After being teased for several months via trademarks and other news, The Pokémon Company has officially unveiled the new VSTAR mechanic that will be added to the Pokémon TCG in a future set.
The first VSTAR card revealed is Arceus VSTAR, alongside its Arceus V counterpart.
VSTAR looks to be an alternate option for evolving Pokémon V outside of VMAX cards and will feature powerful abilities called VSTAR Power. These VSTAR Power abilities will only be usable once per game, meaning that a lot of them could potentially be game-winning or at least generate a major advantage for a player when used.
Arceus VSTAR will have the VSTAR Power Starbirth, which will allow a player to search for any two cards from their deck and add them to their hand during their turn. If that ability is anything to go off of, VSTAR will become a massively powerful mechanic in the TCG and players will transition almost entirely to featuring at least one usable evolutionary line in their decks.
We don’t have full confirmation on release details in the West, but Arceus VSTAR is the featured card for the upcoming Star Birth OCG set, which will release in Japan on Jan. 14, 2022. This matches Pokémon’s VSTAR Power theme and will likely be used as a tie-in for the release of Pokémon Legends: Arceus on Jan. 28.
