It is widely believed that booster packs with a higher weight are more likely to have rarer and more valuable art cards inside. Individual booster packs are frequently advertised on selling sites with the word ‘heavy’ suggesting that the weight indicates there will be more art cards inside. This article seeks to analyse the Paldea Evolved Pack Weight to see if heavier packs do make a difference.
Rarity Changes with Scarlet and Violet
The Paldea Evolved expansion was released on 9th June 2023 as the second set of the Scarlet and Violet series.
The Scarlet and Violet Series launch saw a revamping of rarity categories with each type of rare card having its own unique symbol. Non-holo rare cards were discontinued meaning all rare cards were holographic. The new categories are:
Holo Rare cards
Double Rare (replaces half art cards)
Ultra Rare (replaces secret rare cards)
Illustration Rare (formerly secret rare, alternate art)
Special Illustration Rare (formerly secret rainbow rare, alternate art)
Hyper Rare (gold secret rare.
The Paldea Evolved Set contains 279 cards and includes 17 Double Rare ex Cards, 36 Illustration Rare Cards, 15 Special Illustration Rare Cards, 26 Ultra Rare Cards and 9 Hyper Rare Gold Cards.
Paldea Evolved Pack Weight
We purchased three sealed Booster boxes to use for our test. We used a highly sensitive digital scale to get an accurate weight for each pack. The weights ranged from 22.69g to 23.01g. We rounded the weights to 1 decimal point giving us 4 different weights – 22.7g, 22.8g, 22.9g and 23g. After weighing and grouping all the packs we randomly selected 20 of each weight for our test.
Paldea Evolved Pack Weight Results
We decided not to log the numbers of reverse holo, holo rare, uncommon, common or energy cards.
The 22.7g Packs
The first Paldea Evolved packs to be opened were the 20 x 22.7g weight packs. 15 of the packs had no art cards. From the other 5 packs we pulled:
Frigibax 208/193
Mismagius 212/193
Paldean Wooper 221/193
Rookidee 225/193
Bellibolt ex 237/193
The 22.8g Packs
The 20 x 22.8g weight packs were opened next. 16 packs had no art cards. From the other 4 packs we pulled:
Quaxly 206/193
Gothorita 213/193
Clavell 249/193
Skeledirge ex 258/193
The 22.9g Packs
The 20 x 22.9g weight packs were opened next. 13 packs contained no art cards. From the remaining 7 packs we pulled.
Meowscarada ex 015/193
Chi-Yu ex 040/193
Bellibolt ex 079/193
Squawkabilly ex 169/193
Tyranitar 222/193
Skeledirge ex 233/193
Iono 254/193
The 23g Packs
Lastly, the 20 x 23g weight packs were opened. 9 packs contained no art cards. From the remaining 11 packs we pulled:
Forretress ex 005/193
Meowscarada ex 015/193
Wo-Chien ex 027/193
Skeledirge ex 037/193
Slowking ex 086/193
Lycanroc ex 117/193
Paldean Clodsire ex 130/193
Wo-Chien ex 232/193
Chien-Pao ex 261/193
Tinkaton ex 262/193
Saguaro 270/193
Conclusion
From the 20 x 22.7g packs we pulled just 5 art cards – a 25% pull rate.
From the 20 x 22.8g packs we pulled 4 art cards – a 20% pull rate
From the 20 x 22.9g packs we pulled 7 art cards – a 35% pull rate
Of the 20 x 23g packs, 11 had art cards – a 55% pull rate
The results of our Paldea Evolved pack weight experiment appears to show that the lightest packs have the worst pull rate, while the heaviest packs clearly have a better pull rate. However, there was less than 0.5g difference between the lightest and the heaviest pack so without an accurate scale the difference would not be noticeable.
It should also be remembered that only 20 packs of each weight were used for this experiment. Using a greater number of packs may give a different result.
