Shining Legends

What Shining Legends is

Shining Legends is a special expansion of the Sun & Moon Series, released in English on October 6, 2017 under the set code SLG. It has 73 cards in the numbered set plus 5 secret rares, 78 in total, and comes from the Japanese Enhanced Expansion Pack Shining Legends, the fourth subset of the Sun & Moon era, released on July 15, 2017 with 82 cards as an enhancement of the To Have Seen the Battle Rainbow and Darkness that Consumes Light expansions.

The set brought Shining Pokémon back to the game, Pokémon whose coloring differs from the usual for their species: Shining Genesect, Shining Volcanion, Shining Mew, Shining Jirachi, Shining Rayquaza and Shining Arceus, six in the numbered set. The Japanese release coincided with the twentieth Pokémon movie and gathered Legendary and Mythical Pokémon from every film released at the time, which is why Zekrom, Latios, Keldeo, Entei-GX and Mewtwo-GX share the checklist.

Shining Legends packs were never sold in booster boxes; they came only in products, each pack holding 11 cards with 2 guaranteed foils. The set has 12 ultra rares, including the full art Entei-GX 71, Mewtwo-GX 72 and Pokémon Breeder 73, and 5 secret rares from 74 to 78, ending with the Mewtwo-GX 78 illustrated by Mitsuhiro Arita that leads the market.

What makes Shining Legends different

• Shining Pokémon return Six Shining Pokémon, Genesect 9, Volcanion 27, Mew 40, Jirachi 42, Rayquaza 56 and Arceus 57, revived the Shining prefix, and Shining Mew and Shining Rayquaza are two of the three most valuable cards in the set.
• The Arita Mewtwo-GX The secret rare Mewtwo-GX 78, drawn by Mitsuhiro Arita, is a separate card from the rainbow rare Mewtwo-GX 76 and the full art 72, and it is the most valuable card in Shining Legends by a wide margin.
• Sold only in products Shining Legends packs came exclusively in the Elite Trainer Box, four Pin Collections, the Super-Premium Collection, the Zoroark-GX and Raichu-GX Special Collections, the Collector Chest and the Shiny Darkrai-GX collections.
• A movie anniversary set The Japanese subset released with the twentieth Pokémon movie and drew its Legendary and Mythical Pokémon from every film to that point, from Mewtwo and Mew to Volcanion and Marshadow.
• Pikachu 28 in many foils The Pikachu 28 exists in Water Web, Sequin, Cracked Ice and Cosmos Holofoil versions from the Raichu-GX collection, General Mills Mini Packs, the Let's Play, Pikachu! Theme Deck and the Kanto Powers tins, and several of them trade above the set's ultra rares.

How Shining Legends arrived

Shining Legends officially released on October 6, 2017, two months after Burning Shadows on August 4, 2017 and four weeks before Crimson Invasion on November 3, 2017. The Elite Trainer Box, with a Shining Ho-Oh promo and ten packs, was sold early through the Pokémon Center online store on September 22, 2017, and the launch day products were the Pikachu and Mewtwo Pin Collections and the Super-Premium Collection with a Ho-Oh figure, ten packs and four promos including a rainbow rare Ho-Oh-GX. Outside North America the Premium Powers Collection replaced it on October 20, 2017.

The product line ran for five more months: the Zoroark-GX Special Collection on November 3, 2017 alongside Crimson Invasion, the Collector Chest on November 17, 2017, the Zoroark Pin Collection on December 1, 2017, the Raichu-GX Special Collection on January 5, 2018 and the Marshadow Pin Collection on January 19, 2018. The Shiny Darkrai-GX Figure Collection closed the line in North America on February 23, 2018, with its European counterpart on March 9, 2018.

In Japan the subset released on July 15, 2017 for the twentieth movie, between THE BEST OF XY and GX Battle Boost.

Shining Legends products

Shining Legends was sold only through branded products, so there is no booster box. The sealed table above tracks the Elite Trainer Box, the collections and loose packs pulled from them.

Collecting and grading Shining Legends

The Arita Mewtwo-GX 78 leads the set by a wide margin, with Shining Mew 40 and Shining Rayquaza 56 next, then the rainbow rare Mewtwo-GX 76, the full art Mewtwo-GX 72, Shining Jirachi 42 and Shining Arceus 57. The Pikachu 28 variants sit among them, the Cosmos and Cracked Ice Holofoils highest. The live chase list above ranks every tracked card by PSA 10 value.

The Shining Pokémon use a holofoil that shows scratches easily and the secret rares are textured, so PSA 10 copies carry a wide premium over PSA 9 on Mewtwo-GX 78, Shining Mew and Shining Rayquaza.

Sealed Shining Legends means Elite Trainer Boxes and collections rather than booster boxes, and the sealed table above tracks what each one and loose packs trade for today.