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Beedrill V card art from Astral Radiance swsh10-001

Image courtesy of TCGdex.net

Overview

Beedrill V is a Basic Grass-type Pokémon card issued as part of the Astral Radiance expansion (SwSh10). As a holo rare V card, it represents a member of the V series introduced during the Sword & Shield era, designed to push aggressive Grass-type strategies while offering resilient HP and two distinctly different attacks. The card sits within the broader Beedrill family lineage, providing a mix of coin-flip variability and mass-damage potential that can influence both single-match plays and deck-building archetypes focused on Beedrill synergy.

Card Information

Name: Beedrill V
Set: Astral Radiance (SwSh10)
Card Number: swsh10-001
Rarity: Holo Rare V
Type: Grass
HP: 210
Stage: Basic
Suffix: V
Attacks:
- Twineedle — Grass energy; Effect: Flip 2 coins. This attack does 40 damage for each heads. Damage shown as 40× depending on coin results.
- Swarming Sting — Grass, Grass, Colorless energy; Effect: This attack deals 50 damage to 1 of your opponent's Pokémon for each Beedrill V in play. (Weakness and Resistance are not applied to Benched Pokémon for this effect.)
Retreat Cost: 1
Regulation Mark: F
Legal in: Expanded (not standard)
Illustrator: Not specified in the provided data
Weaknesses: Not specified in the provided data
Evolution: Basic Beedrill V card; does not list a preceding evolution on this card itself. It is part of the Beedrill family within the Beedrill line, but as a V-card, it functions as a standalone Basic Pokémon in this context.

Gameplay and Strategy

Beedrill V offers a blend of immediate offense and scaling potential through its two attacks. The Twineedle attack provides a coin-flip mechanic, encouraging strategies that maximize the expected damage with two flips. Depending on coin results, this attack can produce multiple instances of 40 damage in a single use, creating volatility that some lists embrace for burst damage against key targets. The second attack, Swarming Sting, scales its damage with the number of Beedrill V in play, promoting deck-building that can flood the bench with Beedrill V copies to push higher damage thresholds in mid-to-late-game stages.

Key strategic considerations include:

Beedrill V as a central pivot: The Swarming Sting attack rewards players for maintaining multiple Beedrill V in play. This makes Beedrill V a natural anchor for decks designed to leverage “in-play count” mechanics, where the board state grows in number of Beedrill V to amplify damage output.
Coin-flip variance: Twineedle's damage is contingent on coin results. Players must consider risk tolerance, as the attack can deliver high damage with favorable flips but offers no guaranteed baseline.
Resource management: The Grass energy cost on Twineedle and the higher energy demand for Swarming Sting necessitate efficient energy acceleration and resource cycling to keep Beedrill V consistently active across turns.
Retreat and protection: With a retreat cost of 1, Beedrill V can disengage from unfavorable matchups, provided the player has the energy and mobility to reposition or re-attack without over-committing resources.
Format considerations: Beedrill V is legal in Expanded but not in Standard at the time reflected by the data. This positions the card within a broader ecosystem of rotation and format-specific metagames, influencing which archetypes it complements (e.g., decks that capitalize on Quick Beedrill V deployment and synergy with Grass-energy acceleration).

In deck design, Beedrill V may pair effectively with support Pokémon and Trainer cards that help to accelerate Grass energy attachment, draw power, and board stability. Its two-attack profile invites a balance between aggressive early pressure (Twineedle) and late-game power spikes (Swarming Sting) as the number of Beedrill V in play increases. The card’s basic status simplifies early-game deployment, allowing players to place Beedrill V on the bench and transition into more complex plays as the matchup unfolds.

Collector and Market Information

As a holo rare V card from the Astral Radiance set, Beedrill V occupies a notable slot for collectors focusing on V cards from this expansion. The card’s market performance reflects its dual nature as both a playable Pokémon card and a sought-after holo variant. Pricing data captured in late 2025 provides a snapshot of its market standing:

Card Market (EUR): Updated 2025-10-31. Average price around €1.07 with a low of €0.15. The 30-day and 7-day averages indicate a modest but stable demand, with a historical trend value around 0.9, suggesting mild upward movement in price relative to prior periods.
TCGPlayer (USD): Updated 2025-10-31. Holofoil versions show a low price near $0.40, a mid price around $1.02, a high price of $9.99, market price approximately $1.11, and a direct low price of about $1.75. This range reflects the variability seen in holo V cards, influenced by condition, edition, and market availability.

These figures illustrate typical holo V card pricing dynamics for modern Pokémon TCG releases: relatively accessible entry price for casual collectors and competitive players, with occasional spikes driven by demand, condition, or bundling in new product waves. The dataset also notes that the card is not listed as a first edition in the provided variant information, aligning with its general release status within Astral Radiance.

In terms of format viability, the card’s Expanded legality ensures it remains eligible for modern competitive play within the Expanded environment, while its Standard eligibility is not supported according to the provided data. Collectors may also track pricing trends across multiple marketplaces to gauge broader demand and potential long-term value, especially for holo versions that often carry premium in the secondary market relative to non-holo counterparts.

Art and Lore

The artwork accompanying Beedrill V contributes to the visual identity of the Astral Radiance collection, which draws from the broader beekeeping and forest-adjacent motifs associated with Beedrill’s evolution line. The illustration for this specific card is not detailed in the provided data; as such, the article notes that illustrator attribution and narrative lore tied to the card are not specified here. The Beedrill family, depicted through various card iterations, often emphasizes a naturalistic yet dynamic depiction of Beedrill in flight or poised for assault, aligning with the competitive energy of the V-class cards in the Sword & Shield era.

While no explicit in-universe lore is attached to Beedrill V within this dataset, the card’s inclusion in the Beedrill lineage reinforces the thematic linkage between Beedrill and Beedrill V’s dual-attack design, which can be read as a modern reinterpretation of Beedrill’s historically quick, martial playstyle within the TCG’s evolving ruleset.

Trivia

First in Set: This card carries the number swsh10-001, indicating its position at the beginning of the Astral Radiance set’s card numbering sequence.
Format and legality: Beedrill V is legal in Expanded format but not in Standard according to the dataset, reflecting the ongoing rotation and format segmentation within the Pokémon TCG ecosystem.
V-card mechanics: The Swarming Sting attack’s effectiveness scales with the number of Beedrill V in play, highlighting a strategic emphasis on bench management and board presence as a core aspect of its play pattern.
Market diversity: Pricing data shows a broad range for holo variants, illustrating how modern holo rares can demonstrate significant price dispersion influenced by card condition, market cycles, and supply dynamics.
Illustration attribution: Illustrator details are not provided in the dataset, leaving attribution and specific art notes to external databases and the official card information resources.

Notes on Data Source

The information presented here is drawn from the provided card data for swsh10-001, Beedrill V, including set details, attack text, HP, retreat cost, regulation marks, legality, pricing estimates, and variant information. Where data fields are not specified (e.g., illustrator, weaknesses), the article notes their absence and avoids assumptions beyond the supplied content. Pricing figures are timestamped to late 2025 and reflect reported values from CardMarket and TCGPlayer as of the given dates.

References

Beedrill V (swsh10-001) – Astral Radiance card data (pricing, legality, attacks): provided dataset
Astral Radiance – Set overview and card count references from official card databases: dataset
Market pricing data – CardMarket and TCGPlayer records as of 2025-10-31: dataset

📘 Beedrill V