Pokémon TCG’s latest Sword & Shield set, Lost Origin, has been out for a couple of weeks now. That’s long enough that the community has settled on which cards are the most desirable, and thus the most valuable when trading or selling.
A Pokémon card’s value is generally determined by the combination of two factors: the rarity, and the playability. The former certainly is the larger factor, with the rarest pulls like alternate art cards, or secret rare gold cards, always fetching the highest prices. However, if a card also proves to be of great use when playing TCG, that’ll give it an extra boost.
Lost Origin has proven to be the most value-creating set since last August’s Evolving Skies, and the first collection in over a year to feature a card fetching over $US200 ($278). Nothing compared to Evolving Skies’ astonishingly sought-after alt-art Umbreon VMAX, currently changing hands for over $US430 ($597), but still higher than anything in all three sets released between the two. (You could argue Brilliant Stars is the more over-all valuable set, given the number of over $US20 ($28) cards in there, but even it’s alt-art Charizard V doesn’t quite scrape the $US200 ($278) mark.)
These are, of course, their ungraded prices, with numbers vastly increased if sent of to companies like PSA to receive a grade, especially if they can achieve that all-conquering PSA 10. (For instance, Price Charting has that Brilliant Stars Charizard at $US470 ($652) for a PSA 10!)
So let’s crack on with the top 25 most valuable cards in Lost Origin. All the values stated here are based on figures from Price Charting and TCG Player, and clearly the market veers wildly every day.
Hisuian Electrode V (Full Art)
Price: $US5 ($7) – $US8 ($11)
We kick off with an actual playable Pokémon, but of course in its Full Art form. Electrode is always a fun character to play, his habit of self-destruction put to good use here. Tantrum Blast lets you do 100 damage per Special Condition affecting him, such that you want him poisoned and the like as soon as possible. Or you can do a basic 120 damage for only two Energy, except that he loses them both after only one use. I love the art on this one, the way he looks like he’s shattered the card itself.
Colress’s Experiment (Secret Rainbow)
Price: $US5 ($7) – $US8 ($11)
The first card in the list to use Lost Origin’s Lost Zone, Colress’s ill-advised experiment is to let you look at the top five cards in your deck, keep three of them, but then cast the other two into the eternal fires of the Lost Zone. Still, his bonkers hair has never looked finer than in rainbow colours.
Lost Vacuum (Secret Gold)
Price: $US7 ($10) – $US8 ($11)
Possibly one of the daftest Pokémon cards of all time, the Lost Vacuum is part of the Lost Zone mechanics in this set. For the price of ditching another card from your hand into the Lost Zone, it lets you then also grab a Stadium card or Tool attached to an opponent’s card (or your own, if for some reason you wanted to) and chuck it into the Lost Zone too. It’s a sweet move, if your opponent is infuriatingly using their Stadium to keep healing, or blocking attacks with a Tool. It’s even sweeter when it’s all shiny and golden.
Lady (Secret Rainbow)
Price: $US7 ($10) – $US14 ($19)
The Secret Rare version of Lady is one of three versions of the card in the set. There’s your regular Trainer card, a superbly pretty Full Art (coming up), and this Rainbow Rare. All three are the traditionally super-useful cards that let you pull out a huge four basic Energies from your deck and put them right into your hand.
Fantina (Full Art)
Price: $US7 ($10).50 – $US8 ($11)
Fantina’s Full Art card is a gorgeous swirl of purples, and part of Lost Origin’s Lost Zone cards. She’s a tricky one to play, however, requiring an enormous 10 cards in the Lost Zone before she can even be played, and only protects against incoming damage from an opponent’s V cards. Which sounds far more trouble than it’s worth to me.
Dark Patch (Secret Gold)
Price: $US7 ($10).50 – $US9 ($12)
Dark Patch’s gold card was once fetching over $US10 ($14) ungraded, but seems to have fallen out of favour as the set’s sales have gone on. Still, get it pack-fresh and pay for a PSA grading and you could get that up as high as $US90 ($125). The card lets you pull an Energy from your discard pile and attach it straight to a benched Pokémon, so it’s useful in play, if not anything stunning.
Kyurem V (Full Art)
Price: $US8 ($11) – $US8 ($11).50
Goodness me, it’s a playable Pokémon! The fantastic shattered crystal design of the Kyurem V makes for a lovely design, and a surprisingly decent price given its relative ordinariness. It’s a very playable card, of course, that Rapid Freeze letting you load up your card with Energies, then the Frost Smash dishing out 140 damage a turn for no penalties. It’s a pretty permanent fixture in my own TCG Online deck, although sadly not in this lovely full art form.
Arezu (Secret Rainbow)
Price: $US8 ($11) – $US11 ($15).50 ($16)
Another Rainbow Rare (which are almost guaranteed to fill these top spots, unless for some reason dramatically over-printed), Arezu lets you pop three Evolution Pokémon into your hand. However, she won’t get you any Vs or GXs, which is a pain.
Lady (Full Art)
Price: $US9 ($12) – $US13 ($18)
We enter the more significant sums with one of the prettiest cards I think Pokémon has ever made. It’s just so subtle, the simple blue and orange of Lady, and then the subtle, washed-out background of a summer’s day. Yet I still wish there weren’t a card called “Lady”! There’s no card called “Man”! The poor anonymous woman goes back as far as FireRed & LeafGreen in 2005, but only started showing up in the TCG with 2018’s Sun & Moon – Forbidden Light. Someone, please, ask the poor person her name.
Aerodactyl VSTAR (Secret Rainbow)
Price: $US10 ($14) – $US17 ($24)
That 240 damage for three Energy seems like such a good deal, until you notice this half-art Rainbow Rare Aerodactyl requires you also ditch the top three cards from your deck into the abyssal Lost Zone. Ouch, surely that’s never worth it? It can also stop your enemy from using abilities the entire time it’s in play, but I’m bemused why anyone would want this. Other than, you know, that it’s a Rainbow Rare VSTAR. Yeah, that bit.
Arezu (Full Art)
Price: $US11 ($15) – $US12 ($17)
A case, like Lady, where the Full Art is more valuable than the Rainbow Secret Rare. This often proves the case, because collectors simply prefer the colour and background detail of these cards over the much more plain presentation of those rainbows. I know I do. My son — he has different but strong opinions. So while this Azeru barely gets an extra 50c over her refracted sister, it’s currently proving the more popular.
Hisuian Goodra VSTAR (Secret Rainbow)
Price: $US11 ($15) – $US13 ($18)
A far better VSTAR than the previous Aerodactyl (and yet, while having a higher bottom price, not reaching the dino’s top prices), the Hisuian Goodra deals a hefty 200 damage, and protects itself from 80 in the next turn. The price is needing both Water and Metal Energy, along with a Colourless, to be able to trigger.
Kyurem VMAX (Secret Rainbow)
Price: $US12 ($17) – $US14 ($19)
The only VMAX in the set, Kyurem’s V-olution (I just made that term up) is ridiculously powerful. 330 HP, a chance each turn to attach another Water Energy, and the opportunity to boost its 120 attack with 50 more for each Water Energy you discard. The only crazy thing is that this rainbowy version is fetching more than twice as much as the far more pretty regular Full Art version.
Hisuain Zoroark VSTAR (Secret Rainbow)
Price: $US12 ($17) – $US14 ($19)
Tragically, no, your first reading wasn’t right. It’s not Tickling Curse, even though it clearly should be. Look at it, reaching out those tickly fingers. Instead, this powerful card lets you do 50 damage for every Pokémon in play that has taken damage. Just the thing to use if your opponent is forever attacking your benched monsters.
Colress’s Experiment (Full Art)
Price: $US10 ($14) – $US16 ($22)
I told you his hair looked better in rainbow form. This is one of those occasions where it makes far less sense for the Full Art to out-perform the Rainbow Rare, given it’s just so astoundingly boring. Would you like some blue-grey with your blue-grey?
Hisuian Zoroark VSTAR (Secret Gold)
Price: $US16 ($22) – $US17 ($24)
What’s more valuable than a rainbow? It’s the gold you find at the end of it, of course! You are silly. Such it is that Hisuian Zoroark’s VSTAR in gold fetches a few bucks more than the one a couple of pages back. It maintains the same abilities, including the opportunity to ditch your hand and replace it with seven new cards, but only the once. Which is a bit rubbish.
Giratina VSTAR (Full Art)
Price: $US19 ($26)
Lost Origin was launched as a Giratina-forward set, so it’s no wonder we’re seeing the Legendary’s first appearance quite so high up. Not Rainbow, not Gold, not even a VSTAR. Just a solid Basic V, with a solid 220 HP, and a neat way to quickly load up the Lost Zone for other tricks you have that need cards in there. Then it dishes a hefty 160 damage, no matter what effects your opponent might have set up. Also, it looks utterly amazing. But we’ve got a lot more Giratina to go…
Giratina VSTAR (Secret Rainbow)
Price: $US27 ($37) – $US31 ($43)
Told you so. The VSTAR to the previous slide’s V bumps that attack up to an extraordinary 280 for the same three energy (although you have to lose two of them to the Lost Zone now). However, you might want to do that, because once you’ve got 10 cards in that Zone, you can just instantly knock out your opponent’s card, no matter the situation, with Star Requiem. Yikes. I’m looking forward to seeing some Giratina decks in league play, to see if this proves effective.
Giratina VSTAR (Secret Gold)
Price: $US35 ($49) – $US37 ($51)
Yup, it’s the same card again, but this time all sparkly and golden. And it genuinely looks epic, far better than the washed out rainbow, even if it’s absolutely identical to play in battle. Given you can pick up the regular Giratina V, which is so damn close to being full-art itself, for just $US5 ($7), that makes this and the rainbow version infuriatingly expensive for someone wanting them in their battle deck. With the chances of pulling so low, you can see why they’re fetching the price of nine more booster packs each.
Galarian Perrserker V (Alt Full Art)
Price: $US40 ($56) – $US42 ($58)
I pulled this one I pulled this one I pulled this one…AHEM. Sorry, professional. But have I mentioned I pulled this one? And if I can ever prise it from my son’s binder, it’ll be the first card I ever get graded, because at $US40 ($56) pack fresh, it’s fetched almost $US190 ($264) at PSA 10. My future riches aside, it’s a neat card for battle, with 200 HP, a single Energy attack to draw three cards, and then a two-Energy follow-up that does 20 times the number of cards in your hand. Oh please let there be a VSTAR or VMAX in Silver Tempest!
Rotom V (Alt Full Art)
Price: $US50 ($69) – $US60 ($83)
I know I said the Lady full art was the prettiest card in this set, but damn, the Rotom V alt art comes so close. It’s quite the opposite, really, in the sense that it’s a mad clutter of very unsubtle colour, but it’s utterly lovely, a card you can pore over for ages, spotting more and more tiny details. Honestly, the alt art in Lost Origin is consistently stunning, and this is my favourite. It’s a mean one to play though! You can draw three cards, but your turn ends, or you can can do 40 damage, boosted by a further 40 for every Tool card in your discard pile that you sacrifice to the Lost Zone.
Aerodactyl V (Alt Full Art)
Price: $US124 ($172) – $US155 ($215)
Nope, that’s not a typo. The price really did just jump from sixty bucks to $US155 ($215). This gorgeous card was once thought to be the one that would peak the prices in Lost Origin, but you’ll soon see that’s miles off now. Yet, this alt art V is absolutely colossal. A PSA 10 has sold for a monstrous $US875 ($1,215). Which is all just nuts when you realise it’s such an ordinary card to play! A nice 40 for Bite, and a decent-ish 120 for Rock Crush, but with the bonus that you get to discard an opponent’s Energy.
Giratina V (Alt Full Art)
Price: $US230 ($319) – $US250 ($347)
Yup, Giratina is back, and good grief. This toughest of pulls fetches a blistering $US250 ($347) ungraded, and went for an eye-watering $US1,226 ($1,702) at PSA 10. Honestly, these prices are so high I’m bewildered there weren’t runs on this set in stores, yet it remains still easily purchased. Of course, it’d be a lottery-level gamble to pull this card — one I think is astonishingly ugly! I mean, I think a lot of the artistry is fantastic, and the volume of detail is epic, but it just looks like a frenzied clutter to me in which the Giratina gets lost.
But there you have it. The Alt Art V, not the Rainbow or Gold Secret Rares, is the one that’s emptying people’s pockets this set. If you’ve pulled this, it would be absolute madness not to get it graded, given PSA 10s are regularly fetching over $US750 ($1,041) on eBay.
Leave a Reply