Here it is, the card that’s causing all the fuss. Well, here it is in Spanish, at least, via PokéBeach. The Japanese Special Art Rare version of this card saw not only the Clay Burst set it comes in sell out, but all Pokémon cards in Japan sell out. That’s rather popular.
Usually such popularity is put down to the “waifu” phenomenon, where Pokémon cards featuring pretty girls tend to become incredibly sought after, as grim as that all gets. But in this case… she’s not exactly alluringly posed, is she? If anything, she looks damn terrifying, with her spiky teeth and furious glare.
Anyway, it’s impossible to overstate the popularity of this card. Not only did it cause a cardocalypse, and The Pokémon Company to start printing the Clay Burst set to order in a desperate effort to calm everything down, but it’s still changing hands for over $1,000. Peaking at $1500 a couple of weeks ago, it’s only very rarely dipping under $900 on eBay, and according to Price Charting, averaging at a solid $1,090 even now the sets can be bought again. (It’s not the only Iono in Clay Burst, the Art Rare version itself selling for over $200.)
Mysteriously, there’s no official image of the Japanese card on the internet, despite the set having been on sale for weeks now, and there’s been no official confirmation of its existence for Paldea Evolved. It’s there, though, as proven by the Spanish leak. It will definitely not be nearly as pricey as the Japanese card once it’s out in English, but you can expect it to hit north of $300 this weekend for the lucky few who pull it from their Build & Battle pre-release boxes, before calming down to likely around $100 in the coming weeks.
The last card to see numbers like this was the Japanese Violet ex set’s Miriam, which is still going for over $800. But international version of the same is yours for “only” $70.
You can expect Paldea Evolved to be a quick-selling set just because of the potential popularity of the Iono, so make sure you get your pre-orders in if you don’t want to be disappointed at the empty store shelves.