One of the most important metrics for any new expansion set is the pull rate – the ratio of packs that have rare cards to those that don’t. Sets that have a good pull rate tend to be more popular than those with a low pull rate. Although a huge number of packs should be opened to get a truly definitive answer to this question, most people only buy one or two booster boxes at most and we wanted to emulate the experience of the average Pokémon fan by determining the Scarlet and Violet Base Set Pull Rate of three random booster boxes.
The Scarlet and Violet Base Set
The Scarlet and Violet Base Set is the first expansion set of the Scarlet and Violet Series. It was released on 31st March 2023 with a presale price of around £120 ($120). We ordered our boxes from two different suppliers to ensure they were completely random boxes.
New booster boxes are sealed a with clear film covering which has the Pokémon logo imprinted in white.
Each booster box contains 36 sealed booster packs. The booster packs for this set have four different artworks – Miraidon, Koraidon, Gyarados and the set starter Pokémon.
How good is the Scarlet and Violet Base Set pull rate?
The Scarlet and Violet Base set 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. For the purpose of our pull rate test we deemed a pull to be an art card – Double Rare, Ultra Rare, Illustration Rare, Special Illustration Rare or Hyper Rare.
The Scarlet and Violet Base Set contains 258 cards and includes 12 Double Rare Cards, 24 Illustration Rare Cards, 10 Special Illustration Rare Cards, 20 Ultra Rare Cards and 6 Hyper Rare Gold Cards.
In addition to logging the overall Scarlet and Violet pull rate we also logged the pull rate for each pack art design – Miraidon, Koraidon, Gyarados and the Starter Pokémon.
Scarlet and Violet Base Set Pull Rate Results by Pack Art
Our three booster boxes contained 108 Booster Packs:
29 Koraidon artwork, 27 Miraidon, 27 Gyarados and 25 Starter Pokémon artwork.
Koraidon Artwork
Our 29 packs featuring Koraidon included 22 that had no art cards.
From the other 7 packs we pulled:
045/198 Gyarados ex (Double Rare)
086/198 Gardevoir ex (Double Rare)
131/198 Toxicroak ex (Double Rare)
211/198 Ralts (Illustration Rare)
215/198 Riolu (Illustration Rare)
223/198 Spidops ex (Ultra Rare)
253/198 Miraidon ex (Hyper Rare)
This represents a pull rate of 24%
Miraidon Artwork
Out of the 27 packs featuring Miraidon, 19 packs had no art cards.
From the remaining 8 packs we pulled:
019/198 Spidops ex (Double Rare)
065/198 Magnezone ex (Double Rare)
081/198 Miraidon ex (Double Rare)
158/198 Oinkologne ex (Double Rare)
205/198 Clauncher (Illustration Rare)
236/198 Jacq (Ultra Rare)
250/198 Jacq (Special Illustration Rare)
252/198 Penny (Special Illustration Rare)
This represents a pull rate of 30%
Gyarados Artwork
Out of our 27 packs, 17 packs contained no holo rare or art cards.
From the other 10 packs we pulled:
032/198 Arcanine ex (Double Rare)
045/198 Gyarados ex (Double Rare)
143/198 Iron Treads ex (Double Rare)
158/198 Oinkologne ex (Double Rare)
208/198 Pachirisu (Illustration Rare)
217/198 Klawf (Illustration Rare)
234/198 Oinkologne (Ultra Rare)
237/198 Katy (Ultra Rare)
238/198 Miriam (Ultra Rare)
248/198 Iron Treads ex (Special Illustration Rare)
This represents a pull rate of 37%
Starter Pokémon Artwork
Our 25 packs featuring the three Scarlet and Violet Starter Pokémon included 18 that had no art cards.
From the other 7 packs we pulled:
045/198 Gyarados ex (Double Rare)
086/198 Gardevoir ex (Double Rare)
123/198 Great Tusk ex (Double Rare)
213/198 Fidough (Illustration Rare)
222/198 Skwovet (Illustration Rare)
242/198 Team Star Grunt (Special Illustration Rare)
243/198 Spidops ex (Special Illustration Rare)
This represents a pull rate of 28%
Conclusion
From our 108 booster packs we pulled 14 Double Rare cards, 7 Illustration Rare, 5 Ultra Rare, 5 Special Illustration Rare and 1 Hyper Rare card. This represents an overall Scarlet and Violet Base Set pull rate of 30%. When this is broken down by rarity the pull rate from 3 booster boxes is:
Double Rare – 13%
Illustration Rare – 6%
Ultra Rare – 5%
Special Illustration Rare – 5%
Hyper Rare – <1%
The results analysed by pack art showed that packs with Gyarados artwork had the best pull rate of 37%, Miraidon artwork came out at 30%, Starter Pokémon 28% and Koraidon fared worst with 24%.
It should be remembered that the Scarlet and Violet pull rate results posted here were taken from three booster boxes. If the sample were larger with more booster boxes being analysed, the result could be different.
