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Pokémon

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Researched Oct 2026 from public web pages. Each price in the text is tagged OFFICIAL, OBSERVED or UNVERIFIED. Where how-to-play is marked UNVERIFIED, check the official rulebook before teaching.

PART A: POKÉMON TCG

1. How to play

  • Win by any of: take all 6 of your Prize cards; your opponent has no Pokémon in play; or your opponent cannot draw at the start of their turn. [GUIDE: tcgzen / folio.fyi; Prize rule and background knowledge]
  • Deck = exactly 60 cards. Max 4 copies of a card by name, except Basic Energy, which is unlimited. [GUIDE]
  • Card types: Pokémon (Basic, Stage 1, Stage 2, plus ex / Mega ex rule-box Pokémon that give up extra Prizes), Trainer (Item, Supporter, Stadium, Pokémon Tool), Energy (Basic and Special). [Background knowledge, not re-verified]
  • Setup: shuffle, draw 7 cards, put 1 Basic Pokémon face-down as Active, up to 5 more on the Bench. Set aside 6 Prize cards. Mulligans are allowed if you have no Basic. [GUIDE]
  • Turn: draw 1 card, then main phase, then attack, then end turn. The player going first cannot attack on turn 1. [GUIDE; the "no Supporter on first turn" rule comes from the same search snippet, and I believe it is current for the starting player]
  • Main phase actions: play Basics to the Bench (max 5 Bench slots), attach 1 Energy per turn, evolve Pokémon (not on the turn they were played, and not on the first turn of the game), play any number of Items, 1 Supporter per turn, 1 Stadium per turn, and retreat once per turn. [Background knowledge]
  • Attacking: pay the attack's Energy cost, deal damage, apply Weakness and Resistance. A Knocked Out Pokémon sends its owner's Prize count down by 1 (2 or more for ex and Mega ex). [Background knowledge]
  • Special Conditions: Asleep, Burned, Confused, Paralyzed and Poisoned. [Background knowledge]
  • Resources: your hand, your deck, the Energy attachment each turn, the Bench, and the Prizes (which also act as a clock).
  • Beginner tip: pre-constructed theme or battle decks, or the free Pokémon TCG Live and TCG Pocket apps, teach the flow. TCG Pocket is a separate, simplified digital game with 20-card decks. [Background knowledge; not verified in this session]
  • Tournament rule: every card in a deck must be in the same language, so a Japanese deck must be 100% Japanese. [OFFICIAL per summary: SNKRDUNK / elitefourum snippets]

2. Languages available

  • 13 language editions worldwide are reported, including English, Japanese, Korean, Spanish, Polish, Russian and Chinese (simplified and traditional). [GUIDE: extrabux / SNKRDUNK snippets, "13" is from a search snippet]
  • Japanese sets usually release first; English sets often merge several Japanese sets into one larger Western release. [GUIDE: SNKRDUNK]
  • Korean sets can have exclusive releases never issued in Japanese or English. [GUIDE]
  • Collectors mostly focus on English and Japanese cards. English print quality is said to be lower than Japanese, which raises the premium on high-grade English cards. [GUIDE, subjective]
  • The Mega Evolution set launched Sep 26 (most regions) and Oct 10 (EMEA) in 2025. This shows regional release staggering. [GUIDE: TCGplayer Seller blog]

3. Pricing

US MSRP, Mega Evolution era (set released Sep 2025):

Product MSRP Confidence
Booster pack $4.49 (implied by the $26.94 / 6-pack bundle) [OFFICIAL-derived]
Booster Bundle (6 packs) $26.94 TCGplayer Seller blog, [OFFICIAL-reported]
Elite Trainer Box (9 packs) $49.99 TCGplayer Seller blog, [OFFICIAL-reported]
Pokémon Center ETB (11 packs, extra promo) $59.99 thornberrymedia, [GUIDE]
Enhanced Booster Box (36 packs plus box topper) $161.64 TCGplayer, PokemonWizard, [OFFICIAL-reported]
Build & Battle Box (4 packs) $21.99 TCGplayer Seller blog, [OFFICIAL-reported]
Mini Tin (2 packs) page text says "~$49.99", which is implausible for a 2-pack tin [UNVERIFIED, likely a parse error]
30th Celebration ETB (9 packs, release Sep 16 2026) $49.99, about $5.55 per pack thornberrymedia, [GUIDE]
Theme / starter deck I did not find a current US MSRP [UNVERIFIED]
Street vs MSRP:
  • Mega Evolution Enhanced Booster Box: TCGplayer market about $298 (52-week range $220 to $371) against $161.64 MSRP, roughly 1.4x to 2.3x. [OBSERVED, PokemonWizard snippet, date unknown]
  • Presale 30th Celebration ETB: secondary prices were "far above MSRP" before release. [GUIDE, qualitative]
  • Japan raised MSRP in May 2026: packs from 180 to 200 yen, boxes from 5,400 to 6,000 yen (+11.1%). Cumulative +21.2% since 2022. [GUIDE: samuraiswordtokyo; says Creatures Inc. cited material costs]
  • Sellers in Europe often quote UPC (Ultra Premium Collection) and ETB guides, but pokefolio.eu returned 403, so EU MSRPs are UNVERIFIED.

4. Rarity tiers and prices

Mega Evolution-era ladder (low to high): Common, Uncommon, Rare, Double Rare (Mega ex / ex), Illustration Rare, Ultra Rare, Special Illustration Rare (SIR), Mega Attack Rare (new in Ascended Heroes), Mega Hyper Rare (new gold-style tier, about 1 in 1,000 packs per one guide). [TCGplayer Seller blog; cardgrader.ai / search snippet]

  • Counts: Mega Evolution base set has 67 C, 43 U, 12 R, 10 Double Rare, 22 Ultra Rare, 22 IR, 10 SIR and 2 Mega Hyper Rare. Ascended Heroes (295 cards) has 84 C, 69 U, 25 R, 39 Double Rare, 33 IR, 14 Ultra Rare, 22 SIR, 7 Mega Attack Rare and 2 MHR. [OFFICIAL-derived via TCGplayer / guide snippets]
  • Typical per-tier market prices: I did not find a sourced per-tier table. Only chase-card prices are sourced below. [UNVERIFIED for common to Ultra Rare ranges]
  • Older rarity symbols (circle, diamond, star, Holo Rare, VMAX, Secret Rare, Hyper Rare, Shiny, Trainer Gallery) are not covered by the sources I reached. [GAP]

Top chase cards [OBSERVED, March 2026 or later, perishable]:

  • Pikachu ex (276/217) SIR, Ascended Heroes: about $506 to $1,060 depending on source and date.
  • Mega Gengar ex (284/217) SIR, Ascended Heroes: about $1,018 to $1,051.
  • Mega Charizard X ex (125/094) SIR, Phantasmal Flames: about $738.
  • Mega Dragonite ex (290/217) SIR, Ascended Heroes: about $611 to $668.
  • Mega Charizard Y ex (294/217) MHR, Ascended Heroes: about $503 to $619.
  • Mega Dragonite ex MHR: about $401. The prices for the same card differ between sources and dates, so treat these as ranges.

5. How players and collectors use it

Main activities: opening packs, singles shopping, price checking, deckbuilding, tournaments, grading, trading, local game stores (LGS), online play (Pokémon TCG Live, TCG Pocket). Named tools:

  • TCGplayer (US marketplace and price check), Cardmarket (EU), PriceCharting (sealed and graded prices; the Enhanced Booster Box page exists), eBay, SNKRDUNK (Japanese market, per its articles), Pokémon Center (official store), Limitless TCG (decklists and tournament results), Pokémon TCG Live and TCG Pocket (official apps). [Mix of directly seen and background knowledge; Limitless, Cardmarket, TCG Live and TCG Pocket not fetched this session]
  • Third-party chase and price trackers seen: rarecandy.com, pokemonwizard.com, tcgwatchtower.com, cardcodex.com, tcgtalk.com (daily "Market Pulse" top-200 price-change posts). [Seen in results]
  • Grading companies (PSA, CGC, Beckett) are standard in the hobby; not verified this session. [UNVERIFIED]
  • Share of activities by popularity: not found. [GAP]

6. Community behavior

  • Collectors hunt SIR and Mega Hyper Rare cards, often buying singles instead of pulling them. Artists such as danciao are said to drive value. [GUIDE: rarecandy]
  • Scalping is a major issue. At Worlds 2026 in San Francisco, resellers bought exclusive Pokémon Center items near the venue and lines were long. [Kotaku and search snippet]
  • A card show banned scalpers. [comicbook.com headline only; details not read]
  • Local events: LGS prereleases (for example Sep 13 and Sep 27 for the Mega Evolution launch), leagues and Regional events. [TCGplayer Seller blog for prerelease dates]
  • Discord and Reddit (r/pokemontcg, r/PokemonTCG, r/pkmntcgcollections) are the hubs, but I did not fetch any Reddit summaries. [UNVERIFIED]

7. Company strategy

  • Anti-scalping: The Pokémon Company introduced limits per person and timed store-entry slots at Pokémon Center locations, which fans say has not fully worked. [Kotaku / opencritic snippets]
  • Japan: from Aug 2026 a Digital ID app with My Number Card and a lottery for Pokémon Center purchases, plus mandatory facial recognition at five pop-up Pokémon Card Stores from Jul 31 to Aug 16, 2026. [Hypebeast, IBTimes, Wargamer, ingamenews snippets]
  • Price: raised Japanese MSRP in May 2026 (see section 3).
  • Product ladder: ETB, Enhanced Booster Box, Booster Bundle, Pokémon Center exclusives with extra packs, special sets (Ascended Heroes, 30th Celebration). [TCGplayer, thornberrymedia]
  • Organised Play (Play! Pokémon, Worlds, Regionals), reprint policy, digital integration and licensing details: not verified this session. [GAP]

8. Sources

About

Plus Ultra V brings trading card guides, reference prices and news together in one place, with prices also shown in your own currency. Prices are references from public sources, not offers to buy or sell.

Card images via TCGdex, optcgapi.com, Riftcodex and the official hololive card list. Card names and art are trademarks of their owners, such as The Pokémon Company, Bandai, Riot Games and COVER; Plus Ultra V is not affiliated with them.

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