Pokemon 30th Celebration card list: all 161 cards, the 30 Pikachu and the chase cards

Updated 6 October 2026 · by the Swappies team

Pokémon 30th Celebration is the 30th-anniversary set of the Pokémon Trading Card Game, released in September 2026. It has 161 cards, and almost a fifth of them are Pikachu. Here is how the set is built, which cards are the rare ones, and how to keep track of what you still need.

The set at a glance

161 cards: numbers 1 to 158, plus three lettered Mew cards marked B, G and R.
45 Lightning cards, far more than any other type - because of the Pikachu.
Only three Trainer cards: Poké Pad, Switch and Ultra Ball. This is a celebration set built around the Pokémon themselves.
The legendary line-up from 30 years of games is in it: Ho-Oh, Lugia, Kyogre, Groudon, Dialga, Palkia, Reshiram, Zekrom, Xerneas, Yveltal, Solgaleo, Lunala, Zacian, Zamazenta, Koraidon and Miraidon.

Every card, with its number and rarity, is on the Pokémon 30th Celebration card list.

The rarities, from common to chase

Common - 71 cards. The everyday Pokémon that fill most of every pack.
Rare - 18 cards. Mostly the legendaries listed above, plus Mew and Mewtwo.
Pikachu Rare - 30 cards (numbers 23 to 52). Thirty different Pikachu in a row - the heart of the anniversary. Collecting the full run is a project on its own.
Double Rare - 12 cards. The Pokémon ex: Pikachu ex (two of them), Mewtwo ex, Mew ex, Espeon ex, Umbreon ex, Sylveon ex, Gengar ex, Jirachi ex, Salamence ex, Fuecoco ex and Greninja ex.
Illustration Rare - 18 cards (129 to 146). Full-art cards where the artwork runs edge to edge: Moltres, Articuno, Zapdos, Lapras, Chandelure, Gholdengo and more.
Special Illustration Rare - 10 cards (147 to 156). The full-art ex cards and the ones most people open packs hoping for: two Pikachu ex, Mewtwo ex, Mew ex, Gengar ex, Sylveon ex, Jirachi ex, Salamence ex, Greninja ex and Fuecoco ex.
Futuristic Rare - 2 cards. Mewtwo ex (157) and Mew ex (158), the last numbered cards in the set and the hardest to pull.

Alolan Exeggutor Out of stock

Moltres Out of stock

Lapras Out of stock

Articuno Out of stock

Zapdos Out of stock

Which cards are the chase cards?

In a new Pokémon set, the cards everyone hunts are the highest rarities, and here that means the two Futuristic Rares and the ten Special Illustration Rares - above all the two Pikachu ex (149 and 150) and the Mew ex and Mewtwo ex cards, because an anniversary set is bought by people who grew up with exactly those Pokémon. Prices for a set this new move week to week; look at what a card has actually sold for recently, not what sellers are asking.

Booster packs, ETBs, mini tins and binders

South Africans search for the 30th Celebration Elite Trainer Box (ETB), the mini tins and the binder collection as much as for the cards. They are all ways of buying the same 161-card set: the boxes and tins add packs plus extras such as sleeves, dice, a promo card or a binder. If you want to complete the set rather than open it, sealed product is the expensive way to do it - you will open far more Commons and Pikachu Rares than you need before the last Special Illustration Rare turns up.

Toxtricity Out of stock

Morpeko Out of stock

Drifloon Out of stock

Chandelure Out of stock

Lycanroc Out of stock

How to complete the set

Open packs for the fun of it, then fill the gaps with single cards. That is how most collectors finish a modern set.
Keep a checklist. Tick off what you have on the card list and add the cards you still need to your watch list - we email you the moment one is in stock, so you never have to keep checking.
Sleeve the good ones straight away. A Special Illustration Rare with a scratched front or a soft corner is worth a fraction of a clean one. Our guide to storing trading cards covers sleeves, top loaders and binders.

Finish your Pokémon 30th Celebration

Paste the numbers you are missing on the checklist and we add every one we have in stock - one order, delivered anywhere in South Africa.

Open the checklist