The English Pokémon card rarity guide

Celestial Storm

Based on the information compiled in the introductory post for the Sun & Moon series, I am assuming the following box ratios for this set: 4 “regular” Pokémon-GX, 0.8 full art Pokémon-GX, 1.4 full art Trainers & secret rares, and 2 Prism Star cards.

As I did for Sun & Moon Base Set, I chose not to model all secret rares having the same pull rate, even though assuming each one of the 15 cards printed 4 times on the sheet would yield 0.84 secret rares per box, not an outlandish number. Still, I think a model where 8 of them are printed 3 times on the sheet and the remaing 7 are printed 4 times better fits the raw data, both in terms of secret rares per box (0.73 according to this model) as well as in terms of the ratio between full art Trainers and secret rares. The raw data displayes the following ratios of secret rares / (full arts + secret rares): 53.5% (data compiled by me), 55.4% (data from @burpies) and 56.4% (data from Derium video); in the model, this ratio is 52.0%.

The rarity table looks as follows:

As with most other sets of this era, the two non-holo rares which are featured as theme deck exclusive holos, Sceptile and Swampert, are short printed. The raw data for the various holos, etc. is shown below:






For this set, I also reconstructed the uncommons sheet - it looks as follows:

† Metang, Apricorn Maker, Hiker, Lure Ball, Oricorio (Captivating Salsa), Swalot, Copycat, Huntail, Grovyle, Energy Switch, Lombre, Mawile, Acro Bike, Last Chance Potion, Lisia, Torkoal, Oricorio (Zappy Pom-Poms), Illumise, PokéNav, Scyther, Energy Recycle System, Marshtomp, Sableye, Kecleon, Hustle Belt, Volbeat, Combusken, Minun, Tate & Liza, Cacturne, Weepinbell, The Masked Royal, Oricorio (Captivating Salsa), Pupitar, Fisherman, Super Scoop Up, Masquerain, Bill’s Maintenance, Plusle, Pelipper, Solrock, Life Herb, Sky Pillar, Torkoal, Lure Ball, Rainbow Energy, Gorebyss, Nuzleaf, TV Reporter, Dunsparce, Last Chance Potion, Swalot, Underground Expedition, Minior, Combusken, Lisia, Beast Ball, Switch, Grovyle, Lanturn, Shelgon, Hustle Belt, Oricorio (Zappy Pom-Poms), Tropius, Hiker, Energy Switch, Rainbow Brush, Apricorn Maker, Donphan, Scyther, Hau, Metang, Huntail, Minun, Copycat, Loudred, Energy Recycle System, Shrine of Punishment, Acro Bike, Super Scoop Up, Weepinbell, Friend Ball, Mawile, Illumise, Plusle, PokéNav, Vigoroth, Fisherman, Pupitar, Kecleon, TV Reporter, Life Herb, Gorebyss, Sableye, The Masked Royal, Minior, Volbeat, Pelipper, Sky Pillar, Dunsparce, Tate & Liza, Bill’s Maintenance, Cacturne, Lombre, Lanturn, Switch, Loudred, Masquerain, Hau, Underground Expedition, Shelgon, Beast Ball, Rainbow Brush, Tropius, Marshtomp, Solrock, Donphan, Vigoroth, Nuzleaf, Friend Ball, Rare Candy †

Note that the 3 U1 cards (Rainbow Energy, Rare Candy, Shrine of Punishment) are rarer than all the non-holo rares.

As to my method of reconstructing the uncommons sheet, I intend to make a special post about that at a later time. Basically, I noticed that instead of looking at individual packs and trying to piece together sequences of 3 uncommons, I could look at complete boxes. In this set (and in Evolutions, which I analyzed the same way) cards are inserted from two sheets of uncommons into packs alternatingly, yielding two sequences of 54 uncommons each, making it relatively easy to reconstruct the uncommons sheet with the data from just a small number of boxes (3 in this case).

Edit 2024/03/24: Changed sequence length from 180 to 360 (no impact on pull rates); added reconstruction of uncommons sheet.