Gym Challenge: How to Identify Cards From This Set

• Continuing Gym Heroes' 'Owner's Pokémon' design, card names keep the 'Gym Leader's name's Pokémon name' format, such as this set's Blaine's Charizard.
• Rarity is shown by a small symbol at the bottom of the card: circle = Common, diamond = Uncommon, star = Rare — the same rule as Gym Heroes and other sets.

• 1st Edition: One of the sets between Base Set and Neo Destiny (except Base Set 2) that had a 1st Edition print run.

• [Gym Heroes](/lookup/pokemon-sets/gym-heroes): Both sets share the same card design and 'Owner's Pokémon' mechanic; telling them apart mainly relies on whether the card-number total overlaps, and the specific Gym Leader named (Gym Heroes features leaders like Brock and Misty; Gym Challenge features Blaine, Koga, Giovanni, and others).

Gym Heroes and Gym Challenge both use the 'Owner's Pokémon' card-name format, which is why the two are easy to confuse; the specific Gym Leader named must be used to determine which set a card belongs to.

• 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.