Welcome to Rare Candy's "Spotlight On" series, where we feature the history and stories behind some of the rarest and coolest cards and collectibles.
Looking to pick up a Mysterious Pearl of your own? Check out Rare Candy's June Premier Auction for a chance to bid on a BGS 10 Mysterious Pearl!
Pokémon fans are used to thinking in terms of pairs! Starting at the very beginning with Red and Blue (or Green, if you lived in Japan), the franchise has always divided up its major world expansions into two complementary video game titles — the thinking being that because each one contained Pokémon that the other didn’t, players who really wanted to “catch ‘em all” would have to trade with one another via a Game Boy Link Cable.
Trading card game (TCG) players never needed a fancy bit of technology to share their collections with one another, of course, but that doesn’t mean there haven’t been plenty of promos and rarities inspired by the exclusivity of the main Pokémon titles. One notable example is the Miracle Diamond and Mysterious Pearl cards, which were only handed out one at a time to winners of different tournaments. Owning one made you a formidable player, but owning both — that made you a legend.
Now that we’ve already given some attention to the Miracle Diamond card, it’s time to explore its equally rare sister card: the Mysterious Pearl (ミステリアス・パール).
Where Did the Mysterious Pearl Come From?
In case you missed our previous write-up, here’s a quick refresher: beginning in 2002, the Battle Road tournament brought TCG players of all ages together to compete at local shops and other venue spaces all across Japan. Each spring and summer kicked off a new round of events, and at the end the winners for each age bracket were given prizes.
During the 2007 season, the spring tournament winners won a Mysterious Pearl card at nine different locations across the country. Later in the summer, Miracle Diamond cards were awarded at another eight locations.
Mysterious Pearls also made an appearance at that year’s Winter Challenge event series, which started in November 2007 and continued all the way through January 2008. Unlike the main events that year, Winter Challenge was a free-for-all “Arena Challenge” event, where players attempted to rack up as many wins as possible during tournament hours. Two consecutive wins would earn you a point, and seven or more points earned you a Mysterious Pearl.
Although we can safely guess that 81 Mysterious Pearls were handed out during Battle Road Spring 2007, the Winter Challenge’s structure makes it a little harder to calculate distribution rates. PSA has so far graded 140 Mysterious Pearls, all categorized as coming from Winter Challenge.
If we categorize PSA’s numbers as separate from those earned at Battle Road, there may be as many as two Pearls out there for every single Diamond —but ultimately, it’s hard to say for sure.
What Makes the Mysterious Pearl Unique?
As a Trainer Card, Mysterious Pearl serves a similar function to Miracle Diamond, according to the card’s description (translated from Japanese):
Look at all of your face-down Prize cards. You may choose 1 Pokémon you find there, show it to your opponent, and put it into your hand. If you do, put this card as a Prize card face up instead of discarding it.
The term “Prize Card” doesn’t mean your opponent will win your chosen cards at the end of the match, however—it’s actually the mechanic that tracks who wins and loses the game.
Per the official rules of the Pokémon Trading Card Game, each match begins with both players randomly selecting six cards to remove from their deck to put face down in front of them. When a player knocks out their opponent’s Pokémon, they get to choose one of their own prize cards and put it back into your hand to play. Once you’ve drawn your last prize card, you officially win the match.
With that in mind, the Mysterious Pearl is a pretty powerful support card — possibly even more so than the Miracle Diamond, which only allows you to put other Trainer cards into your hand. Not only does the Pearl allow you to see what each of your prize cards is, but it allows you to retrieve one immediately, which is especially helpful if one of your heaviest hitters has been taken out of the match!
Interestingly, if you look at both the Miracle Diamond and Mysterious Pearl cards closely, you’ll see that the background features one of the legendary Pokémon from that series — Dialga for Diamond and Palkia for Pearl.
Where’s It Been Lately?
So far, only 18 of the 140 PSA-graded Mysterious Pearls have sold online, for a combined value total of over $70,000. The most expensive was a PSA 10 in April 2021, which sold for a little over $15,000 at auction.
Meanwhile, CGC has also graded 17 of these rare cards, but only a single one earned the official grade of “Pristine 10,” which is given to cards considered to be “virtually flawless.”
Looking to pick up a Mysterious Pearl of your own? Check out Rare Candy's June Premier Auction for a chance to bid on a BGS 10 Mysterious Pearl!
