Team Aquas Kyogre EX
Quick take
- nagimiso's debut Pokemon TCG card, alongside Team Magma's Groudon EX
- Full art scene featuring Shelly, Matt, and Team Aqua's Pokemon
- Headliner of Double Crisis, a 34-card collector-focused mini-set from 2015
- Usually collected and displayed as a pair with Team Magma's Groudon EX
Collector's readWhat it means for your master set
Set landscapeWhere this card sits in Double Crisis
VariantsCard variants
Holofoil 6/34 · $609.35 — the only variant this card was printed in (no reverse holo or special pattern), so a master set needs just this one copy.
The storynagimiso's debut card and the face of a villain-team curiosity set
Double Crisis was a small, odd release. Thirty-four cards, and instead of regular booster boxes it sold in America through two themed pin-pack products, one for Team Aqua and one for Team Magma. Each box held four 7-card packs plus a collector's pin and a matching coin. The whole thing was pitched at collectors and casual fans rather than tournament players, since the Team Aqua and Team Magma Pokemon carried deckbuilding restrictions that kept them out of serious competitive play.
“nagimiso's debut Pokemon TCG card, alongside Team Magma's Groudon EX”
Team Aqua's Kyogre EX is the Water-side headliner, the mirror to Team Magma's Groudon EX. It is a full art card, and the scene is the draw. Shelly and Matt of Team Aqua stand surrounded by the team's Pokemon, with Kyogre anchoring the frame. It also happens to be one of nagimiso's first two illustrations for the TCG. The artist went quiet for about two and a half years afterward, then came back around Burning Shadows and has been a regular ever since.
For master set builders, the appeal is concentration. Double Crisis is tiny, so completing it is realistic, and this card plus the Groudon are the obvious centerpieces. They are usually chased and displayed as a pair.
By the numbersMarket analysis
Sits at the top of the Double Crisis set value-wise, in a tier with its Team Magma's Groudon EX counterpart. Raw copies are accessible compared to vintage chase cards, but clean, well-centered examples carry a clear premium. The two team headliners are the cards that actually move money in this set.
Trended up notably through 2025, off what had been a long stretch of the card being relatively cheap for a full art legendary of its age. Hobby coverage at the time flagged the Double Crisis duo as quietly appreciating.
The thin print of an aging mini-set plus steady villain-team interest gives this real support. The recent run-up means some of the easy upside has already been taken. Graded gem copies are where the durable demand sits. Treat raw near-mint as the entry point and the Aqua/Magma pair as the long-term play.
High-grade copies command a meaningful premium over raw, and gem-mint examples step up again. Full art surfaces from this era show wear easily, so clean gradeable copies are scarcer than the raw population suggests.
Double Crisis predates the modern Scarlet & Violet rarity ladder, so the odds collectors quote for current sets do not map onto it. Those modern figures (a Double Rare around 1 in 5 packs, an Illustration Rare around 1 in 12, an Ultra Rare around 1 in 15, a Special Illustration Rare around 1 in 90, a Hyper Rare anywhere from 1 in 300 to 1 in 700, with a specific named card running far longer) describe a different product entirely. This was a small XY-era special set sold mainly through the Team Aqua and Team Magma pin-pack boxes, each holding four 7-card packs. With only 34 cards and the two team headliners sitting at the top, supply is governed far more by how few of these boxes were printed and opened over a decade ago than by any per-pack hit rate.
Compared to a Scarlet & Violet SIR, where a single specific card can take hundreds of packs to hit, the scarcity here is about an aged, low-print special set rather than long modern pull odds. The realistic comparison is its own Team Magma's Groudon EX, the card it is almost always ranked and priced beside.
ArtworkWhy the art matters
Team Aqua's Kyogre EX and Team Magma's Groudon EX were nagimiso's first cards for the Pokemon TCG. After Double Crisis the illustrator went quiet for roughly two and a half years, returned around Burning Shadows, and has since illustrated well over a hundred cards across the main game plus a run of cards in Pokemon TCG Pocket.
A full art scene rather than a solo portrait. Kyogre anchors the composition while Shelly and Matt of Team Aqua stand with the team's Pokemon, framing it as a group shot of the organization rather than a single legendary.
Full art XY-era treatment with the textured holo finish typical of the period. The borderless art bleeds to the card edge, which makes centering and edge wear easy to spot and harder to grade clean.
Three things stack up here. It is a debut illustration. It is a true team scene instead of a single Pokemon. And it is one of the only cards that gives a Team Aqua signature Pokemon a proper full art moment. That combination is why it gets collected on art appeal, not just rarity.
BackgroundAbout Team Aquas Kyogre EX
Kyogre is the cover legendary of Pokemon Sapphire and the Water-half of the Hoenn weather duo opposite Groudon. In the games Team Aqua chases Kyogre to expand the seas, which is exactly the fantasy this card leans on by tying the Pokemon to Shelly, Matt, and the rest of the team.
- ›Kyogre is a top-tier legendary with broad recognition from the Hoenn games
- ›The villain-team framing gives it a story hook most legendary cards lack
- ›Forms a clean rivalry pair with Team Magma's Groudon EX
- ›Strong appeal to Hoenn-era and Gen 3 nostalgia collectors
- ›Cover legendary of Pokemon Sapphire
- ›Central to Team Aqua's plot in Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald and the ORAS remakes
Built for the Double Crisis gimmick, not the metagame. The Team Aqua restriction kept these EX cards out of serious competitive play, which is part of why the set reads as a collector release.
Own it wellCollector guide
Full art border bleed means centering and edge whitening are the usual problems. Check all four edges and corners under good light, and look at the holo surface for scratches and print lines, which this era shows readily.
Worth grading if the copy is genuinely clean, since gem-mint examples pull a strong premium and the surface is unforgiving. For an average raw copy the grading fee can outweigh the gain, so grade the nice ones and keep play-condition copies for the binder. Read the grading guide →
Penny sleeve plus a toploader or one-touch for any copy you care about, kept out of direct light and away from humidity. If you collect the Aqua/Magma pair together, store and display them as a set so condition stays matched. See the storage guide →
Decide up front whether you want a raw display copy or a graded one, because the price gap is real. For raw, prioritize centering and clean edges over a low listed price. For serious money, buy graded from a reputable seller. Many collectors hunt the Kyogre and Groudon together, so factor in buying both. See the singles buying guide →
This is a 2015 full art, less faked than vintage gold stars but still worth a basic check. Compare the holo pattern and texture to known-genuine scans, confirm the front and back colors and the back swirl look right, and be cautious of suspiciously cheap mint listings. For high-grade spend, a graded slab from PSA, BGS, or CGC removes most of the doubt.
Protect your card
High Chase Score — protect and consider grading. · Amazon affiliate links · Storage guideWord on the streetCommunity sentiment
Well liked as an art and nostalgia card. Collectors treat the Aqua Kyogre and Magma Groudon as the must-have pair of Double Crisis, and the villain-team theme gives them a following beyond pure legendary chasers.
- ›High-grade graded examples and the Aqua/Magma pairs sold together command the strongest prices; specific figures are shown elsewhere on this page
Picked up renewed attention through 2025 as villain-team cards came back into focus, with hobby coverage flagging the Double Crisis duo as a set that had quietly appreciated after years of being cheap.
Good to knowFrequently asked questions
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Plan your Other Double Crisis master set
Track every card, see what you're missing, and lay out your binder page by page.
