V and VMAX Pokémon cards, the Sword and Shield ultra rare cards
The Pokémon V and VMAX cards are a new type of cards introduced with Sword and Shield era of the Pokémon Trading Card Game in 2020. These V and VMAX Pokémon cards replace the old Gx cards from SUn and Moon era, and are the new type of ultra rare and secret Pokémon cards of Sword and Shield series. They also exist in Promo cards. The Pokémon V cards pictures normal Pokémon, but the VMAX cards represent Dynamax and Gigamax Pokémon as introduced in the Sword and Shield game on Nintendo Switch.
Types of V and VMAX Pokémon cards
The Pokémon V and VMAX cards exist in standard, full art, rainbow and gold version, like Gx cards before, but with some differences: the Pokémon V are available only in standard and Full Art cards (no Rainbows) and the Pokémoj VMAX are available only in standard and Rainbow cards (no regular Full Art).
Playing rules of V and VMAX Pokémon cards
Following Gx cards, the V and Vamx cards keep their game mechanics: Vpokémon V are basic Pokémon and Pokémon VMAX are level one Pokémon. It is necessary to evolve the Pokémon V to play the Pokémon VMAX, like Mega Evolutions in XY era. The difference is that Pokémon V give two prize cards if KO, and VMAX give three, in order to reduce the power of these cards, as they have higher HP and damages than other cards.
All ultra rare Pokémon V cards
The Pokémon V cards follows the Gx cards being the standard ultra rare cards of Sword and Shield era. They have a similar ratio and design, with the artwork taking most of the card surface, except for the part containing the name of the card and the bottom with card information. To reduce the impact of miscut problems on cards, the border of Pokémon V cards is now fully black, with the V logo on the top left corner. The zones containing weakness, resistrance, retreat cost, Pokémon V rule and HP have a black background. Unlike Gx cards, Pokémon V cards use less 3D artwork.
All ultra rare Pokémon VMAX cards
The VMAX Pokémon cards are similar to simple Pokémon V cards, with some differences: the black border is visible only on bottom left part of the card, the artwork covers it on almost all the border, the name of the Pokémon has no background and the V logo is more coloured. The artworks of Pokémon VMAX cards have shining dust effect which make these cards easily recognizable from simple V cards. They globaly looks like full art cards, without the textured surface.
All Full Art Pokémon V cards
As in the last eras of Pokémon Trading Cards Game, the Sword and Shield era includes many Full Art Pokémon cards. Their design is slightly different and more detailled than Sun and Moon Full Art cards: border of the card is full gray, some zones are black and the V logo in the top left corber is black like on simple V cards. Unlike previous Full Arts, the background of the artwork is more detailled and unique to each Pokémon, not a single color like in Sun and Moon. The Sword and Shield Full Art cards have the same textured surface as previous Full Art cards.
All secret Rainbow Pokémon VMAX cards
Like in Sun and Moon, Sword and Shield series include secret Rainbow Pokémon cards.. All Rainbow Pokémon cards of Sword and Shield era are VMAX Pokémon, there is not simple V Pokémon among Rainbows. In this era, the Rainbow Pokémon cards are the upgraded version of simple VMAX Pokémon, as the Full art are upgrades of simple V Pokémon. Thus, the Rainbow Pokémon cards keep the design of simple VMAX Pokémon cards: mostly borderless artwork, rainbow effect on some of the zones... The VMAX rainbow cards have the same color as previous Gx Rainbow cards, but their surface texture is slightly different.
All secret Gold Pokémon V cards
As in previous eras of Pokémon TCG, Sword and Shield offers some Gold Pokémon cards, some of them being Pokémon V cards. The card design is similar to Full Art Pokémon V cards, with gold color replacing most of the black boxes on the card, on border and illustration's background. Like Rainbow and Full art cards, the Gold have textured surface.
Shiny V Pokémon cards
The first Shiny Pokémon V is Charizard V from the Champion's Path special serie.
