Champion's Path

What Champion's Path is

Champion's Path is a special expansion of the Sword & Shield Series, first available on September 25, 2020 under the set code CPA. It has 73 cards in the numbered set plus 7 secret rares, 80 in total, every card carrying the D regulation mark, and it focuses on the Gym Leaders of the Galar region. Like Generations and Shining Legends before it, its booster packs were never sold on their own; they came only inside Champion's Path products, from the Elite Trainer Box to the Gym Pin Collections.

The set was assembled from the Japanese Infinity Zone expansion, the Explosive Walker and Legendary Heartbeat subsets, the Charizard and Grimmsnarl VMAX Starter Sets and the V Starter Decks, together with cards that had been Japanese exclusive promos. Two of those became the reason the set sold out. The rainbow rare Charizard VMAX at 74 was originally a Japanese Limited format tournament prize, and the secret rare Charizard V at 79 arrived ahead of its Japanese debut in the Shiny Star V subset. Demand for the two cards was strong enough that Play! Pokémon issued a statement about additional stock.

The set holds 11 Pokémon V and 3 VMAX in the numbered set, 5 full art ultra rares at 69 to 73, 5 rainbow rares at 74 to 78 and 2 secret rares at 79 and 80.

What makes Champion's Path different

• Two Charizards nobody expected The rainbow rare Charizard VMAX 74 was a Japanese tournament prize before it appeared in English packs, and the secret rare Charizard V 79 was a surprise inclusion that beat its Japanese release in Shiny Star V. Both lead the set's market.
• No booster boxes Champion's Path packs were sold only inside products: the Elite Trainer Box, eight Gym Pin Collections, two Special Pin Collections, the Dubwool V and Hatterene V collections and the Marnie collections, so the sealed market is built on boxes rather than packs.
• A Gym Leader tour of Galar Each Pin Collection carried an alternate art promo of a Gym Leader's Pokémon and an enamel pin of that Gym's stadium logo, from Milo's Eldegoss at Turffield to Raihan's Duraludon at Hammerlocke, released in four waves from September to November 2020.
• Built from Japanese promos Alongside the Infinity Zone, Explosive Walker and Legendary Heartbeat cards, the set gathered Japanese exclusive promos and starter deck cards, which is why several of its cards have no English equivalent anywhere else.
• The stock shortage The two Charizards drove demand far past supply in autumn 2020, at the height of the pandemic era boom, and Play! Pokémon publicly promised additional stock of Champion's Path products.

How Champion's Path arrived

Champion's Path first went on sale on September 25, 2020, two weeks after the Pokémon Futsal promotion on September 11, 2020 and seven weeks before Vivid Voltage on November 13, 2020. The first wave included the Elite Trainer Box, the Turffield, Hulbury and Motostoke Gym Pin Collections and the Dubwool V collection.

A second wave on October 2, 2020 brought the Stow-on-Side and Circhester Special Pin Collections, each with five packs and two promos covering the Gym Leaders who differ between Pokémon Sword and Pokémon Shield. A third wave on October 23, 2020 added the Hatterene V collection and the Marnie Premium Collection, and the fourth and final wave, the Ballonlea, Spikemuth and Hammerlocke Gym Pin Collections, released on November 13, 2020 alongside Vivid Voltage.

The secret rare Charizard V and rainbow Charizard VMAX made every product a target for resellers through the autumn of 2020, and Play! Pokémon issued a statement promising additional stock.

Champion's Path products

Champion's Path was sold only through branded products, so there is no booster box. The sealed table above tracks each one.

Collecting and grading Champion's Path

The secret rare Charizard V 79 and the rainbow rare Charizard VMAX 74 lead the set and trade far above everything else, with Lucario V 27, the rainbow Gardevoir VMAX 76 and the full art Gardevoir V 70 heading the rest. The live chase list above ranks every tracked card by PSA 10 value.

Both Charizards were pulled and graded in large numbers during the 2020 boom, so the PSA 10 premium over raw is narrower than on older chase cards and clean centering matters more than scarcity. The rainbow rare's textured surface shows scratches under grading lights, so a PSA 10 Charizard VMAX takes more care than the secret rare Charizard V.

Because packs came only in products, sealed Champion's Path means Elite Trainer Boxes and collections rather than booster boxes, and the sealed table above tracks what each one trades for today.