Pokemon TCG: Card Rarities, Explained (2024)

FAQs

How do Pokemon card rarities work? ›

A Pokémon card's rarity indicates how scarce a given card is compared to cards from the same set, but many other factors affect price on the secondary market. Pokémon cards from older sets are generally harder to find, so old commons like can be more valuable than recent Ultra Rares like .

The black symbol in the bottom corner of a Pokemon card denotes its rarity: a circle is common, a diamond is uncommon, and a star is rare. Traditionally the star is black, but a card with a star of an alternate color such as white or gold means it's ultra rare.

Each card has a rarity, ranging from common (the most frequently included cards) to super rare (the least frequently included cards). The standard distribution of cards in a booster pack is 6 common cards, 3 uncommon card, and 1 rare (or better) card.

Gold Rares are a bit rarer than Rainbow Rares, making them the rarest cards in the Pokemon TCG.

Description. This is a one of a kind Pokemon Pack that contains 5 Pokemon V cards. V Pokemon cards are some of the strongest in the game. They are all Ultra Rare, which make them difficult to pull out of any random booster pack.

Older versions of cards that don't have a regulation mark can still be used if the card is currently legal for play. For example, the card Rare Candy from the Sun & Moon expansion can still be used because the card Rare Candy from the Pokémon TCG: Pokémon GO expansion has an “F” regulation mark.

So there's one answer to the question of “how do you know if you have a rare Pokémon card?” If it has a star or an R in the lower right corner, it's “rare,” officially speaking.

Cards have four rarity ratings: Common, Uncommon, Rare, and Mythic Rare. As you can probably guess, the rarer a card's rating, the harder it will be to find a copy!

There are five "core" rarities in ascending order: common, uncommon, rare, very rare, and extra rare.

What are the 4 levels of rarity? ›

There are four main rarities (common, uncommon, rare, and mythic rare) and each one has different needs when it comes to design.

Cards come in five different Rarities, which are not to be confused with Card Sets. The five rarities are: Free, Common, Rare, Epic and Legendary.

The Gold Star Pokémon cards are one of the most valuable Pokémon sets ever produced, with Espeon and Umbreon two of the rarest cards in the set. Gold Star Pokémon cards are among the most valuable sets of Pokémon cards in existence and command an incredibly high value as a result.

Typical VMAX cards receive a rare designation, the rainbow versions are considered secret rare, and alt-art cards are ultra rare.

Odds of opening a Rainbow Rare card: 1 in 78. Average odds of opening a specific Rainbow Rare card: 1 in 1401.

Common cards are marked with a black circle, uncommon cards have a black diamond, and rare cards always have a black star. This is the basic way to tell the rarity of a card. Rare cards, for instance, are split into multiple different kinds of rarities.

The Hyper Rare version of Miraidon ex (253/198) also has an estimated 1 in 309 pull rate, as calculated by TCGPlayer. Hyper Rare cards tend to be harder to find than Special Illustration Rares, so this pull rate is based merely on TCGPlayer's somewhat lucky experience with over 8,000 booster packs.

The Pokemon TCG has some incredibly valuable cards of different types. However, a unique type of card that players also value is the reverse holographic. These cards can be of the rare holo rarity and lower, and they sport a shiny background with normal card art. This makes them some of the more sought-after cards.

Secret Rare (1 in 49)

Secret Rare cards are typically the rarest cards in a Pokémon set, though they aren't usually the most expensive. In Lost Origin there are 21 Secret Rare cards, and roughly 2% of Lost Origin booster packs contain one of them in the Rare slot.

With an incredibly low pull rate, alternate-art Umbreon VMAX is the most valuable Pokémon card you can open in the modern era and pushed Evolving Skies to become the most-opened set from Sword & Shield, which led to all of its sealed product prices rising as well.

What does G mean in Pokémon cards? ›

Retreat Cost, and Pokémon type, they will be noted as the following: G: Grass Energy symbol. R: Fire Energy symbol. W: Water Energy symbol. L: Lightning Energy symbol.

Guide to Rarity Symbols. Throughout this document, letters have been used to represent rarity symbols. H: rare Holo R: rare U: uncommon C: common RH-LV.

What does the D mean on the bottom of a Pokémon card? This is called a regulation mark, and it will be used in the future to determine which cards are legal to use in tournament play. For example, there might be a point in time when only cards with a “D” regulation mark can be used in the Standard format.

The Pokemon TCG has several unique types of monster cards with unique rules that change the game. The current generation version of this is Pokemon V. These cards usually depict fully evolved pokemon, but they still count as basic Pokemon, meaning you can summon them right away without the need for evolution.

HR - Hyper Rare

Hyper Rare cards, SR or RRR cards with a rainbow colour and different texturing.

E --> Epic. VR --> Very Rare. R --> Rare. C --> Common.

Common cards have a black circle. Uncommon cards have a black diamond. Rare cards have a black star. Rare Holo cards have a black star and a “shiny” (foil) illustration.

1-of-1 – A numbered card that is the only one in existence. These can be the most valuable cards, but not necessarily the most expensive. Logo Patch – A card featuring a team or league logo patch from a jersey. These are usually the most valuable of the 1-of-1's that exist.

Legendary. Legendary is the highest level of rarity, above Free, Common, Rare and Epic.

What comes after rare? ›

For steaks, common gradations include rare, medium rare, medium, medium well, and well done.

Well, for starters, "Amazing Rare" is a brand new type of card rarity that has been introduced in Japan, starting with Legendary Heartbeat. These cards are easily identifiable by a gorgeous prismatic rainbow background in the illustration, along with a unique "A" rarity symbol on the bottom left of the card.

In most new titles, especially RPGs, item rarity is colour coded in an easy to remember white-green-blue-purple-orange progression, sometimes with omissions (no green, no orange) or additions (extra silver or neon blue as ultra-rare).

A card's rarity, as the name hints, indicates how easy it is to get from booster packs. In general, there are four rarities in MTG: common, uncommon, rare, and mythic rare.

Item Rarity - Rare is Common, Mythical is Uncommon and Legendary is Rare.

The asset's overall rarity score is simply the sum of all its trait rarity scores. To calculate trait rarity, we take the total number of assets in the collection and divide by the number of assets with that specific trait - the fewer the assets that have the trait, the higher the trait rarity.

1. 1998 Pikachu Illustrator Card. There's no better place to start than what many consider to be the rarest Pokemon card in existence, the Pikachu Illustrator card. This is the perfect example of a card with extremely limited supply and few graded copies in existence.

As of February 2023, an Illustrator CoroCoro Comics Promo (Pikachu illustrator card) was the most expensive Pokémon trading card in the world, having been sold at auction for six million U.S. dollars.

While the addition of a holo swirl can be appealing to certain collectors, these bits of flair don't necessarily add to the value of the card itself.

Ultra rare cards are represented by two shiny foil stars and are used for the more exclusive full-art foil versions of Pokémon ex and even some Supporter cards. Double rare. Ultra rare.

Who owns the most expensive Pokemon card? ›

Paul purchased the PSA 10 card in exchange for a Mint 9 copy of Pikachu Illustrator - claimed to be worth $1.275m - plus an additional $4 million, making the total sale reportedly worth $5.275m. Paul was later given a Guiness World Record for the most expensive Pokemon trading card sold at a private sale.

It's Better to Lose A VSTAR Than A VMAX

By far the biggest weakness of VMAX Pokemon is how costly it is when they finally go down for the count. As players of the Sword & Shield era of Pokemon TCG know only too well, defeating a VMAX nets three Prize Cards. They're each worth half the total Prize Card pool per game.

The maximum initial velocity is reached when the enzyme is saturated, i.e., when enough substrate is present to ensure that practically all the enzyme is part of the enzyme-substrate complex. Because the enzyme can never be completely saturated, V_max is never fully reached.

This version of Arceus VSTAR is printed as a Gold Rare, the highest card rarity in most modern Pokémon sets.

The most expensive Pokémon card is the Pikachu Illustrator which sold for $5.275 million in July 2021. It's the true Holy Grail of Pokémon card collecting and only one PSA 10 is known to exist.

You can always tell a Secret Rare from the number, though, and they're the most expensive cards. Added in the Sun and Moon Series, Rainbow Rare cards are some of the hardest, and most expensive, in the game. They only appear in certain times and some can sell for hundreds or thousands of dollars.

The Blastoise Commissioned Presentation Galaxy Star Hologram card is the rarest Pokémon card in existence. Only two of these cards were ever made, created by Wizards of the Coast in order to obtain the contract to produce Pokémon cards for The Pokémon Company.

Older versions of cards that don't have a regulation mark can still be used if the card is currently legal for play. For example, the card Rare Candy from the Sun & Moon expansion can still be used because the card Rare Candy from the Pokémon TCG: Pokémon GO expansion has an “F” regulation mark.

There are a few different reasons why a Pokémon card might not have a rarity symbol. First, Common basic energy cards don't have rarity symbols. Cards from some Pokémon sets, like Dragon Vault and the McDonald's 25th Anniversary Promos, do not have rarity symbols either.

While VMAX cards are usually rarer and worth more than Pokémon V cards, both are necessary for playing the Pokémon TCG. However, collectors may only be interested in VMAX, since these cards are harder to obtain and thus more valuable.

What is the hierarchy of Pokémon cards? ›

There are three main levels of rarity: Common, Uncommon and Rare. These rarities pre-date Pokémon as they were first used in the popular card game, Magic: The Gathering and are now used in other card games like Yu-Gi-Oh.

Well, for starters, "Amazing Rare" is a brand new type of card rarity that has been introduced in Japan, starting with Legendary Heartbeat. These cards are easily identifiable by a gorgeous prismatic rainbow background in the illustration, along with a unique "A" rarity symbol on the bottom left of the card.

Gold Rares are a bit rarer than Rainbow Rares, making them the rarest cards in the Pokemon TCG.