Swellow · Vivid Voltage, what to know.
About the Swellow card
Swellow sits at #134 in Vivid Voltage, released in November 2020. Vivid Voltage is part of the modern English Pokémon TCG era and uses the standard contemporary card frame and rarity tiers. Illustration by kodama. In the games, Swellow evolves from Taillow, which makes it a late-stage card in the line.
The flavor text on the card reads: "It dives at a steep angle as soon as it spots its prey. It catches its prey with sharp claws." Pokédex entries from this era are short and often quirky, written by the original Japanese localization team for a specific stat-block layout that no longer exists in modern cards.
Print variants and how to spot them
Vivid Voltage shipped in Holofoil, Reverse Holo, Full Art (V and VMAX), and Rainbow Rare. The Rainbow Pikachu VMAX (#188) is the defining Rainbow Rare pull from the set and one of the most iconic modern Pokémon cards.
Grading and condition
Modern Uncommons grade cleanly. The secondary market for graded modern Uncommons is mostly set-completionist driven; standalone demand is thin. Useful as a first grading submission to learn the process.
If you are buying this card
Raw copies of this card are inexpensive enough that the grading math rarely justifies submission unless you have a clearly pack-fresh example. For set completionists, picking up a clean raw copy and sleeving it is the practical move.
