Buying guide for Best Pokémon booster boxes

The Pokémon Trading Card Game first launched in the United States in October of 1998, and American Pokémon fans instantly fell in love with the highly customizable, collectible card game as it blossomed from its initial 151 creatures to well over 800 and counting years later.

Some Pokémon TCG enthusiasts aren’t satisfied with buying individual booster packs of 10 cards a piece, and those who want to quickly complete their collections or optimize their competitive decks with the best Pokémon cards that each set has to offer often look to buying booster boxes instead. Every Pokémon booster box contains 36 individual booster packs, and since the average Pokémon TCG series offers 130 to over 210 individual Pokémon cards to collect, it’s easy to see why a booster box is a great alternative for dedicated fans.

While we wish that we could’ve caught ’em all, we investigated more than enough Pokémon booster boxes to know how to decide which ones are the best choice for Pokéfans.

Unlike theme decks, booster boxes are guaranteed to be free of Energy cards, so each included booster pack will be full of exciting Pokémon and Trainer cards!

Key Considerations

Collectibility

Some hardcore fans have adopted the Pokémon series motto (“Gotta catch ‘em all!”) and feel the need to collect one of every card in certain Pokémon TCG sets. A booster box goes a long way towards accomplishing that lofty goal. For example, the Celestial Storm set features around 160 cards, and a booster box contains 360 cards. Although you are expected to receive more than a few duplicates along the way, you’ll be far closer to completing the full set by the time you’re done opening all 36 booster packs that come in a Celestial Storm booster box.

Excellent battle cards

Each new Pokémon TCG set includes its fair share of formidable Pokémon creatures, new cards, and fresh strategies to further strengthen your craftily constructed deck. While GX Pokémon are the ultimate powerhouse prize for competitive players of the card game, each booster box is guaranteed to contain at least 36 rare Pokémon to help give you a bigger edge the next time you play.

Personal favorites

You don’t have to be a serious collector or master strategist of the game to appreciate cards sporting cool artwork of some of your all-time favorite Pokémon. We recommend that you read through each booster box’s card list to compare the likelihood that a booster box of 360 cards will contain a good portion of your personal favorite Pokémon. For instance, if Spinarak, Bruxish, and Durant are some of your favorites, you have a good chance at obtaining cards for all three and many more by buying a Lost Thunder booster box.

Features

One of the best things about individual Pokémon TCG booster boxes is how each set is completely different from the others, and it’s not uncommon for a new series to include new card types and Pokémon species to the game. It’s up to you to read through the card checklist of each expansion set to learn if it contains cards that personally appeal to you, but here are a few features to look out for during your booster box research:

• GX Pokémon cards. Pokémon featuring a “-GX” at the end of their card name are rare and super-strong creatures that can easily trample an opponent’s team if left unchecked.

• Prism Star cards. These rare cards can have such a major influence over the game, that only one of each Prism Star card is allowed per deck.

• Holofoil cards. The rarest cards in any booster box may also be coated with a layer of holographic foil that gives them a shiny “holo” effect. Since a rare card appears only once per booster pack, and holofoil variants are even harder to find, these cards are super-special treats for collectors!

• Rare Ultra cards. These cards are variants of already hard-to-find cards, mostly GX Pokémon cards, that display a special alternate illustration.

Pokémon booster box prices

The price of the average Pokémon TCG booster box ranges between $90 and $100, with few exceptions.

While you may find a Pokémon TCG series booster box available for over $100 due to the relative scarcity of a certain series, it’s far more rare to stumble across a Pokémon booster box for less than $90.

Although $90 to $100 may seem like a lot of money for Pokémon cards, it’s actually a fantastic deal. Keep in mind that a booster box contains 36 booster packs with ten cards each. Most individual Pokémon TCG booster packs cost between $5 and $7 each, so at the very least, you would need to spend $180 in single booster packs to get the 360 cards included in a $90 booster box.

Tips

• One of the most fun and strategically sound ways to construct a solid Pokémon deck is to select some of your all-time favorite creatures, learn about their strengths and weaknesses, and to collect cards that will work well together during a battle.

• A Pokémon card deck is composed of 60 cards. The average deck includes 16 to 20 Pokémon, and a mix of around 12 to 18 Energy cards and up to 30 Trainer cards.

• Organizing bulky binders full of Pokémon cards is so 1999. The official Pokémon Trading Card Game Card Dex app is available for download on Android, iPhone, and iPad devices, and committed collectors can scan, manage, and browse every Pokémon card released from the Sun & Moon set onward from their favorite mobile device.

• While the TAG TEAM cards are certainly receiving the most attention from the Sun & Moon Team Up set, there are loads of other fantastic Pokémon cards in the series to appreciate, such as Tapu Koko Prism Star, Incineroar-GX, and Mr. Mime.

Keep your perfectly curated and strategized Pokémon TCG deck safe and sound wherever you go by storing your 60 most important cards inside of a deck box.

FAQ

Q. Am I guaranteed to receive at least one of every Pokémon card in a series if I buy its booster box?

A. No, but even if you don’t own every card in a certain series after opening a booster box stuffed with 36 booster packs, you’ll likely be pretty close to completing your collection.

Each booster pack includes ten cards: six are common, three are uncommon, and the final card will be rare. Even though you are guaranteed 36 rare cards per booster box, premium foil cards, Pokémon-GX variants, and Prism Star Pokémon variants will be much harder to come across.

Q. Do I need to buy a booster box if I want to start playing the Pokémon trading card game?

A. Absolutely not. If you’d like to begin playing the Pokémon TCG, we recommend starting with a theme deck for $10 to $13. These contain a predetermined set of 60 cards that are structured to give a novice everything they need to begin playing, including specific numbers of Pokémon, Trainer, and Energy cards. People who play the Pokémon TCG consider buying a booster box to be the ultimate way to customize their decks with a wide selection of 360 new cards, which, in turn, opens the door to a gigantic number of strategic deck-building possibilities.

Q. What makes Pokémon-GX variant cards so special, anyway?

A. Good question. GX cards were introduced in the Pokémon Sun & Moon set, and they’ve been a part of each series ever since. A Pokémon card with the GX title has far more HP and stronger attacks than their normal versions, and they feature stunning artwork, too.

For instance, the ultra-rare Palkia-GX card available in the Forbidden Light series has access to the devastating “Zero Vanish GX” attack. If Palkia-GX uses it, the opponent is forced to shuffle every single Energy card attached to their Pokémon back into their deck. Just be thankful that these game-changing GX attacks can only be used once per player, per game.