Arceus Set Guide

Overview

Arceus came out on November 4, 2009, with 111 cards: 99 Pokémon and 12 Trainers. Arceus cards break the usual four-copy rule: each says you may have as many in your deck as you like. The set prints three Arceus LV.X inside its printed total and nine Arceus numbered AR1 to AR9 above it.

Its other Pokémon LV.X are Gengar, Salamence and Tangrowth, and three more shiny Pokémon, SH10 to SH12, finish the SH list. Beginning Door searches your deck for an Arceus.

Cards and rarities

Arceus has 111 cards. Every card shows its number over the printed total along the bottom, as in "4/99". The cards print a set symbol, not a set code; the code here is the short one the catalog and TurnZero HQ file the set under.

The printed total is 99. Above it are three SH shiny Pokémon and nine AR Arceus, all of which the catalog lists as Rare. Set completion in TurnZero HQ counts a set against its printed total and keeps the secret rares apart, so finishing the main set and chasing the cards above it read as two separate goals. How set completion works →

Headline Pokémon

Gengar LV.X, an Arceus LV.X and an AR Arceus:

Gengar LV.X

Arceus #97

Put onto your Active Gengar. Level-Down returns one of your opponent's Pokémon LV.X to their deck.

Arceus LV.X

Arceus #95

Any number per deck. Multitype makes it its previous level's type; Meteor Blast does 100, or 50 on tails.

Arceus

Arceus #AR1

Any number per deck. Prize Count does 80 while you are behind.

Trainers worth knowing

An Item and a Pokémon Tool:

Beginning Door

Arceus #82

Search your deck for an Arceus.

Expert Belt

Arceus #87

+20 HP and 20 more damage to the Active Pokémon, but your opponent takes 1 more Prize card when it is Knocked Out.

The chase card: Gengar LV.X

Gengar LV.X

Arceus #97

Rarity Rare Holo LV.X

Card number 97/99

Market price, October 22, 2026 $698.88

Illustrator Shizurow

Arceus's chase card is Gengar LV.X, 97/99, illustrated by Shizurow, at $698.88 on October 22, 2026.

The shiny Ponyta, SH11, is second at $241.11, priced in Reverse Holofoil only, ahead of the first Arceus LV.X ($186.25).

Gengar is printed three times in the set: two regular Gengar, 16/99 and 17/99, and the LV.X. The Rare Gengar, 17/99, was $99.83.

Only the exact version is worth its price. The number at the bottom of the card and the rarity symbol beside it tell you which one you pulled. Reading the number and rarity symbol →

Chase cards and prices

Pokémon LV.X and shiny Pokémon, priced as holofoil copies where they have one.

These are each card's headline TCGplayer market price on October 22, 2026. Prices can move a long way, most of all in a set's first months, so treat them as a snapshot. Each card's page shows today's price for every variant and its 90-day chart. How Pokémon card prices work →

What a complete set costs

One copy of every card in Arceus, bought as singles, cost $2,587.06 on October 22, 2026. That is the third most expensive of the four sets in the Platinum series.

The three most valuable cards, Gengar LV.X, Ponyta and Arceus LV.X, come to $1,126.24, or 44% of the total. Without them the set costs $1,460.82. Of the 111 cards, 63 were under $2.00, together $39.39; the other 48 add up to $2,547.67.

Each card is counted at its cheapest priced variant, usually a Normal copy rather than a Reverse Holofoil, or a stamped promo copy where the catalog prices one lower, at its TCGplayer market price. This is what it costs to buy the set as singles. It is not what opening packs returns, and not what a complete set would sell for, which after fees and the many cards worth cents would be noticeably less.

Playing it

Arceus is not legal in Standard or Expanded as a set: Expanded starts with the Black & White series in 2011. The catalog marks one of its 111 cards as legal anyway: Lucky Egg, in Expanded only.

That card shares its name and text with a later, legal printing, which is what makes an older copy playable. Every other card in the set is legal in neither format.

Standard, Expanded and deck building rules →

Frequently Asked Questions