The 47 Best Pokémon 30th Celebration Chase Cards

30 years of the Pokémon TCG comes down to one September date, and for the first time ever it happens everywhere at once. 30th Celebration, the official name for the 30th anniversary set, landed September 16 worldwide with no Japan-first release and no waiting months for the English print.

That’s a bigger deal than it sounds. Every other set gives the market weeks of Japanese pull data and early singles prices before English product hits, so the chase hierarchy is usually settled before most people open a pack. This time there was nothing to go on, and launch week is going to be volatile in both directions.

What we can tell you is what’s in there: a brand new rarity, thirty different Pikachus with one in every pack, the Base Set Charizard back on the printing press, and three Mews nobody believed were real. Here’s our running list of the cards worth chasing.

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Futuristic Rares

Futuristic Rare, or FUR, is a brand new rarity tier created specifically for this set, illustrated by YOSHIROTTEN, who also did the set’s key visual. The look is built around saturated color, high gloss finishing, and 3D style graphic treatments on the Energy symbols and Poké Ball icons, which is a long way from how a Pokémon card normally handles those elements.

Two cards carry it, Mew ex and Mewtwo ex, and both turned up in pre-release product ahead of launch. One sold for around $1,400 before the set was even out, which tells you where collector attention is pointed.

The Cards:

30th Pokemon Futuristic Rares

RGB Mew

The rarest cards in the set, and ones nobody believed were real until release week.

Three Mews, red, green and blue, illustrated by YOSHIROTTEN and themed after the original Game Boy covers. They’re numbered R/RGB, G/RGB and B/RGB instead of carrying a normal collector number, and they skip the Pikachu set symbol every other 30th card has (which is largely why collectors spent two months calling them fake).

Hiding Mew for the 30th anniversary is a nice callback, since a developer famously snuck it into the 1996 games right before release. The reaction to how they look has been pure love it or hate it with not much in between.

The 1 in 20,000 pull rate everyone’s quoting still traces to an anonymous claim rather than data, so we’ll update once real numbers exist!

The Cards:

Pokemon RGB Mew Chase Cards

SIRs & Illustration Rares

Where most of the set’s depth lives, and the section that’ll age best once the launch noise dies down. The run here is unusually varied, going from pixel art city scenes to painted flower gardens to full cosmic swirls, and there are three separate connecting sets hiding in it.

Meowth Trio

Three regional Meowths, Alolan, Galarian and Kantonian, each perched on the same apartment block fire escape at a different time of day, built to sit together! We love the flat graphic illustration style.

The Cards:

Meowth Trio Pokemon Card IRs

Jirachi ex

An Akira Egawa card, and he’s one of our favorite card artists of the modern era. Jirachi is mid-wish against a swirl of deep space color, and the whole thing works as a single burst of light rather than a scene. Fitting for a Pokémon whose attack is called Wish Granter.

Jirachi ex · 30th Celebration #155/128 on eBay

Jirachi SIR 30th Pokemon Card

Pikachu ex

Two cameo-packed crowd scenes, and the kind of card you can stare at for a while. One is a daylight parade and the other a night-time celebration under fireworks, both absolutely stuffed with Pokémon, so there’s plenty to pick out on a second look. If you only chase one pair from the main set, these are hard to argue with.

The Cards:

Pikachu SIR 30th Celebration Chase

Maushold

A cartoony, sticker-sheet take on a card, with the whole family scattered across a candy-colored background in a style you almost never see on a modern IR. Easily one of the funniest cards in the set, and the attack being called Gnaw Together is the cherry on top.

Maushold · 30th Celebration #146/128 on eBay

Maushold 30th Celebration Chase Card

Sylveon ex

A You Iribi card, and a wall of flowers. Roses and ribbons fill the entire frame in soft pinks and reds, and Sylveon is almost woven into it rather than standing in front of it. The obvious pick if your binder runs pastel.

Sylveon ex · 30th Celebration #153/128 on eBay

Sylveon SIR Chase Card Pokemon

Greninja ex

GIDORA on art duty, and it’s the most dynamic looking card in the set. Angular shards of magenta and cyan cut across the frame in a way that feels closer to a concert poster than a Pokémon card, and Greninja’s pose does the rest.

Greninja ex · 30th Celebration #148/128 on eBay

Greninja SIR Pokemon Card

Lapras

The quietest card on this list, and the one we’d put in a binder first. Lapras ferrying a couple of passengers across still water at golden hour, drawn in a soft, flat style with a Psyduck paddling alongside. The attack is literally called Ferry Across.

Lapras · 30th Celebration #131/128 on eBay

Lapras IR Pokemon Card

Morpeko

A Yoshinori Miyoshi card that goes full pixel art, with Morpeko tearing through a bright little town square past market stalls and produce crates. Select a Snack is the attack name, which is exactly right.

Morpeko · 30th Celebration #135/128 on eBay

Morpeko IR Pokemon Card 30th

Legendary Birds

Another great connecting set in the release. All three are by mashu, and the swirling ribbons of color carry across the trio so they line up as one continuous piece. The abilities connect too, since each bird’s Flapping ability only works when the other two are in play, and they’re named Fiery Flapping, Frosty Flapping and Flash-Pop Flapping. Getting all three is the whole point.

The Cards:

Legendary Birds 30th Celebration Pokemon Cards

Day & Night Promos

Four promos split across the two UPCs, and the split runs right through the art. Espeon ex gets a daytime street festival with a giant 30 hanging over it, while Umbreon ex gets the same town after dark under fireworks and lanterns. Both are cameo-packed, so there’s plenty to find on a second look.

The two Pikachu ex promos are the other half of it, and they’re the reason this section punches above a normal box promo. Both are by YOSHIROTTEN in the same high gloss futuristic style as the Futuristic Rares.

The Cards:

Day & Night Promos 30th Pokemon

The 30th Celebration Pikachus

30 different Pikachus, 30 different artists, one guaranteed in every pack. It’s a completion chase by design, and the lineup includes original Pikachu designer Atsuko Nishida and Ken Sugimori, which is about as much history as you can fit into one subset!

They’re numbered sequentially through the main set, running roughly from 23/128 to 52/128, and every one gets a fireworks holo finish. The open question is whether any of them are short printed, and that’s exactly what nobody knows yet. We’d chase these on which art you actually like. Here are ours!

Our Picks:

The 30th Celebration Pikachus Chase Cards

Classic 30th Collection Reprints

If you’re like us and missed your chases the first time round, ours being the Lugia and the Magikarp, this is your second shot at them!

30 cards pulled from across the history of the TCG and reprinted with the anniversary treatment, and the Base Set Charizard is the obvious headline. These are 2026 reprints rather than the originals. The 25th anniversary set showed how that plays out, with its Classic Collection cards ending up among that set’s most valuable while still sitting nowhere near the real thing in price.

Our Picks:

Classic 30th Collection Reprints Chase Cards

30th Celebration Promos

Beyond the Day and Night pairs, there are plenty more promos worth chasing in this set. These come attached to the various products rather than out of boosters, which makes them easier to target!

Our Picks:

30th Celebration Promos Cards

Affordable & Cheaper 30th Celebration Cards

Not everything worth pulling costs a fortune. Since every card in this set is foil right down to the Basic Energy, there’s no plain baseline to fall back on, which means the cheaper end of 30th Celebration still looks the part. A page built entirely out of these reads exactly the way you want it to!

Our Picks:

Affordable & Cheaper 30th Celebration Cards

That’s our running list of 30th Celebration chase cards. We’ll keep updating it as prices settle and pull rates get clearer. Pulled something good? Let us know in the comments!

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The 47 Best Pokémon 30th Celebration Chase Cards

Futuristic Rares

RGB Mew

SIRs & Illustration Rares

Meowth Trio

Jirachi ex

Pikachu ex

Maushold

Sylveon ex

Greninja ex

Lapras

Morpeko

Legendary Birds

Day & Night Promos

The 30th Celebration Pikachus

Classic 30th Collection Reprints

30th Celebration Promos

Affordable & Cheaper 30th Celebration Cards

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