Steam Siege

What Steam Siege is

Steam Siege is the eleventh main expansion of the XY Series, released in English on August 3, 2016 under the set code STS. It has 114 cards in the numbered set plus 2 secret rares, 116 in total, and combines the Japanese Fever-Burst Fighter and Cruel Traitor expansions, released together on June 17, 2016 as the fourth and final expansion of the XY BREAK era, each with 50 unique cards and 4 shared between them. The set is based on Pokémon X and Y and features the Mythical Steam Pokémon Volcanion.

Steam Siege brought dual type Pokémon to the game. Their cards carry a diagonal line from the top right to the bottom left corner with a different type color on each side, and Volcanion-EX, a Fire and Water Pokémon, is the headline example, with M Steelix-EX as Metal and Fighting and M Gardevoir-EX as Fairy and Psychic. Xerneas BREAK and Yveltal BREAK face off among the 7 Pokémon BREAK, and Magearna-EX makes its debut.

The set holds 6 Pokémon-EX, 8 full art ultra rares from 107 to 114 covering the six Pokémon-EX and the Supporters Pokémon Ranger and Professor Sycamore, and 2 secret rares at 115 and 116: a Volcanion-EX and the Shiny Gardevoir-EX that leads the market.

What makes Steam Siege different

• Dual type Pokémon Steam Siege introduced Pokémon with a secondary type, marked by a diagonal line splitting the card into two type colors. Volcanion-EX is Fire and Water, M Steelix-EX Metal and Fighting and M Gardevoir-EX Fairy and Psychic.
• The Shiny Gardevoir-EX The secret rare Gardevoir-EX 116 shows the Shiny Gardevoir of the set's storyline, in which Shiny Mega Gardevoir-EX lays siege to the Gear Palace, and it is the most valuable card in the set.
• Volcanion's set The Steam Pokémon appears as Volcanion-EX in regular, full art and secret rare prints and as the Cracked Ice Holofoil Volcanion 25 in the Gears of Fire Theme Deck, and it fronts the Elite Trainer Box and the 9-Pocket Portfolio.
• Xerneas BREAK and Yveltal BREAK The Kalos Legendaries close the XY BREAK era as a pair of Pokémon BREAK, two of the seven BREAK cards in the set alongside Yanmega, Talonflame, Pyroar, Clawitzer and Hydreigon.
• The last XY BREAK expansion Fever-Burst Fighter and Cruel Traitor ended the Japanese XY BREAK era, so Steam Siege is the final English set built from it before the Sun & Moon Series began.

How Steam Siege arrived

Steam Siege released in English on August 3, 2016, three months after Fates Collide on May 2, 2016, and the McDonald's Collection 2016 promotion followed on August 19, 2016. In Japan, Fever-Burst Fighter and Cruel Traitor released on June 17, 2016, following Awakening Psychic King, and the Collection Sun and Collection Moon sets came next as the Sun & Moon era opened.

Prereleases ran on the weekends of July 23 and 24 and July 30 and 31, 2016 with Prerelease Kits of four packs and a sealed 23 card pack, now branded an Evolution pack, carrying one of four stamped promos: Yanmega, Volcanion, Clawitzer or Hoopa. The launch brought the Gears of Fire and Ring of Lightning Theme Decks, built on Volcanion and Hoopa with Cracked Ice Holofoil prints of each, blisters with Floette, Lucario, Rayquaza and Azelf promos, the Volcanion Elite Trainer Box and a Collector's Album with one pack.

Collector's Pin three pack blisters followed on August 24, 2016, and three card Mini Packs reached Dollar Tree stores in early September 2016.

Steam Siege products

Steam Siege was sold in booster packs, booster boxes, blisters, two Theme Decks and the Volcanion Elite Trainer Box. The sealed table above tracks the products still trading today.

Collecting and grading Steam Siege

The secret rare Gardevoir-EX 116 leads the set, with the secret rare Volcanion-EX 115, the full art Steelix-EX 108, M Gardevoir-EX 112 and Gardevoir-EX 111 and the full art Volcanion-EX 107 behind it. The live chase list above ranks every tracked card by PSA 10 value, and a few Reverse Holofoils such as Azumarill 77 and Hydreigon 86 rank high because clean copies are scarce.

The two secret rares are textured and show surface scratches and edge whitening under grading lights, so PSA 10 copies carry a wide premium over PSA 9 and raw. The full art Supporters Pokémon Ranger 113 and Professor Sycamore 114 complete the ultra rare run and cost far less than the Pokémon-EX.

Sealed Steam Siege is a mid priced XY era box, and the sealed table above tracks what boxes, packs, blisters and Elite Trainer Boxes trade for today.