Crown Zenith

What Crown Zenith is

Crown Zenith is the final special expansion of the Sword & Shield Series, released in English on January 20, 2023 under the set code CRZ. The main set holds 159 numbered cards plus one secret rare, You Iribi's Pikachu 160, and behind it sits the Galarian Gallery, a 70 card subset numbered GG01 to GG70 that carries the special illustrations the set is known for. Slabfolio tracks the main set and the Galarian Gallery together on this page, which is why the checklist runs past 230 rows.

The set is the English home of Japan's VSTAR Universe High Class Pack, released December 2, 2022, together with cards from the VSTAR Special Set and the cards from Paradigm Trigger and the Incandescent Arcana subset that had not been localized in Silver Tempest. Its headline Pokémon are Zacian and Zamazenta with new VSTAR Powers, and Charizard appears as both a Pokémon VSTAR and a Radiant Pokémon. The set has three Radiant Pokémon in all: Radiant Charizard 20, Radiant Charjabug 51 and Radiant Eternatus 105.

Like Pokémon GO and Celebrations before it, Crown Zenith booster packs were never sold on their own. Every pack came inside an Elite Trainer Box, tin, collection or bundle, which is why the sealed table below has no ordinary booster box. Cards carry the F regulation mark, with reprinted E and D mark cards mixed in.

What makes Crown Zenith different

• The Galarian Gallery GG01 to GG34 are Illustration style cards of regular Pokémon (Mew GG10, Ditto GG22, Pikachu GG30 and Kouki Saitou's connected run from Riolu GG26 to Mareep GG34), GG35 to GG56 are special illustration Pokémon V, VMAX and VSTAR, GG57 to GG66 are Supporters, and GG67 to GG70 are the four AKIRA EGAWA Secret rares: Origin Forme Palkia, Origin Forme Dialga, Giratina and Arceus VSTAR.
• One secret rare in the main set The main numbering has a single secret rare, Pikachu 160 by You Iribi, because the rest of the chase artwork lives in the Galarian Gallery rather than in a secret rare run.
• Charizard twice Charizard appears as a Pokémon VSTAR and as Radiant Charizard 20, illustrated by Kouki Saitou, the Radiant card that anchors the main set's value. Radiant Charjabug 51 and Radiant Eternatus 105 complete the Radiant trio.
• Missing birds, replaced by tins The Galarian Articuno, Zapdos and Moltres special illustrations were omitted from the Galarian Gallery during localization and released instead as the promos in the Crown Zenith Tins (SWSH Promo 282 to 284).
• Play! Pokémon Prize Pack prints Radiant Charizard 20, Radiant Charjabug 51, Radiant Eternatus 105 and Kyogre 36 exist as Prize Pack Series prints, and those stamped copies trade on a separate and much thinner graded market than the pack pulled cards.
• Professor Cup promos Friends in Hisui 130 and Friends in Sinnoh 131 exist as reverse holofoil Professor Cup promos in participation, staff, Top 8 and Champion versions, and Radiant Charizard 20 has a Pokémon TCG Gym stamped Present Pack version in Malaysia and Singapore.

How Crown Zenith arrived

Japan closed its Sword & Shield era with VSTAR Universe on December 2, 2022, and as the Japanese game moved on to Scarlet ex and Violet ex, regions outside Asia received the same material as Crown Zenith on January 20, 2023. It followed the Play! Pokémon Prize Pack Series Two by a day and preceded the first Scarlet & Violet expansion on March 31, 2023.

The launch wave was the Lucario Elite Trainer Box, the Pokémon Center Elite Trainer Box Plus and the Regieleki V and Regidrago V Collections. Then the products kept coming for more than a year: five Mini Tins and the Pikachu VMAX Special Collection on February 17, 2023; the Galarian bird tins on March 17, 2023; three Pin Collections (Rillaboom, Cinderace and Inteleon) and the Morpeko V-UNION Premium Playmat Collection on April 14, 2023; the Shiny Zacian and Shiny Zamazenta Premium Figure Collections on May 5, 2023; the Unown V and Lugia V Special Collection on August 4, 2023; the Morpeko V-UNION Premium Treasures Collection on October 6, 2023; Walmart Booster Bundles and the Pikachu VMAX Premium Collection in November 2023; and the Sea and Sky Premium Collection at Sam's Club on August 14, 2024.

That long product tail kept Crown Zenith packs in circulation far longer than most special sets, and the sealed table below tracks each of those products.

Crown Zenith products and what came in them

The Elite Trainer Box features Lucario and holds ten booster packs, an etched full art Lucario VSTAR promo (SWSH Promo 291), 65 Lucario sleeves, 45 basic Energy cards, a player's guide, a rulebook, four dividers, six damage counter dice, a competition legal coin flip die, two acrylic Special Condition markers and an acrylic VSTAR marker. The Pokémon Center Elite Trainer Box Plus swaps in metal dice and markers, a metal Lucario coin, different sleeves and dividers, a deck box and twelve packs.

The Regieleki V and Regidrago V Collections each carry a standard and jumbo alternate art promo, a cosmos holofoil Evolving Skies card (Regidrago 124 or Regieleki 60) and four packs. The Galarian bird tins hold five packs (four in the smaller octagonal version) and one of the three bird promos. Pin Collections hold three packs, the Pikachu VMAX Special Collection five, the Premium Figure Collections eleven, and the Sea and Sky Premium Collection fourteen. The Booster Bundle holds six packs.

Collecting and grading Crown Zenith

The Galarian Gallery is where the money is. Giratina VSTAR GG69, Mewtwo VSTAR GG44 and Arceus VSTAR GG70 lead the Pokémon V side, and the regular Pokémon at the front of the gallery, Mew GG10, Pikachu GG30 and Ditto GG22, grade into PSA 10 values that rival them from far lower raw prices. In the main set, Radiant Charizard 20 is the card to own, and the live prices above show how each of these sits today.

The Prize Pack Series prints are the trap. A Radiant Charjabug 51 or Kyogre 36 with the Prize Pack stamp can show a PSA 10 figure many times the regular card on a handful of sales, so treat those rows as their own market and check which print a listing shows. The checklist below keeps Prize Pack rows separate.

The same artwork exists in Japanese as VSTAR Universe, where the gallery artwork sits in the main numbering as secret rares rather than in a GG subset. The Japanese print reached the market first and in larger sealed volume, so Japanese copies are usually easier to find in high grade while the English Galarian Gallery print carries a premium. Slabfolio lists VSTAR Universe as this set's counterpart so you can compare both. Sword & Shield era textured cards chip at the edges and show print lines under angled light, so inspect before submitting.