Ultra Ball
Quick take
- Number-one value card in the Plasma Freeze set
- A four-of competitive staple given the full gold Secret Rare treatment
- Crossover demand from players and collectors, unusual for a Trainer
- Clean B&W-era copies are thinning out as the cards age
Collector's readWhat it means for your master set
Set landscapeWhere this card sits in Plasma Freeze
VariantsCard variants
Holofoil 122/116 · $1199.51 — the only variant this card was printed in (no reverse holo or special pattern), so a master set needs just this one copy.
The storyThe best card in Plasma Freeze, and it's a Trainer
Ultra Ball 122/116 is the Secret Rare chase of the Black & White Plasma Freeze set. It's the gold-bordered version of a card that almost every competitive deck of the era ran four copies of. Discard two cards, search your deck for any Pokemon. Players lived on this card. So when someone wanted to bling out a deck, the Secret Rare was the one they hunted.
“Number-one value card in the Plasma Freeze set”
That double life is what makes it matter. This is a utility Trainer that happened to get the full gold Secret Rare treatment, and the design landed. Collectors and players both want it, which is unusual for an Item card. In nearly every ranking of Plasma Freeze's most valuable cards it sits at number one, usually by a wide margin over the rest of the set.
The Black & White era is now old enough that clean copies are getting harder to find. A card that spent years getting shuffled, sleeved, and played sees real wear, so high-grade examples are scarcer than the raw print run suggests.
By the numbersMarket analysis
This is the top card of Plasma Freeze and one of the more recognizable Trainer Secret Rares of the Black & White era. Raw copies sit comfortably in the three-figure range. The gap between this and the next most valuable card in the set is large.
Value has held and broadly climbed as the Black & White era ages and clean copies thin out. The card's status as the set's number-one chase keeps demand steady rather than spiky.
Steady, blue-chip behavior for a B&W-era Trainer. The mix of competitive history and collector demand gives it a wider buyer base than a typical Secret Rare. Condition is the real lever from here, since played-era wear caps the supply of high grades.
Gem-grade copies pull a strong premium over raw because so many surviving examples were actually played and show edge wear or whitening. A clean PSA 10 or BGS 9.5 sits well above raw, while lightly played raw copies still command solid three-figure money.
Black & White era Secret Rares like this one were short-printed and pulled at long odds, far rarer than the holo and Ultra Rare cards in the same set. There's no published per-pack figure for B&W Secret Rares the way modern Scarlet & Violet sets list their odds, but the practical takeaway is the same. You were not opening this from a typical box. Most copies on the market today came from heavy box and case opening at release rather than casual pack buying, and a lot of those copies were then played, which is why clean examples are the hard part.
Within Plasma Freeze this is the rarest and most valuable card, sitting above the set's holo Pokemon and Ultra Rares. Against the broader Black & White era it's one of the better-known Trainer Secret Rares, helped by Ultra Ball's name recognition.
ArtworkWhy the art matters
5ban Graphics is a Japanese design studio rather than a single illustrator, responsible for a large share of the Pokemon TCG's item and tool card art across many eras. They handle the clean, product-style renders of balls, tools, and machines rather than creature illustration, and their work defines the look of the game's Trainer cards.
A polished render of an Ultra Ball, the black-and-yellow Poke Ball variant, centered on the card. The Secret Rare print drops it onto a gold background with a shattered, cracked-ice holo pattern across the surface. The simple subject and the gold, fractured-foil treatment line up cleanly, which is a big part of why the card reads so well.
Standard Black & White card frame with the full gold Secret Rare border. The holo is the cracked-ice pattern used on B&W-era Secret Rares, applied across the whole face rather than a contained art window. Numbered 122/116, sitting past the set's printed total, which marks it as a Secret Rare.
Most Secret Rares of this era were Pokemon. Getting a plain utility Item rendered in full gold, on a card players already wanted four of, created a piece that works for both crowds. The community line you see repeated is that the Ultra Ball design matches the gold Secret Rare background almost perfectly.
BackgroundAbout Ultra Ball
Ultra Ball isn't a Pokemon, it's a Trainer Item, but it has one of the longest competitive resumes in the game. The effect, discard two cards then search your deck for any Pokemon, made it a consistency engine in deck after deck. It has been reprinted across many sets because it's that useful, and Plasma Freeze is where it got its standout gold Secret Rare.
- ›One of the most-played consistency cards in TCG history, recognized by every competitive player
- ›The Secret Rare is the marquee version of a card people already cared about
- ›Top value card in a well-known Black & White era set
- ›Crossover appeal across the player and collector communities
- ›A four-of staple in the dominant Plasma and toolbox decks of the 2013 to 2014 Black & White competitive era
- ›Reprinted repeatedly across later eras as a core search Item, keeping the card name familiar to newer players
Ultra Ball as a card stayed format-relevant for years and is one of the defining search Items in the game's history. This specific Plasma Freeze Secret Rare is now a collector piece, but the underlying card's competitive pedigree is exactly why the gold version carries the demand it does.
Own it wellCollector guide
Watch the gold border closely. Edge whitening and chipping show fast on dark gold edges, and many surviving copies were actually played, so expect surface scratches on the holo and softening at the corners. Centering on B&W Secret Rares can also be inconsistent. Inspect under good light before buying.
Worth grading for clean copies given the price level and the era. A gem grade pulls a meaningful premium over raw because played wear caps the high-grade supply. If a raw copy already shows edge whitening or surface scratches, it likely won't gem, so set expectations before paying to slab it. Read the grading guide →
Sleeve and toploader at minimum, ideally a sleeve plus a semi-rigid holder for raw copies. Keep it out of direct light and away from humidity. The gold border is the vulnerable part, so handle by the faces and avoid anything that drags across the edges. See the storage guide →
For serious money, buy graded from a reputable seller. This is a B&W-era Trainer Secret Rare and a known target for the era, so authentication matters. If buying raw, ask for sharp photos of all four corners and the holo under angled light, and price against condition rather than the headline raw number. See the singles buying guide →
Check the gold foil quality and the cracked-ice holo pattern against known-good images, since fakes often get the foil texture or sheen wrong. Verify the 122/116 number, the B&W card frame and font, and the back swirl gradient. A light test through the card and a look at the surface texture help confirm a genuine core. When in doubt at this price, buy it already graded.
Protect your card
High Chase Score — protect and consider grading. · Amazon affiliate links · Storage guideWord on the streetCommunity sentiment
Consistently called the best card in Plasma Freeze. Collectors and former players both rate it highly, and the recurring praise is that the Ultra Ball art and the gold Secret Rare frame fit together unusually well. It gets treated as the set's signature pull.
- ›Marketplace data shows a wide spread driven almost entirely by condition, with clean and graded copies selling for multiples of beat-up played examples
- ›Repeatedly listed as the number-one most valuable card in Plasma Freeze across collector value roundups
Comes up regularly in Black & White era and Plasma Freeze value discussions on collector forums and marketplaces, usually as the example of a Trainer Secret Rare that earned real chase status. Threads on community boards track its price and condition closely.
Good to knowFrequently asked questions
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