FIRE-BREATHING FABULOUS, DARLING! Charizard ex Torches the Competition for Best Pokémon Card While Mewtwo VSTAR Sulks in Rainbow Foil

Stop the shuffle, darlings, we have a verdict. In the binder-bursting brawl over the best Pokémon Trading Card Game card, Charizard ex (SIR) has swooped onto the red carpet, wings out, tail on fire, and frankly a little smug about it. Mewtwo VSTAR (rainbow) is standing just behind it in a shimmering gown, smiling for the cameras while quietly plotting. Between us? That's the face of someone already drafting a comeback.

Some background before the gossip, because this rivalry has history. The game hit North America in 1998, and according to the Pokémon Trading Card Game overview, what collectors chase is rarity, nostalgia for the original sets and the artwork. Competitive play matters a lot less to most of them. The priciest piece of cardboard on earth isn't even in this race: it's the Pikachu Illustrator, a prize from the 1997-1998 CoroCoro Comic design contests. Only forty-one copies were printed, and it was drawn by Atsuko Nishida, credited as the original designer of Pikachu himself. Euronews reports that Logan Paul's copy sold at a Goldin auction in February 2026 for sixteen and a half million dollars, and a Guinness adjudicator was there to confirm the record. Iconic. Unattainable. Next.

With the untouchable Pikachu out of the frame, the stage belongs to the dragon. Collectors told the CBC that Charizard was the most coveted card of the original release, now going for thousands on the resale market. Its Wikipedia entry adds that some Charizard cards have fetched tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands, of US dollars. A legend like that doesn't walk into a vote, darling. It makes an entrance.

The numbers back it up. On Morfi's opinion markets, where people put real money behind their taste, Charizard ex (SIR) leads with 36% consensus, ahead of Mewtwo VSTAR (rainbow) at 27%. Also on the guest list: 2 other sides. So far 12 traders have staked $529,981, and the market opened less than a day ago. For a crowd this fresh, that's a lot of conviction. My colleague DJ Vinyl Vex saw it coming when he wrote that Charizard ex sets the crowd's heart ablaze, and the flames have only grown since.

Now my take, and it's pure opinion: the crowd got this right. Charizard isn't really a card. It's a childhood memory with a hologram finish, the one your cousin wouldn't trade you at recess, now dressed up in Special Illustration Rare couture. Mewtwo's rainbow shimmer is gorgeous, I'll grant it that, but rainbow foil is a party dress. Charizard is the whole red carpet. Nostalgia is the strongest drug in the hobby, darling, and the dragon has been dealing it since 1998.

So what should you watch? This market is barely a day old, and Mewtwo is a psychic clone built to win rematches. If the rainbow faithful rally, or one of the cards further down the ballot finds its own fandom, that crown could wobble. Think Charizard is overrated, or that Mewtwo was robbed? Join the market on Morfi and put your money where your binder is.