TL;DR:
%80 of cards have a swirl, and %20 have none. *results will vary between cards.
So I bought 4 boxes(25 cards each) of the european store promo for stellar crown, which is archaludon. So here is how I did things. I took all 100 cards and sorted them like a chart for my own purposes and a pattern emerged that left me stunned.
On one side I placed cards if they had swirls in the card art. On the other side I placed cards if they had swirls on the borders. I mainly did this since some people don’t like border swirls, or don’t consider them valid. IMO, kinda swirlist, but I digress.
Here is how you read this chart:
[# swirls in border] - [# swirls in art] : [# cards with this combo]
0-0 :19
0-1 :18
0-2 :16
0-3 :3
1-0 :11
1-1 :18
1-2 :3
2-0 :2
2-1 :4
2-2 :1
3-0 :2
3-1 :2
4-1 :1
Fun stats:
Hat: 2
Back crook: 1
Elbow Tip: 3
Between arm “fingers”: 2
fart: 0
0 swirls: 19
0 on art & 1+ border: 34
1+ on art 66
2+ on art: 23
3+ on art&/or border: 16
1+ on art&/or border: 81
Conclusion:
A single swirl is no longer special at all. In fact, no swirl is a better chase than even a card with 2 swirls in the art frame, or more which is hilarious. The real swirl hunt is at least 2 swirls. But since its equal to no swirls, 3 swirls would be better, depending on the card of course. And location is now far more important for a swirl hunt. I will reiterate again, that each card’s art is different. The more visible holographic there is, the more that a swirl is common. A card with more holographic blocked by the pokemon will make swirls less likely to be visible. What we take from this example, is that you should not overpay for swirls anymore. I have proven this. Going for the anti-swirl hunt is far more rare. %80 of cards have a swirl, and %20 have none.
Make of this information what you will.
