How are we this close to release now without any information yet on the set…
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Or even product picture leaks. Soooooo weird this secrecy.
18 days away and there’s no early access or info. Is this a common practice for certain sets or we are looking for an exception?
I guess it could mean one of several things…
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There’s nothing uniquely interesting worth marketing in the set & their marketing resources are just simply allocated elsewhere i.e. on higher margin/larger releases. Perhaps the ETB art is enough of a hype-builder in itself?
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They’re simply not wanting to ‘spoil’ a surprise e.g. RR vmax Cherryzerd.
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They’re not wanting to over-hype the set to the point that resellers make it near-impossible for the average TCG player to obtain. Though I’m not sure how likely this is as I don’t know how much TPCi care about that.
I have 0 intimate knowledge of TPCi’s operations so I could be way off base!
Those are good points. I would assume is in the realm of the first point, why would they undermine the hype for that set so close to release if it is not because the set is just a normal set?
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We know the vast majority of what’s going to be in Champion’s Path, it just takes a little detective work. From the official Pokemon website
*There are powerful Pokémon V like Eldegoss V, Lucario V, Duraludon V, and many others. That’s not all, as you’ll also find massive Pokémon VMAX, such as Drednaw VMAX and Alcremie VMAX. But you’re not the only one on the path to the championship—your rivals are determined to make it to the top as well. Hit the Gyms and blaze your own path with the Pokémon TCG: Champion’s Path expansion!
Champion’s Path booster packs will not be sold separately, so look for them in special collections.
Over 70 cards
15 awesome Pokémon V and 3 gigantic Pokémon VMAX*The big highlights: 15 Pokemon-V, and 3 Pokemon-VMAX. For the Vs, the flavor text hints that they will be the as-yet-unreleased cards from Japan’s V Starter Decks. The V starter deck Pokemon are: Venusaur, Incineroar, Wailord, Pikachu, Mew, Lucario, Galarian Slowbro, Duraludon, and Eevee. Pikachu, Eevee, and Galarian Slowbro are already confirmed as promos for tins/boxes, and Mew was released in Darkness Ablaze, so we’ll take those out and throw the remainders into our final setlist.
We also know Eldegoss V is confirmed from the flavor text, so we’ll drop that in there as well.
From the promotional artwork and flavor text, we know that Drednaw V/VMAX, Alcremie V/VMAX, and Gardevoir V/VMAX will be in the set. Let’s add those to our final setlist.
Now we’re done with all of the confirmed stuff, and we get into speculation. I assume Champion’s Path will include V cards from previously-released Japanese sets that are unreleased in English. This includes: Galarian Cursola V and Grapploct V. I also think we will get a couple standalone Vs from Legendary Heartbeat, perhaps Steelix V, Zarude V, and Ampharos V. Ampharos might fit better in Vivid Voltage though. For the last remaining Vs, I’d think maybe the Japanese promo Eternatus (the VMAX art is in the Eternatus VMAX box, but the regular V art does not have a release) and maybe reprints of playable cards like Zacian/Zamazenta, but given their previous reprints I’d probably bet on Ampharos over them.
FINAL SETLIST:
15 V
CONFIRMED
Venusaur
Incineroar
Wailord
Lucario
Duraludon
Eldegoss
Gardevoir
Drednaw
Alcremie
LIKELY
Galarian Cursola
Grapploct
SPECULATION
Zarude
Steelix
Ampharos
Eternatus
3 VMAX
CONFIRMED
Gardevoir
Drednaw
Alcremie
So now that we’ve dug through everything and built a solid setlist, we can come up with some takeaways. This set is largely going to be a reprint/amalgamation set. It does not offer anything super special like Hidden Fates/Shining Legends. I’d place it in a similar category to Generations or Dragon Majesty. We can also confirm something interesting here: there will be no regular art Charizard VMAX in the set, as all VMAX cards are accounted for. Some have speculated that we would get a different artwork Charizard VMAX from the triple V deck (set to release in Japan in December) but this will not be the case. If a Charizard VMAX is in the set, it will have to be a secret rare to avoid being mentioned in the flavor text.
The Charizard VMAX mystery seems to come down to this: which do you think is more likely, Pokemon putting a secret rare-exclusive Pokemon on the front of a product (never before done) or the mascot of an ETB not having a card in the set (never before done).
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“The Charizard VMAX mystery seems to come down to this: which do you think is more likely, Pokemon putting a secret rare-exclusive Pokemon on the front of a product (never before done) or the mascot of an ETB not having a card in the set (never before done).”
So pokemon is going to do something it hasn’t done before for this set, I did preorder 8 ETB’s from Game stop of Champions Path so im going to wager the former is going to happen.
That’s some great analysis. I think the problem with the latter is that if you use an artwork on front of the product and not include it, that becomes a trust issue. Especially for unknowing parents who buy their kids Pokémon products. It could impact their future preorders for all products as well. The former is more likely as I would say it’s sort of confirmed. The Vmax charizard already exists and along with the box art is garnering hype without any additional marketing. The Charizard isn’t part of Darkness Ablaze and it’s not part of Vivid voltage either. The only place to be is champions path.
I don’t have any stakes it in and for all I care it could just be dragon majesty but for me, the evidence clearly points to a secret rare VMax charizard in the set
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@fourthstartcg damn, great synopsis - Poirot would be proud. Seriously though it really sheds some perspective on it when someone takes the time to lay out all the facts.
Edit: @fizzyadrenaline I agree re. the trust issues if they haven’t included a vmax Charizard in the set. If they wanted to be super cheeky they could argue they’ve included a Charizard V as the ETB promo, but let’s face it: they’re not convincing *anyone* that the artwork on that ETB isn’t supposed to be a VMax Charizard.
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For sure. I’ll think a million times before any Pokémon preorder if fat boi isn’t in that set after that box art. That’s just doing me dirty
Well, both Dragon Majesty and Shining Legends had pokemon on the ETB that were not in the set, they were both promos.
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But for real, the “next” Hidden Fates is the unreleased Shiny Star V set that’ll come out in Japan sometime in November I think? That’ll actually have shinies so if any set is going to reproduce the Hidden Fates mania it’ll be that one.
Yeah i think most of us are aligned that this set wont be a super hype shiny set, the issues here remain on what people have said: what’s going on with the secret rares? And most important, the zard in the ETB is just to attract hype ? Is there any alternate art for that card in the set?
One of the boosters for SWSH4 Vivid Voltage has Zarude, so I think Zarude V will be in SWSH4.
www.totalcards.net/blog/pokemon/vivid-voltage-images-revealed
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Also regarding leaks, Hidden Fates release date was August 23.
The first actual leak from opened booster appeared on August 16 I believe, so that’s only 7 days before…
www.pokebeach.com/2019/08/hidden-fates-leaking-nearly-complete-set-list
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I think they wouldn’t pull a bait and switch and not include the vmax rainbow rare in the set. It just doesn’t seem like something they’d do, especially since it’s still primarily a kids game. It doesn’t make much sense to have the vmax on it and not be able to be pulled by kids. That’s just my 2 cents. I also think their choice to put the amazing rares in vivid voltage means they’re not worried about champions path selling but that’s just speculation. It’s what I would do personally. Based off of the partial set lists I’ve seen around I don’t think we’re getting alt arts but who knows?
I’m still wondering if we’ll get anymore of the sm12a cards that weren’t released in English, there’s some terrific full art trainers there (red, blue, green trio).
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Should I give up the ghost of Tag All Stars being in this set?
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Yo, I’m with you on that. You never know, fingers crossed. It looks increasingly unlikely, at most I think we might get the cards in a premium collection like we did in XY. Probably won’t get the gold cards though 
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Leonhart has champions path?
Frame from his newest video:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=BhlQxhuC6_M
EDIT: 1-2 minute part of the video. He will open it this Saturday!
Hoping he will be opening more then a few packs maybe some ETB’s. Really curious about what is in this set with no leaks and it fast approching