Phantom Cards

The Phantom Cards (Japanese: まぼろしのカード Illusory Cards) or Illusion Cards^[1] are certain cards found in Pokémon Trading Card Game and Pokémon Card GB2: Here Comes Team GR! for Game Boy.

The Phantom Cards seem to be based on the Mythical Pokémon (for comparison, the Legendary Cards seem to be based on the Legendary Pokémon). The Phantom Cards and Mythical Pokémon are named with the same Japanese word: "幻" (Illusory).

List of cards

Pokémon Trading Card Game

In Pokémon Trading Card Game, there are two Phantom Cards: Venusaur and Mew. They can only be obtained through Card Pop!. Due to an oversight in the way the Card Pop! mechanic determines which card you will get, the Phantom Venusaur card is left unobtainable. Because a player cannot Card Pop! with same partner save file again until both players have used the feature with fifteen others; causing their partner's ID to be overwritten in both save files, the Phantom Mew card is potentially the hardest card to acquire in the game. The Venusaur card was also distributed in real life with the purchase of the game's Japanese Guidebook or English Player's Guide. Both of these cards are needed for the Mysterious Pokémon Deck, making it unused due to the oversight.

By DeltaSeeker

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Pokémon Card GB2: Here Comes Team GR!

In Pokémon Trading Card Game 2: The Invasion of Team GR!, there are four Phantom Cards: the same two cards from the previous game, as well as Here Comes Team Rocket! and Lugia. The player can buy the two Phantom Cards from the first game in the Game Center on GR Island. The two newer Phantom Cards are only available via Card Pop!.

Card count

The current and maximum number of cards is displayed in the Diary and the main menu screen, but each Phantom Card only counts if the player has it. For instance, if the player has all cards except the Phantom Cards in the first game, the number is shown as "226/226". If the player has 99 regular cards and 1 Phantom Mew, the number is shown as "100/227".