Lost Abyss Pokémon TCG set and Giratina VSTAR officially revealed

The next Japanese Pokémon TCG set has officially been revealed, with Lost Abyss set to release on July 15 with over 100 new cards. 

Thie biggest reveals in this set include the first look at Giratina V, Giratina VSTAR, several Trainer cards, and the return of the Lost Zone game mechanic. 

Lost Zone is a mechanic that ads a second “out of play” discard pile tied to certain Pokémon attacks, abilities, or other card effects. These can’t be retrieved once inside unless another attack, ability, or card effect is used to bring them back. 

With that, the new Giratina cards, along with several others like a new Cramorant, Banette, Comfey, and several Trainer cards like Colress’s Experiment, Lost Sweeper, and Mirage Gate all play into the Lost Zone, which will return for the first time since  2018’s Ultra Prism set. 

Giratina VSTAR actually has a VSTAR Power attack called Star Requiem that will instantly knock out the opponent’s Active Pokémon but can only be used once per game and you need to have 10 or more cards in the Lost Zone to meet the usage requirements. Feeding Giratina VSTAR will also be easier thanks to some of the other cards in this set, such as the Mirage Gate and Lost City, which you can read full translations of on PokeBeach. 

A decent chunk of the cards contained in Lost Abyss will make their way into the English TCG on Sept. 9 with the release of Lost Origin. Considering that will also bundle in a portion of the cards from the already released Dark Phantasma set, however, a lot of content from the full sets will likely be cut too.