Pokémon Card Types Explained: Full Art, Illustration Rare, SIR and More

Pokémon cards come in more finishes and treatments than ever: holo, reverse holo, full art, Illustration Rare, Special Illustration Rare, Hyper Rare and more. The names overlap, collectors use nicknames, and older terms like Rainbow Rare and alt art still turn up in listings. This guide explains each card type, shows how to spot it, and uses our live price data to show what each type is typically worth.

Pokémon Card Types at a Glance

The table compares the main card types. "Median price" is the price of a typical card of that type across every English card we track, and the example is the most valuable card of the type right now. Each type matches a rarity value in our price data, and the names we use for them are listed under the table.

Two things stand out. First, the typical card of every type here is worth far less than its most valuable example: a type's best card can sell for hundreds of times its median. Second, some types are much more common than others, which affects how many cheap cards drag the median down. We come back to which type is worth the most at the end.

Holo, Reverse Holo and Non-Holo

Before the newer card types, there's the basic question of foil. Every Pokémon card has one of three basic finishes:

• Non-holo: no foil anywhere. Most Commons and Uncommons, and many Rares, come this way.
• Holo: only the artwork window is foil. In sets up to the end of Sword & Shield, a holo art box marked a Rare Holo, the rarity just above Rare with the same one-star symbol.
• Reverse holo: everything is foil except the artwork window.

Full-art and higher-rarity cards are foil across the whole card, which is a separate treatment again. Since foil appears on cards of almost every rarity, a shiny card isn't automatically a rare one.

What Is a Reverse Holo?

A reverse holo (officially a "Parallel Foil" card) is a foil version of a regular Common, Uncommon or Rare card. The foil covers the whole card except the artwork, the reverse of a normal holo. Most cards in a modern set have both a normal and a reverse holo version, and modern booster packs include reverse holos as a matter of course.

Reverse holos often sell for a little more than the normal version of the same card, but most are not valuable on their own. The exceptions are reverse holos of popular Pokémon and special patterned versions, such as the Poké Ball and Master Ball pattern cards in some recent sets, which TCGplayer lists as separate cards. Check the exact version when you look up a price, because our card pages price each printing separately.

Full Art Cards (Pokémon and Trainer)

A full art card has artwork covering the entire card instead of sitting in a box, and the whole card is foil. Full-art cards first appeared in the Black & White series. "Full art" is a description rather than a rarity: full-art cards have been Ultra Rares, Secret Rares, Illustration Rares and more, depending on the era.

In Sword & Shield and earlier sets, full-art Pokémon were usually the Ultra Rare versions of Pokémon EX, GX, V and VMAX cards. Since Scarlet & Violet, every Ultra Rare (two silver stars) has been a full-art card, usually a full-art Pokémon ex or Trainer.

Telling a full-art card from a regular one takes a second. On a regular card, the artwork sits inside a framed window near the top and the attacks sit on a plain panel below it. On a full-art card there is no frame: the artwork runs edge to edge, and the text is printed over it. If the card also has gold or several stars in its rarity symbol, it is one of the higher full-art rarities described below.

Full Art Trainer / Supporter Cards

Full-art Trainers, and Supporters above all, show the game's human characters across the whole card. They are among the most collected full-art cards. Here are the most valuable full-art Supporter cards we track right now:

We identify these from each card's type in our data (Supporter) and its full-art treatment: a TCGplayer listing marked Full Art, a Special Illustration or Hyper Rare, or a Scarlet & Violet era Ultra Rare.

Illustration Rare (IR)

The Illustration Rare arrived with Scarlet & Violet in March 2023 and is marked with one gold star. Illustration Rares are full-art, alternate-art cards of regular Pokémon, ones without a rule box (no ex). The art usually shows the Pokémon in a scene rather than posed against a background. They are numbered above the set total, and modern booster packs sometimes include one in the second reverse holo slot.

Because there are many Illustration Rares in each set, most are affordable: the typical one sells for about $10.40. Popular Pokémon push some much higher. The most valuable right now is Magikarp at about $290.19.

Special Illustration Rare (SIR)

The Special Illustration Rare, marked with two gold stars, is the headline chase card of most modern sets. SIRs are full-art, alternate-art versions of Pokémon ex and, in many sets, Supporter cards. Their art often tells a small story, such as a Pokémon in its habitat or a Trainer with their partner. Like Illustration Rares, they can turn up in the second reverse holo slot of a pack, but there are far fewer of them per set.

A typical SIR sells for about $29.80, and the top ones sell for much more. These are the ten most valuable Special Illustration Rares right now:

You can see SIRs from current sets on the card lists for Ascended Heroes, Prismatic Evolutions, Surging Sparks and Scarlet & Violet 151. Our rarity symbols chart shows the gold-star symbols side by side with every other rarity.

Hyper Rare / Gold Cards

Hyper Rares are marked with three gold stars. They are the gold cards: a gold border and gold background, with the card art in gold foil. Since Scarlet & Violet, every gold card has been a Hyper Rare, and before that, gold cards were Secret Rares numbered above the set total.

Despite having more stars than an SIR, a typical Hyper Rare sells for about $7.53 right now, against about $29.80 for an SIR. One likely reason is artwork: SIRs show detailed scenes, while gold cards share one gold-toned design. The most valuable Hyper Rare we track is Pikachu ex at about $68.00. The Mega Evolution series added Mega Hyper Rares, fully gold, embossed Mega Pokémon with their own symbol. For the priciest cards of all types, see our list of the most expensive Pokémon cards.

Older Types: Secret Rare, Rainbow Rare, Alternate Art

Before Scarlet & Violet gave every rarity its own symbol, collectors used a few other names you'll still see in listings:

• Secret Rare: any card with a number higher than the set total, such as 201/198. Secret Rares are usually among the scarcest cards in their set. The typical Secret Rare in our data sells for about $14.91.
• Rainbow Rare: the Secret Rares of the Sun & Moon and Sword & Shield years with a rainbow-coloured foil over the whole card. The typical Rainbow Rare sells for about $38.67.
• Alternate art: a semi-official term for a higher-rarity card with artwork that doesn't appear on any other version. Most collectors reserve it for full-art cards. In the Sword & Shield era, alternate-art Pokémon V and VMAX cards were the chase cards of their sets.

Evolving Skies is a set collectors know for its alternate-art cards. These are its most valuable cards today:

TCGplayer notes that, in some Sword & Shield sets, alternate-art cards seemed to be printed in much smaller numbers than other cards of the same printed rarity, so the rarity on the card doesn't always tell the whole story.

Best Full Art Pokémon Cards Right Now

Counting every full-art type together (full-art Ultra Rares, Illustration Rares, Special Illustration Rares, Hyper Rares, the Mega rarities and older full-art listings), these are the ten most valuable full-art cards we track right now:

Which Card Type Is Worth the Most?

Ranked by the median price of a card of each type, here is how they compare today:

A note on how these figures are worked out: for each type we take every English card with that rarity in our database, look at each card's current market price, and find the middle value. Cards with no recent sales are left out rather than counted as zero. Types with only a few dozen cards, such as Rainbow Rare, can move a lot from one week to the next, while types with thousands of cards, such as Ultra Rare, change slowly.

By that measure, Rainbow Rare cards are worth the most right now, with a typical card selling for about $38.67. Medians move as new sets arrive, since each new set adds many cards at fresh, often high, prices. A type's median also says nothing about any single card: the right Pokémon in a "cheap" type can be worth more than most cards of an expensive one. To price your own cards, use the Pokémon card value checker or scan them with the free Pokémon card scanner, and for the rarest cards ever printed, see our guide to the rarest Pokémon cards.