Thirty Pikachus.
In one Pokémon set.
When I first heard about the 30 different Pikachu cards in Pokémon TCG: 30th Celebration, I thought it was absolutely ridiculous.
I mean, I get it. It’s Pokémon’s 30th anniversary. Pikachu is the face of the franchise. Thirty Pikachus for thirty years makes sense.
But still.
Thirty?!
Then I started collecting them.
And now I have all 30.
The funny part?
I want more.
It Started With “I’ll Just See Which Ones I Pull”
I wasn’t planning on making this some huge mission.
I definitely wasn’t sitting there thinking, “You know what my Pokémon collection desperately needs? Thirty more Pikachu cards.”
But that’s one of the dangerous things about Pokémon cards.
You start opening packs.
You pull a few.
Then a few more.
You look at what you’re missing.
Suddenly, this completely unnecessary collection of 30 Pikachus starts looking very necessary.
At some point I stopped thinking, “Hey, another Pikachu,” and started thinking, “Okay, which number is this one?”
And once you’re doing that, it’s already too late.
You’re completing the set.
So… I Collected All 30
And I did it.
All 30 Pikachus.
There’s something ridiculously satisfying about seeing them together.
One Pikachu? Cool.
Five Pikachus? Okay.
Ten? That’s a lot of Pikachu.
But when you’ve got all 30 sitting together, it becomes something completely different.
It’s basically a miniature collection inside 30th Celebration.
And I think that’s what made me enjoy chasing them so much.
There are bigger cards in the set.
There are more valuable cards.
There are certainly harder cards to pull.
Hell, my wife managed to pull one of the secret RGB Mew cards, because apparently Pokémon has decided she needs to win every pack battle we ever have.
But collecting the Pikachus wasn’t really about getting the biggest hit.
It was about completing something.
I Thought 30 Would Feel Like Too Many
That’s probably the biggest surprise.
Before actually collecting them, 30 sounded excessive.
After collecting them?
Thirty doesn’t feel like enough.
Which is a sentence I absolutely did not expect to write.
Once I had the last one, there was this weird moment of:
“Wait… that’s it?”
I spent all this time checking which ones we pulled, looking through duplicates, figuring out which ones I still needed…
And then suddenly there weren’t any empty spots left.
Mission accomplished.
I should be satisfied.
Instead, my brain immediately went:
“Okay, are there any more?”
Pokémon collecting may be a problem.
The Artwork Is What Makes It Work
If these were just 30 nearly identical Pikachu cards, I don’t think I’d care nearly as much.
What makes the whole thing fun is seeing Pikachu represented through different artwork.
That’s one of my favorite things about the Pokémon TCG in general.
The artwork has gotten incredible.
Sometimes I’ll find myself liking a cheap card more than a card worth significantly more money simply because I love the artwork.
And putting a bunch of different interpretations of the same Pokémon next to each other really highlights that.
It’s one of the reasons I think Pokémon cards work so well as collectibles.
You’re not just chasing rarity.
You’re collecting art.
And when you’ve got all 30 Pikachus together, it really looks like a celebration of the character rather than Pokémon simply stuffing Pikachu into the set 30 times.
Not to mention like how cute is this?
Pikachu
It Also Made Opening Packs More Fun
The Pikachus added another little moment to every pack.
Obviously, you’re still hoping for the big hit.
That’s always going to be part of opening Pokémon cards.
But there was also:
“Which Pikachu did we get?”
And then:
“Do we already have this one?”
Eventually followed by:
“OH! We actually need this one!”
It’s a small thing, but it gave us another reason to get excited while opening packs.
My wife and I already like doing pack battles, although I’m beginning to think the term “battle” implies that both people have a reasonable chance of winning.
She pulled Moonbreon from her third pack of Prismatic Evolutions.
Then 30th Celebration comes along and she manages to pull an RGB Mew.
Meanwhile, I’m celebrating because I found Pikachu #whatever that we were missing.
At this point I’ve accepted my role.
And Now Pokémon Has Created a Problem
Because I want them to do this again.
Not necessarily another 30 Pikachus.
The 30-card thing works because it’s the 30th anniversary.
But I love the idea of having these little collections hidden inside larger Pokémon sets.
Give me 20 different Mews.
Actually, don’t do that.
I love Mew. That would financially ruin me.
But imagine special sets having these kinds of mini collections.
Nine Eevees representing Eevee and all of its evolutions.
A collection built around the original starters.
Different artists interpreting the same Pokémon.
A set of cards showing one Pokémon throughout different generations.
There are so many fun things Pokémon could do with the idea.
It doesn’t always have to be about creating another insanely rare chase card.
Sometimes just giving collectors something fun to complete is enough.
Pokémon Cards Are Supposed to Be Fun
That’s probably what I enjoyed most about collecting all 30.
It wasn’t about whether these cards were going to skyrocket in value.
I wasn’t sending all 30 off to get graded.
I wasn’t looking at them like investments.
I just wanted all the Pikachus.
And there’s something refreshing about that.
The Pokémon TCG world can get incredibly focused on prices.
What’s the chase card?
What’s the market price?
What’s PSA 10 selling for?
Should you hold sealed product?
What’s going up?
What’s going down?
I pay attention to that stuff too. It’s part of the hobby.
But sometimes it’s nice to have a completely stupid goal like:
“I want all 30 Pikachus.”
Then you finally get them all.
You look at the completed collection.
And you realize…
Damn it.
I want more Pikachus.
Fine, Pokémon. You Win.
I started 30th Celebration thinking that putting 30 Pikachu cards into one set was ridiculous.
I still think it’s ridiculous.
But now I’ve collected every single one of them, and somehow my complaint has changed from:
“Why are there 30 Pikachus?”
to:
“Why are there ONLY 30 Pikachus?”
So fine, Pokémon.
You got me.
The 30 Pikachus were a great idea.
I collected them.
I love having all of them together.
And now I’m sitting here hoping you do something like this again.
Just please don’t make it Mew next time.
My wallet can’t handle that.
