokémon VMAX, 16 holofoil rares, 22 Ultra rares and 20 secret rares, 14 rainbow rares and six gold cards. The cards come from the Japanese Single Strike Master and Rapid Strike Master paired sets.

What makes Battle Styles different

• Single Strike and Rapid Strike Battle Styles introduced the two Battle Styles of Urshifu as card variants, Single Strike for hard hitting attacks and Rapid Strike for technical ones, each with its own Special Energy among the gold secret rares.
• Alternate art full arts Several Pokémon V received a second Ultra rare print by a different illustrator: Empoleon V 146 by chibi, Single Strike Urshifu V 151 by kawayoo, Rapid Strike Urshifu V 153 by Ryota Murayama and Tyranitar V 155 by HYOGONOSUKE, plus alternate VMAX prints by Kinu Nishimura and KIYOTAKA OSHIYAMA.
• The Tyranitar V HYOGONOSUKE's alternate art Tyranitar V 155 is the most valuable card in the set by a wide margin, ahead of every Urshifu.
• Two Elite Trainer Boxes Battle Styles shipped a pair of Elite Trainer Boxes, one for each Gigantamax Urshifu style, with identical contents behind different art.
• Mustard twice The Isle of Armor's Mustard appears as two Supporters, Rapid Strike Style Mustard by Naoki Saito and Single Strike Style Mustard by Mitsuhiro Arita, each with a full art and a rainbow rare print.

How Battle Styles arrived

Japan released Single Strike Master and Rapid Strike Master on January 22, 2021, two sets of 182 cards combined with no Water Pokémon in Single Strike Master and no Darkness Pokémon in Rapid Strike Master. Taiwan and Hong Kong followed on January 29, 2021, South Korea on February 24, 2021, Thailand on March 26, 2021 and Indonesia on May 21, 2021. The English Battle Styles arrived on March 19, 2021, a month after Shining Fates and three months before Chilling Reign.

Approved stores sold Battle Styles Build & Battle Boxes from March 6, 2021, each with four booster packs and a 23 card Evolution pack built around one of four alternate art SWSH Black Star Promos, Cherrim 088, Octillery 089, Houndoom 090 or Bronzong 091.

Launch day brought the two Elite Trainer Boxes, the first wave of blisters, a Collector's Album and Ultra Pro portfolios, with Stage 1 Blisters featuring the Golisopod and Toxtricity lines later in March. A Cosmos Holofoil Sandaconda 82 with a GameStop or EB Games stamp was given away with purchases, and Tepig 23 and Shinx 46 later appeared as Cosmos Holofoils in the Spring 2021 Collector Chest.

Battle Styles products and what came in them

Each Elite Trainer Box features one Gigantamax Urshifu style and holds eight booster packs, 65 card sleeves, four dividers, six damage counter dice, a coin flip die, two acrylic Special Condition markers, basic Energy cards, a player's guide and a code card. Single Pack Blisters carried a Charmander or Arrokuda promo with a Mewtwo, Mew or Volcanion coin, Three Pack Blisters an Eevee or Jolteon promo with a Shaymin coin, and Premium Checklane Blisters the Tyranitar or Corviknight line from Darkness Ablaze. The Collector's Album holds 60 cards across 30 pages and came with one pack.

Collecting and grading Battle Styles

HYOGONOSUKE's Tyranitar V 155 leads the live prices above and is the card the set is known for. Behind it sit the full art Mimikyu V 148 by Eske Yoshinob, Saki Hayashiro's Victini V 144, chibi's alternate art Empoleon V 146, KIYOTAKA OSHIYAMA's Rapid Strike Urshifu VMAX 170, the rainbow Victini VMAX 165, Kinu Nishimura's Single Strike Urshifu VMAX 168 and the regular full art Tyranitar V 154.

The Prize Pack Series One Kricketune V 6 and the Play stamped Tyranitar V 97 are tournament reprints, and the reverse holofoil Spoink 55, Grumpig 56, the holofoil Shinx 46 and the Cosmos Holofoil Tepig 23 show four figure PSA 10 prices on raw copies worth pennies; treat all of them as thin market noise and match the variant label in the checklist before comparing.

Battle Styles was printed heavily during the 2021 boom, so raw copies are easy to find and the graded premium concentrates on the alternate arts. The sealed table above tracks booster boxes, both Elite Trainer Boxes, the Build & Battle Box, blisters and the tins and battle boxes that carried Battle Styles packs.