Pokemon card rarities explained, from common to Special Illustration Rare
What the symbol in the corner of a Pokemon card means, how the modern rarity names rank against each other, and why a rare card is not the same thing as a good card.
Open a Pokemon booster pack and most of what falls out is common. One or two cards will be shiny. Every so often one card is worth more than the rest of the pack put together. Rarity is the system that decides which is which, and the names have piled up over thirty years until they stopped making sense on their own.
Here is the whole ladder in plain English.
Start with the symbol in the corner
Every Pokemon card has a small mark in the bottom corner. It is the oldest part of the system and it still works.
- Circle means common. The most printed cards in the set.
- Diamond means uncommon. Less printed, still easy to find.
- Star means rare. One rare per pack was the rule for most of the game's history.
For a long time that was all there was. Then the game added cards above "rare", and rather than invent a fourth symbol, it started stacking black stars and giving the tiers written names.
The modern ladder
Newer English sets use black stars plus a name. Roughly, from easiest to hardest to pull:
| Name | What it looks like | How hard |
|---|---|---|
| Rare | One star, ordinary layout | Common enough to build with |
| Double Rare | Two stars, usually an ex Pokemon | The everyday strong card |
| Ultra Rare | Full-art card, often a Trainer | Noticeably harder |
| Illustration Rare | Artwork fills the card, no picture frame | Hard |
| Special Illustration Rare | Full artwork on an ex or a Trainer | Very hard |
| Hyper Rare | Gold card, gold border | The rarest print in a set |
A card marked ex is a stronger version of a Pokemon. Knocking one out hands your opponent an extra Prize card, which are the cards you collect to win a match. So ex cards hit harder and cost you more when they fall.
Pull rates are not officially published, and they shift from set to set. Treat the order above as reliable and any specific odds you read online as an estimate.
Illustration Rare or Special Illustration Rare
These two get mixed up constantly, and the difference is worth knowing before you spend money.
An Illustration Rare takes an ordinary Pokemon card and gives the artist the whole card. No text box sitting over the picture, no window. The Pokemon is usually doing something in a place, rather than posing on a plain background.
A Special Illustration Rare does the same thing to a card that was already special. Take an ex Pokemon or a Trainer, give it full artwork, print far fewer of them. It sits one rung higher and it is normally the card a set is remembered for.
The reveal for the anniversary set 30th Celebration is a clean example. The day and night versions of Pikachu ex were shown first as Double Rares, the everyday version. PokeBeach reports that The Pokemon Company International has now revealed the Special Illustration Rare versions of the same two cards. Same Pokemon, same artwork idea, a completely different card to open.
Promos sit outside the ladder
A promo is a card that comes packed with a product instead of being pulled from a booster pack. Collection boxes, tins and event giveaways all carry them, and they are marked with a black star and the word PROMO.
Promos have no rarity tier, because there is no pack to pull them from. Their scarcity is decided by how many of that product got made. Some are common as dirt. Some are the hardest cards in a year to find.
Two things that are not rarity
Reverse holo. Most standard English packs include one card with a shiny background instead of a shiny picture. That is a finish, not a tier. A reverse holo common is still a common. Special sets change what a pack contains, so check the product before you assume.
Japanese letter codes. Japanese sets use their own marks, and you will see them in reveal coverage months before the English cards exist. The letters do not map neatly onto the English names, and an English set is often a different size to the Japanese one it came from. When a card gets its English print, it gets an English rarity, and that is the one that matters for what you can buy in a shop in the United States.
Rare does not mean good
This is the part that costs new players money. Rarity measures how few were printed. It says nothing about whether the card wins games.
Plenty of tournament decks run four copies of a common Trainer card that costs a few cents, and plenty of gold cards never see competitive play at all. The two things are priced by different crowds: players pay for what works, collectors pay for what is scarce and pretty.
If you want one specific card, buy that single card. Opening packs to chase a named Special Illustration Rare almost always costs more than just buying it once supply settles a few weeks after a set launches.