40 packs later, it’s time for me to chill on Chilling Reign. Fueled by off the strength of my newfound excitement for the game and the allure of potentially pulling a golden shiny Snorlax card, I made the bold move of buying a booster box. Kudos to my mother-in-law for giving Steff and I four extra packs to work with for a total of 40!

Before shifting our focus on the upcoming Evolving Skies set, let’s look back on some of the best cards pulled from our booster packs!

Shadow Rider Calyrex VMax (Regular and Rainbow Rare)

What a double whammy!

Shadow Rider Calyrex VMax isn’t just a gorgeous card. It’s widely regarded as one of the best in the game thanks to its Underworld Door ability that provides additional draws and energy acceleration. If you’re able to run a bench with four of these, the amount of energy you can provide to your team while also powering up the Max Geist attack can be absolutely devasting.

And we got two of them! The regular version was pulled from our booster box. The secret rainbow rare came from a booster pack that my mother-in-law gave us. Now if I only had a Shadow Rider Calyrex V…

Agatha (Rainbow Rare)

Agatha was the one secret rare from our booster box. I love the rainbow sparkle treatment to these cards and the move is pretty decent!

Tornadus VMax

Tornadus VMax was the first VMax card we pulled from the booster box. Its usefulness on the battlefield is a bit finicky, as you need to have a stadium in play to squeeze out its max potential of 40 damage. However, if you can build a deck with lots of stadium cards and double colourless energy, Tornadus VMax could be a beast!

Galarian Zapdos V

Little bummed that I only got one of the three Galarian legendary birds. But I’m certainly not disappointed in Galarian Zapdos V! I love how the holo makes the action lines feel like they’re popping off of the card.

More importantly, its Fighting Instinct ability makes it incredibly viable in the current meta. With so many decks being built around V and VMax cards, being able to reduce the cost of Thunderous Kick to as low as one fighting energy makes Zapdos V an incredibly efficient attacker!

Galarian Slowking

Galarian Slowking is a creepy looking card! It also has a very annoying attack called Word of Ruin. For just two energy, it can wipe out the defending Active Pokemon if it doesn’t move by the end of its turn!

At first blush, a near-instant KO with only two energy seems incredibly busted. In certain cases, it is! However, there are a lot of ways to nullify this effect, from Trainer cards that swap the Active Pokemon, to simply retreating. Maybe not as potent as I would have hoped, but I do have a digital version of this card and it’s single-handedly won me a few games online!

Volcanion V

Volcanion V was one of the first big cards we pulled from Chilling Reign. Heat Blast for 50 damage and two energy isn’t great. Where the true potential of this card lies is in Dynamite Tackle, which can hit for upwards of 250 if it’s already taken damage.

250 is enough to one-shot every regular Pokemon and I think every V as well. But you’re also going to have to minimize how much you initially take in order to unlock Dynamite Tackle’s full potential. Otherwise, you might get only one hit of Dynamite Tackle, if any at all.

Also can’t forget that Volcanion V is a Single Strike card! While I have no experience with building a deck focused around Single Strike or Rapid Strike, the synergies that can be created with other Single Strike Pokemon and Trainer cards could make this even more valuable.

Celebi V

Celebi is a fan favourite Pokemon and one that I was was hoping to pull in Chilling Reign. Thankfully we got one! While it won’t get much use out of its Slash Back attack, Leaflet Dance has the potential to distribute a ton of energy to the rest of your team in one fell swoop!

Though my photography doesn’t do it justice, Celebi’s iris is made with holo foil, which is a nice detail!

Liepard V (Full Art)

Liepard V was the one full art variant we pulled from Chilling Reign. It’s also only the 2nd full art card in our collection! Its Hidden Claw ability might be a bit too situational for it to be consistently effective, but the ability isn’t bad to have.

By contrast, Shadow Ripper seems way more useful. Having the option to shuffle Liepard V and all of its energy into your deck after landing a hit allows you to land one big hit while nullifying the risk of having Liepard knocked out on the next turn. Granted, having to shuffle Liepard V and three energy back into the deck is a big price to pay for that hit-and-run, but I can see a number of scenarios where it’s a worthwhile option.

Those are our big pulls from Chilling Reign! Based on my limited understanding of card distribution within booster boxes, pulling eight big cards is par for the course. Landing the rainbow rare Shadow Rider Calyrex VMax was a huge bonus!

At some point, I hope to find some time to write about the not-so-flashy cards that I admire. Until then, let me know what cards you got from Chilling Reign!

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