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The Sun & Moon Era Signs Off in Style with Tag All Stars!

The Sun & Moon Era Signs Off in Style with Tag All Stars!

Posted by Braysh Gaming on Oct 3, 2019

The Sun & Moon era draws to a close, and what era it has been! The Pokémon TCG has come a long way since we first set our eyes on the Sun & Moon base set in 2016, eagerly anticipating the new GX mechanic with Solgaleo GX and Lunala GX.

Fast forward three years and a menagerie of GX, Secret Rare, Full Art, Hyper Rare, Prism Star, Ultra Shiny, Trainer Rare, Character Rare, Gold, Ultra Beast and of course, Tag Team GX cards later, we're signing off in style. Introducing SM12A - Tag All Stars!

Released Oct 4th and available to order from Plaza Japan now, Tag All Stars is a "High Class" expansion finale from Sun & Moon, featuring a huge 173 cards and a further 53 Super Rare cards.

So, let's dive in. What exactly are we getting here? Well, as is the format of High Class sets, it's 10 packs per box and 10 cards per pack. These are more than just regular packs, however. Each pack of cards contains 1 guaranteed GX card, along with 1 holo Energy card, and each box will guarantee 1 of 53 incredible Super Rare cards to be found! Get prepared for hit after hit with these packs!

Unless you fancy reading this well into Christmas, we're going to hand-pick just some of the key cards and features to focus on here in SM12A, and leave some surprises to be found of course! Let's start with how we began - the GX cards!

Now then, here we have a mixture of the popular staples along with some new GX cards! These popular cards include reprints of Reshiram & Charizard GX , Mewtwo & Mew GX and Pikachu & Zekrom GX . Furthermore, these Tag Team GX cards (along with a few others) can be found as “UR” Golden Super Rares! Well, this is a Tag All Star line-up, and there’s nothing like a bit of bling to give it that premium touch.

Battling Reshiram and Charizard GX Tag Team's new reprint card front. Mewtwo and Mew Tag Team GX version, front of the reprinted card.

Photo of front of reprinted new Pikachu and Zekrom GX Tag Team card.

New GX cards include the likes of Wishiwashi GX and Togepi & Cleffa & Igglybuff GX. There are also finally “SR” Full Arts and “HR” Hyper Rares for the like of Melmetal GX, Jirachi GX , Umbreon & Darkrai GX who have previously appeared away from main sets (Melmetal GX was previously just a promo from the "Melmetal GX Tin" for example) - and so much more to be discovered!

The runaway GX train refuses to come to a halt, as there are even alternate art GX cards for Dedenne GX, designed by famous Japanese artist Kanahei, and Eevee GX, designed by another famous Japanese artist, Q-rais. Pokémon are certainly calling out the big guns in Japanese art.

We'll leave the GX cards there for the Sun & Moon era, and there's plenty more to discover that we haven't even touched on. We hope this is something you will enjoy discovering for yourself. For now, we turn to Trainers...

Prism Stars are reprinted and back. Only the most popular cards have made the top cut however, with the likes of Ditto, Cyrus, Super Boost Energy and Beast Energy amongst 17 Prism Stars. We expect to find at least a couple of these per box.

It looks like the final set has decided to cut out any more Ultra Rare Items! This is no bad thing, as some of the regular Item cards have all been reprinted and designed by OOYAMA! OOYAMA is a stand-out artist in the Pokémon TCG, who this time lends his cartoon-like style to cards such as PokéGear 3.0 and Acro Bike, amongst a few others! We're glad we get to pull these as regular cards!

Somewhere amongst the huge stack of Items, Stadiums and holo Energy cards, we have a large amount of new and old Supporters... but with even more than expected! Joining the likes of new Tag Team Supporters Misty & Lorelei and Bellelba & Brycen-Man are some old favourites. It's worth noting that all Supporters in Tag All Stars have either new alternate art “SR” Full Art cards or are finally getting Full Arts after a long wait.

Finally, the likes of Sightseer, Hapu and Clay get the Full Art they deserve - and that's not all by any means! All 13 cards, brand-new and reprinted, are getting never-seen-before Full Arts! This includes a new Red's Challenge, Green's Tactics and Blue's Exploration - all featuring Bulbasaur, Charmander and Squirtle respectively! Thanks for playing the nostalgia card Pokémon TCG.

Phew! That’s a wrap. The Sun sets at the same time as the Moon at the end of generation 7, and the GX era as a whole. What a ride the Pokémon TCG has given us and SM12A has finished things off with a deserved bang. There's not much more to be said about Tag All Stars, apart from don't miss it of course and order from Plaza Japan now!

We hope you have enjoyed the Sun & Moon era here at Plaza Japan and look forward to the brand-new Sword & Shield base set, including new Gen 8 Pokémon and the "V" mechanic – starting with "Zacian V" and "Zamazenta V" on December 9th.



Author Bio

PJ Chan

PJ-Chan is the pocket-sized powerhouse of Plaza Japan and the undisputed anime figure aficionado of the team, making sure every shelf is filled with heroes and villains alike. When she’s not immersed in the world of anime, PJ-Chan can often be found with a slice (or two) of delicious cake. She has been part of the Plaza Japan family since 2009 and at the tender age of 99, she assures us retirement is not in her vocabulary.