Evolving Skies: How to Identify Cards From This Set

• Chase cards (including the popular Umbreon VMAX and Rayquaza VMAX alternate arts) are numbered above the 203-card main set, e.g. up to 218/203, carrying the 'Rare Rainbow' rarity label; further secret cards up to 237/203 carry 'Rare Secret'.
• Dragon-type Pokémon in this set (and this set only, within the Sword & Shield era) have extra card-frame decoration.
• An independent card database confirms card No. 1 of this set carries Regulation Mark E.

• Japanese 'Skyscraping Perfection' and 'Blue Sky Stream' sub-expansions: Evolving Skies is the English combination of two separate, smaller Japanese sets (plus leftover cards from other Japanese subsets); a Japanese 'Skyscraping Perfection' or 'Blue Sky Stream' card will show a different set symbol/logo than the combined English set.

Card-list numbering was cross-checked directly on Bulbapedia: 001/203-203/203 is the main set, 204/203-225/203 are 'Rare Rainbow' alternate arts, and 226/203-237/203 are 'Rare Secret' cards (including three secret basic Energy cards without a printed regulation mark).

• Bottom-left or bottom-right corner: the set symbol and the collector number (e.g. 4/102) tell you the set; older cards have no symbol at all, which itself narrows them to Base Set.
• Left of the number: a 1st Edition stamp, if present, sits below the art on WOTC-era cards.
• Regulation mark (a letter in a box near the bottom, D through H so far) dates modern cards to a two-year window.
• Back of the card: the blue Poké Ball back has changed little since 1999; a washed-out, blurry or wrongly colored back is the first sign of a fake.

Lay the card flat on a dark surface in daylight, straight on, with the whole card in frame, then a close-up of the bottom edge where the set symbol, number and any edition stamp sit. Tilt holo cards under the light for a second shot to show the foil pattern. Photograph the back too. The app reads the card and set; the edition and rarity checks above tell you which version you have.