Drowzee
Quick take
- Illustration Rare from the 2023 Scarlet & Violet Base Set, card 210/198
- Tomokazu Komiya art in his distinctive primitive style, set in a surreal amusement park
- Spiked then corrected hard during a 2025 social-media hype cycle
- Required slot for a Scarlet & Violet Base Set master set
Collector's readWhat it means for your master set
Set landscapeWhere this card sits in Scarlet & Violet Base Set
VariantsCard variants
Holofoil 210/198 · $49.00 — 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 IR That Social Media Turned Into a Roller Coaster
Scarlet & Violet Base Set (sv1) launched the SV era in March 2023. It set the template every later set followed, with Double Rares, Illustration Rares, and the long-odds Special Illustration Rares at the top. Drowzee landed in the Illustration Rare slot at 210/198, well into the secret-numbered range past the printed set total.
“Illustration Rare from the 2023 Scarlet & Violet Base Set, card 210/198”
For most of its life this was a quiet card. A 70 HP Basic Psychic-type with a weird, charming full-art illustration, sitting in the budget tier of SV Base IRs. Then the internet noticed it. Through early 2025 a wave of YouTube and short-form videos pushed the card as an underrated Komiya sleeper, and the price spiked fast before correcting almost as fast. That hype cycle is now part of the card's story, and it's the first thing experienced collectors mention.
What survives the noise is the art. Komiya is one of the most recognizable illustrators in the game, and this Drowzee is a clean example of why people chase his work. It does not look like a normal Pokemon card, and that is the whole point. For an SV Base Set master set it is a required pull. For everyone else, it is a Komiya piece you either love at first glance or skip.
By the numbersMarket analysis
This sits in the mid tier of SV Base Set Illustration Rares. Not the cheapest IR in the set, but nowhere near the Special Illustration Rares or Hyper Rares at the top of the chase ladder. Raw near-mint copies are an accessible single. The live market price is shown elsewhere on this page, and given how volatile this card has been, treat any quoted number as a snapshot.
Volatile. That is the headline fact about Drowzee 210. Through early 2025 a social-media hype wave drove a sharp spike, and the card then corrected hard off that peak. Graded PSA 10 comps moved with even wider swings than raw copies. The pattern looks like a classic hype-and-fade rather than steady appreciation, so the trend line depends entirely on which week you check.
Speculative, not a steady hold. The 2025 spike-and-correction showed how much of this card's price is sentiment rather than scarcity. SV Base Set IRs are not rare in absolute terms, so the floor is the art and the master-set demand, not print scarcity. Buy it because you want the Komiya piece or need it for the set. If you are buying purely on momentum, you are buying late more often than not. A clean copy at a calm-market price is the sensible play.
There is a meaningful gap between raw and PSA 10, which is exactly what drew the grading crowd during the hype. PSA 9 fetches far less than PSA 10, so the premium is concentrated in the top grade. That spread is also why graded comps whipsawed harder than raw during the correction. Only submit copies with genuine PSA 10 potential, because a 9 erases most of the upside.
In Scarlet & Violet era sets, any Illustration Rare comes about once every 12 packs, sitting between Double Rares at roughly 1 in 5 and Ultra Rares at about 1 in 15. But those are the odds for any IR, and SV Base Set has plenty of them. The odds of pulling this specific Drowzee run far longer, often into the hundreds of packs, which is why most collectors just buy the single rather than chase it in packs.
Within SV Base Set, the chase ladder runs from Illustration Rares up to Special Illustration Rares around 1 in 90 packs, then Hyper Rares deeper still at roughly 1 in 300 to 700. Drowzee is an IR, so it is far from the rarest card in the set. Its price has at times punched above its rarity tier purely on hype and art demand, which is unusual for an IR and worth keeping in mind.
ArtworkWhy the art matters
Tomokazu Komiya has illustrated Pokemon cards since the Neo Genesis era, and his Slowpoke from that set is one of the first pieces that made collectors notice him. He works in a primitivist style with flat colors and simplified, slightly deformed forms, a look that draws on children's art and folk art rather than realism. The Pokemon Company has often used his energy and item cards specifically because they look so different from everything else on the table. He keeps a long-running Slowpoke-family theme across his catalog, and for the 2023 Pokemon x Van Gogh collaboration he contributed the Sunflora and Smeargle pieces inspired by Van Gogh's Sunflowers and a self-portrait.
Komiya places Drowzee in a surreal amusement-park scene with a dreamlike, slightly eerie mood that fits a Pokemon known for eating dreams. The whole thing is rendered in his loose, primitive style, with flat color blocks and soft, simplified shapes rather than crisp lineart. It reads as playful and unsettling at the same time. The full-art treatment extends the illustration across the card with no traditional art-box border, so the scene fills the frame.
Illustration Rare in the Scarlet & Violet template, a full-art borderless layout with a holofoil finish across the illustration. The IR rarity stamp sits at the bottom of the card. Because the foil covers the whole art panel, surface scratches and print lines show up easily under angled light, which matters for grading.
Most IRs win on detail or a dramatic action pose. This one wins on style. The amusement-park setting and Komiya's hand-drawn, primitive look make it stand out in a binder page full of slick modern art. It is the kind of card that gets picked up and turned over, and that tactile appeal is a big part of why it caught fire online.
BackgroundAbout Drowzee
Drowzee is a Psychic-type from Generation I, National Pokedex #096, and evolves into Hypno. It debuted in Pokemon Red and Green in 1996. Its design is based on a tapir and tied to the Japanese folklore creature the baku, said to eat dreams, which is why its Pokedex entries talk about sensing where people sleep and feeding on their dreams. That dream-eating lore is exactly what makes the surreal, hazy art on this card click.
- ›Original Generation I Pokemon with nostalgic recognition for older collectors
- ›The dream-eating baku concept gives it a creepy, distinctive identity
- ›Tomokazu Komiya's art style makes this specific card a draw beyond Drowzee fans
- ›Affordable enough to be a gateway IR for newer collectors
- ›Strong social-media presence after the 2025 hype cycle
- ›Generation I in Pokemon Red, Green, and Blue (1996-1998)
- ›Featured in the anime as a recurring Psychic-type, including the original series
- ›Appears across multiple TCG sets from the Base Set era onward
Drowzee has never been a competitive staple in the video games, sitting in the lower tiers as a stepping stone to Hypno. As a 70 HP Basic in the TCG it is a collectible, not a deck card. Its value here is entirely about the illustration and master-set demand, not play.
Own it wellCollector guide
The full-art holofoil surface is the thing to watch. Because the foil runs across the entire illustration, light scratches, print lines, and handling marks show up clearly under angled light. Check the edges and corners for the usual factory whitening, and inspect centering, which on borderless full-art cards is judged on the printed elements rather than a visible frame.
Grade only if you have a genuine PSA 10 candidate. The premium on this card is concentrated in the top grade, and a PSA 9 sells for far less, so a borderline copy is not worth the fee and wait. Inspect the holo surface carefully under good light before submitting, since that is where most copies lose points. Read the grading guide →
Penny sleeve plus a rigid top loader at minimum. For a copy you plan to hold, a sleeve inside a one-touch magnetic case protects the foil surface from scratches. Keep it out of direct light and away from humidity swings. If you bought it during a price spike and want to protect resale value, a graded slab is the safest long-term home. See the storage guide →
Buy in a calm market, not during a hype spike. Given how volatile this card has been, patience saves real money. For raw copies, scrutinize listing photos for holo scratches, because many listings underdescribe surface condition. For graded, eBay's PSA-verified comps are the deepest pool. If you only need it for the SV Base Set master set, a clean near-mint raw copy is all you need. See the singles buying guide →
Modern SV-era cards are far less counterfeited than vintage, but fakes of popular singles do exist. Check cardstock thickness and the holo behavior in hand, verify the IR rarity stamp and set symbol, and compare the back's color and texture against a known-genuine SV card. For any graded purchase, buy from PSA, CGC, or BGS slabs and confirm the cert number on the grader's site.
Protect your card
High Chase Score — protect and consider grading. · Amazon affiliate links · Storage guideWord on the streetCommunity sentiment
Split, in an interesting way. Komiya fans and SV Base Set collectors genuinely love the art. A separate crowd views the card mainly through the 2025 price spike and is skeptical, with Reddit threads openly calling parts of the run social-media-driven and warning against buying at the top. The art itself gets consistent praise even from people wary of the hype.
- ›PSA 10 copies spiked sharply during the early-2025 hype before correcting just as sharply
- ›Raw near-mint copies trade as an accessible single in calmer markets
High and recurring. This card became a talking point through YouTube and short-form videos pitching it as an underrated Komiya sleeper, which is what drove the early-2025 spike. After the correction, the buzz shifted toward cautionary takes about hype cycles. Either way, it stays in the conversation more than a typical IR.
Good to knowFrequently asked questions
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