Darkness Ablaze

What Darkness Ablaze is

Darkness Ablaze is the third main expansion of the Sword & Shield Series, released in English on August 14, 2020 under the set code DAA. It has 189 cards in the numbered set plus 12 secret rares, 201 in total, all carrying the D regulation mark. Its central Pokémon is Eternatus, the Gigantic Pokémon of Pokémon Sword and Shield, and its most collected card is Charizard VMAX, the first Charizard VMAX in the English game.

The checklist holds 14 Pokémon V, seven Pokémon VMAX (Butterfree, Charizard, Centiskorch, Grimmsnarl, Eternatus, Scizor and Salamence), 18 holofoil rares, 34 rares, 13 Ultra rare full arts including the Supporters Kabu, Piers, Pokémon Breeder's Nurturing and Rose, and 12 secret rares: seven rainbow rares and five gold cards, Rillaboom, Coalossal, Big Parasol, Turbo Patch and Capture Energy. Colorless is the most represented type at 26 cards.

The cards come from the Japanese Infinity Zone expansion, combined with the Explosive Walker subset and the Charizard and Grimmsnarl VMAX Starter Sets.

What makes Darkness Ablaze different

• The first Charizard VMAX aky CG Works' Charizard V 19 and Charizard VMAX 20 gave the Sword & Shield Series its first Gigantamax Charizard, and the VMAX remains the set's leading pack pulled card. Neither has a rainbow rare print here.
• Eternatus VMAX 5ban Graphics' Eternatus VMAX 117 shows the Eternamax form from the games' climax, with a rainbow rare print at 192, and Eternatus fronts the Elite Trainer Box and the Collector's Album.
• A set that was almost World Down The Japanese Infinity Zone was originally announced as World Down and renamed, possibly because of the name's connotations during the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Thank You stamps Reverse holofoil prints of Galarian Mr. Rime 36, Dedenne 78, Polteageist 83, Hydreigon 110, Bunnelby 150 and Turbo Patch 172 were issued with a Thank You stamp, and those thin market variants sit high on the set's PSA 10 list.
• Bonus Pack blisters Darkness Ablaze introduced the Bonus Pack blister, one Darkness Ablaze pack with a free Sword & Shield or Rebel Clash pack, alongside the first widely marketed Premium Checklane Blisters.

How Darkness Ablaze arrived

Japan released Explosive Walker on April 24, 2020 and Infinity Zone, a 119 card set, on June 5, 2020. The English Darkness Ablaze followed on August 14, 2020, between Rebel Clash in May and Pokémon Futsal in September.

With the 2020 Play! Pokémon Championship Series cancelled, there were no prerelease tournaments. Approved stores sold Darkness Ablaze Build & Battle Boxes from August 1, 2020, each with four booster packs and a 23 card Evolution pack built around one of four SWSH Black Star Promos, Decidueye 035, Arctozolt 036, Hydreigon 037 or Kangaskhan 038, and the boxes reached wider retail on August 28, 2020.

Launch day brought the Elite Trainer Box, two Theme Decks, Single Pack and Three Pack Blisters, the Bonus Pack, Premium Checklane Blisters with the Grimmsnarl or Dragapult line from Rebel Clash and a Collector's Album, with Stage 1 Blisters featuring Copperajah and Sandaconda at Target in late August. Gift with purchase promotions offered a jumbo Eternatus V 116 and a Cosmos Holofoil Corviknight 156 with a Darkness Ablaze stamp. Cards from the set kept reappearing: Darkrai 105 and Mimikyu 81 as Cosmos Holofoils in the Mighty Mysterious Tins and Pikachu V Box, Toxtricity 63 in the Sword & Shield Knock Out Collection, Beartic 49 in the Holiday Calendar 2022 and six cards as jack-o'-lantern stamped Trick or Trade promos.

Darkness Ablaze products and what came in them

The Elite Trainer Box features Eternatus and holds eight booster packs, 65 sleeves, four dividers, seven tournament legal dice, two acrylic Special Condition markers, basic Energy cards, a player's guide and a code card. The two 60 card Theme Decks, Galarian Darmanitan and Galarian Sirfetch'd, each carry a Cracked Ice Holofoil print of their featured Pokémon, Galarian Darmanitan 44 or Galarian Sirfetch'd 98, with a deck box, coin, playmat, counters and code card. The Collector's Album has 30 single pocket pages, Eternamax Eternatus on the front and Gigantamax Charizard on the back, and comes with one booster pack.

Collecting and grading Darkness Ablaze

Read the live chase list above with care, because most of its top entries are variants. The Prize Pack Charizard VMAX 20 and the Professor Program Kabu 186 are tournament and staff reprints with almost no graded sales, and the Cosmos Holofoil Darkrai 105, the Thank You stamped Bunnelby 150 and Galarian Mr. Rime 36 and the reverse holofoil Lugia 140 and Jigglypuff 67 show four figure PSA 10 prices on raw copies worth a few dollars. Treat those as thin market noise and match the variant label in the checklist before comparing.

Among pack pulled cards the regular Charizard VMAX 20 leads, followed by Mew V 69, the rainbow Eternatus VMAX 192 and the full art Crobat V 182, a tournament staple for years. Charizard V 19 and the Cracked Ice Galarian Darmanitan 44 from the Theme Deck are the other cards collectors ask about.

Darkness Ablaze was printed in large numbers during the 2020 boom, so raw copies are plentiful and PSA 10 premiums depend on the textured VMAX surfaces surviving the pack. The sealed table above tracks booster boxes, the Elite Trainer Box, the Eternatus VMAX Premium Collection and the blisters.