Charizard GX Secret
Quick take
- Rainbow hyper rare Charizard, the signature card of Burning Shadows
- Secret card numbered 150/147, past the printed set count
- Widely treated as one of the most beloved cards of the Sun and Moon era
- The keystone for any Burning Shadows master set
Collector's readWhat it means for your master set
Set landscapeWhere this card sits in SM - Burning Shadows
VariantsCard variants
Holofoil 150/147 · $819.94 — 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 Charizard that defined the Sun and Moon era
Burning Shadows dropped in 2017, and the rainbow Charizard GX was the card everyone wanted on day one. It carries number 150 in a set that officially ends at 147, so it sits past the printed count as a true secret. Pull one and you knew you had the chase.
“Rainbow hyper rare Charizard, the signature card of Burning Shadows”
Giving Charizard the rainbow hyper finish created a card people still talk about as one of the defining pulls of the Sun and Moon era. Charizard is the most collected Pokemon in the game. Put that character on a textured rainbow card and it becomes the thing a set is remembered for. Every later rainbow Charizard gets measured against this one.
For anyone building a Burning Shadows master set, this is the keystone. The set has other strong secrets, but completion really comes down to whether you can land this one in the grade you want.
By the numbersMarket analysis
This sits at the top of Burning Shadows by value, well clear of the set's other secrets. It trades like a flagship rainbow Charizard, with a strong modern-era price raw and a meaningful step up in high grades.
Demand has held up far better than most 2017 secrets. The Charizard pull keeps a floor under it. Prices move with the broader Charizard market, but interest rarely disappears the way it does for lesser secrets from the same era.
A flagship-era Charizard has a durability most Sun and Moon secrets lack. The risk is condition. Rainbow textured cards from this era are prone to edge and surface wear, so the raw market is soft compared to clean graded copies. If you want it as a hold, buy the best centered, sharpest copy you can.
High grades carry a real premium over raw. The jump from a 9 to a clean 10 is steep because so many copies show edge whitening and surface lines straight out of the pack. Mid grades trade much closer to raw money.
Burning Shadows predates the Scarlet and Violet rarity ladder, so the modern Double Rare, Illustration Rare, and Special Illustration Rare odds do not apply here. In Sun and Moon era sets, secret rainbow rares were the rarest slot in the set and pulled far less often than the standard GX and full-art cards. Expect to open many booster boxes before a specific rainbow secret like this one appears. It is also not a vintage Gold Star, so the EX-era roughly one-per-two-boxes guidance does not apply either. Treat it as a top-of-set secret you are far more likely to buy as a single than to pull, and most master set builders do exactly that.
Within Burning Shadows the rainbow Charizard is the hardest secret to land in clean condition and the one that decides how expensive a master set gets. Other rainbow GX cards exist in the set, but none carry the demand of the Charizard.
ArtworkWhy the art matters
5ban Graphics is the studio behind a huge share of the game's full-art and secret-rare output through the XY and Sun and Moon years. They handled the high-finish, digitally rendered GX and EX cards rather than the painterly single-illustrator pieces. If a Sun and Moon secret has that polished, almost screen-rendered look, there is a good chance 5ban did it.
Charizard is mid-roar, breathing fire, wings spread and claws forward in an aggressive lunge. It is a full-art composition with the Pokemon breaking out of any frame, flames wrapping the body and filling the background. Loud, direct, unmistakably Charizard.
This is the rainbow hyper finish: a textured holo surface laid over a pastel rainbow color shift. The texture catches light across the whole card rather than in set holo windows, which is what gives rainbow rares their distinct feel in hand. That same texture is why centering and surface are so hard to keep clean.
The combination of Charizard, the rainbow finish, and being the headline secret of a hugely opened set is what made it iconic. The art itself is a straightforward full-art Charizard. What it sits on is what collectors chase.
BackgroundAbout Charizard GX Secret
Charizard has been the face of Pokemon collecting since the Base Set holo in 1999. Almost every set and era ends up judged partly on how good its Charizard is, and a Charizard secret usually becomes the card a set is remembered for. Burning Shadows is a textbook case.
- ›The single most collected Pokemon in the franchise
- ›Carries nostalgia from the original Base Set holo forward
- ›Rainbow and gold Charizards reliably become chase cards
- ›Strong crossover appeal beyond hardcore TCG players
- ›Instantly recognizable to casual and lapsed collectors
- ›Base Set holo Charizard, the card that defined the hobby
- ›Hidden Fates Shiny Charizard GX, another headline SM-era Charizard
- ›Champion's Path Charizard VMAX, a later flagship Charizard pull
Charizard GX saw real tournament play during the Sun and Moon GX era, but the rainbow 150 is a secret variant collectors chase for display, not a card people sleeved for events. Any version of the GX was legal in its day. The rainbow is purely a collector pull.
Own it wellCollector guide
Rainbow textured cards from 2017 are condition traps. Watch the corners and edges for whitening, and angle the card under light to check the surface for fine lines and print imperfections in the holo texture. Centering varies a lot copy to copy. The flat black borders show edge wear fast.
Worth grading if you have a genuinely clean copy, since the gap between a 9 and a 10 is large for this card. Inspect centering and surface honestly before paying for a slab. A raw copy with visible whitening is unlikely to come back gem mint. Read the grading guide →
Sleeve and toploader or one-touch immediately. Keep it out of direct light to protect the rainbow shift, and store upright in a stable, dry spot. For a card this central to the set, a graded slab is the safest long-term home. See the storage guide →
For serious money, buy it graded from a reputable seller so you are not gambling on hidden surface wear. If you buy raw, demand sharp, well-lit photos of all four corners and the surface at an angle. Centering and edge whitening are where value is won or lost on this one. See the singles buying guide →
This is a heavily reproduced card, so verify before paying up. Check the rainbow texture under light, since fakes often miss the raised feel or get the pattern wrong. Confirm the 150/147 numbering, font, and holo behavior against a known-good reference image. The safest authentication for high spend is buying a copy already graded by a major company.
Protect your card
High Chase Score — protect and consider grading. · Amazon affiliate links · Storage guideWord on the streetCommunity sentiment
Collectors consistently rank this among the standout cards of the Sun and Moon era and the defining pull of Burning Shadows. It gets brought up constantly in best-of lists and rainbow rare roundups.
It comes up regularly in Charizard collection threads and master set posts, usually framed as a must-have for a complete Burning Shadows run.
Good to knowFrequently asked questions
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