The English Pokémon card rarity guide

Next Destinies

This set marks a milestone in the evolution of the Pokémon TCG, since it introduces the “standard” set composition of having some “regular” ultra rares (in this case, Pokémon-EX), some full arts of the same Pokémon (though in later sets occasionally some cards were availabe only as a “regular” ultra rare or as a full art, and beginning with Boundaries Crossed full art Trainers were added as a standard feature), and some secret rares. The box ratios for the next three sets are fairly simple. I looked at a relatively large sample on Youtube, and these are the results:

Basically, a box usually contains two regular Pokémon-EX and one full art, and the secret rares are assumed to be one in three boxes. Due to holofoil pattern and texturing - the full arts in this set are the first textured cards - four separate sheets must have been used for holos, Pokémon-EX, full arts and secret rares.

As to the full arts, I am still assuming they were printed on 10x10 sheets. For the Pokémon-EX, I am assuming the same. Here is an image of a miscut Pokémon-EX from the Black & White Series, the red lines showing where the cards should have been cut:

By contrast, I see no reason why the secret rares with their standard yellow borders shouldn’t have been printed on an 11x11 sheet. Note that the secret rares for these sets differ from those in Boundaries Crossed and later Black & White Series sets, the latter being fully textured.

The rarity table for Next Destinies looks as follows:

The secret rares are the rarest cards in the TCG up to this point, with a pull rate even lower than the Gold Stars from the Ex Series. The raw data for the holos, rares, Pokémon-EX, full arts and secret rares looks as follows (dashed lines indicating where the transition from H13 to H12, etc., would occur):

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Despite the large sample, I can’t say anything definitive about individual card rarities, though my guess is Reshiram and Zekrom are among the R5 rares.

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