When I first got into Pokémon collecting, I knew nothing. I said so in 10 Things Every New Pokémon Card Collector Should Know.
If that's you right now, the names alone can make your head spin. V, VMAX, ex, EX, GX, holo, reverse holo, Supporter, Stadium. Nobody hands you a dictionary with your first pack.
So here it is in plain English: every type of Pokémon card you're likely to come across, how to tell which one you're holding, and what the letters after the name mean.
The Short Answer
There are three types of Pokémon cards: Pokémon cards, Trainer cards and Energy cards. That comes straight from the official rulebook.
When people ask about the different types of Pokémon cards, though, they usually mean one of three other things as well:
- the Pokémon's type, like Fire, Water or Grass (there are 11)
- the kind of Pokémon card, like ex, V, VMAX or GX
- the finish and rarity, like holo, reverse holo or full art
We'll go through all of it. The good news is that the card itself tells you most of this, once you know where to look.
Where to look on a card. Nearly everything in this guide is printed in one of these spots.
How to Work Out Which Card You Have
Grab the card and check these in order. Each one is explained further down.
- The top of the card. On modern cards a Pokémon's stage is in the top left: usually Basic, Stage 1 or Stage 2, and on some special cards VMAX, VSTAR, BREAK or MEGA. Trainer and Energy cards say what they are along the top.
- After the name. Any letters, like ex, V, VMAX or GX? That tells you the kind of Pokémon card and roughly when it was made.
- Top right. The HP and the type symbol.
- The bottom of the card. The card number and the rarity symbol, and on modern cards the set symbol or set code.
- Look the set up. Our set checklists list sets card by card, and the set timeline lays out the sets from 1996 to 2025 in order.
The Three Main Types of Pokémon Cards
1. Pokémon Cards
These are the ones with the characters on them, and they're what most of us collect. Most are Basic, Stage 1 or Stage 2 Pokémon. A Basic can be played straight away, and Stage 1 and Stage 2 cards evolve from the one before.
On modern cards the stage is in the top left corner, along with the Pokémon it evolves from. Older cards, like the Neo Revelation Snubbull below, print it in other spots.
Two Basic Pokémon cards, twenty years apart: Snubbull from Fusion Strike (2021) and Snubbull from Neo Revelation (2001). My personal favourite.
2. Trainer Cards
Trainer cards are the items, people and places that help your Pokémon in a game. There are four kinds, and the kind is printed at the top of the card:
- Item: play it, do what it says, then discard it.
- Supporter: a character card. You can only play one each turn.
- Stadium: a location that stays in play.
- Pokémon Tool: something you attach to one of your Pokémon.
Collectors love them too. Full art Supporter cards, with the character drawn across the whole card, are a collecting category of their own. You'll find ours in the Trainers collection.
3. Energy Cards
Pokémon need Energy to attack. Basic Energy cards are the plain ones (Fire, Water and so on), and Special Energy cards come with an extra effect. They're easy to overlook, but some people collect them, and you can browse ours in the Energy collection.
The 11 Pokémon Types
Every Pokémon card has a type (a few have two), shown by the symbol in the top right corner next to its HP. The card game has 11:
Grass, Fire, Water, Lightning, Psychic, Fighting, Darkness, Metal, Fairy, Dragon and Colorless.
A few things that confuse people:
- The video games have 18 types, the card game has 11. Several game types share one card type.
- The same Pokémon can change type. Marshadow has been printed as a Psychic type and as a Fighting type, as you can see below.
- Fairy has been retired. There are no Fairy-type Pokémon cards in the Scarlet & Violet or Mega Evolution series, so apart from the odd anniversary reprint you'll only find them in older sets.
- Colorless is spelled the American way. It's the official name of the type, so that's how you'll see it written.
Marshadow 103/236 from 2019 is a Psychic type. Marshadow 146/132 from Mega Evolution is a Fighting type. Same Pokémon, same artist, very different cards.
What the Letters Mean: ex, V, VMAX, GX and More
These are the big, powerful Pokémon cards, and the ones a lot of collectors are chasing. The game brings in a new kind every few years, so the letters after the name also tell you roughly how old a card is.
Mega Evolution Era (September 2025 Onwards)
- Mega Evolution Pokémon ex, like Mega Gengar ex. The newest kind, and even more powerful than a regular Pokémon ex. When one is Knocked Out, the other player takes three Prize cards. You'll find them in our Mega collection, alongside the older M Pokémon-EX cards.
Scarlet & Violet Era (From 2023)
- Pokémon ex (lowercase). Stronger than a regular Pokémon, with more HP. See our EX collection.
- Tera Pokémon ex. A Pokémon ex with a crystal look, as if it's cut from a gemstone.
Sword & Shield Era (From 2020)
- Pokémon V. Powerful Basic Pokémon with big HP.
- Pokémon VMAX. Evolves from a Pokémon V. Giant Pokémon, most with 300 HP or more. See our VMAX collection.
- Pokémon VSTAR. Also evolves from a Pokémon V, and comes with a VSTAR Power. You can only use one VSTAR Power in a whole game. See our VSTAR collection.
- Pokémon V-UNION. Four separate cards that fit together to make one huge Pokémon.
- Radiant Pokémon. Shiny Pokémon. You can only have one in a deck.
A Pokémon V and a Pokémon VMAX: Giratina V from Lost Origin and Umbreon VMAX from Evolving Skies. Both of these are Alt Arts.
Sun & Moon Era (From 2017)
- Pokémon-GX. Each one has a powerful GX attack, and you can only use one GX attack in a whole game. See our GX collection.
- TAG TEAM. More than one Pokémon sharing a single card. See our Tag Team collection.
A TAG TEAM card: Latias & Latios-GX from Team Up.
XY Era and Earlier (2016 and Before)
- Pokémon-EX (capitals). The powerful cards of the Black & White and XY years.
- Mega Evolution Pokémon. These have an M in front of the name and evolve from a Pokémon-EX. They are not the same as the new Mega Evolution Pokémon ex at the top of this list, though our Mega collection holds both.
- Pokémon BREAK. Gold cards printed sideways that sit on top of the Pokémon they evolve from. See our BREAK collection.
- Older still: Pokémon LV.X, and Pokémon LEGEND, where two cards join to make one picture.
So Is ex the Same as EX?
No, and this one trips a lot of people up. Lowercase ex is the modern one, from 2023 onwards. Capital EX is the older one, from 2012 to 2016. The rulebook itself says they are not the same.
To make it worse, there was an even earlier lowercase ex in the mid-2000s. If a card looks old and says ex, that's why.
One heads-up: in our own listings we write both as EX, so our EX collection has old and new side by side. The set and the year will tell you which is which.
Types by Finish: Holo, Reverse Holo and Full Art
The same Pokémon can be printed in several different ways. This is the part that decides how a card looks in your binder.
- Non-holo. No foil at all.
- Holo. The picture is foil and shines when you tilt it.
- Reverse holo. The opposite: the picture is plain and the rest of the card shines.
- Full art. The artwork covers the whole card. See our Full Arts collection.
- Alt Art, Illustration Rare and Special Illustration Rare. Full-card artwork that shows the Pokémon in a scene, not just a pose. I've written a guide to Alt Arts that walks through five of them.
Look back at the two Marshadow cards above. The first has its picture in a box. The second is a full-card illustration. Same Pokémon, completely different finish.
Types by Rarity
Rarity is the little symbol in the bottom corner of the card. A circle is Common, a diamond is Uncommon and a star is Rare. Everything above that uses more stars and different colours.
The card number helps too. If it's higher than the set total, like 146/132, you're holding one of the rarer cards in the set.
There's a lot to rarity, so it has its own page. Pokémon Card Rarities Explained goes through every tier.
A Few More Types You'll Hear About
- Promo cards. Cards that come from events, tins and boxed sets, not from booster packs. See our Promos collection.
- Japanese cards. The same game, printed in Japan, with a different card back. We compare the two in English vs Japanese Pokémon Cards.
- Graded cards and raw cards. A graded card has been assessed by a grading company and sealed in a plastic case called a slab. A raw card hasn't. Every card we sell is a raw single in near mint condition or better. More on that in Graded vs. Raw Pokémon Cards.
- Fake cards. Sadly, also a type. Here's how to tell if a Pokémon card is fake.
For the slang (pulls, hits, slabs, bulk), our free Pokémon Terminology Cheat Sheet explains the common terms.
So Which Type Should You Collect?
Collect what you love. It was the first of the ten things I wish I'd known as a new collector, and it's the answer here too.
Some people chase one Pokémon. Some build a set card by card. Some only care about the artwork. None of them are wrong, and you don't need to understand every type on this page before you start.
If you already have a favourite, shop by character is a good place to begin. Otherwise, have a wander through all our cards. Every single is in near mint condition or better and sent with tracked shipping from Brisbane.
If you have any questions about the cards available at Monster Mart, please don't hesitate to reach out via our contact page.