Master Set Guides
Artwork above: Keiko Fukuyama, Mankey Bridge (1999 postcard Set B) — scan via The Art of Pokémon, found through the restoration blog Hi-Res Pokémon.
See every card. Price the whole run. Finish the set.
Everything in a master set guide:
✓ Complete master set list — every card, with promos and variants included
✓ Card count breakdown — by rarity, reverse holo and secret rare
✓ Every card named as the printing it is — 1st Edition, Shadowless, Unlimited, reverse holo
✓ All six boundary rungs priced side by side — so you pick the finish line yourself
✓ Raw, grade 9 and PSA 10 prices — each with the date it was read
✓ The binder — what fits on a page, in what order, and printable placeholders so it never has ghost slots
Ready to build your master set? Start here.
By Pokémon
Every card of your favourite Pokémon, across all 18 sets — one page per printing.
By Set
Every card in a set, one expansion end to end — with all six boundary rungs priced.
Pokédex
One card for every Pokémon — Kanto and Johto first, 251 species, priced as a run.
Artists & More
Ken Sugimori, Mitsuhiro Arita, Keiji Kinebuchi and the rest — one master set per illustrator, every card they drew.
Every master set, by set, by Pokémon or by budget.
Every card in a set, one expansion end to end — 18 sets, 87 priced runs between them.
Base series
Gym series
Neo series
e-Card series
Promo sets
Japanese · 1996
Every Pokémon in the dex, in order — 251 species from #001 to #251, each opening its own master set page with every one of its printings priced.
The same 251 in one directory → — every printing count and what one of each costs, on a single page.
Kanto · #001–151 · 151 Pokémon
Johto · #152–251 · 100 Pokémon
Not Pokédex entries · 2
Set a budget and see every master set it buys, ranked. No complete WotC set exists under $350 — below that the honest answer is promos, species runs and single cards.
Counts include everything priced at that rung: complete sets, 1st Edition runs, grandmaster sets, species runs and graded runs. Each tile opens the same filter on the budget lane, so the number you see here is the number you land on.
One card for every Pokémon — Dex №1–251, Kanto and Johto.
The list is built and priced: 251 cards, one per Pokémon. Completing it costs $1,324.79 if you buy the cheapest printing of each, or $7,556.02 if you insist on each Pokémon's earliest WotC-era printing — the canonical card is usually a 1st Edition. The guide page, with the binder layout and a searchable checklist, is the next thing we are building.
One master set per illustrator — every English WotC card they drew, priced as a run.
28 artists have a page, each at 20 or more priced cards. Every tile is that artist's own most valuable card and opens their master set: the binder layout, the printable checklist and every record page.
Ken SugimoriPikachu #86 · 1011 cards
Mitsuhiro AritaCharizard #4 · 395 cards
Keiji KinebuchiGengar #11 · 373 cards
Kagemaru HimenoDrowzee #73 · 286 cards
Atsuko NishidaUmbreon #H30 · 194 cards
Shin-ichi YoshidaAmpharos #H1 · 103 cards
Sumiyoshi KizukiMankey #81 · 98 cards
Miki TanakaDark Magneton #11 · 88 cards
Tomokazu KomiyaPolitoed #8 · 88 cards
Yuka MoriiPoliwrath #24 · 70 cards
Yukiko BabaGengar #13 · 69 cards
Hajime KusajimaMew #19 · 63 cards
Naoyo KimuraLugia #149 · 61 cards
CR CG gangsUnown A #14 · 54 cards
Kyoko UmemotoGengar #H9 · 52 cards
Masako YamashitaDugtrio #10 · 49 cards
Hironobu YoshidaShining Charizard #107 · 45 cards
Aya KusubeHoundour #5 · 44 cards
Kimiya MasagoUmbreon #13 · 44 cards
Toshinao AokiAmpharos #1 · 41 cards
Midori HaradaCubone #72 · 31 cards
Hisao NakamuraScizor #H21 · 28 cards
Kouki SaitouCharizard #146 · 25 cards
"Big Mama" TagawaLucky Stadium #41 · 24 cards
Hiromichi SugiyamaCharizard #6 · 24 cards
Keiko FukuyamaPsyduck #104 · 22 cards
Shin-ichi YoshikawaVenusaur #30 · 22 cards
Hikaru KoikeBeedrill #H4 · 21 cardsWant to know as soon as a new master set goes live?
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Want a specific master set next?
Name the set or the Pokémon and it goes on the list. Guides are built in the same order every time: the card list, the prices, the six rungs, the binder and the printable.
The signup opens shortly. We are wiring up the list now, so the form is switched off rather than pretending to take your address — nothing typed here is stored.
Complete Set vs. Master Set vs. Grand Master Set
What counts as a master set?
The hobby does not agree on the term, and we do not arbitrate it — every set is priced at all six boundaries separately, so you pick the finish line instead of inheriting someone else’s.
Complete Set
The entry-level goal for a casual collector.
One of every card in the printed checklist.
- Includes: Complete Set — the printed checklist, Unlimited
Master Set
The collector standard — what most people mean by the phrase.
Every printing the set was actually sold in, not just the numbered cards.
- Includes: Complete Set (1st Ed) — the same cards with the Edition 1 stamp
- Grandmaster — 1st Edition and Unlimited together
A master set can double or triple the printed card count, because the reverse holo and 1st Edition runs are counted in it.
Grand Master Set
The completionist’s version.
Everything above, plus the cards that were never in a booster pack.
- Includes: Grandmaster+ — plus the error and variant printings
- Full Variant Run — every printing the set has
- PSA 10 Set — graded, so a raw binder cannot misrepresent it
A species master set is the same idea one Pokémon at a time: one card of every printing that species has across the WotC era.