Rayquaza’s Shiny form is one of the most iconic Shiny Pokémon of all time. Mostly black instead of its usual green, the Shiny version of the Pokémon Emerald video game’s box Legendary’s alternate color palette accentuates its sheer might in a way its ordinary one never could. Thus, when the Shiny-themed Pokémon TCG set GX Ultra Shiny [SM8b] was launched back in the seventh generation, the Rayquaza GX card unsurprisingly was among its most sought-after.

Like many of the other cards from GX Ultra Shiny [SM8b] that depicted Shiny Pokémon, this Rayquaza GX card alludes to the visual effect seen in the video games when a Shiny Pokémon is sent into combat by way of the sparkles in the background. The black line that runs close to the edge of the entire card provides visual contrast with the card’s bright background and further highlights the Shiny color scheme of Rayquaza GX.

Shiny Rayquaza is, as has been mentioned, one of the most well-known Shiny Pokémon—arguably only behind Gyarados and Charizard’s respective Shiny forms. It’s arguably even more iconic than its ordinary version—and that fact, of course, drives up this card’s value even more. Add in a rarity of Shiny Secret Rare (SSR) and all the elements for a highly valuable card are present.

To top it all off, all Legendary Pokémon encounters in the video games are now Shiny-locked, meaning that they can no longer be Shiny. Thus, this Rayquaza GX card even has a “throwback” factor because if Rayquaza were to once again return to the Pokémon video games, it would no longer be able to appear in its Shiny form.

The English version of this card is one of the Yellow A Alternate cards where its number is 177a/168.

A Rayquaza GX (GX Ultra Shiny [SM11b] 240/150) costs 44,800 JPY (~US$286).

In other TCG-related news, check out the Glaceon GX card from GX Ultra Shiny [SM8b]. Alternatively, you can also head over to the SNKRDUNK App via the banner below and find the top trending and latest single cards and boxes.