Silver Tempest Lugia: V Alt Art, VSTAR Secret Rare, and the End-of-SWSH Collector Case
By Dexhaul Team · September 7, 2026
Silver Tempest has two Lugia chase cards at very different prices, and most buyers only know about one of them.
The Lugia VSTAR 202/195 Rainbow Secret Rare trades raw at $40–$55 from independent sellers. The Lugia V 186/195 Alternate Art starts at $506 raw and reaches $1,838 in a PSA 10 slab. Both appeared in the same set, both pull from the same booster packs, and both depict the same Lugia. The price difference isn't about rarity tiers. It's about art direction and the collector demand each card attracts.
Here's the full chase card ladder for Silver Tempest's Lugia cards, what each one costs in 2026, and how to decide which tier is the right target for your collection.
Why Silver Tempest Is the Lugia Set
Silver Tempest (SWSH12) is the final Sword & Shield set. Released in November 2022, it closed a two-and-a-half-year product line that introduced the V, VMAX, and VSTAR mechanics. When the Scarlet & Violet era launched in 2023, it replaced those mechanics entirely with ex and the new illustration rare system. VSTAR cards cannot appear in any future set.
Lugia anchors Silver Tempest the way Charizard anchors its showcase sets: multiple cards at multiple rarity tiers, the design used across the set's marketing, and the highest-value pulls in the product. The Silver Tempest Lugia V 186/195 Alternate Art is one of the most discussed cards from the entire SWSH era.
That context matters for collectors because sealed Silver Tempest ETBs and booster boxes remain available from independent sellers in 2026. Each box pulled today is drawing from the same product that produced those early Lugia Alt Art hits.
The Four Lugia Cards, Ranked
1. Lugia V 186/195 Alternate Art: The True Chase Card
This is the card the W37 priority memo pointed to as "the end-of-SWSH era chase card," and the market price supports that framing.
The 186/195 is an Alternate Full Art: a card where the artwork breaks the standard framing and covers the entire card surface in a painted or illustrated style distinct from the base card art. Lugia's Alt Art uses deep blues and oceanic imagery, positioning the Diving Pokémon mid-motion in a way the standard Full Art (183/195) does not.
Raw NM copies from independent sellers sit at $506–$600. Graded copies climb fast: PSA 9s start around $493–$530, and a PSA 10 is listed at $1,838 from Australian seller House of Cards N Collectables. The price floor on this card has been remarkably stable since late 2022, which suggests the demand comes from collectors who want the card specifically, not speculators chasing short-term flips.
2. Lugia VSTAR 202/195 Rainbow Secret Rare: The Attainable Tier
The 202/195 is the Rainbow Rare treatment of Lugia VSTAR: the same VSTAR card overprinted with a multicolored metallic foiling across the full card surface. Rainbow Rares were introduced in SWSH and retired with it, making every Rainbow Rare from this era a permanently closed print run.
Raw NM copies range from $39.75 to $55 across active listings, with most sellers clustering around $40–$45. A PSA 9 slab is listed at $55. These are the most accessible Lugia Secret Rares in the set and the most commonly searched when buyers type "Lugia VSTAR silver tempest" into a product search engine.
The price gap between 202/195 and 186/195 is approximately 12x. That gap isn't a mispricing. Rainbow Rares trade on foil novelty; Alternate Arts trade on artistic execution. Collectors who care about illustration quality consistently prioritize the latter, which is why Alt Arts have outperformed Rainbow Rares as a category throughout the SWSH era.
3. Lugia VSTAR 211/195 Gold Secret Rare: The Graded-Play Tier
The 211/195 is the Gold Secret Rare variant of Lugia VSTAR: a full-gold card replacing the standard art with a textured gold treatment. Gold Secrets trade at lower prices than Rainbow Secrets in this set.
Raw NM copies are listed from $28 to $30 across multiple sellers, with a CGC 9.5 slab at $50 and an SGC 10 at $72.99. This is the budget entry point for collectors who want any Lugia Secret Rare from SWSH12 in their binder.
The Gold Secret is also the only Lugia card in this price range that grades well at a cost competitive with the raw price. A $30 raw card submitted to a budget grading service can return a PSA 8 or 9 that resells above the grading cost, which makes the 211/195 more interesting for collector-graders than the 202/195 at similar effort.
4. Lugia VSTAR 139/195 Ultra Rare: The Budget Entry
The base Lugia VSTAR Ultra Rare (139/195) is the most accessible Lugia card in this set at $6.49 raw from Key Items Collectibles. PSA 10 slabs are listed at $100–$120 from multiple sellers, representing the widest grading premium of any Lugia card in the set relative to raw price.
This card is worth knowing about because it's the one collectors often miss when budgeting a Lugia binder page. A complete Silver Tempest Lugia run requires four cards: 139/195, 183/195 (the standard Full Art), 202/195, and 211/195. The Alt Art 186/195 is the fifth if you're building comprehensive. The 139/195 is cheaper than a booster pack and confirms the full-set slot.
Sealed Product: The Silver Tempest ETB
Silver Tempest ETBs include 8 booster packs plus accessories. At $149.90–$180 from independent sellers in 2026, they pull from the same print run as the original 2022 release.
One thing the ETB cannot do: guarantee a Lugia pull. The Lugia V Alt Art (186/195) and VSTAR Rainbow Rare (202/195) are Secret Rares with the same low pull frequency as any high-rarity card in the set. Eight packs from an ETB cover roughly 8 chances at any Secret Rare in the set, and Silver Tempest has many Secret Rare slots.
If your target is the Lugia Alt Art specifically, buying the single outright from an independent seller is a more direct path than pack opening at current prices. Sealed product makes sense when you want the set experience across multiple cards, when you're building a collection that benefits from factory-sealed provenance, or when you plan to grade anything you pull.
Which Lugia Card to Target
The decision depends on what the card is for.
Binder collectors building a Lugia page: start with the 211/195 Gold Secret and the 139/195 Ultra Rare to hold the rarity slots at low cost. Add the 202/195 Rainbow Secret when budget allows. Treat the 186/195 Alt Art as the centerpiece purchase when the rest of the page is complete.
Graders: the 139/195 has the most favorable raw-to-PSA-10 spread. A near-mint raw copy at $6.49 submitting to PSA grades for around $20–$30 in fees can return a PSA 10 worth $100–$120. That math doesn't apply to the Alt Art, where the raw price is already $500+.
Sealed-product collectors: the Silver Tempest ETB is the only current sealed format that includes Lugia Secret Rare pull chances alongside accessories and sleeves from the same product cycle. There's no "Silver Tempest reprint" possible under current Pokémon TCG policy, because SWSH sets are a permanently closed era.
Search Silver Tempest Lugia on Dexhaul to compare current listings across independent sellers, or browse the full Trading Cards & TCG collection for the latest sealed product availability.