Slowbro has two separate cards in Abyss Eye, and the second one became the set's most talked-about pull. Card 029/081 is a plain Common, illustrated by CHORISO, already covered as part of our Wailord ex reveal. Card 087/081 is a completely separate Illustration Rare, illustrated by Mékayu, same 130 HP, same two attacks, a different piece of art built for the set's secret rare tier instead of its main checklist.
That's the same pattern already covered in our Fomantis, Armarouge and Goldeen coverage, where Armarouge showed up twice in the set with matching stats and different art. What's unusual here is which of the two prints ended up mattering. Armarouge's two versions read as a normal rarity split. Slowbro's Illustration Rare reportedly traded above the set's full art cards entirely, a Common-tier Pokémon's alternate print outselling cards with a flashier rarity stamp.
Why a non-Legendary, non-ex card became the one to chase
Nothing about Slowbro's stat line explains it. Empty-Handed costs one Psychic Energy for 50 damage, plus 160 more if the player has zero cards in hand, and Withdraw Headbutt costs three Colorless Energy for a plain 110. Neither attack is unusual next to what we already covered on the plain print. The difference has to be the art itself, a genuinely different mood from the rest of the set's Illustration Rare run: where Fomantis and Goldeen went for bright, nature-scene compositions, Slowbro's card sits in a dim, lantern-lit alley that reads closer to a moody keyframe than a typical scenic pull.
That's a real, visible difference anyone can check against the card itself, not a guess about market psychology. Whether that specific art choice is the actual reason collectors chased this print harder than the rest of the AR tier is something only sales data across a longer window can really answer, but it's the most concrete, checkable difference between this card and its Illustration Rare siblings.
Mega Darkrai ex still leads on raw price
Across its three prints, RR, SAR and MUR, Mega Darkrai ex remains the set's highest overall price tier, the way a headline Mega Evolution ex usually does. Different trackers put the SAR and the MUR in different order for the top spot depending on the exact date checked, close enough that we're not printing one clean number as gospel here. What's not in dispute is that all three Mega Darkrai ex prints trade well above the rest of the set, Slowbro's surprise run included.
The gap between "the card everyone expected to be valuable" and "the card that actually surprised the market" is the more useful thing to track here than any single price snapshot. Mega Darkrai ex was always going to be the set's chase card, it's the cover Pokémon with a Prize-card penalty and three separate rarity tiers built around it. Slowbro wasn't supposed to be, it's a Stage 1 with no ex rule and a Common-tier print already sitting in most binders, and the market disagreed anyway.
That's worth remembering the next time a set's full checklist drops and the obvious chase card gets all the attention. A second print buried further down the secret rare tier, with the right art, can end up mattering more to buyers than the card the set was actually built around.
Frequently asked questions
- What is Abyss Eye's most valuable card?
Mega Darkrai ex leads the set across its three prints, RR, SAR and MUR, with the SAR and MUR trading closely for the top spot depending on the tracker and date checked.
- Why is Slowbro's Illustration Rare valuable?
Slowbro's second print, card 087/081, became the set's top-priced plain Illustration Rare, trading above the set's full art cards despite Slowbro being neither a Legendary nor an ex Pokémon.
- Does Slowbro have two different cards in Abyss Eye?
Yes. Card 029/081 is a Common print illustrated by CHORISO, and card 087/081 is a separate Illustration Rare illustrated by Mékayu, same stats, different art.
