It’s time to evolve that useless, splashing Magikarp – as we check out the most valuable Gyarados Pokemon cards!
Known as one of the weakest, most pathetic Pokemon in the original 151, at first Magikarp seems like an absolutely pointless addition to anyone’s party.
Yet all good things come to those who wait – and that’s never been more true for trainers who bestow experience upon their Magikarp and allow it to evolve.
Gyarados has always been a popular choice in the Pokemon TCG too; not only is it a striking visual – making for some beautiful cards, particularly with the alt and full art in recent years – but it often deals high damage with its attacks too.
We took a look at the currently available cards and their average prices on TCG Player; note that we’re only covering English language cards here (so that means excluding Japanese cards from this list!), and we’ve also ignored oversized cards that aren’t playable in the game.
There have been an awful lot of Gyarados cards over the years – but which ones are the most expensive?
Let’s find out, as we check out the most valuable Gyarados Pokemon cards!
1. Shining Gyarados – Neo Revelations ($830)
Emerging from the depths of the 2001 set Neo Revelation, Shining Gyarados is another Basic Pokemon that won’t need a Magikarp to be put into play.
Yet that acceleration comes at a cost, because the attacks available to Shining Gyarados require very specific combinations of energy in order to be used properly.
Outrage requires two Fighting and one Water energy card, which does thirty damage – plus an extra ten per damage counter on Shiny Gyarados, but only if you can get heads on a single coin flip (if it’s tails, this attack does zero damage!).
Devastate requires two Water and two Fire energy, for 50 damage plus 10 damage to each of your opponent’s Benched Pokemon.
Though there’s a catch – you have to discard two Fire energy cards to use it – it’s definitely worth using.
That’s because, after applying damage, if you flip a coin and get heads, you can discard one energy card from each of your opponent’s Pokemon!
So this is a pretty spectacular card in my opinion; certainly one of the best cards I’ve seen from the earlier Pokemon sets.
It’s also a really good example of an early ‘Secret Rare’ card; that is, the number of the card is higher than the ‘official’ number of cards in the set. For Shining Gyarados, that means that it’s card number 65 of 64.
According to TCGPlayer, the current average market price for Shining Gyarados is around $830.
Though we’ve seen one off examples of this particular card reach as high as $5,700 for graded copies, its current average, which is a much more realistic metric as to its genuine value, makes this unusual Gyarados the most valuable of them all!
2. Gyarados Gold Star Delta Species – Holon Phantoms ($600)
Next on our list is the Gyarados Gold Star δ Delta Species card, from 2006’s EX Holon Phantoms set.
At 17 years old, this card has held its value well – with current average prices at around $600.
Much like the Shining Gyarados, this Gyarados Gold Star δ Delta Species card has been spotted on eBay selling for amounts that’ll leave your jaw on the floor; going all the way up to just over $23,000 for a card graded at 9.5!
On the surface, there doesn’t seem to be anything particularly special about this Gyarados card – aside from its Fire type, when Gyarados is usually a Water type Pokemon.
It’s also worth noting that this one is a Basic Pokemon, however, when Gyarados is usually a Stage 1.
This card has just 80 HP; once upon a time, this would have been a reasonably formidable creature – but after years of power creep, that’s very low and easy to deal with; even without resorting to use a particularly special Pokemon to combat it.
Not only that, but this Ultra Rare Gyarados card only has two attacks.
Spiral Growth dishes out 20 damage and has the possibility of adding Fire Energy cards to the Gyarados for free – dependent on the luck of coin flips, of course.
However, the second attack is where things get really interesting – but also, almost certainly self-destructive too.
All-out Blast costs four Fire energy – and deals a base of 50 damage.
However, that’s not all.
All-out Blast also forces you to discard cards from the top of your deck until you have just one card left – and the attack then does an extra 20 damage per Energy card discarded in this way.
Though this can be an absolutely devastating final blow that’ll rid you of just about any enemy under the right circumstances – as long as you’ve engaged in some seriously leftfield deckbuilding – it really is a last resort.
That’s because if you have no cards in your deck when you need to draw, you lose. So All-out Blast leaving you with just one card to draw means you need to be absolutely certain it’s going to win you the game, otherwise you’re setting yourself up for failure.
Personally, this kind of card isn’t something I’d build a deck around – but it’s certainly a thrillingly dangerous play for seasoned Pokemon players!
3. Gyarados – Skyridge ($450)
We head back into the water for this version of Gyarados, away from the unusual Fire type Gyarados we’ve just seen.
2003’s Skyridge set featured this particular version of the Stage 1 Gyarados, which has an average market value of $450, using TCGPlayer’s information for this card.
However, just like the other cards we’ve covered, this Skyridge Gyarados has been spotted, swimming through the sometimes murky waters of eBay, for prices going up to $22,700!
Admittedly, that’s a one off for a 9.5 BGS graded copy and may well be a particularly overly ambitious seller, but even so that’s a pretty amazing amount for this (or any other!) card.
So, let’s take a closer look at this card and what it does.
First up, it has a Poké Power, a mostly defunct term for a non-attack ability, called Flame Vapor.
This allows you to attempt to discard energy cards from your opponent’s active Pokemon, at the point that Gyarados evolves from Magikarp.
It has one attack: Dragon’s Vengeance. This one Water, three Colorless Energy attack deals 50 damage.
Unless the Gyarados has at least 7 damage counters (a total of 70 damage, when it only has 90 HP!) – in which case, Dragon’s Vengeance will dish out 100 damage to the opponent!
The other cool thing about this card is that it was printed in an era when Nintendo’s GBA add-on, the e-Reader, was getting a big push.
The e-Reader could read special barcodes on the side of cards, and would load mini-games or other features onto the GBA when scanned.
This card has e-Reader codes to scan; with Pokemon cards it usually just meant animated Pokedex entries appearing on the Game Boy Advance, but it’s still a fun bonus.
4. Gyarados – Base Set 1st Edition Shadowless ($450)
You may be wondering exactly what it means if a card is described as Shadowless.
See the yellow box around the illustration of the Pokemon? Usually, it has a shadow – but on the very first Base Set cards released by Wizards of the Coast, there was no shadow at all.
Wizards of the Coast decided, correctly, that the cards would look better with a shadow applied to the border around the card’s picture.
So the first few print runs of cards had shadowless windows, but subsequent reprints and further sets all had the shadow applied.
Which makes Shadowless cards pretty valuable – and that’s the case with this Gyarados.
For a Base Set card, Gyarados is pretty powerful – with 100 HP, Dragon Rage (which does 50 points of damage) and Bubble Beam, which inflicts 40 points of damage and has the chance of Paralyzing the opponent’s Pokemon too!
Value wise, this card currently holds an average market price of $450; however, we have seen graded copies of the card selling for just over $4,500, which is of course ten times the expected average!
It’s also worth noting that, if you’re interested in this card and not necessarily fussy about its condition, it can be found for as little as $13.99, which gives it a pretty amazing range of values. Our advice would be to shop around; you never know what price you might be able to find this Shadowless Gyarados for!
5. Gyarados, Pre-Release Staff Promo – XY Evolutions ($417)
Few cards are better able to illustrate the power creep that’s happened over the years in the Pokemon TCG than this Gyarados from 2016 set Evolutions.
That’s because not only is it styled to look like an old school, OG Pokemon card – but also, it features both Dragon Rage and Bubble Beam, both of which appeared on the Base Set’s Gyarados card.
Yet here, they’re both powered up from the original card – and they’ve switched position too.
So Bubble Beam appears first – and it still offers the attacking player a chance of Paralyzing the opponent, but does this as well as 50 damage, instead of the 40 that the Base Set Gyarados can do.
Dragon Rage is where the most stark difference can be seen, however – instead of the 50 damage on the original card, here it can deal 180 HP of damage!
There is the matter of this being decided by coin flip, however – if you happen to get tails on either of two coin tosses, the attack does zero damage.
Which seems a bit harsh!
This particular variant of the Evolutions set card is a Pre-Release Staff card, making it particularly rare; it was only given to Staff working at Pre-Release events for the Evolutions set itself.
Though it has an average price of ‘just’ $417, some particularly cheeky sellers are looking for close to $10,000 for a copy of this card, even at the time of writing.
Once more, we’d advise caution, and do make sure you’re shopping around if you really want to get your hands on this particular card.
6. Misty’s Gyarados – Gym Challenge ($178)
One of the most popular characters from the original Pokemon anime series, any card featuring Misty is bound to end up featuring on a ‘most valuable’ cards list.
Here we have Misty’s Gyarados, which can only evolve from Misty’s Magikarp, rather than evolving from just any Magikarp.
It appeared way back in the set Gym Challenge, which was released in 2000, and was just the seventh set for the Pokemon TCG overall!
As with many older cards, this Gyarados would likely have been quite the beast in its day, but is now laughably underpowered in comparison to contemporary Pokemon cards.
It has 100 HP and a Tidal Wave attack that costs a whopping four Water Energy, yet deals only 70 damage.
It does have a very risky element whenever it uses its Tidal Wave too, thanks to its Poké Power, which is named ‘Rebellion’.
Rebellion must be carried out any time Misty’s Gyarados attacks. Players flip 2 coins when seeking to use Tidal Wave; if both of them are tails, the attack does no damage (or any other effects) and instead, Misty’s Gyarados is shuffled, along with all attached cards, back into your deck.
Which makes it even more ridiculously pointless, particularly against just about any, more recent, Gyarados cards (or other Pokemon!).
Its average value of $178 is definitely not due to the in-game usefulness of Misty’s Gyarados, then; rather, it’s almost certainly because of Misty herself being named, and present, on this card!
7. Gyarados, Pre-Release Staff Promo – Ancient Origins ($158)
Though this card looks and feels a lot more modern than others on the list of the most valuable Gyarados Pokemon cards, it’s already more than a decade old – having been released in 2013!
This is a Gyarados card that’ll make you want to put the maximum number of Magikarps possible in your deck – and will even want you to risk them as your Active Pokemon!
How and why is that, I hear you ask?
Well, its attack Full Retaliation deals 30 damage, plus another 30 damage for every damage counter on each of the Magikarp on your Bench!
Pretty cool, right?
However, it comes with a risk. On a coin flip of heads, it’ll do a further 30 damage to your opponent – but if you get tails, the Gyarados does 30 damage to itself!
This card is currently valued at around $158, going by TCGPlayer’s market data, which does make it a great, if admittedly pricey, investment for the creative, clever Pokemon Trainer.
As this specific card was only given out to staff as a promo during the Ancient Origins set’s pre-release events, it’s a lot rarer than any typical Gyarados in the set, not to mention several others on this list!
8. Gyarados ex – EX Fire Red & Leaf Green ($142)
2004 saw the arrival of Pokemon Fire Red and Leaf Green on the Game Boy Advance; remakes of the very first, first generation Pokemon video games that kicked off the entire franchise!
Of course, the Trading Card Game had to go back to the first generation with a set of its own; it did so in the same year, with the EX Fire Red and Leaf Green set.
That’s where this Gyarados ex hails from; certainly by the standards of its time, it’s a spectacular looking card with an amazing holographic foil treatment.
By the standards of the era in which it was released, this particular Gyarados card was really powerful too, though of course it doesn’t stand up to today’s faster paced, harder hitting cards.
It has 130 HP and two attacks: Twister and Dragon Rage.
Though Dragon Rage is a standard 100 HP attack with no special abilities (for a cost of 2 Water and 3 Colorless Energy), Twister deals 40 HP for the cost of 1 Water and 1 Colorless Energy, with another bonus effect.
When using Twister, players must flip 2 coins. For each result of heads, they can remove 1 Energy attached to the Defending Pokemon, making this a pretty devastating attack, despite the smaller HP damage that it deals.
However, it’s not without risk, because if both results are tails, the attack does nothing; not even the 40 HP of damage!
With its great look and unusual attacks; it’s not surprising that this particular card commands an average value of $142.
9. Giovanni’s Gyarados – Gym Challenge ($118)
The leader of the Viridian City Gym, Giovanni first appeared way back in the original Game Boy Pokemon games, Pokemon Red and Blue (or Red and Green in Japan, later Fire Red and Leaf Green in the GBA remakes).
Also appearing in the anime, Giovanni is, like Misty, another popular supporting character from the Pokemon franchise.
So it’s not a surprise to see Giovanni’s Gyarados making it to this list, with this card hailing from the same set as Misty’s Gyarados: Gym Challenge.
Like Misty’s Gyarados, its attacks mark it out as being particularly unusual.
Summon Storm costs just one Water Energy, and deals 20 damage to every Pokemon in the play area, even your own. As long as you flip heads, both times, on 2 coin flips!
Dragon Tornado seems bizarrely underpowered for a cost of 2 Water and 2 Colorless Energy, dealing just 40 damage. However, it also switches the Defending Pokemon out with one of your opponent’s Benched Pokemon, as long as the defender isn’t knocked out.
Currently commanding an average of $118, this is one of the most unique Gyarados cards in the history of the Pokemon TCG.
10. Red Gyarados – Heart Gold and Soul Silver ($92)
The Red Gyarados has an interesting history, thanks to the anime.
It’s one of the few ‘canonical’ Shiny Pokemon; with the forced, premature evolution it undergoes from Magikarp to Gyarados causing it to retain its red scale colour!
It’s another Pokemon card that has an attack reliant on a coin flip; Thrash does 30 HP of damage, plus an extra 20 more damage if the coin flip results in heads. If it’s tails, Thrash deals 30 HP to the opposing Pokemon and 20 damage to the Red Gyarados itself!
Heavy Storm deals 70 HP of damage with no extra conditions, but does cost 1 Water and 3 Colorless Energy to use.
Ultimately, it’s clear to see why this – and all of the other Gyarados cards on this list – makes it to the top 10 most valuable Gyarados Pokemon cards!
