The Best 30th Celebration Cards Beyond Pikachu

The thirty Pikachu rares get the attention, and they are only part of what is in 30th Celebration. The set also carries seventeen illustration rares, seven special illustration rares, the Pokemon ex cards and a brand-new rarity. These are the ones we would chase for the artwork if Pikachu were not in the set at all.

This is our editorial selection and nothing more. We have no pull-rate data, no sold-price study and no popularity ranking for this release, so this is not a "most valuable" or "rarest" list and we have not dressed it up as one. We picked on the pictures: does the illustration commit to a scene, does it use the whole card, and does it still read from across a room.

Illustration rares: the full-scene cards

The illustration rares are where this set does its best work. They sit above the printed total of 128, they are full-scene artwork rather than portraits, and they cover an unusually wide spread of Pokemon — several of which rarely get this treatment at all.

Lapras 131/128 is the one we would frame. Alolan Exeggutor 129/128 gets the joke that the Pokemon has always invited and builds the composition around its height rather than fighting it. Hisuian Zorua 145/128 and Maushold 146/128 are the two that reward looking closely — both hide more in the background than a first glance suggests. Drifloon and Chandelure are the set's best use of light, which is not a coincidence given what both Pokemon are.

Special illustration rares: the painted ex cards

The special illustration rares are the painted, full-scene versions of the Pokemon ex cards. They are a different proposition from the illustration rares: bigger subjects, more theatrical staging, and the Pokemon is usually doing something rather than existing somewhere.

Sylveon ex 153/128 is the most immediately likeable card in the set and the one we would hand to someone who says modern cards all look the same. Greninja ex 148/128 is the opposite pick: restrained, dark, and much better in the hand than in a thumbnail. Salamence ex 156/128 earns its size.

The Eeveelution ex pair

Espeon ex and Umbreon ex are worth calling out separately because they lead the two October Battle Decks as well as appearing in the set, so there are several ways to end up with them. Each deck is a 60-card all-foil deck and includes an illustration rare of its own — Victini with Espeon, Zeraora with Umbreon — rather than booster packs. (source: US product showcase)

And the genuinely new one

If you only chase one thing from this set on novelty alone, make it a Futuristic rare. It is a new card type rather than a new finish, designed by the artist YOSHIROTTEN, and there are two of them: Mewtwo ex and Mew ex. (source: announcement) They look like nothing else in the release. We covered them, and the six Mew and Mewtwo cards in the set, in the Mew and Mewtwo guide.

What we left out, and where to go next

• The Pikachu rares. All thirty have their own visual checklist, and our favourites among them are in the Pikachu artwork picks. Keeping them out of this article is deliberate.
• The Classic Collection. Those are reprints of older cards rather than new artwork, which makes them a different kind of chase — and a riskier one, because they keep their original set numbers. See the Classic Collection guide.
• Anything about value. We are not ranking these by what they sell for, and a card being our favourite is not a prediction about its price.

Everything we track from the expansion, with its recent-sold market reference, is on the ME: 30th Celebration set page. Market references are drawn from recent sold data and are not guaranteed values.