Champion’s Path is a premium set of Pokemon cards that only be obtained through special collector’s sets or Elite Trainer Boxes. Unfortunately, there are no official options for buying the booster packs separately. In exchange, this set has some highly sought after cards, such as the elusive Shiny Charizard V.

Though I was originally planning on buying the cheaper Dubwool set just to get a taste, a miscommunication between Steff and I let to me going big with the Marnie set. Was the splurge worth it?

With this particular set focused on your Sword & Shield rival Marnie, this collection has a few nice touches touches that represent her. Two of her favourite Pokemon – Morpeko and Grimmsnarl – are recreated as pins. Steff is a pin collector, so she gets dibs on these.

Better yet, both Pokemon are included as V Basic cards. Morpeko is on the lower end of the health spectrum when it comes to V Basic cards, but it’s going to be a force against standard Pokemon, especially with that sneaky Electro Wheel attack.

Grimmsnarl V may not be as recognizable, but it seems like a more formidable Pokemon on the battlefield. This one reaches the 220 health plateau of many V Basic Pokemon while having a harder-hitting attack for only three energy. Yes, you have to take two back after each use, but this can be mitigated with other cards that specialize in energy acceleration.

The crown jewel of this set for me is the Marnie playmat. This large playmat looks great and I’ll get plenty of use out of this for playing the game and creating content. Even if the cards were a bust, the playmat will continue to be handy!

Oh yeah, the cards. Eight booster packs are contained within this set. As is the case with any collection of booster packs, results will vary. I won’t share everything I got, but here are a few highlights!

Across the eight packs, I was able to complete two full sets of the Machamp evolution line. Useful for the fighting deck I’m working on!

Incineroar appeared in my first pack, making it the first Pokemon I have in GX and V form! Flare Blitzer hits pretty hard, but Grand Flame might be the best attack here thanks to its ability to recover energy from the discard pile.

Altaria is an absolute wall! Gaining the modern equivalent of Alolan Ninetales’ Luminous Barrier, Altaria shuts down any attacks from V and GX Pokemon. Considering how powerful and popular these types of cards are, I hope I can get more of these to fortify my defense!

Steff pulled this Gardevoir V from one of her packs. This is the same one from the Gardevoir V Battle deck. Not the hardest puncher, but can be a force if backed by a deck that offers healing. Of the V Basic cards, this one is a fave of mine thanks to all of its holo details, such as her holo eye.

Steff also pulled a pair of Lucario V! Would have preferred more variety, but I’m psyched to have one of my fave Pokemon in the collection! Also, two Lucario V’s in addition to my Urshifu V is going to make my fighting deck hit hard!

Spoilers: we didn’t get the shiny Charizard this time. However, we did pull this full-art rainbow secret rare! What an absolutely stunning card!

I hate it when people reduce the success of their pack openings down to just the rare cards. Would love to delve deeper another time on those. But as a summary, landing five full-art cards out of eight booster packs is a pretty high hit rate!

Overall, I’m very pleased with the Marnie collection. We were able to collect just over half of the collection with these eight packs. The Morpeko and Grimmsnarl bonuses are nice. Surprisingly, the playmat was my favourite part! Will be getting plenty of use from it going forward.

If you’re interested, please be careful when it comes to pricing. This set is one of the harder ones to track down and it’s oftentimes sold at a premium. Use the Pokemon Center pricing as a starting point and spend accordingly!