30th Celebration has 128 cards in the main set, and every single one of them is foil, down to the Basic Energy. That part is official. On top of the 128 sit 33 secret rares, a 30 card Classic Collection and eight Basic Energy, which is where the 199 card total you will see quoted comes from.
The secret rare block breaks down into eighteen Illustration Rares, ten Special Illustration Rares and the two Futuristic Rares. Those last two are the whole story.
There are exactly two Futuristic Rares in the set: Mewtwo ex 157/128 and Mew ex 158/128, both illustrated by YOSHIROTTEN. The rarity debuts here, and it is the rarest thing in the product.
What the pull rates say
Here is the caveat that matters, and we would rather put it above the chart than in a footnote: The Pokémon Company has not published pull rates for this set. The numbers below circulated ahead of launch and have been repeated across collector sites, but they are unconfirmed. Treat them as the best available estimate, not as fact, and expect them to move once real opening data comes in.
On those figures, the Futuristic Rare sits at one in a hundred packs. Everything else is far closer.
Read that bottom bar carefully. One in a hundred is the rate for the rarity, and the rarity holds two cards. If they appear at roughly equal frequency, a specific one, the Mew ex, is closer to one in two hundred packs.
The cards people are actually chasing
Presale prices before a set lands are soft, they come from third party marketplaces rather than from the publisher, and they usually fall once product is in circulation. With that caveat, this is the shape of the top of the set.
| Card | Rarity | Presale price |
|---|---|---|
| Mew ex 158/128 | Futuristic Rare | Over $2,000 |
| Mewtwo ex 157/128 | Futuristic Rare | Just under $650 |
| Charizard, Base Set reprint | Classic Collection | Contender for the most expensive card in the set |
| Crystal Lugia, Aquapolis reprint | Classic Collection | The other reprint drawing the most attention |
The Classic Collection is a 30 card subset of gold bordered reprints of famous cards. A Classic Collection card comes at one in ten packs, which is ten times more often than a Futuristic Rare, so the Charizard overtaking the Mew ex on price would be a statement about demand rather than scarcity.
There is no booster box this time
The English release has no conventional booster box. Every pack is sold inside a sealed configuration, so the price you pay per pack depends entirely on which product you buy.
So is it cheaper to hunt one or to buy one
Put the two numbers together. If a specific Futuristic Rare is one in two hundred packs, and the cheapest pack at MSRP is $4.49, then the expected spend on packs per Mew ex is around $898. At the most expensive pack in the lineup it is around $1,200.
The card is priced above $2,000 before launch. That is roughly double what the packs would cost you, which is usually a sign that a presale price is ahead of itself and will come down once boxes are open and supply is real.
Two things that number does not say. It is an average, not a promise: plenty of people will open two hundred packs and pull neither card. And it ignores everything else in those packs, which is not nothing when the whole set is foil.
What we would do
We buy and sell singles, so take this with that in mind: we are not buying either Futuristic Rare at presale. The pack math says the current price has no room in it, and prices on a brand new rarity move fastest in the two weeks after release, when the first big openings hit the market.
If you are opening product to sell, the Booster Bundle is the cheapest way in per pack, and the Classic Collection cards at one in ten are what will actually pay for the boxes. The Futuristic Rare is the lottery ticket on top, not the plan.
If you want to check the numbers on your own cards, our eBay profit calculator takes fees, postage and supplies out of a sale price.
Frequently asked questions
- How many Futuristic Rares are in 30th Celebration?
Two: Mewtwo ex 157/128 and Mew ex 158/128, both illustrated by YOSHIROTTEN. The rarity debuts with this set.
- What are the odds of pulling a Futuristic Rare?
The Pokémon Company has not published official odds. Widely repeated unconfirmed figures put the rarity at one in a hundred packs, and since two cards share it, a specific one would be closer to one in two hundred.
- Is there a 30th Celebration booster box?
Not in English. Packs come inside sealed products, and the cost per pack runs from $4.49 in the Booster Bundle to $6.00 in the Ultra-Premium Collection. The Japanese release does have a conventional 20 pack box.
- Should I buy the Mew ex now or wait?
Presale prices on a new rarity usually fall once product circulates. The pack math puts the expected cost of pulling one well below the presale price, which is a reason to wait rather than to buy early.
