Pokemon BREAK cards were a series of cards that appeared in a few sets of the Pokemon Trading Card game. They have long since been discontinued, with no new cards being produced since Pokemon evolutions.
So, are Pokemon BREAK cards rare? The fact that they are classed as rare cards in the Pokemon TCG, then yes, they are rare. Only a few BREAK cards existed in the sets they appeared in. This means people were not exactly pulling them all that often. However, they are not rare to the point where finding BREAK cards would be difficult.
On this page, we want to talk a little bit about BREAK cards and what they do. If you stumble across a BREAK in an old set, you will know what the card does.
What Are Pokemon Break Cards?
Pokemon BREAK cards are special evolution cards. They were initially introduced in the set BREAKtthrough. However, they have appeared in a couple of sets since then. As we stated before, the last time these cards appeared in a set was Pokemon Evolutions.
No current sets feature Pokemon BREAK cards, and no BREAK cards are considered standard legal. So, if you do have these cards, you will only be able to play with them in the expanded format of the game.
Unlike standard evolution cards, BREAK cards are horizontal cards. When you draw them and evolve a Pokemon, they become the BREAK version of the card. The card is laid over the original card horizontally, creating a new card with slightly different powers.
Basically, they are just glorified evolution cards. In many cases, the BREAK cards allowed certain Pokemon to skip an evolutionary step. However, they will still just be your standard evolution cards, which is probably why they were not included in that many sets. Outside of being a gimmick, they offered nothing exciting to the game.
One of the best parts of the BREAK cards, and probably one of the main reasons why people collect them nowadays, is due to the artwork. While the vast majority of your average Pokemon card will be hand drawn, most of the BREAK cards on the market were CGI cards.
They were also holographic. They looked stunning, and they helped to show the sheer power that each of these cards had.
As one final note here, we want to point out that these are NOT evolution cards in the truest sense of the word i.e. you are not evolving a Pikachu into a Raichu using a BREAK.
Instead, with most of the cards, you are just making a Pokemon more powerful by adding an extra move and some HP. This means that BREAK cards can normally evolve later, but that would remove the BREAK card from the game.
Related: Most Expensive Pokémon Card in 2023
Are Pokemon Break Cards Real?
Yes. Pokemon BREAK cards are real. They are part of both the English language and Japanese language versions of the game. Although, they appeared in different sets for each variant of the game.
Most of the BREAK cards you find out there in the wild nowadays are real cards. They are not fakes. We don’t think these cards were important enough for people to fake. They were never especially rare, and they didn’t have all that much power. They just existed. That is not to say that fake cards were not produced, but this was incredibly rare.
We recommend always purchasing your Pokemon cards from a trusted retailer. Click here to check the current price and availability of Pokemon Booster boxes on Amazon.
Related: Topps Pokémon Cards Value
How Many Pokemon Break Cards Are There?
A total of 35 Pokemon BREAK cards were produced across these sets (these are the English names for the sets!):
- BREAKThrough
- BREAKPoint
- X Y Black Star Promos
- Fates Collide
- Steam Siege
- Evolutions
Perhaps the rarest of these cards would be the XY Black Star Promos which couldn’t be gained from booster packs. The only way to gain them was from the various collector tins on the market during the XY era. However, because it was easy to know which promo card was included in each collector tin, and Pokemon sell many tins, these cards are not especially rare.
They were also not going to be hugely powerful either. This is because the Pokemon Trading Card game producers didn’t want cards that could only be obtained as a promo to be the most powerful cards in the game. This would probably end up being ridiculously unfair for anybody that wouldn’t have been able to purchase a promo tin of their own.
What Is the Best Pokemon Card Break?
The best Pokemon BREAK card will hugely depend on the deck that a player is running. We will give you three of our highlights, though. This will give you a rough idea of how a BREAK card can actually work.
Zoroark BREAK
This bumps the Zorark up to a whopping 140hp. However, the real excitement here is the special move it brings into the mix. The Zoroark BREAK card can replicate any move of the opposing Pokemon. You do not need the right energy cards to do this. This could, in theory, knock out the opposing Pokemon.
Raticate BREAK
This reduces the opponent’s Pokemon to 10HP. It is a great way to make a standard Raticate a bit more exciting.
Chesnaught Break
This does 160 damage to the opponent’s active program PLUS 30HP damage to one of the Pokemon sitting on their bench. it is immensely powerful.
Final Thoughts
Pokemon BREAK cards are not especially rare cards. Their real rarity comes from the fact that they were only included in a limited number of sets.
Pokemon BREAK cards are no longer active in the standard version of the game, which means that their value of them is a little bit lower than it was in the past.
That being said, Pokemon BREAK are collector’s items. So, if you have some, keep them in good condition.