Evolving Skies: the most expensive Pokémon cards

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Evolving Skies came out on 27 August 2021 and five years later it is the most expensive set we have measured: buying the cheapest copy of every card comes to 8,757.18 €. It is not a rare set in the sense of being hard to find. It is a set where the value concentrated into a handful of cards and never moved again.

We ran every card in the set through the DarkDex pricing engine and sorted by value. These are real single-card prices, Near Mint, the lowest available across sellers, updated on 7 September 2026.

In short. Umbreon VMAX #215 leads at 2,780.64 €, the card collectors call the Moonbreon, with Rayquaza VMAX #218 at 1,495.64 € right behind it. Those two alone are worth 49% of the set. The Eevee evolutions together account for 63%. Prices as of 7 September 2026.

The ranking: the 20 most expensive cards

Every card in the set worth more than 26 € is here. From the twenty-first down you are below 26 €, and halfway through the set you are already under 30 cents.

1Umbreon VMAXSecret Rare · #215€2,780.64

2Rayquaza VMAXSecret Rare · #218€1,495.64

3Sylveon VMAXSecret Rare · #212€479.59

4Dragonite VUltra Rare · #192€450.64

5Rayquaza VUltra Rare · #194€445.08

6Umbreon VUltra Rare · #189€440.14

7Leafeon VMAXSecret Rare · #205€400.54

8Glaceon VMAXSecret Rare · #209€230.64

9Sylveon VUltra Rare · #184€200.64

10Leafeon VUltra Rare · #167€188.81

11Glaceon VUltra Rare · #175€135.64

12Rayquaza VMAXSecret Rare · #217€125.00

13Espeon VUltra Rare · #180€120.64

14Rayquaza VUltra Rare · #193€103.18

15Umbreon VMAXSecret Rare · #214€75.64

16Noivern VUltra Rare · #196€70.58

17Umbreon VUltra Rare · #188€59.10

18Gyarados VMAXSecret Rare · #207€52.99

19Leafeon VMAXSecret Rare · #204€50.63

20Sylveon VMAXSecret Rare · #211€45.64

Why the Moonbreon costs 2,780 euro

The #215 is Umbreon lying on a branch at night with the moon behind it, and it is the single most recognisable card of the Sword & Shield era. On its own it is 31.8% of the entire set.

The comparison that puts the figure in context is Prismatic Evolutions, whose Umbreon ex sits at 1,171.82 €: the most wanted card of a recent set is worth less than half of this one. The difference is not the artwork, it is that Evolving Skies has been out of print since 2022 and Prismatic Evolutions has not.

The same Umbreon, from 59 euro to nearly three thousand

Umbreon appears in six printings inside Evolving Skies, worth 3,396.26 € together, which is 39% of the set on its own. How they are spread is what kills the idea that the name of the Pokémon sets the price:

The two at the top have the alternate art, the two at the bottom do not. That is the only difference, and it is worth forty-seven times between first and last. It is not rarity doing that, it is the illustration.

At the other end of the scale: Eevee, in this set, costs 14 cents.

The Eevee evolutions are 63% of the set

Evolving Skies is the Eeveelution set, and the numbers say it better than any description. Adding up every printing of each:

5,531 € out of 8,757, so 63% of the set sits in eight Pokémon, and three quarters of that is one of them.

There is a mechanical reason underneath the collector preference: Umbreon, Sylveon, Leafeon and Glaceon each got a V and a VMAX with an alternate art. Vaporeon, Jolteon and Flareon did not. The first four have the card everybody wants, the other three only have ordinary printings.

Rayquaza VMAX, the set's other story

The Rayquaza VMAX #218 at 1,495.64 € is the other reason people still open Evolving Skies packs, and in the English market it runs much closer to the Umbreon than it does elsewhere. The rainbow version #217 sits at 125 €, the Rayquaza V #194 at 445.08 €.

Rayquaza appears in six printings in total, from #110 at a couple of euro up to the #218: a factor of a thousand inside the same set, for the same Pokémon.

What is the rarest card in Evolving Skies

There is no official answer, because pull rates are not published. If you mean the card everybody is after, it is the Umbreon VMAX #215. If you mean the printing that closes the numbering, which is the one you see least often opening packs, it is a Metal Energy #237 at 14.51 €.

The two answers almost never line up, and this set is a good example of how far apart they can be.

How many cards does Evolving Skies have

The set has 203 official cards and reaches 237 counting the special printings past the base numbering.

What it costs to complete Evolving Skies

Adding up the cheapest Near Mint copy of each of the 237 cards: 8,757.18 €. The total on its own is misleading, and the split is the real story:

• the 203 base set cards cost 2,784.48 €
• the 34 special printings cost 5,972.70 €, more than twice as much
• the median card costs 29 cents, and 137 of 237 cards are under one euro
• take out the first three and the other 234 cost 4,001 €; take out the first twenty and the remaining 217 cards cost 806 €

Put the other way round, and this is the number that matters if you are starting now: the ordinary part of Evolving Skies is within anyone's reach. What costs money is the display case.

In practice you spend more: shipping goes on top and the cards come from different sellers.

Heads up. Prices move constantly, and on a set out of print since 2022 they move in jumps. These numbers are a snapshot of the market on 7 September 2026.

Evolving Skies against the rest of Sword & Shield

Evolving Skies is not just first, it is three times the next set. That gap is the clearest thing in the whole table, and it comes down to one card.

Singles or sealed

The set has been out of print since 2022, so sealed product costs whatever the people holding it decide. Opening packs to chase the #215 means going after one card in 237 while paying collector prices for the box.

Singles are the sane route for everything below fifty euro, which is most of the set. The top of the ranking is a different purchase entirely: there you are buying one specific card, not building a collection, and the price behaves accordingly.

How to keep an eye on them

On DarkDex you add your Evolving Skies cards to your collection and the value updates itself, with every variant kept separate. In a set where one card is worth more than everything else put together, knowing which printing you are holding is the entire difference.

To understand how a whole collection is valued, read how much your Pokémon collection is worth.