XY Evolutions: How to Identify Cards From This Set

• Evolutions is a 2016 20th-anniversary set that reprints Base Set artwork and layout, but with rules text and stats updated to the modern format.
• Even though the artwork echoes Base Set, the underlying card stats were brought up to date for 2016 rules.

• [Base Set](/lookup/pokemon-sets/base-set): Original 1999 Base Set cards carry no set symbol at all, while every set from Jungle (1999) onward, including 2016's Evolutions, does. The two sets also differ in total size (102 cards for Base Set vs. 108 numbered cards for Evolutions) and in copyright year printed at the bottom of the card.

Japanese release (as Expansion Pack 20th Anniversary) September 16, 2016; English release November 2, 2016. Card-count breakdown (108 main + 5 secret rares) is corroborated by multiple secondary listings (e.g. cardmavin.com) rather than Bulbapedia's summary total alone.

• 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.