It is widely believed that booster packs with a higher weight are more likely to have rarer and more valuable art cards inside. Individual booster packs are frequently advertised on selling sites with the word ‘heavy’ suggesting that the weight indicates there will be more art cards inside. This article seeks to analyse the Scarlet and Violet Base Pack Weight to see if heavy packs do make a difference.
Rarity Changes with Scarlet and Violet
The Scarlet and Violet Base Set expansion was released on 31st March 2023 as the first set of the Scarlet and Violet series.
The set saw a revamping of rarity categories with each type of rare card having its own unique symbol. Non-holo rare cards were discontinued meaning all rare cards were holographic. The new categories are:
Holo Rare cards
Double Rare (replaces half art cards)
Ultra Rare (replaces secret rare cards)
Illustration Rare (formerly secret rare, alternate art)
Special Illustration Rare (formerly secret rainbow rare, alternate art)
Hyper Rare (gold secret rare.
The Scarlet and Violet Base Set contains 258 cards and includes 12 Double Rare Cards, 24 Illustration Rare Cards, 10 Special Illustration Rare Cards, 20 Ultra Rare Cards and 6 Hyper Rare Gold Cards.
Scarlet and Violet Base Pack Weight
We purchased three sealed Booster boxes to use for our test. We used a highly sensitive digital scale to get an accurate weight for each pack. The weights ranged from 22.58g to 22.87g. We rounded the weights to 1 decimal point giving us 4 different weights – 22.6g, 22.7g, 22.8g and 22.9g. After weighing and grouping all the packs we randomly selected 20 of each weight for our test.
The Results
We decided not to log the numbers of reverse holo, holo rare, uncommon, common or energy cards.
The 22.6g Packs
The first Scarlet and Violet Base Set packs to be opened were the 20 x 22.6g weight packs. Interestingly, 19 packs had no art cards. From the other pack we pulled Oinkologne 234/198.
The 22.7g Packs
The 20 x 22.7g weight packs were opened next. 11 packs had no art cards. From the other 11 packs we pulled:
1 x Gyarados ex 045/198
1 x Gardevoir ex 086/198
1 x Iron Treads ex 143/198
1 x Pachirisu 208/198
1 x Drowzee 210/198
1 x Jacq 236/198
1 x Team Star Grunt 242/198
1 x Iron Treads ex 248/198
1 x Jacq 250/198
The 22.8g Packs
The 20 x 22.8g weight packs were opened next. 14 packs contained no art cards. From the remaining 6 packs we pulled.
1 x Arcanine ex 032/198
1 x Gyarados ex 045/198
1 x Gardevoir ex 086/198
1 x Clauncher 205/198
1 x Spidops ex 223/198
1 x Katy 237/198
The 22.9g Packs
The 20 x 22.9g weight packs were opened next. 14 packs contained no art cards. From the remaining 6 packs we pulled:
1 x Gyarados ex 045/198
1 x Miraidon ex 081/198
1 x Toxicroak ex 131/198
1 x Oinkologne ex 158/198
1 x Miriam 238/198
1 x Miraidon ex 253/198
Conclusion
From the 20 x 22.6g packs we pulled just one art card – a 5% pull rate.
From the 20 x 21.7g packs we pulled 9 art cards – a 45% pull rate
From the 20 x 22.8g packs we pulled 6 art cards – a 30% pull rate
Of the 20 x 22.9g packs, 6 had art cards – a 30% pull rate
The results of our Scarlet and Violet pack weight experiment appears to show that the lightest packs have the worst pull rate, while the three other weight packs have a better pull rate. However, there was less than 1g difference between the lightest and the heaviest pack so without an accurate scale the difference would not be noticeable so it is clear that Pokémon are trying to balance pack weights.
It should also be remembered that only 20 packs of each weight were used for this experiment. Using a greater number of packs may give a different result.
