Pokemon TCG: Detective Pikachu Set

Released (English)	29 March 2019
Released (Japanese)	26 April 2019 (Japan released after the English set)
Cards (English)	18 (all Holo)
Cards (Japanese)	25 — Great Detective Pikachu (SM-P)
Series	Sun & Moon (Generation VII)
Region focus	Alola
Previous expansion	Team Up
Following expansion	Unbroken Bonds
Associated decks	None (movie tie-in — sold only in Case File products)
Tie-in film	POKÉMON Detective Pikachu (2019)
Japanese sets	Great Detective Pikachu (SM-P)

Quick menu: Overview / English version vs. Japanese Variations / Set List / Other Cards / Most Valuable Cards / Most Powerful | Images & Videos

Detective Pikachu isn’t really an expansion — it’s a movie tie-in, and a genuinely one-of-a-kind one. Released in March 2019 alongside the live-action POKÉMON Detective Pikachu film, this tiny 18-card set trades the TCG’s usual painted illustrations for something the game had never done before: full-card, photorealistic 3D renders straight out of the movie’s visual-effects pipeline.

Every card is a Holo, every Pokémon is pulled from the film — a scruffy, rain-slicked Detective Pikachu, a snarling Charizard, Mewtwo, Greninja, Mr. Mime and more — and the whole thing has a texture and lighting that looks like nothing else in a binder. It’s a curiosity in the best sense.

You couldn’t buy it as a booster box. The 4-card holo packs came bundled only inside movie products: the base Case File, plus Charizard-GX, Greninja-GX and Mewtwo-GX Case Files (each carrying an exclusive alternate-art GX promo), a Collector’s Chest and retail blisters.

As a collector’s oddity it’s beloved; as a competitive product it was never meant to matter. And that’s totally fine — sometimes a set exists purely to be a lovely, weird keepsake of a moment, and Detective Pikachu is exactly that.

Variations between the Japanese and English language releases

The Detective Pikachu set flips the usual order on its head. Normally Japan gets an expansion months before the West, but here the English 18-card release landed first, on March 29th, 2019, timed to the Detective Pikachu movie. Japan’s equivalent, Great Detective Pikachu (SM-P), didn’t follow until April 26th, 2019, and ran a little larger at 25 cards.

It’s a tiny, self-contained novelty set rather than a numbered main expansion: every one of the 18 English cards is a Holo, there are no theme decks, and they were sold exclusively through the movie’s Case File products. The artwork leans into the film’s scruffier, semi-realistic take on Pokémon, which makes it a distinctive one-off in any collection.

Detective Pikachu was never a set you could buy loose — the cards only turned up inside movie tie-in products. Here’s how it was packaged on both sides of the Pacific:

• English booster pack — four cards per pack, and every one of the 18 cards in the set is a Holo. The packs were never sold on their own.
• Case File — the flagship product, sold in three separate versions: a Charizard-GX Case File, a Greninja-GX Case File and a Mewtwo-GX Case File. Each one held six booster packs, an oversized jumbo GX and its own matching foil promo — Charizard-GX (SM195), Greninja-GX (SM197) or Mewtwo-GX (SM196) respectively.
• Two-pack blister — a cheaper entry point pairing a couple of booster packs with a Detective Pikachu promo card.
• Japanese ‘Great Detective Pikachu’ pack — three Commons plus one Uncommon-or-better, with every Common and Uncommon printed as a Mirror Holo.
• Japanese Special Jumbo Card Pack — a movie-promotion pack (Charizard-GX and Mewtwo-GX versions) built around an oversized jumbo card.

Set List

All 18 cards in Detective Pikachu, with card text.

Card Image	No.	Card name	Rarity	Card type
	1/18	Bulbasaur	Common	Grass
	Card text Find a Friend — Search your deck for a Grass Pokémon, reveal it, and put it into your hand. Then, shuffle your deck.
	2/18	Ludicolo	Rare	Grass
	Card text Ability — Table Service: Once during your turn (before your attack), you may heal 30 damage from 1 of your Pokémon. Punch and Run 70 — Switch this Pokémon with 1 of your Benched Pokémon.
	3/18	Morelull	Common	Grass
	Card text Sleep Spore 10 — Your opponent’s Active Pokémon is now Asleep.
	4/18	Charmander	Common	Fire
	Card text Reckless Charge 20 — This Pokémon does 10 damage to itself.
	5/18	Charizard	Rare Ultra	Fire
	Card text Slash 70 Wild Tackle 180 — This Pokémon does 50 damage to itself.
	6/18	Arcanine	Rare	Fire
	Card text Ability — Security Guard: As long as this Pokémon is your Active Pokémon, all of your Pokémon take 30 less damage from your opponent’s attacks (after applying Weakness and Resistance). Sharp Fang 90
	7/18	Psyduck	Common	Water
	Card text Panic 10 — This Pokémon is now Confused.
	8/18	Magikarp	Common	Water
	Card text Hold Still — Heal 10 damage from this Pokémon.
	9/18	Greninja	Rare Ultra	Water
	Card text Ability — Evasion Jutsu: If any damage is done to this Pokémon by attacks, flip a coin. If heads, prevent that damage. Furious Shurikens — This attack does 50 damage to 2 of your opponent’s Pokémon. (Don’t apply Weakness and Resistance for Benched Pokémon.)
	10/18	Detective Pikachu	Rare	Lightning
	Card text Scout — Your opponent reveals their hand. Surprise Attack 80 — Flip a coin. If tails, this attack does nothing.
	11/18	Mr. Mime	Rare	Psychic
	Card text Ability — Pantomime: When you play this Pokémon from your hand onto your Bench during your turn, you may switch 1 of your face-down Prize cards with the top card of your deck. Juggling 20× — Flip 4 coins. This attack does 20 damage for each heads.
	12/18	Mewtwo	Rare Ultra	Psychic
	Card text Psyjack 30 — Choose 1 of your opponent’s Active Pokémon’s attacks. That Pokémon can’t use that attack during your opponent’s next turn. Break Burn 130 — Discard 2 Psychic Energy from this Pokémon.
	13/18	Machamp	Rare	Fighting
	Card text Directing Traffic — Look at the top 5 cards of your deck and put them back in any order. Cross Chop 80+ — Flip a coin. If heads, this attack does 60 more damage.
	14/18	Jigglypuff	Common	Fairy
	Card text Healing Melody — Heal 10 damage from each of your Pokémon.
	15/18	Snubbull	Common	Fairy
	Card text Play Rough 10+ — Flip a coin. If heads, this attack does 30 more damage.
	16/18	Lickitung	Common	Colorless
	Card text Continuous Lick 20× — Flip a coin until you get tails. This attack does 20 damage for each heads.
	17/18	Ditto	Rare Ultra	Colorless
	Card text Copy Anything — Choose 1 of your opponent’s Pokémon’s attacks and use it as this attack. If this Pokémon doesn’t have the necessary Energy to use that attack, this attack does nothing.
	18/18	Slaking	Rare	Colorless
	Card text Pitch 150 — Your opponent switches their Active Pokémon with 1 of their Benched Pokémon.

Other Cards & Promos

Because Detective Pikachu was a promo-driven movie tie-in, a whole cluster of related cards live outside the 18-card main set.

Wider Sun & Moon promos. The three Case Files each shipped with a foil Pokémon-GX from the SM Black Star Promos — Charizard-GX (SM195), Mewtwo-GX (SM196) and Greninja-GX (SM197) — while Detective Pikachu himself picked up several promo printings, including SM170 (the ‘On the Case’ Figure Collection), SM190 and SM194. They all lean into the movie’s scruffier, semi-realistic art style.

Movie-day giveaways. The film drove a wave of free promos. At cinemas, a special two-card Detective Pikachu booster — one guaranteed Detective Pikachu (SM190) plus a random card from the set — was handed out with tickets to 3D screenings in May 2019. That same Detective Pikachu returned as a stamped promo packed inside the DVD, Blu-ray and 4K home-media releases (widely stocked on the UK high street, WHSmith included). On top of that, three basic-Pokémon promos were given away free at retailers, split across chains by region: Bulbasaur (SM198), Psyduck (SM199) and Snubbull (SM200) — picked up in the US at Walmart, Target and GameStop, and in the UK at Waterstones, GAME and Smyths.

Japanese-only cards. Japan’s ‘Great Detective Pikachu’ set (SMP2) is home to the range’s most charming oddity — a full card for Lt. Yoshida (025/024), one of the movie’s human characters, the sort of live-action character card that almost never turns up in the TCG. The Japanese set also carried GX versions of Charizard, Greninja and Mewtwo that the English 18-card release skipped.

For Collectors: Most Valuable Cards

Detective Pikachu — #10/18

The titular star and the card everyone wants from the set — the little deerstalker-wearing sleuth himself, in full cinematic 3D.

Charizard — #5/18

It’s Charizard, so of course it’s a highlight — and the photorealistic movie render gives it a menace the painted cards never quite match.

Mewtwo — #12/18

The film’s central legendary, and a striking card in the 3D style. (Its GX counterpart, SM196, was a Case File exclusive rather than part of the numbered set.)

Collector’s Set, Not a Competitive One

Let’s be straight: none of the 18 cards here were built for tournament play. They’re low-power basic Pokémon designed for movie flavour and collecting. The stronger GX cards associated with the launch (Charizard-GX SM195, Mewtwo-GX SM196, Greninja-GX SM197) were SM Black Star Promos bundled in the Case Files, not entries in this set — and even those were alternate-art reprints rather than new competitive tools. Detective Pikachu’s value has always been novelty and nostalgia, not the metagame.

Most Powerful Cards (Competitive Play)

A movie tie-in collector set of 18 Holo reprints with negligible Standard impact — and, contrary to common assumption, it contains no Pokémon-GX cards at all. In a GX-dominated 2019 meta these movie-art versions saw only fringe, casual play; the five below are simply the least weak.

Mewtwo (Psychic Basic Attacker / Disruption) (#12)

A non-GX Basic Psychic hitter whose Psyjack shuts off one of the opponent’s attacks and Break Burn swings for 130 (discarding 2 Energy). Being a Basic gives it splashability, but it was a casual toy next to the era’s actual Mewtwo-GX.

Greninja (Spread / Tech Attacker) (#9)

Furious Shurikens spreads 50 damage onto two of the opponent’s Pokémon while the Evasion Jutsu coin flip can shrug off incoming hits. It is the only card here with genuine spread/disruption utility, though still far too fringe for real Standard play.

Arcanine (Defensive Wall) (#6)

A Basic Fire body whose Security Guard ability cuts 30 damage off all of your Pokémon while it is Active, backed by a 90-damage Sharp Fang. A passable defensive tech idea, but too slow and low-impact to matter competitively.

Ludicolo (Support / Healer) (#2)

Offers Table Service to heal 30 each turn and Punch and Run for 70 with a free switch, giving it mild supportive value. Fine for casual healing builds but with no meaningful tournament footprint.

Slaking (Colorless Heavy Hitter) (#18)

A 180-HP frame that swings for 150 with Pitch and forces the opponent to switch, all on splashable Colorless cost. A big beater for kitchen-table decks, but its four-Energy price made it a non-factor in 2019 Standard.

Trivia & Pop Culture

• A one-off art style. This is the only English Pokémon TCG set rendered in photorealistic movie-style 3D CGI — produced with the film’s VFX studios — a look never used before or since.
• Ryan Reynolds, Pokémon star. The set ties into POKÉMON Detective Pikachu (May 2019), the live-action film in which Ryan Reynolds voiced the wisecracking Pikachu.
• Every card’s a Holo. Unusually, all 18 cards are holofoil — there are no plain commons or uncommons.
• Bundles only. It was never sold as a standalone booster line; packs came exclusively inside Case Files, blisters and the Collector’s Chest.
• A box-office hit. POKÉMON Detective Pikachu (May 2019) grossed around $450 million worldwide — one of the most successful video-game movie adaptations ever made.
• Great Detective Pikachu. Japan got its own version of the set, released as 名探偵ピカチュウ (Great Detective Pikachu, SMP2).
• The chase card. Detective Pikachu himself — #10/18, deerstalker cap and magnifying glass in hand — is the card most collectors wanted from the set.
• From game to screen. The film was based on the 2018 Nintendo 3DS game Detective Pikachu, which starred a gruff, coffee-loving talking Pikachu solving mysteries.

Images & Videos

A collection of media from the Detective Pikachu set, the pint-sized special release tied to the 2019 Detective Pikachu movie. Browse the full card gallery below, plus opening and gameplay videos.

The set’s distinctive movie-style artwork and packaging:

Two looks at the movie products:

Detective Pikachu Charizard-GX Case File opening & review with Marriland.

Detective Pikachu Case File opening & review with Marriland.