Pokémon: Top 10 most valuable cards from Brilliant Stars

Hello everybody! I'm Rodrigo, today I bring information from Brilliant Stars. Given the current scenario, let's go through the list to check out the cards, both in a competitive and financial sense:

10th) Galarian Moltres-V (Gold Full Art) (Brilliant Stars - 183/172)

Used in the competitive standard within the Dark Box and with the recent release of Astral Radiance, this card will be essential in the Darkrai-V and Darkrai-VStar decks due to the combo of the VStar version with adding dark energies to the game to increase Darkrai's damage, as well as Hisuian Samurott-V and Hisuian Samurott-VStar as an alternative attack in the deck. And for those who like to “pimp” their deck, it is an excellent purchase.

Its ability, Direflame Wings, allows you to draw dark energy from the discard for one turn and attach it to that Pokémon; and its attack, Aura Burn (for two dark energies and one colorless), does a base 190 damage, but with a reverse of 30 damage to itself.

9th) Marnie's Pride (Full Art) (Brilliant Stars - 171/172)

As the most beloved female character in the Galar region's Pokémon fandom, Marnie has always been welcomed into competitive play since her first card in the Base Set expansion. That's by shuffling the opponent's hand and yours at the bottom of the deck and drawing 4 cards, with the opponent's disadvantage, while you have the advantage of having 5 cards.

Marnie's Pride is not as strong as its other version, but due to the collection of female characters, inherited from Japanese culture, its price becomes high.

The card has the effect of attaching an Energy from the discard pile to one of your Benched Pokémon, which is considered "weak" in the format (almost similar to Beda, the only difference being that it attaches from the hand and not from the discard), since we have better cards for power up like Roy and Melony, considering the power factor of the discard and having additional effects.

8th) Ultra Ball (Gold Full Art) (Brilliant Stars - 186/172)

Being another one of the cards reprinted in the last times of the Sword/Shield expansion, and that came at a great time, its first appearance was in the Black/White: Dark Explorers block, and since then, it has followed for many releases within Black/White, X/Y and Sun/Moon.

The card allows a more precise search filter to catch Pokémon, different from Quick Ball (which can only catch basic Pokémon), Great Ball (which aims to look at the first 7 cards from the top of the deck to look for a Pokémon), Level Ball (which can only catch Pokemon that have 90 HP or less) within the competitive format. And with the rotation in September, Ultra Ball will be a staple in any deck, and old cards will increase in value over and over again, and with a Gold version of it, it's no different.

Its effect is to discard two cards from your hand, so you can search your deck for a Pokémon you want and put it into your hand.

7th) Charizard-V (Full Art) (Brilliant Stars - 153/172)

And of course, within the massive advertisements of the expansion (both for products such as boosters and even in general advertisements), we have one of the most stamped and outstanding in the world of collecting, as well as one of the most popular Pokémon in the franchise.

After its primary appearance in the Darkness Ablaze expansion in its V and VMax versions; Champion's Path with its versions of the V Shiny and VMax Rainbow Full Art card and Elite Trainer Box exclusive Full Art promotional card; and in Shining Fates with Charizard-VMax Shiny; it still comes in this expansion, in addition to its V and VStar form (counting both the regular and Rainbow versions - which will be on this list).

Despite not being such a strong card in competitive due to the high number of water Pokémon in the format with greater ease of powering up with Melony (from Chilling Reign), with Pokémon like Origin Form Palkia or Ice Rider Calyrex, even having Arceus-V and Arceus-VStar in format as a joker (which is on this list), Charizard is a "heavy" Pokémon.

The card's attacks are: Incinerate (for two fire energies and one colorless), it discards any tool cards attached to the active Pokémon before dealing its base damage for 90 attack; and his second attack, Heat Blast (for 3 fire energies and a colorless one) does 180 base damage.

6th) Charizard-VStar (Rainbow Full Art) (Brilliant Stars - 174/172)

As mentioned before, the card has problems with rapid power-up in the format because it is considered a heavy Pokémon and the strong presence of water Pokémon, leaving it only the status of "collectible" for now, until proven otherwise in future expansions.

Its attack, Explosive Fire (two fire energies and one colorless), does base damage of 130 + 100 if Charizard itself has any damage counters; and considering it has 270 HP, it would virtually have disadvantages, as in the current format, there are many Pokemon that can easily exceed 270 damage, making Charizard an easy target. Lastly, his VStar attack, Star Blaze (three fire energies and one colorless), the attack does base 320 damage and needs to discard two fire energies for the cost - possessing a high sheer destructive power without having to use too many resources that increase this damage (such as Supporter Leon or the Choice Belt tool item).

It is quite strong, however, without cards that give this gas of energy acceleration in the current format (as Welder did in the Sun/Moon block), things gets complicated.

5th) Umbreon-VMax (Alternative Full Art) (Brilliant Stars - #TG23)

Entering the Trainers Gallery branch, we see the highlight of an Eeveelution beloved by the Pokémon fandom. Despite the success in the Evolving Skies expansion, where they had a greater and very expressive highlight, in this expansion, we were graced with the presence of the Elite Four of Johto, Karen, with one of her signature Pokémon: Umbreon.

The card, in addition to being beautiful, presents good game conditions, both for those who want to insert the“Single Strike” type, and Dark Box in deck strategies.

Its ability, Dark Signal, is activated when from the moment you evolved your Umbreon-V to Umbreon-VMax, forcing your opponent to make one of their Benched Pokémon into their Active Pokémon, that is, you will be applying a "Boss' Orders" during that turn, being able to save a Supporter card on that turn and even saving a Boss' Orders from your hand, or use it to create a bluff in the game (depending on creativity of the situation). And its attack, Max Darkness (one dark energy and two colorless ones), deals base 160 damage.

4th) Arceus-VStar (Rainbow Full Art) (Brilliant Stars - 176/172)

With this powerful card in the format already present in the expansion and already mentioned in the other categories of this list, it is in this position due to its secret rarity and for being a "Rainbow" card, which is also targeted by the most ardent players who like to "pimp" their deck, as well as the “Gold” cards (which is also on this list and will be quoted).

Its attacks are nice and perfect to fit into any deck due to its versatility in being a colorless type: Rule the Region (for three colorless energies) has a base 200 damage and can recharge up to 3 energies from your deck for your Pokémon -V as you wish, being extremely powerful, compensating any steep Pokémon (like Gengar-VMax, Lucario-VStar, etc) and/or speeding up other more versatile Pokémon.

Finally, its VStar ability, Starbirth, aims to search for two trainer-type cards from your deck, which is extremely useful and thanks to that, used in many decks in the Metagame since its launch, reinforcing its competitive value and, moreover, a commercial reflex.

3rd) Arceus-V (Alternative Full Art) (Brilliant Stars - 166/172)

One of the best looking alternate arts/secret arts cards that needs no introduction, Arceus-V is a card that every player would like to be able to put in the competitive deck to build their consistency list or have at least one copy in their collection.

Its attacks are nice for game introductions: its first attack, Trinity Charge (for two colorless energies) only has the effect of attaching up to 3 energies from your deck for your Pokémon-V in any way you want; and finally, his second attack, Power Edge (for three colorless energies), has a base 130 damage.

2nd) Arceus-VStar (Gold Full Art) (Brilliant Stars - 184/172)

Emphasizing again the importance of the card by the factors mentioned in the fourth position, the only difference here is its rarity as it is a “Gold” card, which makes it even more coveted.

1st) Charizard-V (Alternative Full Art) (Brilliant Stars - 154/172)

And with the podium finalist, it wouldn't be hard to imagine Charizard being here, due to its secret illustration, which is very much like the exclusive promotional Charizard-EX (276/XY-P) in Japan.

Like its evolution versions mentioned in the list, both V Full Art (7th place) and VStar (6th place), Charizard-V presents the same problems in the current competitive standard format, but it doesn't take away its potential collector value.

Surprisingly, during the São Paulo regionals, one of the top 8 of the event, Thiago Giovannetti, used a deck based on the Whimsicott-VStar line, which surprised everyone and made the card valued, before being considered a “meme” card:

Whimsicott-V (Brilliant Stars – 65/172)

Whimsicott-V has 250 HP, Psychic-type, weakness to Metal-type, no resistance, for an energy as a retreat cost, and has two attacks (one of which is VStar):

Trick Wind (for one Psychic Energy and two Colorless Energy) based on 160 damage, and during your opponent's next turn, they won't be able to play Item Cards or add Special Energy from their hand to their Pokémon.

Fluffball Star (for a psychic energy - VStar) deals 60 base damage, but the value of this damage can be increased by 60 more for each energy attached to Whimsicott and you can still choose any opponent's Pokémon to apply the damage.

The conclusion that I can draw to give you as a study is that we can, yes, surprise with cards that are passed unnoticed to the public, except for Arceus, which is obviously a strong card. But Whimsicott proved it could get into a big regional classification.

So, the tip is: study the entire expansion and don't just embrace one cause when a card is the moment's trend. Anyone can have their space at the right time and time.