Chi-Yu ex (Special Illustration Rare)

The Scarlet and Violet video games introduced four of a brand new type of legendary Pokémon—the Treasures of Ruin. Each apparently an ancient creature, that seemingly neither evolve from nor into anything, they’re a mysterious and deeply weird bunch. Of them, surely Chi-Yu is by far the least interesting? It’s…a goldfish. That’s it.

Sure, Wo-Chien is essentially a snail, but it’s massive, and looks like an ancient woodland guardian. Then Ting-Lu is, er, a bear with a giant cup on its head? Who knows, but it looks amazing, and apparently the cup is its true form, the body a result of the fear of humans. Come on. Then there’s the obvious best, Chien-Pao, which is a snow leopard with a broken sword for teeth.

So we’ve established, and all agree, that of them all Chi-Yu is rubbish. Its mythos is that those daft eyes were once jade beads, and it was given life by a human envy to own them that caused many wars. Meh.

Anyway, this is all to say, who the heck is paying $21 for its special illustration rare, when Wo-Chien Ting-Lu’s are only going for $11?! OK, sure, the art by Akira Egawa is amazing, and its one-Energy ability allows you to discard the top two cards from your opponent’s deck, and it does 100 damage while also adding Energy to three of your benched Pokémon, and oh yeah I get it now.