Pokemon TCG Officially Announces Chilling Reign Expansion

The Pokemon Trading Card Game has officially announced its next expansion, which focuses on Pokemon introduced in the "Crown Tundra" DLC of Pokemon Sword and Shield. The Pokemon Company has officially announced its "Chilling Reign" expansion, which previously leaked online earlier this month. The new set will feature over 190 cards, including 15 Pokemon V cards, 8 Pokemon VMAX cards, and a number of different Single Strike and Rapid Strike cards that continue the Battle Styles mechanic introduced in the just released Battle Styles expansion. In addition to Calyrex, the new expansion will also include the Galarian versions of Articuno, Zapdos, and Moltres. The Chilling Reign set will officially release on June 18th.

Two of the announced cards for the set are the Ice Rider Calyrex VMAX and Shadow Rider Calyrex VMAX, which were just revealed in Japan. Ice Rider Calyrex has two attacks - one that increases in damage for every Benched Pokemon controlled by an opponent and one that does up to 250 damage (but requires the discarding of some energy.) Meanwhile, the Shadow Rider Calyrex VMAX card allows players to attach a Psychic Energy to a benched Pokemon and draw two cards as a passive ability and has an attack that deals damage based on the number of energy cards attached to all of a player's Pokemon.

The new set continues a strong year for the Pokemon Trading Card Game. To date, the Pokemon TCG has released two sets - a special Shining Fates set that contains a number of Shiny Pokemon cards, and the aforementioned "Battle Styles" expansion. Grabbing packs of both sets are rather difficult right now, due to immensely higher than expected demand and lower supply caused by the pandemic. The Pokemon Company has promised reprints of recent expansions and increased supply moving forward to deal with the increased popularity of the game.