Cards collectors want from Destined Rivals

Market figures move. Anything you read about asking prices here is a September 10, 2026 field note from public listings, not a live FoilFox quote and not a grade or authenticity guarantee. Always match set, number, language, and finish to the copy in hand.

Finish first, then the name

The same Destined Rivals name can exist as an Ultra Rare in the illustration window, a Special Illustration Rare that covers the face, and a gold Hyper Rare. Those are different printings with different demand. Scan or search the collector number in the corner — 231 is not 240 — and confirm the foil treatment before you save the card to a binder.

Public market listings consistently put the Special Illustration Rares of the headliner Pokémon well above their gold Hyper Rare twins. Treat any dollar figure you see elsewhere as a snapshot, not a FoilFox live quote. Check the catalog for the copy in front of you.

Destined Rivals chase card tier matrix

Special Illustration Rares (SIRs) in modern Scarlet & Violet expansions average roughly 1 in every 32 booster packs (~1 to 2 per 36-pack booster box). However, hitting a specific headliner like Team Rocket’s Mewtwo ex or Cynthia’s Garchomp ex requires an average of 86 packs (~2.4 booster boxes).

Use this matrix to cross-reference collector numbers, foil treatments, and approximate pull odds before chasing raw singles or cracking sealed boxes.

Card Name	Collector #	Finish Tier	Approx. Pull Odds	Secondary Market Role
Team Rocket’s Mewtwo ex	SIR #231/182	Textured Special Illustration Rare	1 in ~86 packs	Consensus #1 chase card of the expansion
Cynthia’s Garchomp ex	SIR #232/182	Textured Special Illustration Rare	1 in ~86 packs	Premier Sinnoh nostalgia & competitive icon
Ethan’s Ho-Oh ex	SIR #230/182	Textured Special Illustration Rare	1 in ~86 packs	Marquee Johto fire legendary centerpiece
Team Rocket’s Crobat ex	SIR #234/182	Textured Special Illustration Rare	1 in ~86 packs	Dark-type villain team favorite
Team Rocket’s Mewtwo ex	HR #240/182	Etched Gold Hyper Rare	1 in ~54 packs	Same Pokémon, lower organic demand than SIR
Cynthia’s Garchomp ex	HR #241/182	Etched Gold Hyper Rare	1 in ~54 packs	Gold parallel; catalog separately from #232
Misty’s Psyduck	IR #193/182	Full-Art Illustration Rare	1 in ~13 packs	Top-tier character IR; rivals low-tier SIR prices
Misty’s Lapras	IR #194/182	Full-Art Illustration Rare	1 in ~13 packs	High-demand water companion Illustration Rare
Team Rocket’s Giovanni	SIR #238/182	Textured Supporter Full-Art	1 in ~64 packs	Signature villain trainer full-art

The cards people open packs for

SIR #231 / HR #240

Team Rocket’s Mewtwo ex

The defining chase. Iwamoto05’s SIR is the copy most collectors mean. The gold Hyper Rare is the same Pokémon in a different finish and usually a different price band.

SIR #232 / HR #241

Cynthia’s Garchomp ex

The other portrait everyone wants. Same split: textured full-art SIR versus gold Hyper Rare. Do not mix them in a listing.

SIR #230

Ethan’s Ho-Oh ex

The third SIR pillar of the set. Fire-type, full-art, and easy to confuse with later Ho-Oh printings from other expansions if you ignore the set symbol.

SIR #233

Team Rocket’s Nidoking ex

Villain nostalgia without Mewtwo money. Still an SIR — catalog it as the full-art, not the Ultra Rare Nidoking in the main number range.

SIR #229

Team Rocket’s Moltres ex

The first of the Rocket legendary bird SIRs. Pair it in a binder with Zapdos and Articuno printings from this set, not from Classic Collection or 30th Celebration promos.

SIR #234 / HR #242

Team Rocket’s Crobat ex

Another dual-finish name. SIR first; gold second. Both belong on the Destined Rivals checklist, as separate rows.

IR #193

Misty’s Psyduck

Illustration Rare, not an ex. Trainer’s Pokémon art is the whole point of this set, and Psyduck is the IR that keeps showing up next to the SIRs in want-lists.

SIR #236

Ethan’s Adventure

A trainer SIR, not a Pokémon. Easy to miss in a reverse-holo stack because the layout is full-art rather than a standard trainer box.

IR #194

Misty’s Lapras

The other Misty IR collectors pull beside Psyduck. Confirm the illustration-rare texture; a reverse holo Lapras from an older set is not this card.

SIR #238

Team Rocket’s Giovanni

Closes the villain suite. SIR trainer, full-art. Catalog Giovanni by set and number so he does not collapse into every other Giovanni printing in the game.

The FoilFox take

Collector strategy: How to chase Destined Rivals

The Pack-Math & Singles Reality ($160 Booster Box vs $95 Raw Mewtwo): A sealed 36-pack booster box runs $140–$160 at retail and yields an average of 1.2 SIRs. With 6 different Pokémon SIRs in the pool, your statistical odds of pulling Team Rocket’s Mewtwo ex from a single box are roughly 1 in 5 (20%). Buying the raw single directly avoids the 80% loss scenario.
The Gold Hyper Rare Value Trap: Hyper Rares (#240 Mewtwo, #241 Garchomp) are technically rarer in booster boxes than generic ex cards, yet trade at 65–75% discounts compared to their SIR counterparts. Modern collectors demand character-driven environmental art over monolithic metallic monochrome. Do not pay SIR prices for gold cards.
Factory Edge-Whitening on Rocket Dark Borders: Team Rocket cards feature deep black and charcoal border gradients along the card edges. Factory blade cuts in the English print run frequently produce micro-whitening flecks along the top and corners straight out of fresh foil. If submitting raw pulls to PSA or CGC, inspect the dark perimeter under 10x magnification first.
The Japanese SV-Era Arbitrage: Destined Rivals compiles cards from Japanese *Heat Wave Arena* and *The Glory of Team Rocket*. Japanese copies use silver borders and deeper micro-groove texture etching. If you love the artwork but want pristine centering and higher print quality at 40% less cost, consider picking up the Japanese prints.
The 21-Day Post-Release Price Dip: SV set singles hit peak euphoria on launch weekend, crash by 35–50% within 21 days as mass box openings flood TCGplayer, and stabilize once Wave 2 Booster Bundles ship. Mark your calendar for three weeks post-launch before purchasing top-tier SIR singles.
Trainer’s Pokémon Identification Check: When buying or scanning cards online, always verify the prefix. “Team Rocket’s Mewtwo ex” is an entirely different legal card from “Mewtwo ex”. Collapsing them into standard Mewtwo entries breaks collection tracking and deckbuilding validity.
Binder Suite Organization: Pair Team Rocket’s Moltres ex with its Zapdos and Articuno counterparts, and place Giovanni #238 adjacent to Mewtwo #231. Visual thematic page cohesion consistently commands higher resale and trade premiums at local trade nights.
Weighing Myth Warning: Modern Scarlet & Violet booster packs use calibrated code cards with varying thicknesses and weights to offset foil weight differences. Buying unweighted loose booster packs from reputable card shops is safe, but avoid unsealed marketplace lots where box hits may have already been mapped.

Open Destined Rivals in the catalog ↗Browse Pokémon listings Finish field guide

Sources

Destined Rivals market snapshots · PackRip
Pokémon foil & finish field guide · FoilFox