Three Galar starters, two base sets, and one preconstructed deck that quietly produced the chase card of the whole line — a secret Inteleon VMAX that never came out of a booster pack at all.
Grookey, Scorbunny, and Sobble debuted in Japan’s Sword and Shield sets back in December 2019, then went through the standard V/VMAX treatment two months later in VMAX Rising. That much is straightforward. What trips people up is the fourth print in the Inteleon line: a special-art secret numbered 023/022 that comes exclusively from the Inteleon VMAX High-Class Deck, not from any booster box. If you’re searching for an Inteleon Pokemon card or a Sobble Pokemon card and want to know which printing is which, this guide covers the full run — from the 060-card Sword and Shield base sets through the newest reprints.
The Galar starter line runs across four releases: the Sword/Shield base sets (2019), VMAX Rising V/VMAX cards (2020), the Inteleon VMAX High-Class Deck secret (2021), and a handful of newer reprints through 2025. Our stock anchor is the PSA 10 Inteleon VMAX 023/022 SA, currently listed at ¥15,862 (update: currently sold out — restock requests via Quick Order).
Card and set data below comes from the Limitless TCG Japanese database. Our own catalog price is noted where it applies — that’s the only figure in this guide reflecting our current stock, converted at ¥163/USD.
Every Galar Starter Print Worth Knowing
Grookey, Scorbunny, and Sobble each have a base print, a V, a VMAX, and a secret V. Inteleon adds a fifth, deck-exclusive secret that sits apart from the rest:
| Carta | Number | Rarity | Set | Year |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grookey | S1W 005/060 | C | Sword | 2019 |
| Scorbunny | S1H 007/060 | C | Shield | 2019 |
| Sobble | S1W 017/060 | C | Sword | 2019 |
| Rillaboom V / VMAX / V SR | S1a 008–009 / 071 | RR/RRR | VMAX Rising | 2020 |
| Cinderace V / VMAX / V SR | S1a 016–017 / 072 | RR/RRR | VMAX Rising | 2020 |
| Inteleon V / VMAX / V SR | S1a 022–023 / 073 | RR/RRR | VMAX Rising | 2020 |
| Inteleon VMAX (deck) | SGI 006/022 | — | High-Class Deck | 2021 |
| Inteleon VMAX SA | SGI 023/022 | SA | High-Class Deck | 2021 |
| Inteleon | M1S #69 | AR | Mega Symphonia | 2025 |
| Cinderace ex | SV7 018 / SR 116 | ex/SR | Stellar Miracle | 2024 |
Two things are worth flagging before we go set by set. First, the SA label on the Inteleon VMAX secret is a market-listing convention, not a rarity code printed on the card — more on that below. Second, Sword and Shield are separate SKUs (S1W and S1H), and Grookey, Scorbunny, and Sobble aren’t evenly split between them — Grookey and Sobble both shipped in Sword, while Scorbunny is a Shield exclusive.
Where They Started: Sword and Shield Base Cards
Sword (S1W) and Shield (S1H) launched together on December 6, 2019, as the first main sets of the Galar generation, each running 060 cards. The three starters appear as common basics — the cards most players and collectors run into first.
Grookey (Sword, 005/060) and Sobble (Sword, 017/060) both landed in the same set, while Scorbunny (Shield, 007/060) is the one card of the trio that requires the Shield SKU specifically. All three later got shiny-colored reprints in Shiny Star V (2020) — Grookey at S4a 203/190, Scorbunny at S4a 214/190, and Sobble at S4a 224/190 — and Sobble was reprinted again in VMAX Climax (S8b #36). None of that changes the card’s game text; it’s the same basic Pokemon across every printing, just wearing a different set of colors.
These base prints sit at the entry level of the whole Galar starter line, and they’re a reasonable starting point if you’re building a Sword and Shield-era collection rather than chasing the secret rares. For the wider context of what else shipped in this era, our Sword & Shield era Japanese Pokemon card guide covers the sets around it.
The V/VMAX Line: VMAX Rising
Two months after Sword and Shield, VMAX Rising (S1a) arrived on February 7, 2020, and gave all three starters — by then evolved to their final forms — a full V/VMAX treatment: a regular V, a VMAX, and a secret-rare V tucked into the 071–073 range.
Rillaboom runs V at 008/070 (RR), VMAX at 009/070 (RRR), and a secret-rare V at 071/070. Cinderace mirrors it at 016/070, 017/070, and 072/070. Inteleon follows the identical pattern at 022/070, 023/070, and 073/070 — and this is the set where confusion sometimes creeps in, because Inteleon’s VMAX Rising card number (023/070) and its later High-Class Deck secret (023/022) share the same «023,» despite being two completely different cards from two different releases a year apart.
Because VMAX Rising is where all three final-evolution starters actually appear together as V and VMAX cards, a sealed box of this set is the direct route if you want a shot at any of the nine cards in this section in one purchase. Our S1A VMAX Rising Japanese Booster Box is currently listed at ¥105,000.
The Deck-Exclusive Secret: Inteleon VMAX 023/022
Released May 28, 2021, the Inteleon VMAX High-Class Deck is a 22-card preconstructed deck built around a single Pokemon rather than a booster set — and it’s a different kind of product from Sword, Shield, or VMAX Rising. This card didn’t come out of a booster pack. It comes out of the deck box. The regular in-deck Inteleon VMAX sits at 006/022 (illustrator not independently confirmed here); the deck’s secret — a second Inteleon VMAX with alternate artwork, illustrated by Kazuma Koda — is numbered 023/022, one past the deck’s own 22-card count.
That secret print is our stock anchor for this guide: the PSA 10 Inteleon VMAX 023/022, currently listed at ¥15,862 (update: currently sold out — restock requests via Quick Order). On the card itself, it’s a Colorless VMAX with 320 HP. Its ability, Double Shooter, lets you discard a Water Energy from hand to place two damage counters on each of two of your opponent’s Benched Pokemon — a strong disruption tool that made this card genuinely playable, not just a collector’s pull.
You’ll see this card listed online as «SA,» short for Special Art in market shorthand — but that’s a secondary-market convention, not a rarity code printed on the card itself. Our guide to SA and special-art rarities in Japanese cards walks through how that labeling gets applied across different sets and decks.
Because it’s deck-exclusive rather than booster-pulled, this Inteleon VMAX secret behaves differently from the V/VMAX Rising cards above — there’s no box to chase it through, and supply is tied to however many copies of the High-Class Deck itself circulated. For more on how these preconstructed-deck secrets work across the wider Sword and Shield era, our SwSh high-class decks guide covers the pattern beyond just Inteleon.
Newer Prints: 2024–2025
The Galar starter line didn’t stop in 2021. All three have continued to show up in newer sets, either as fresh evolutions or alternate-art reprints of the original artwork.
Inteleon got an Art Rare treatment in Mega Symphonia (M1S #69), released August 1, 2025, illustrated by Ligton. It’s a two-stage evolution at 150 HP with an attack (Shitomeru) that Knocks Out the Pokemon in play with the lowest remaining HP other than itself — a callback to Double Shooter’s disruption angle, five years later and in the current Mega era.
Cinderace got its own current-era update as Cinderace ex in Stellar Miracle (SV7, 2024), appearing at 018 with a Secret Rare print at 116 — a full four years after its original V/VMAX Rising cards, and a sign that Galar-era starters are still getting fresh treatments rather than fading out once the generation moved on. Rillaboom also has a higher-rarity Shiny Star V variant beyond its base VMAX — an SSR-rarity VMAX at S4a 305/190, part of the same 2020 shiny-colored wave that touched Grookey, Scorbunny, and Sobble’s base prints. Denominators on the newest Mega-era cards haven’t all been independently confirmed here, so treat any specific print run figures you see elsewhere for those as unverified.
Taken together, the pattern across all three starters is consistent: a common base print, a full V/VMAX cycle the following year, at least one shiny or alternate-art reprint within the next twelve months, and then periodic returns as the game moves through new eras. Inteleon is simply the line’s outlier, thanks to that deck-exclusive secret sitting outside the normal booster-box path.
Where to Buy Galar Starter Cards from Japan
We ship Japanese sealed product and graded singles worldwide from Tokyo with tracked delivery. For the V/VMAX line covering all three starters, a sealed VMAX Rising box is the most direct route to Rillaboom, Cinderace, and Inteleon in one purchase.
If you want the deck-exclusive Inteleon secret specifically rather than chasing it through packs, our graded single is the direct route: the PSA 10 Inteleon VMAX 023/022, currently listed at ¥15,862 (update: currently sold out — restock requests via Quick Order). For everything else in the lineup — the VMAX Rising box, other Galar-era singles, or a mixed order across sets — our Quick Order page is the fastest way to check current stock and build one checkout.
If you’re building out a wider starter collection, we’ve also covered the other generations: our Paldea starters cards guide covers Sprigatito, Fuecoco, and Quaxly, and our Sinnoh starters cards guide covers Turtwig, Chimchar, and Piplup.
Preguntas frecuentes
What is the rarest Inteleon Pokemon card?
Among the prints covered here, the deck-exclusive Inteleon VMAX secret (SGI 023/022) stands apart because it comes from the Inteleon VMAX High-Class Deck rather than any booster set. We currently list a PSA 10 copy of this print at ¥15,862.
Is the Inteleon VMAX 023/022 an official «SA» rarity?
No. SA is shorthand used in market listings for a special-art secret print. It isn’t a rarity code printed on the Japanese card itself, though the label is widely used to describe this exact printing.
Which set is the Sobble Pokemon card from?
The base Sobble print (017/060, common) is from the Sword set (S1W), released December 6, 2019. It was later reprinted with shiny coloring in Shiny Star V (S4a 224/190, 2020) and again in VMAX Climax (S8b #36).
Where can I buy Galar starter Pokemon cards from Japan?
We ship Japanese sealed product and graded singles worldwide from Tokyo. The S1H Shield V booster box covers base-set Scorbunny pulls, the S1A VMAX Rising box covers all three starters’ V/VMAX cards, and our graded PSA 10 Inteleon VMAX secret is available as an individual listing. Our Quick Order page is the fastest way to build a mixed order.
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