Full card list: VSTAR Universe card list → every card by number with rarity, individual card pages and in-stock PSA 10 prices.
Two flagship Japanese high class packs, three years apart, and a gap between their current box prices that has nothing to do with which set pulled better cards. Tag All-Stars (SM12a) closed out the Sun & Moon era in October 2019 as a “best of” reprint pack. VSTAR Universe (s12a) closed out Sword & Shield three years later with an entirely new card pool and a god pack chase. Today, one of those two boxes costs roughly seven times what the other one does.
This guide puts Tag All-Stars and VSTAR Universe side by side — release timing, rarity structure, chase cards, and current box pricing out of our own Tokyo stock — so you can see exactly where that price gap comes from before you decide which one to chase.
Tag All-Stars booster box is currently listed at ¥207,900; VSTAR Universe booster box is currently listed at ¥30,264 — roughly a 6.9x gap. SM12a is a reprint pack built around past Tag Team GX cards in new Special Art form; s12a is entirely new content with a community-reported god pack mechanic. SM12a launched October 4, 2019; s12a launched December 2, 2022, about 3 years and 2 months later.
Box prices are our current listed prices as of Aug 13, 2026, pulled directly from stock. Market-price snapshots and pull-rate estimates cited below come from our own previously published set guides and are dated individually — all pull rates are community-reported, unofficial estimates, not figures confirmed by The Pokemon Company. Dollar conversions are reproduced as printed in each dated source snapshot; implied exchange rates vary between snapshots and are not normalized.
Tag All-Stars vs VSTAR Universe: At a Glance
Both sets are Japanese high class packs, but they sit on opposite sides of a generational line — SM12a is the Sun & Moon era’s late flagship, s12a is the Sword & Shield era’s closing flagship.
| Category | Tag All-Stars (SM12a) | VSTAR Universe (s12a) |
|---|---|---|
| Release date | October 4, 2019 | December 2, 2022 |
| Pack / box config | 10 packs/box, 10 cards/pack | 10 packs/box, 10 cards/pack (see note below) |
| MSRP | ¥5,400/box | ¥5,500/box |
| Total cards | 173+ (SR, HR, UR included) | 262 (172 main + 90 secret) |
| Top rarity tier | SA / SR / HR / UR (Gold) / CHR | SAR / AR / UR |
| Content type | Reprint — past Tag Team GX cards in new form | New content, not a reprint set |
| God pack | Not documented in our SM12a source article | Yes — Pikachu AR #205 is god-pack exclusive |
| Currently listed (our box) | ¥207,900 | ¥30,264 |
The pack configuration deserves a caveat. Our own s12a source article states 10 packs per box, matching SM12a exactly — but a separate same-day comparison piece in our catalogue, covering a different high class pack pairing, notes that neither official Sword & Shield-era set page it checked actually lists a packs-per-box figure, and treats the number as an unofficial, industry-standard assumption rather than a confirmed Pokemon Company figure. We’re citing the widely used 10-pack figure here while flagging that it isn’t independently confirmed for s12a.
Reprint Pack vs New Content: Two Different Flagships
Tag All-Stars (SM12a) is a reprint set — it takes past Tag Team GX cards and reissues them in new Special Art (SA), Character Rare (CHR), and Gold Secret Rare (UR) treatments as a “best of” high class pack. It overlaps partially with the English Cosmic Eclipse set, though our source article is clear it isn’t a direct translation. Our SM12a guide also frames the CHR tier as a precursor to the concept that S8b VMAX Climax later built its entire secret-rare structure around.
VSTAR Universe (s12a) takes the opposite approach: entirely new content, not a reprint. Its 90-card secret-rare tier breaks down as 25 Pokemon SAR, 10 Supporter SAR, 37 AR, 14 SR, and 4 UR — the four URs being Origin Forme Dialga, Origin Forme Palkia, Giratina, and Arceus, printed as a connected panoramic gold-foil set. The English translation, Crown Zenith (January 2023), actually combines s12a with two other Japanese sets (Paradigm Trigger and Incandescent Arcana) rather than translating any one of them directly — the JPN-exclusive SARs and god pack mechanic don’t carry over to Crown Zenith at all.
If you want the full picture of every Tag Team GX era pull across multiple sets, not just SM12a, our best Tag Team GX cards guide covers the format from the beginning.
Tag All-Stars (SM12a): Set Breakdown
SM12a released October 4, 2019 with 173-plus cards including SR, HR, and UR tiers, at ¥5,400 MSRP. Its chase tier, by our own source article’s price listing:
| Rank | Card | Rarity | Price | Est. pull rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Arceus & Dialga & Palkia GX | SA | ~¥18,000 (~$128) | ~1/18 boxes |
| 2 | Reshiram & Zekrom GX | SA | ~¥12,000 (~$85) | ~1/18 boxes |
| 3 | Pikachu Secret Rare (Gold) | UR | ~¥8,000 (~$57) | ~1/20 boxes |
Just below that top three, two more Tag Team GX SAs round out the set’s next tier — Pikachu & Zekrom GX SA at ~¥15,000 and Reshiram & Charizard GX SA at ~¥14,000:
Our source article does not document a god-pack mechanic anywhere in its text for SM12a. We can’t confirm one doesn’t exist — only that it isn’t recorded in our reference. For the full pull-rate table and complete chase-card rankings, see our Tag All-Stars pull rates and best cards guide.
VSTAR Universe (s12a): Set Breakdown
s12a released December 2, 2022 as a 262-card set (172 main + 90 secret) at ¥5,500 MSRP, roughly three years and two months after SM12a. Top chase tier from our source article’s Top 10 table, dated as of March 2026:
| Rank | Card | Rarity | Price (Mar 2026) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Pikachu #205 (god pack only) | AR | ~¥21,000 |
| 2 | Giratina VSTAR #261 | UR | ~¥16,000 (~$156) |
| 3 | Arceus VSTAR #262 | UR | ~¥10,000 (~$90) |
Pikachu #205 AR is pulled only through the god pack — our source article documents this as a real mechanic but doesn’t give confirmed odds for it, so we’re not stating a probability here.
Our s12a source article carries more than one figure for the same cards at different dates, and both figures appear in our own coverage. The Top 10 table above (dated March 2026) puts Pikachu AR at ~¥21,000 and Giratina VSTAR UR at ~¥16,000; a separate FAQ answer in the same article, dated August 12, 2026, puts them at approximately ¥27,000 (~$166) and approximately ¥30,000 (~$184) respectively. Box pricing shows the same pattern — ~¥22,800 in the March 2026 set-overview table versus ~¥30,990 in an August 2026 update note. We’re citing all figures with their dates rather than picking one; our own current listed box price below reflects today’s stock, not any of these historical snapshots.
For the full pull-rate tables and probability breakdowns, see our VSTAR Universe pull rates and best cards guide.
Chase Card Showdown
Side by side, using each set’s own source-article price listing — note these come from different dated snapshots, not one shared measurement date:
| Set | Card | Rarity | Price (dated) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tag All-Stars | Arceus & Dialga & Palkia GX | SA | ~¥18,000 |
| Tag All-Stars | Reshiram & Zekrom GX | SA | ~¥12,000 |
| Tag All-Stars | Pikachu Secret Rare (Gold) | UR | ~¥8,000 |
| VSTAR Universe | Pikachu #205 | AR | ~¥21,000 (Mar) / ~¥27,000 (Aug) |
| VSTAR Universe | Giratina VSTAR #261 | UR | ~¥16,000 (Mar) / ~¥30,000 (Aug) |
| VSTAR Universe | Arceus VSTAR #262 | UR | ~¥10,000 (Mar) |
SM12a’s single-card ceiling tops out at Arceus & Dialga & Palkia GX SA around ¥18,000. VSTAR Universe’s god-pack-only Pikachu AR runs higher even at the more conservative March 2026 figure, and the August 2026 FAQ figure puts it higher still. The structural difference is that s12a’s top chase requires a documented rare pull mechanic on top of a normal pack pull; SM12a’s chase tier has no equivalent gating that our source article records.
The 6.9x Box Price Gap: What It Means
The single-card chase prices above don’t explain why the sealed boxes sit roughly ¥177,600 apart today. SM12a is currently listed at ¥207,900; s12a is currently listed at ¥30,264. Both launched at nearly identical MSRPs — ¥5,400 and ¥5,500 — so the gap has opened up entirely after release.
The clearest structural difference between the two is age. SM12a released in October 2019, nearly seven years before this writing, versus s12a’s December 2022 release. Sealed product from a set that old, and no longer in production, draws its box price from box scarcity itself — not just from what’s inside it. A box’s chase-card odds tell you what you might pull; how long a set has been out of print is a separate factor entirely, and it’s the one doing most of the work here.
If you’re weighing VSTAR Universe against a different Sword & Shield-era sibling instead of a Sun & Moon-era reprint pack, our VMAX Climax vs VSTAR Universe guide covers that pairing, where both boxes sit much closer together on price.
Which One Should You Buy?
Five honest decision points, based only on what’s documented above:
- Want the lower entry price on the box itself? VSTAR Universe, currently listed at roughly a seventh of Tag All-Stars’ price.
- Want a documented rare-pull mechanic on top of the normal chase tier? VSTAR Universe’s god pack is a real, source-documented feature. Tag All-Stars’ source article has no equivalent recorded.
- Want reprints of classic Tag Team GX cards you may already recognize, in new Special Art form? Tag All-Stars is built entirely around that concept; VSTAR Universe is new content, not reprints.
- Want a lower-cost graded single as an entry point instead of a box? VSTAR Universe singles start at ¥8,755 and Tag All-Stars singles at ¥10,299 — see the table below.
- Want to own the older, out-of-print flagship at whatever the current market asks? Tag All-Stars, seven years removed from release, is the one currently commanding the premium — and that premium is a function of scarcity, not documented pull rates.
Neither box is objectively the better buy. One is a scarce, seven-year-old reprint pack; the other is a newer set with a documented chase mechanic and a much lower current entry price. The right pick depends on whether you’re chasing nostalgia and scarcity or a lower-cost shot at a god-pack pull.
PSA 10 Singles From Both Sets
If you’d rather buy a specific graded card than open a box, we currently carry PSA 10 singles from both sets:
| Card | Set / # | Rarity | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Umbreon & Darkrai GX (update: currently sold out — restock requests via Quick Order) | SM12a 181/173 | SR | ¥67,045 |
| Lucario & Melmetal GX (update: currently sold out — restock requests via Quick Order) | SM12a 224/173 | UR | ¥33,990 |
| Dedenne GX (update: currently sold out — restock requests via Quick Order) | SM12a 048/173 | RR | ¥15,243 |
| Marshadow & Machamp GX (update: currently sold out — restock requests via Quick Order) | SM12a 067/173 | RR | ¥10,299 |
| Mewtwo VSTAR | s12a 221/172 | SAR | ¥34,460 |
| Entei V (update: currently sold out — restock requests via Quick Order) | s12a 213/172 | SAR | ¥17,320 |
| Radiant Charizard (update: currently sold out — restock requests via Quick Order) | s12a 015/172 | K | ¥11,070 |
| Zeraora VMAX (update: currently sold out — restock requests via Quick Order) | s12a 219/172 | SAR | ¥9,451 |
| Galarian Moltres (update: currently sold out — restock requests via Quick Order) | s12a 190/172 | AR | ¥9,332 |
| Grant | s12a 238/172 | SAR | ¥8,755 |
Four of the singles above come from Tag All-Stars, six from VSTAR Universe — that split reflects what’s currently in our case, not a statement about which set produced more graded copies. Check our Quick Order page for the latest availability across both sets.
Where to Buy Tag All-Stars and VSTAR Universe
We ship Japanese sealed product and PSA 10 singles worldwide from Tokyo with tracked delivery. Both boxes below come from current listings.
Browsing more broadly? Our booster box collection carries sealed product across both eras, and our PSA 10 singles collection covers graded cards beyond just these two sets. For a mixed order combining sealed product and singles, use our Quick Order page.
Published alongside this guide, our sibling comparison covers GX Ultra Shiny vs Shiny Star V, another flagship-versus-flagship pairing from the same GX and Sword & Shield high-class-pack lineage.
Frequently Asked Questions
What’s the main difference between Tag All-Stars and VSTAR Universe?
Content type. Tag All-Stars (SM12a) is a reprint pack — it reissues past Tag Team GX cards in new Special Art, Character Rare, and Gold Secret Rare form. VSTAR Universe (s12a) is entirely new content with a documented god pack mechanic for its god-pack-exclusive top chase, Pikachu AR #205. SM12a’s source article has no equivalent god-pack feature on record.
Which box is cheaper right now?
VSTAR Universe, currently listed at ¥30,264 versus Tag All-Stars at ¥207,900 — roughly a 6.9x gap at today’s prices, despite both sets launching at nearly identical MSRPs (¥5,400 and ¥5,500).
Why is Tag All-Stars so much more expensive than VSTAR Universe?
Age and scarcity. Tag All-Stars released in October 2019, roughly seven years before this writing and well out of print; VSTAR Universe released in December 2022. Neither set’s chase-card prices explain the box-level gap on their own — long out-of-print sealed product carries a scarcity premium on the box itself, separate from what’s inside it.
Does Tag All-Stars have a god pack?
Our SM12a source article does not document a god-pack mechanic. We can’t confirm one doesn’t exist — only that it isn’t recorded in our reference. VSTAR Universe’s god pack, by contrast, is explicitly documented as the only way to pull Pikachu AR #205.
What are the top chase cards in each set?
In Tag All-Stars, Arceus & Dialga & Palkia GX SA topped our source article’s listing at ~¥18,000. In VSTAR Universe, Pikachu AR #205 — god pack only — was priced at ~¥21,000 in a March 2026 snapshot and ~¥27,000 in an August 2026 update, both figures appearing in the same source article.
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