Hands-on: Pokémon Lost Origin expands the Sword and Shield TCG with gorgeous full-art cards

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While Pokémon fans wait for more news on Scarlet and Violet titles dropping later this year, the TCG side of the franchice is recieving a new update today. Arriving as its latest expansion, the new Pokémon Lost Origin set packs plenty of new full-art trainer cards based around Sword and Shield, as well just-released Radiant Pokémon and nearly 250 new cards.

Pokémon Lost Origin: What to expect from the new expansion

As the latest expansion to the Pokémon trading card game, the Lost Origin set enters as the 11th expansion to the Sword and Shield series. It comes packed with nearly 250 cards of Pokémon both new and old, with everything from fresh card art of classics like Oddish to eye-catching graphics of more recent trainers like Nessa and Opal from the either generation of the mainline games.

Graphics this time around put Giratina at the forefront of the collection, with box art donning the signature Legendary. Each of the packs then mix things up with four different foil arts including Giratina again, Hisuian Gardevoir, Hisuian Zoroark, and more.

You’ll still have to wait another few weeks to actually get your hands on the assortment of new cards. But in the meantime, we’ll be breaking down what to expect from the latest expansion when it does launch. The Lost Origin set will be officially hitting store shelves next month on September 9, and pricing is right in line with what we’ve come to expect from past TCG expansions.

Pre-orders have now gone live, with listings right from the Pokémon Center. Amazon also currently has listings live for the next set of cards for those who would rather go with the two-day shipping route. The always-popular Booster Box is the best way to dive into things this time around for returning fans and sells for under $150. Then there’s also the Elite Trainer Box at $50 or less, which provides a great starting point to Pokémon fans looking to get in on Lost Origin and the TCG at large for the first time.

The Pokémon Company sent over one of the latter assortments, so I had eight different booster packs to try and score some of the latest rare cards. It’s a bit more competitive this time around for those rare pulls, as there are 30 Trainer Gallery cards this time around that showcase various Pokémon and iconic characters from the franchise. And after seeing Radiant Pokémon make a debut into the TCG with Astral Radiance back in May, there are now three entirely new Radiant cards joining in on the action, as well as over 190 commons and more typical holos. In total, there are nearly 250 new additions to the collection this time, making this one of the larger expansions as of late.

As usual, each of the Lost Origin TCG packs feature 10 cards and either one basic Energy or one VSTAR marker. The booster boxes are certainly the better value, as you’ll get 36 off the packs in the box, while the Elite Trainer Box only includes eight.

Of the packs that I did end up getting sent over, I managed to pull a pretty diverse cast of the cards and even scored a few of the more sought-after inclusions this time around. There is a really solid mix of cards based around plenty of different properties, too. So even though this is an expansion to the Sword and Shield wave, you’ll find cards based around Pokémon Legends: Arceus, the Eighth Gen titles, and much more.

9to5Toys’ Take

Lost Origin may not carry the same fanfare as previous expansions, but the chase cards this time certainly make this a worthwhile Pokémon set to check out. All of the full-art cards this time around really steal the spotlight and deliver something that Pokémon fans, regardless of generation, will enjoy.

I’m certainly a little bummed I didn’t pull a few of the cards from the set, like the new Nessa trainer card or any of the G-Max Pikachu variants. But I guess that means I’ll be trying my luck again once the Pokémon Lost Origin expansion officially drops on September 9.

Hands-on with other new Pokémon TCG expansions:

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