Pokémon TCG: All Card Rarities Explained

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As with other trading card games, the assigns each of its cards a rarity, with each card’s availability in booster packs decreasing as its rarity rises. Over time, the ’s rarity system has evolved to become more complicated, which can leave some people confused about the specific rarities of given cards and what they mean. Fortunately, there are some simple ways to discover the rarity of any card, and the system as it stands today can likewise still be fully explained with little issue.

Rarity dictates much of how a collection of cards grows, with rarer cards naturally being much harder to obtain without trading or purchasing them directly on the secondary market. Moreover, it is far from coincidence that even the most recent sets’ must-have cards generally consist of rarer cards, with that higher rarity often being tied to both more impressive artwork and more powerful gameplay potential. As such, a lot of time and effort can be put into building a master collection of cards, particularly as more and more exclusive cards are released.

The lower end of the ’s rarity scale is also the most straightforward, beginning with Common cards. Common cards make up a large portion of any set, depicting most basic Pokémon. Uncommon cards introduce evolved Pokémon and Trainer cards, while Rare cards feature particularly notable Pokémon, like Legendaries. However, there are many further subcategories of Rare cards, each with its own defining characteristics. Such cards are usually among a given set’s most powerful cards, feature variant artwork, or both. The full list of current rarities is as follows:

Rarity

Notable Characteristics

Common

Most Basic Pokémon

Uncommon

Evolved Pokémon and most Trainer cards

Rare

Powerful but non-variant Pokémon cards, including Legendaries

Double Rare

Pokémon ex

ACE SPEC Rare

ACE SPEC Trainer cards

Illustration Rare

Full Art Pokémon cards

Ultra Rare

Full Art Pokémon ex and Supporter cards, or a unique mechanic like Pokémon V

Shiny Rare

Otherwise