The 30 Pikachu of 30th Celebration: list, numbers and illustrators

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The hook of 30th Celebration, out on Wednesday 16 September 2026, is that every single pack contains a Pikachu. Not just any Pikachu: one drawn from a pool of thirty different illustrations, each signed by a different artist, each with a fireworks holo layer that no other card in the set has.

Twenty of the thirty have been revealed. Here they are, with collector number, subseries number and who drew them, plus the ten slots still covered. If what you are after is what they will be worth, the answer with real numbers is in the article on 30th Celebration card values.

In short. The 30 Pikachu occupy numbers 023/128 through 052/128 and carry a second numbering from 01/30 to 30/30. The rule to convert between the two is simple: set number minus 22. 023/128 is 01/30, 050/128 is 28/30. As of 21 August 2026 twenty have been revealed, ten are missing, and the reveals do not follow the order. The first of the series is drawn by Ken Sugimori, the original Pokémon designer.

How the 30 Pikachu work

Three things to know before looking at the list.

One per pack, guaranteed. This is not a rarity to chase: it is the card that always comes out. In a set where every card is holographic, basic energies included, the Pikachu is what you will hold in your hand after every single opening.

Double numbering on the same card. Every Pikachu carries its normal set number and, next to it, a second number inside a Pikachu-shaped marker telling you where you are in the collection of thirty. The correspondence is fixed: the collection number is the set number minus 22. Worth knowing, because shops and marketplaces list cards by set number, while collectors call them by the subseries number.

They occupy one continuous block, from 023/128 to 052/128. Thirty consecutive numbers in the middle of the base set, so if you are completing the set in numerical order you will hit all the Pikachu at once.

The twenty Pikachu revealed so far

The previews are the ones that exist today: where the western version has already been shown you get that one, otherwise the Japanese print. The illustration is identical, only the frame changes.

Create a free DarkDex account and mark which Pikachu you are missing: your collection keeps count for you, and from 16 September it adds the live value too.

Which Pikachu are still missing

Ten slots are still covered: 02, 05, 07, 09, 13, 23, 24, 26, 29 and 30. They correspond to set numbers 024, 027, 029, 031, 035, 045, 046, 048, 051 and 052.

It is worth noting how they are being revealed, because it is not random: the reveals do not follow numerical order, and the remaining slots cluster towards the back of the series, from 23 onwards. Holding the high numbers of a collection back is the classic way to stretch anticipation until release day, so it is reasonable to expect the big names to be last.

The 01/30 Pikachu by Ken Sugimori

Slot one goes to Ken Sugimori, the man who drew the original Pokémon in 1996, and the artwork is an explicit callback: a round, slightly clumsy Pikachu, the way it looked thirty years ago before the character slimmed down. On a set celebrating thirty years, putting the original designer at number one is not a graphic detail, it is a statement.

In practical terms this matters: when someone asks in a few months "which 30th Celebration Pikachu is worth keeping", this is the first name that will come up, and not because it is rarer than the other twenty-nine, but because it is the one with a story attached.

What the 30 Pikachu will be worth

Not much, almost all of them, and that is not pessimism: it is print-run arithmetic. A card guaranteed in every pack of a simultaneous worldwide release is the least rare card in the product, by construction.

The precedent leaves no room for interpretation. In the 25th anniversary set, which turns five in October, the special Pikachu all sit under six euros today: Flying Pikachu VMAX 5.93 €, Pikachu 4.59 €, Surfing Pikachu V 4.10 €, Surfing Pikachu VMAX 3.52 €, Flying Pikachu V 2.10 €. The only Pikachu in that set genuinely worth something is _____'s Pikachu at 40.52 €, and it is the exception that confirms everything: it was not a new card, it was the reprint of a twenty-year-old promo, and it did not come out of packs.

So the reasonable forecast is that the 30 Pikachu settle at a few euros each, with two possible exceptions: the signatures collectors chase regardless of rarity, starting with Sugimori's 01/30, and the two ex versions, which are a different matter. The full reasoning, with the numbers from the whole 25th anniversary set, is here.

The Pikachu ex, day and night

Outside the collection of thirty there are two Pikachu ex, a day version and a night version, at numbers 053/128 and 054/128, and both return as secrets at 149 and 150.

These are the two Pikachu cards the market will concentrate on, and the secret versions in particular: in the 25th anniversary set the gap between a card and its version beyond the base numbering was worth sixteen times. You will find them alongside the others in the article on the chase cards of 30th Celebration.

Heads up. As of 21 August 2026 twenty Pikachu out of thirty have been revealed, and three of the attributions are not yet official. We update this page as the others come out, and on 16 September we complete it with all thirty.

How to keep track of the Pikachu you are missing

Thirty cards nearly identical in format and wildly different in artwork are exactly the kind of collection you lose track of: after the tenth pack you no longer remember whether you already have 17/30.

On DarkDex you mark what you own, see at a glance what is missing, and from 16 September you also get the value of each one, updated from the market instead of estimated by eye.

Create your free account and be ready on release day.