30th Celebration Review: 10 Cards Worth Chasing in Pokémon's Anniversary Set

Pokémon turned 30 this year, and the TCG marked it with the first set ever to launch on the same day everywhere in the world. 30th Celebration landed on September 16, 2026 with a 128-card main set, 30 secret rares above it, a 30-card Classic Collection of reprints, and a brand-new rarity tier that nobody had seen before.

We pulled the full checklist into our database the morning it released, sorted it by rarity, and picked out the cards worth watching. This is a quick tour, not a meta breakdown: what to chase, who drew it, and where condition is going to matter most.

1. Mew ex (#158, Futuristic Rare)

The card the whole set is built around. Futuristic Rare is a new rarity that debuts here, with only two cards in the tier, and both were illustrated by YOSHIROTTEN, a graphic artist better known for album covers and fashion work than for Pokémon cards. The treatment is an opalescent full-art finish that looks like nothing else in the modern game. Psychic type, 160 HP.

Mew ex 158 Futuristic Rare

Day-one asks on Mew ex are the highest in the set by a wide margin. Pull rates have not been published, and the one documented pre-release box opening produced a single Futuristic Rare across an entire box. Treat this as the Mega Hyper Rare of the anniversary.

2. Mewtwo ex (#157, Futuristic Rare)

The other half of the pair. Same YOSHIROTTEN treatment, same opalescent finish, and the same brutal scarcity. Mewtwo ex is the more playable of the two on paper, but this card is being bought for the art. Psychic type, 230 HP.

Mewtwo ex 157 Futuristic Rare

If you pull either Futuristic Rare, sleeve it before you do anything else. That finish shows every fingerprint, and we expect surface to be the deciding factor between a 9 and a 10 on these.

The Special Illustration Rares

Ten Special Illustration Rares this time, all Pokémon ex, no trainer cards. That is a bigger SIR run than most recent sets, and the art quality is high across the board.

3. Pikachu ex, Day and Night (#149 and #150, Special Illustration Rare)

Two versions of the same card, both drawn by kantaro, one set at sunrise and one at night. They are designed as a pair, and the Night version at #150 is the one collectors are chasing hardest right now. Lightning type, 190 HP on both.

Pikachu ex 150 Special Illustration Rare Night

The Day version at #149 is the quieter of the two, and probably the better value if you want the pair.

4. Gengar ex (#154, Special Illustration Rare)

Gengar SIRs have a track record, and CHORISO delivered one that fits the anniversary mood without losing the menace. Darkness type, 280 HP.

Gengar ex 154 Special Illustration Rare

5. Jirachi ex (#155, Special Illustration Rare)

AKIRA EGAWA, who drew the Mega Darkrai ex SIR in Pitch Black, gets Jirachi here. It is one of the softest, most painterly cards in the set and an early favorite among the art-first crowd. Metal type, 160 HP.

Jirachi ex 155 Special Illustration Rare

6. Sylveon ex (#153, Special Illustration Rare)

Eeveelutions carry this set in the product lineup too, with Espeon ex and Umbreon ex battle decks due in October. The Sylveon ex SIR by You Iribi is the one you can actually pull from packs. Psychic type, 270 HP.

Sylveon ex 153 Special Illustration Rare

7. Mewtwo ex and Mew ex (#151 and #152, Special Illustration Rare)

Both Futuristic Rare Pokémon also get a conventional SIR, Mewtwo ex by Yano Keiji and Mew ex by Kuroimori. These are the realistic pulls for collectors who want the anniversary pair without a four-figure price tag.

Mew ex 152 Special Illustration Rare

8. The rest of the SIR run

Fuecoco ex (#147) by Atsushi Furusawa, Greninja ex (#148) by GIDORA, and Salamence ex (#156) by Ryota Murayama round out the ten. Greninja ex has its own Pokémon ex Box on shelves, which tends to keep a card in the conversation. Salamence ex, at 330 HP, is the biggest number in the set.

Greninja ex 148 Special Illustration Rare

9. The Illustration Rare lineup

Eighteen Illustration Rares sit below the SIRs, and this run has real personality. OKUBO drew three Meowth cards, Kanto, Alolan and Galarian, as a set within the set, and Galarian Meowth (#141) is the early standout. Maushold (#146) by osare and Hisuian Zorua (#145) by 0313 are close behind, and mashu handled all three legendary birds (#130, #132, #133) as a matching trio.

Galarian Meowth 141 Illustration Rare

These are the sweet spot for collectors who want anniversary art without the SIR price.

10. The Classic Collection

Thirty reprints from thirty years of the game, each with a 30th anniversary Pikachu stamp and a new foil treatment, pulled as bonus cards from packs. Base Set Charizard by Mitsuhiro Arita leads it, alongside Shining Celebi, Crystal Lugia from Aquapolis, Pikachu & Zekrom-GX, the two-card Darkrai & Cresselia LEGEND, Gengar Prime, and Arceus VSTAR. They are not Standard-legal and they are not meant to be.

Classic Collection Charizard reprint

Charizard is the obvious chase, but the Neo and e-Card era reprints, Sneasel, Shining Celebi and Crystal Lugia, are the ones older collectors are talking about.

One Pikachu in every pack

Every 30th Celebration pack contains one of 30 different Pikachu cards, numbered #23 through #52, each by a different artist. Ken Sugimori and Atsuko Nishida from the earliest days of the game are in there, along with newer names like OKACHEKE and Shimaris Yukichi. They are not rare, since you get one per pack, but a full 30-card Pikachu page is the most fun completion goal in the set.

Pikachu 47 by Atsuko Nishida

A note on the three RGB Mew cards you may have seen online: they exist, they are also by YOSHIROTTEN, and they sit outside the official numbering with no published pull rate. We will update this post once anything official lands.

A few thoughts on the set overall

30th Celebration is an all-foil set sold in five-card packs, so every card you pull has a holo surface. That changes the grading math. Foil surfaces pick up scratches and print lines far more readily than matte commons, and with 30 Pikachu cards and a Classic Collection in the mix, a lot of cards that would normally be filler are suddenly worth a careful look.

The chase list is short and clear: two Futuristic Rares at the top, ten Special Illustration Rares under them, and a Classic Collection that gives older collectors a reason to open packs. Products started with Elite Trainer Boxes, the Poster Collection and the Greninja ex and Sylveon ex boxes on release day, with booster bundles and mini tins following on October 2 and the Day and Night Ultra-Premium Collections on November 6.

We already have all 158 numbered cards and the 30 Classic Collection reprints in the DCM database, so anything you pull today identifies correctly when you grade it. If you hit a Futuristic Rare, you know where to send it.