Shining Bright Like a Diamond: The Return of Shining Pokemon

Shining Legends is out and I couldn’t be more excited. This set marks the triumphant return of a Pokémon TCG subtype near and dear to my heart: Shining Pokémon.

Shining Mew and Shining Volcanion from Shining Legends

Shining Pokémon made their TCG debut way back in the Neo Revelation expansion and their release blew my 12 year-old mind. I remember first learning about these cards when I was on vacation with my family. I was playing in a pool with my brother and some other kids, talking shop (aka Pokémon) when one of the kids, let’s call him “Timmy”, said to us “I have an ultra-rare Pokémon card.”

“Sure you do Timmy.” we assured him, certain we were about to hear about his “very special” 1st edition Machamp, available in literally every Base Set Starter Set, “why do you think you have an ultra-rare card?”

“I know its ultra-rare because it has 3 stars” Timmy replied. Now at the time, Neo Genesis’ set symbol, two white overlapping stars, was causing my primary school brethren a great deal of confusion. Kids were pulling common Onixes and claiming they had super rare “two star” cards. I assumed Timmy was simply referring to a rare from Neo Genesis, and with all the tact I could muster, politely informed him of his error:

“You’re wrong. You have a Neo Genesis card. It’s not special.” But Timmy persisted, “It’s the Shining Gyarados and it has three stars and I got it in a Japanese booster pack.”

The rumored triple star rarity symbol, this one comes from Shining Charizard

Now I was intrigued. Shiny Pokémon were the absolute rarest Pokémon in the video games. They were virtually identical to their non-shiny brethren, with one distinction, they had an alternate color pallet. Rumors were circulating around the grade schools of the country at the time that these Pokémon existed and could be obtained in the wild, but it was hard to tell if this was rampant speculation or legitimate information. No one I knew had a shiny Pokémon other than the Red Gyarados that could be obtained in every copy of Gold and Silver, and in hindsight, this was not surprising. The chances of encountering these Pokémon in the original Gold and Silver video games was an incredibly small 1:8192. The chances of one of these Pokémon appearing in the TCG seemed impossible, and I courteously inquired whether Timmy was certain of the information he was sharing:

“You’re lying.”

“I’ll show you.”

We got out of the pool and went up to Timmy’s hotel room where he proudly displayed one of the most beautiful cards I have ever seen: Shining Gyarados.

Timmy’s old Japanese Shining Gyarados

I used all of my powers of persuasion (nagging) and all of the money I had to my 12 year-old name ($20) to buy that card off of Timmy, and today it sits proudly in my collection.

So, in honor of Timmy and the release of Shining Legends, let’s take a look back at Shining Pokémon in the TCG.

As an initial point, it is important to note that “Shining Pokémon” are a distinct subset of shiny Pokémon cards. Let me explain what I mean. In the years since Neo Destiny, there have been a number of shiny Pokémon featured on cards in the TCG. These have ranged from the ultra-rare gold star Pokémon in the original ex era, to the secret rare shiny Pokémon in the Black and White and XY eras of the TCG, with a number of releases in between. “Shining Pokémon” are different from these other shiny Pokémon because of the word “Shining” in their names. Shining Charizard is “Shining Charizard” whereas his gold star iteration, while depicting a shiny Charizard, is simply called “Charizard”. Shining Legends is the first set since Neo Destiny to feature the “Shining” card name, and it is quite the nostalgic blast from the past.

As previously mentioned, the first Shining Pokémon were Shining Magikarp and Shining Gyarados in the Neo Revelation expansion. The Japanese versions of these cards featured an absolutely stunning foil pattern covering the entire card, as well as the aforementioned mind-blowing triple star rarity symbol in the bottom right corner of the card. The English versions of Shining Magikarp and Shining Gyarados were available in both first edition and unlimited prints, but lacked the full card foil treatment and the triple star rarity symbol present in the Japanese versions. The triple star rarity symbol would eventually make its English debut in the Neo Destiny expansion. 

Shining Magikarp and Shining Gyarados

In Neo Destiny, Shining Pokémon hit their stride. The beautiful foil pattern covering the entire card was replaced with a unique metallic sheen covering the Pokémon itself, a look that was replicated in the Shining Legends expansion. Neo Destiny featured 8 different secret rare Shining Pokémon and, like Neo Revelation, they were available in both 1st edition and unlimited prints. To reflect the rarity of these Pokémon in the video games, players were only allowed to have 1 copy of a Shining Pokémon in their deck. This was a thematically appropriate, but practically pointless limitation as the Shining Pokémon were terrible in competitive play (note that the new Shining Pokémon do not have this limitation).

Shining Celebi, Shining Charizard, Shining Kabutops

Shining Mewtwo, Shining Noctowl, Shining Raichu

Shining Steelix, Shining Tyranitar

In one of my favorite examples of Wizards of the Coast quality control, both the 1st edition and unlimited versions of Shining Tyrantiar feature a humorous typo in its Pokedex information.

“It is so powerful, it can knock down a mountain with hust one arm.”

While only 10 Shining Pokémon were released in the West, Japan had two other Shining Pokémon releases: Shining Mew, a coro-coro magazine promotional insert and a Pokémon Fan Club variant of Shining Magikarp featuring the Neo Destiny style metallic holographic pattern.

The Japanese exclusive Shining Magikarp and Shining Mew

The Shining Pokémon in Shining Legends differ from the previously released Shining Pokémon in a few notable ways. First, the new Shinings rarity symbol is a single, silver foil star. The unique triple star rarity symbol from Neo Destiny no longer appears on the cards but interestingly, the Shining Legends Collectors Guide, available in the Shining Legends Elite Trainer Box, uses the triple star rarity symbol as the official rarity of the Shining cards. Collectors have been reporting opening the new Shining Pokémon in approximately 1:15 packs. This falls squarely in the middle between reported pull rates in Neo Revelation (1:18 packs) and Neo Destiny (1:12 packs), so the chances of pulling one of these rare cards remains on pace with its Neo era precedent. One final point worth mentioning is that the Japanese Shining Legends set includes three additional Shining Pokémon that cannot be obtained in the English boosters: Shining Lugia, Shining Celebi and Shining Ho-Oh. English collectors can instead obtain these cards in the Shining Legends Elite Trainer Box (Ho-Oh) and the Shining Legends Premium Collection (Lugia and Celebi).

Shining Rayquaza from Shining Legends

What are your thoughts on the new Shining Pokémon? Are you happy with the decision to bring these cards back to the TCG? What Shining Pokémon do you hope to see in future sets? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below.