Gem Pack Vol. 4: The Tightest Set in the Series Yet

What changed, what it means, and why it's the most considered Gem Pack release to date.

If you've been following the Gem Pack series since Vol. 1 dropped in January 2025, Vol. 4 feels like a quiet but significant turning point. It doesn't shout about what it's changed - but once you understand what was refined and why, it becomes arguably the most deliberate release in the series to date.

What Is the Gem Pack Series?

The Gem Pack series is a Mainland China exclusive product line released under the Pokémon Scarlet & Violet era. It sits entirely outside the standard Japanese, English, or Korean release pipeline - produced specifically for the Chinese market and not distributed through regular international channels. That exclusivity is a meaningful part of the appeal for collectors building internationally.

What makes the Gem Pack line distinct isn't just geography. The series operates on its own design philosophy: every single card in the set is holographic. There are no non-foil filler cards. Every pack delivers four holographic cards. For collectors accustomed to sorting through stacks of non-holo Commons they'll never look at twice, that's a meaningful difference.

The rarity system is unique to this series, using a five-tier symbol structure:

• ● Common
• ◆ Uncommon
• ★ Rare
• ★★ Double Rare
• ★★★ Triple Rare

Every pack follows a fixed structure: two ● Common cards, one ◆ Uncommon card, and one guaranteed rare slot drawn from the ★, ★★, or ★★★ pool. That guaranteed hit-per-pack structure is part of what makes the Gem Packs genuinely satisfying to open - there's no dead pack in the box, and the rare slot always delivers something from the upper tiers.

The series launched with Vol. 1 in January 2025, themed around Pokémon Horizons: The Series, with 15 packs per box. Vol. 2 followed in May 2025 with an Eeveelution focus, still at 15 packs. Vol. 3 arrived in September 2025 with a nocturnal/Halloween theme, introduced EX cards to the format for the first time, and expanded the box from 15 packs to 18 - a change that carries forward into Vol. 4. Each volume has grown in card count, box size, and structural ambition. Vol. 4, released for Chinese New Year 2026 and the Year of the Fire Horse - a rare zodiac and element pairing in the Chinese calendar that only occurs once every 60 years - takes a different approach: rather than expanding the scope, it refines it.

What Vol. 4 Changed - and Why It Matters

Vol. 4 makes two structural changes that directly address problems collectors noticed in Vol. 3. Neither is flashy. Both are significant.

The first is the 07 slot. In the Gem Pack format, every featured Pokémon progresses through a ladder of foil treatments - Energy Holo, Poké Ball Holo, Glitter Foil, Prismatic Foil, Master Ball Holo, Gem Pack Stamped - with the 07 position sitting at the top of each line as the premium card. In Vol. 3, that top slot wasn't standardised. Some Pokémon lines topped out with a true full art at 07, while others received a standard EX variant instead. The set list made clear which lines got which treatment, but as a design decision, it meant the format didn't consistently deliver the same level of payoff at the top of every ladder. Vol. 4 fixes this entirely: every 07 card is a full art illustration. No inconsistency, no lines that peak lower than others.

The second change addresses the Energy dilution problem. In Vol. 3, Energy-type cards occupied several slots in the ★★★ tier, meaning some of the highest-rarity pulls in the set weren't Pokémon at all. When you hit Triple Rare and flipped over an Energy variant instead of a full art character illustration, the set's premium tier felt thinner than it should have. Vol. 4 removes Energies from Triple Rare entirely. Every ★★★ card is now a full art character illustration. When you hit the top tier, you know what you're getting.

Understanding the Official Pull Rates

The Gem Pack series includes an official pull rate distribution graphic on the product packaging. It's in Simplified Chinese and, at first glance, the numbers look lower than you'd expect - ★★★ Triple Rare appears to show a 1.81% chance. But the graphic is showing the per-card probability across all four cards in the pack, not the per-pack probability for each rarity tier. Once you understand the fixed pack structure, the real rates become clear.

Every pack contains exactly four holographic cards in a fixed structure: two ● Common cards, one ◆ Uncommon card, and one guaranteed rare slot that draws from the ★, ★★, or ★★★ pool. The official graphic shows per-card probabilities - meaning each percentage reflects that rarity's share of all cards across all four slots. Because the slots are fixed rather than random, those per-card rates map directly to the pack structure: 50% of all cards are Commons (exactly 2 of 4), 25% are Uncommons (exactly 1 of 4), and the remaining 25% comes from the rare pool (exactly 1 of 4). To get the actual per-pack probability of pulling each rare tier, you multiply the official per-card rate by four:

The three rare-slot rates add to exactly 100% when converted to per-pack probabilities (69.56 + 23.20 + 7.24), confirming the structure: every pack delivers exactly one card from the ★/★★/★★★ pool. At 18 packs per box, a 7.24% Triple Rare rate gives you approximately 1.3 ★★★ pulls per box on average. Given that all 28 Triple Rares in Vol. 4 are full art Pokémon illustrations, the quality floor on every box is meaningfully higher than Vol. 3 - where some of those ★★★ slots were occupied by Energy variants.

The Exclusive — Ponyta by MINAMINAMI Take

Every Gem Pack volume includes a small number of Simplified Chinese exclusive cards - artwork that doesn't exist in any other language or product. Vol. 4's headline exclusive is a Ponyta Art Rare illustrated by MINAMINAMI Take.

MINAMINAMI Take is known for detailed, character-led compositions that treat their subjects with genuine warmth - previous work includes a much-loved Charmander card and a memorable Detective Pikachu illustration. Their Ponyta for Vol. 4 is more than a Year of the Horse tie-in. 2026 is the Year of the Fire Horse in the Chinese zodiac - a combination of animal and element that only comes around once every 60 years, the last being 1966. Ponyta, a fire horse Pokémon, isn't just thematically appropriate - it's a precise match for the zodiac year the set was released into. The artwork itself reflects that intention: a painterly open-field scene with two Ponyta, rich with warm light and texture. It's the kind of card that rewards sitting with it.

Notably, Vol. 4 features only one exclusive card - previous volumes had four or five. That's a deliberate trade-off: fewer exclusives, stronger overall set composition. If you're building a complete Gem Pack exclusive run, Vol. 4 is a shorter checklist. If you're chasing a cohesive set with a high floor of quality across every rarity, Vol. 4 delivers better value across the whole box.

The Paired Artwork: Deerling & Sawsbuck

One of the most visually considered design choices in Vol. 4 is the treatment of Deerling (#1707) and Sawsbuck (#1807). Both cards are illustrated as matching pieces - artwork designed to sit side by side as a cohesive diptych. When displayed together, the two cards form a single connected scene: the same four-season forest, the same colour language, Deerling mid-stride on the left flowing naturally into Sawsbuck standing tall on the right.

Displayed side by side, the artwork forms a single continuous scene — a deliberate design choice unique to Vol. 4.

Paired presentation of this kind is rare in the TCG format, where cards are almost always designed as standalone objects. It's a small but considered decision that rewards collectors who display their sets rather than just storing them. If you're building a Vol. 4 binder page or display, treat these two as a pair from the outset rather than chasing them separately.

Sealed Box or Singles?

With 18 packs per box and a 7.24% per-pack Triple Rare rate, you're looking at approximately 1.3 ★★★ pulls per box on average. Given that all 28 Triple Rares are now full art Pokémon illustrations, the quality floor on that guaranteed box hit is meaningfully higher than any previous Gem Pack volume.

Where Vol. 4 Sits in the Gem Pack Series

The trajectory across the series is clear — each set has grown in card count, box format, and structural ambition. The shift from 15 to 18 packs per box between Vol. 2 and Vol. 3 gave collectors more to work with, and Vol. 4 builds on that expanded format with the most focused premium pool in the series. Vol. 4 doesn't just add to the trajectory; it addresses the design problems collectors noticed in Vol. 3 and delivers a more cohesive product for it.

The Verdict

Gem Pack Vol. 4 is the set that rewards paying attention to the series. The structural changes - standardised full arts at ★★★, removal of Energy dilution from the top tier, the paired Deerling and Sawsbuck presentation - are decisions that only make full sense when you've been watching the format evolve. Vol. 4 is a better-designed product than its predecessors, and for collectors building a complete Gem Pack run, it's also the most satisfying box to open so far. Check out our set information page here for a full set list, notable cards and artworks, and official pull rates.

Stock is live in the Vault now. If you have questions about the set or want to talk through which format makes sense for your collection, get in touch directly.

– SV