Some warriors prefer to battle with fiery passion, while others favor cold logic and bone-chilling strategy that freeze an opponent in their tracks. The Pokémon TCG: Sword & Shield—Chilling Reign expansion caters mostly to the latter, boasting Pokémon that coolly dispense damage with the support cards to maximize their effectiveness. The soon-to-be-released expansion includes more than 190 cards to overwhelm even the staunchest opposition. Here is a glimpse at a few of the cards that will be available in the Sword & Shield—Chilling Reign expansion!

Ice Rider Calyrex VMAX

This Pokémon strikes icy terror into the hearts of opponents with its kingly splendor, substantial HP, and attacks capable of Knocking Out most Pokémon with a single strike. This Pokémon VMAX has an HP of 320, which will surely make it difficult for your opponent to collect three Prize cards for successfully defeating it. Its attacks have the potential to deal a ton of damage—despite what you see at first glance. For example, Ride of the High King deals an unimpressive 10 damage, but the strength of the attack grows with the depth of your opponent’s Benched Pokémon, increasing the potential total of 160. Ice Rider Calyrex VMAX’s second attack operates on a similar principle: Max Lance starts out dealing 10 damage, but you can discard up to two Energy from the Pokémon and deal an additional 120 damage for each one. This brings the attack to a hefty 250 damage!

Shadow Rider Calyrex VMAX

This VMAX Pokémon boasts an Ability with a really cool name and a fantastic Energy-accelerating functionality. Once during your turn, the Underworld Door Ability allows you to attach a Psychic Energy to a Benched Psychic-type Pokémon and draw two cards. Psychic-type decks will feast on the double advantage of drawing cards and allocating Energy cards to Benched Pokémon. Speaking of which, Shadow Rider Calyrex VMAX’s Max Geist attack benefits from all that Psychic Energy in play, dealing 10 base damage and an additional 30 damage for every Psychic Energy attached to all of your Pokémon. Of course, the Pokémon’s impressive 320 HP doesn’t hurt either.

Fog Crystal

Rather than obscuring the path to victory, Fog Crystal reveals a solid strategic course forward, especially for decks featuring Shadow Rider Calyrex V. At the start of any match, it’s often a challenge to draw sufficient Basic Pokémon and Energy cards to launch an effective attack strategy. Fog Crystal is an Item card that allows you to search your deck for either a Psychic Energy card or a Basic Psychic-type Pokémon and add it to your hand. While illustrator sadaji’s Fog Crystal might appear simple, never underestimate the value of an Energy card or Basic Pokémon at a critical moment in battle.

Old Cemetery

This is a card you might be tempted to save for All Hallows’ Eve or a blood moon. But if you’re rocking a Psychic-focused deck like Shadow Rider Calyrex, Old Cemetery is a Stadium card that could come in handy just about any day you choose to battle. This Stadium Trainer card by illustrator Oswaldo KATO depicts a wonderfully ghoulish cemetery likely filled with restless spirits. It also packs an unpleasant punch against anyone who intends to battle with non-Psychic-type Pokémon: When this card is in play, if a player attaches an Energy card from their hand to any Pokémon other than Psychic type, put two damage counters on that Pokémon.

Castform

This expansion might be called Sword & Shield—Chilling Reign, but the number of available Castform offers a variety of weather conditions to enjoy and make use of over the course of a battle. There are four Castform in total: Sunny Form, Snowy Form, Rainy Form, and Normal form. And each Castform boasts the Weather Reading Ability, so if you have eight or more Stadium cards in your discard pile, you can ignore all Energy in the Pokémon’s attack costs. It might take some effort to get eight Stadium cards in the discard pile, but it will surely pay off later in the game.

Look forward to embracing the chilling thrill of victory when the new expansion launches on June 18! Learn more about the Pokémon TCG: Sword & Shield—Chilling Reign expansion.