The Battle Styles cards worth grading are the alternate-art secret rares — Single Strike and Rapid Strike Urshifu VMAX — plus the top Ultra Rare V cards like Tyranitar V. Everything else in the set, including most base holos, costs more to grade than it gains in value. Sword & Shield—Battle Styles came out in English on March 19, 2021, built around Urshifu's Single Strike and Rapid Strike Gigantamax forms, according to Bulbapedia. The set runs 163 standard-numbered cards plus 20 secret rares above that number, 183 cards in total, and that secret-rare tier is where the grading math works.
Table of Contents
- The cards that clear the cost of grading
- What grading actually costs
- Why most of the set doesn't make the cut
- A lower-cost alternative for mid-value cards
The cards that clear the cost of grading
Tyranitar V, the Ultra Rare Alternate Full Art numbered #155/163, is Battle Styles' single most valuable raw card. Card Codex and Eyevot TCG both price it at roughly $221–$247 depending on the snapshot date, according to Card Codex and Eyevot TCG. At that raw price, a PSA 10 grade adds real resale value even after paying for the submission.
The two alternate-art secret rares built around the set's core mechanic follow close behind. Sports Card Investor logged the Single Strike Urshifu VMAX secret rare (#168/163) selling in PSA 10 for $90 on April 14, 2025, with other March–April 2025 PSA 10 sales ranging roughly $80–$135, according to Sports Card Investor. SportsCardPro lists the Rapid Strike Urshifu VMAX secret rare (#170/163) at roughly $133.79 in PSA 10 based on historic sales data, according to SportsCardPro. Those three cards — Tyranitar V and both Urshifu VMAX alternate arts — are the set's clearest grading candidates.
What grading actually costs
PSA's cheapest currently open submission tier is Regular service at $79.99 per card, covering declared values up to $1,500. PSA paused its four cheaper Value tiers on June 2, 2026, after its backlog neared 10 million cards, according to Misprint and AllVintageCards.
That $80 floor changes the math for most of the set. A card has to sell for well above $80 in PSA 10 condition to make grading worthwhile once the submission fee, shipping, and the risk of a lower grade are factored in. Only cards already valuable raw, or ones that command a strong premium once slabbed, clear that bar with room to spare.
Why most of the set doesn't make the cut
Common holo cards from Battle Styles grade for modest sums. PokePrices lists Morpeko (#98) at about $37.95 and Pawniard (#103) at about $30.79 in PSA 10, compared with roughly $1 raw for Morpeko, according to PokePrices. Paying $80 to grade a card that tops out around $30–$38 slabbed is a loss before shipping is even added in.
That gap is the dividing line for the whole set. With PSA's lowest open tier running about $80 per card, only the alternate-art secret rares and the strongest Ultra Rare V cards clear that cost by a wide enough margin in PSA 10 to justify grading; most base holo and common cards in the set do not, based on the pricing data above. A reader checking a Battle Styles collection should sort pulls into these two piles before spending anything on submissions:.
- Grade: Tyranitar V (#155/163), Single Strike Urshifu VMAX secret rare (#168/163), Rapid Strike Urshifu VMAX secret rare (#170/163)
- Skip PSA grading: common and uncommon holos such as Morpeko and Pawniard, where PSA 10 value sits well under the submission fee
A lower-cost alternative for mid-value cards
Cards that fall in between — too valuable to ignore, not valuable enough to justify an $80 PSA submission — aren't automatically dead ends. CGC's bulk grading tier is reported open at $17 per card, a fraction of PSA's cost, giving collectors with mid-value Battle Styles cards a path to a graded slab without the $80 breakeven problem, according to Misprint.
That price gap matters most for cards sitting in the $30–$80 PSA-10 range, where PSA grading would erase most or all of the upside but CGC's lower fee still leaves room for a profit. A card like Pawniard or Morpeko, priced around $30–$38 in PSA 10, moves from a losing proposition under PSA's Regular tier to a plausible one under CGC's bulk pricing. Matching the grading company to the card's value tier, rather than defaulting to PSA for everything, is what keeps a mixed Battle Styles collection from losing money to fees.
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