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30th Celebration arrives on Wednesday 16 September 2026 with something other sets do not have: every card is holographic, basic energies included. When everything has foil, the question "which one is the rare card" stops having an obvious answer and becomes a matter of declared rarities and collector numbers.
This article lines up the set's chase cards: what they are, what numbers they carry, and why the rarest and the most expensive almost certainly will not be the same card. If you are after a value estimate, that is in the article on what 30th Celebration cards will be worth; if you are after the thirty Pikachu, they are here.
In short. The chase cards of 30th Celebration fall into four groups: the two Futuristic Rares (Mewtwo ex and Mew ex), a rarity debuting with this set; the two Pikachu ex, day and night, returning as secrets at numbers 149 and 150; the secret cards beyond number 128, among them Lapras 131, Drifloon 136, Lycanroc 138, Alolan Meowth 139, Meowth 144 and Hisuian Zorua 145; and the Eeveelution ex cards. No prices exist yet: the set has not launched anywhere, because the release is simultaneous worldwide.
Which is the rarest card in 30th Celebration
On paper, literally, it is one of the two Futuristic Rares. This is a rarity that has never existed before: it debuts with this set, it has its own symbol, and so far only two cards carry it, Mewtwo ex and Mew ex. Zero precedent means zero price history, and usually it also means zero restraint in the first few weeks.
Be careful with one thing we have verified with prices in hand across previous sets, though: the rarest card and the most expensive card almost never coincide. In Pitch Black the rarest was the Gold #120, but the most expensive turned out to be the Special Illustration Rare #116. Rarity tells you how many were printed, price is decided by how many people want it, and those are two different questions.
On an anniversary set there is a third factor that weighs more than rarity, and we measured it: in the 25th anniversary set, five years on, 89% of the value sits in reprints of old cards, not in the new ones. In 30th Celebration the reprints are the 30-card Classic Collection, and they have not been fully revealed yet.
The Futuristic Rares: Mewtwo ex and Mew ex
You spot them instantly: vivid colours and strong lighting on the Pokémon, plus three-dimensional elements inside the artwork, energies and Poké Balls that seem to lift off the background. On CardTrader the two western cards show up at numbers 157 and 158, that is, beyond the 128 of the base set.
That Mewtwo and Mew get to launch the rarity is no accident: they are numbers 150 and 151 in the original Pokédex, the last two creatures of the first generation, and for thirty years they have been the most quoted pair in the history of the game. If the set wanted a cover, it picked well.
The Pikachu ex, day and night
These are two cards printed in two versions each: the normal one in the base set at numbers 053/128 and 054/128, and the secret one at 149 and 150. Do not confuse them with the thirty Pikachu of the subseries, which are a different thing and come guaranteed in every pack.
The normal pair against the secret pair is exactly the comparison worth watching, because the gap between a card and its version beyond the base numbering is the most reliable multiplier we know. In the 25th anniversary set, Mew #025 is worth 80.53 € today and Mew #011 from the same set is worth 5.09: same creature, same product, sixteen times the difference, decided purely by position in the numbering.
Create a free DarkDex account and set aside the chase cards you care about: from 16 September the value of each one updates itself.
The secret cards beyond number 128
The base set ends at 128, but the numbering continues: the higher numbers are the special illustrations and the secrets, and traditionally that is where the market concentrates after the first few weeks. The ones that have surfaced so far:
Six cards, and they invite an observation people usually make too late: none of these is a big-name Pokémon. No Charizard, no Mewtwo. It is a Lapras, a Drifloon, a Lycanroc, two Meowth and a Zorua. That is not a reason to dismiss them: in the 25th anniversary set the fifth most expensive card of all is a Shining Magikarp, sitting at 71.15 € today, ahead of dozens of legendaries from the same set. On a collectible card the price comes from the print, not from the character.
The Eeveelution ex cards
Outside the groups above there are the ex cards of the Eevee family, which always pull with players and collectors alike: Espeon ex, Umbreon ex, Sylveon ex, plus Greninja ex and Jirachi ex. The western collector numbers are not all confirmed yet, so we are not publishing them: when they are, this section gets updated.
Putting them in an anniversary set says one thing commercially: over the past year Eeveelution cards have held their price better than almost anything else, and whoever builds a celebration set knows it.
Which chase cards will be worth the most
The honest answer is that nobody knows today, because 30th Celebration is the first simultaneous worldwide release in the history of the game: there is no earlier Japanese edition to read prices from. Anyone publishing a value ranking right now is guessing.
What can be said with real numbers is how the 25th anniversary set behaved five years on, and three rules come out of it that apply here too:
- Reprints beat new cards, and not narrowly: 89% of the value against 11%.
- The secret version beats the normal one of the same card, on average by an order of magnitude.
- The card guaranteed in the pack is worth nothing, by construction: in the 25th anniversary set the cards that always come out sit at eleven cents today.
The full count, card by card, with the current price table of the 25th anniversary set, is in the article on what 30th Celebration cards will be worth.
Heads up. As of 21 August 2026 the set has not launched and reveals are ongoing: some cards and some western collector numbers can still change. We update this page until release and on 16 September we complete it with the definitive list.
How to follow the 30th Celebration chase cards
Chase cards get lost for a mundane reason: they are scattered across numbers that are nowhere near each other, and the price moves more in the first two weeks than in the rest of the year.
On DarkDex you add them to your collection or wishlist and the pricing engine keeps the value current, in the right language and condition, without you checking by hand.
Create your free account and reach 16 September already knowing what to look for.