It’s time to use your Quirks – as we check out the most valuable My Hero Academia cards!
Despite feeling like a new kid on the block, My Hero Academia has been around since 2014, when it first appeared in Japanese manga anthology, Weekly Shonen Jump.
Of course, in comparison to manga serials such as One Piece or Yu-Gi-Oh – both of which have been around for more than a quarter of a century – My Hero Academia does still feel relatively new.
My Hero Academia is set in a world where superpowers known as Quirks are common.
The series protagonist is Izuku Midoriya, a boy who was born with no Quirk yet has always wanted to be a superhero himself.
When he’s bestowed a Quirk by the great superhero All Might, he’s able to enrol in a school for trainee superheroes, setting the rest of the saga in motion.
With My Hero Academia being so popular, it’s been adapted into an anime series, seen numerous spin offs and, in 2020, was adapted into collectable card game (CCG) form too.
The CCG uses the Universal Fighting System (also more recently known as Universus), which was created back in 2006 – and has already seen properties such as Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat and Mega Man (as well as many more) adapted into the collectable card game format.
With the game being around for a few years now, it’s had time to build up its own following. But which are the most expensive English language cards?
Let’s find out, as we check out the most valuable My Hero Academia cards!
1. Excited For Blood – Promo Card ($360)
A major antagonist in My Hero Academia, the sadistic Himiko Toga features on this particular Foundation card, which is called Excited For Blood.
For those of you unfamiliar with My Hero Academia in general, Himiko’s Quirk gives her the ability to take on the physical appearance of any person – with one catch.
She first has to ingest their blood – and the more blood she ingests, the longer she can imitate them.
Which explains the card’s title and the sadistic glee of the image on it!
Though this PSA 10 graded copy of the card was listed for $360, a Best Offer amount was accepted. So we don’t know exactly how much the final value was.
However, given the card’s grading and the fact that it’s already priced higher than any other My Hero Academia CCG card, it’s very likely that it didn’t sell for much less than the initial asking price.
2. One For All: Full Cowling 5% Strike – Extra Secret Rare ($205)
Now this card’s name is quite a mouthful, isn’t it?
One For All: Full Cowling 5% Strike is an Attack card, which depicts My Hero Academia protagonist Izuku Midorya using the titular move.
Within the lore of My Hero Academia, Full Cowling is an Ultimate Move – which Midorya can use thanks to his One For All Quirk.
It’s an incredibly powerful move, which puts a lot of strain on Izuku; this led to him starting to use Full Cowl at 5% of One For All’s power, in order to prevent injuring himself.
Which of course, explains the rest of the card’s name!
As an Extra Secret Rare card (and don’t worry, we’ll get to explaining those!), it’s perhaps no wonder that this particular card sold for such a high price – being purchased for $205!
The fact that this particular copy of the card was also graded as a perfect 10 by the PSA would also go some way to explaining its particularly expensive final price.
3. United States of Smash – Extra Secret Rare Card ($190)
The second English language My Hero Academia card to feature on our list, this one is another graded card – and, just like Excited For Blood, it’s also graded at 10.
All Might granted Izuku his One For All Quirk, but prior to that, was able to use his Quirk to perform several powerful moves.
One of these was moves was named United States of Smash – which is where this card gets its name, illustration and abilities from!
This United States of Smash card is an Extra Secret Rare, which, along with the high grading, goes some way to explaining its value.
Want to know how something is classified at a ‘Secret’ rarity level?
Well, see the number of a card that denotes its place in a set? 125 out of 204 being the 125th card in a 204 card set, for example.
Well, if a card’s number is higher than the listed number of cards in a set, that means it’s a secret rare – as it isn’t strictly part of the set’s overall cards.
This United States of Smash card’s number designation is 110/108 – making it the 110th card in a set only supposed to have 108 cards, thus explaining its status as a secret rare!
It sold at auction for $190, which is unusual, as most sellers of high value cards tend to avoid the risk of a card being sold under market price, instead opting for Buy It Now listings.
Still, the United States of Smash card’s final value is unlikely to have disappointed the seller – as it reached the number two spot on our list of the most valuable My Hero Academia cards!
4. Staff Strike – Extra Rare ($180)
This card is another that’s highly graded (at a PSA level of 10).
The illustration depicts the heroic Momo Yaoyorozu in action.
Momo’s Quirk is Creation, which allows her to manifest different objects from any part of herself.
An Attack card, Staff Strike is also an Extra Rare, with so many unusual designations, we’ve included a quick guide to the My Hero Academia card rarities at the bottom of this article.
Staff Strike sold for roughly $180, making it comfortably one of the highest value My Hero Academia CCG cards so far.
5. Repeated 100% Smash – Extra Secret Rare ($120)
Another Extra Secret Rare that also happens to be an Attack card, Repeated 100% Smash is unusual – in that it’s the first card on this list that isn’t graded.
That’s right – the buyer purchased this card for $120 with no grading at all!
Card number 127 of 122, the Repeated 100% Smash card is from the most recently released expansion – the fifth set, named Undaunted Raid.
Repeated 100% Smash is a pretty powerful Attack card too – so it makes sense that the buyer purchased this card in an ungraded form.
Of course, if you opt for a graded copy of the card, not only is it likely to end up being much pricier, it also wouldn’t be a card that you’d be able to add into your Universus deck any time soon!
6. Ice Storm – Ultra Rare ($120)
An Ultra Rare Attack card, Ice Storm is pretty cool from a gameplay point of view – its first ability makes it impossible to be blocked by Attack cards, but then its Speed is also increased by +2 using the Deadlock Enhance!
Of course, this particular card being graded means that the buyer likely has no intention of using it for actual play; being graded as a Pristine 10 by Beckett means that it’s almost certain to remain encased in its plastic prison.
Ice Storm – featuring character Shoto Todoroki, who you will see again on this list – was part of the My Hero Academia’s Base Set.
We’ve covered the various My Hero Academia set releases in a different article – so, if you want to check out what each set brought to the game, you can take a look at our My Hero Academia CCG Sets list.
7. Ibara Shiozaki – Extra Rare ($108)
A character card featuring Ibara Shiozaki – whose Quirk allows her to grow controllable, resilient vines in place of hair, which she can also effectively weaponise – this card is another that’s been graded as a perfect 10.
Fans of the character are well served with this card’s spectacular, vine-covered design, so perhaps its value isn’t surprising – though it’s not anything fancy like a Secret or Extra Secret Rare, it is incredibly pleasing from an aesthetic point of view.
With decent bonuses to Attack, it’s also no slouch from a gameplay point of view; though the first attack you Enhance per turn does get a slight penalty, it’s a decent trade off for the bonus on the subsequent attack!
8. Shoto Todoroki – Extra Rare ($107)
Well, we told you that you’d see Shoto Todoroki again on this list, didn’t we?
So, instead of this being ‘just’ an Attack card featuring an image of Shoto Todoroki, instead this is his specific Character card.
An Extra Rare card is one that falls between Rare and Secret Rare in terms of its scarcity – so this one is, of course, a highly sought after card even when it’s not graded as a perfect 10 (and which sold for $107!).
Especially as it features one of the most popular characters from My Hero Academia.
Shoto Todoroki has a unique look, with his two tone, symmetrically coloured hair – which also reflects his Quirk, ‘Half Cold Half Hot’, a power which sees Shoto able to generate ice and frost from the right side of his body, alongside heat, fire and flames on the left!
9. All Might’s Mentorship – Promo ($96)
The gorgeous artwork on this All Might’s Mentorship card depicts the famous hero in a chibi style; it’s one of a number of Promo cards from the MHA04 set to feature this cute aesthetic.
A Foundation card that allows players to draw one card and then discard one card after an attack deals damage, it’s definitely a useful one to have on your side!
Graded as a 10 by CGC, this card sold for $96 – given its status as a Promo card, its great art and very shiny foil treatment, we can’t say we’re surprised that this has been snapped up for such a high price.
10. Izuku Midoriya – Promo ($72)
It’s a little bit odd that we’ve got all the way to the end of the list – and only now do we see a Character card featuring My Hero Academia protagonist, Izuku Midoriya!
Of course, he’s featured on numerous other cards here – such as One For All: Full Cowling 5% Strike – but this is his first and only appearance as a Character.
Another card graded as a 10 by CGC, it’s also a card that – just like the All Might’s Mentorship – features a cute, chibi style illustration.
Something else it has in common with the All Might’s Mentorship card is the fact that it’s from the same set – and it’s a Promo card too.
It sold for $72 on eBay – making it the tenth most valuable My Hero Academia CCG card at present!
What Are The My Hero Academia Card Rarities?
Though most CCGs and TCGs (you can find out more in our ‘the difference between TCG and CCG’ article) use similar designations for their varying levels of card rarity, you’ll often find that the rarest types of card will feature fancy, sometimes unique names depending on the game.
For instance, in Magic: The Gathering, you’ll find Rares followed by Mythic Rares; in Pokemon, you’ll find Common, Uncommon, Rare and Promo cards, as well as Secret Rares (and unofficially named cards such as Illustration Rares and Holo Rares).
There’s even different holographic treatments in other games – check out our Holo vs Reverse Holo guide for more on that!
Yet My Hero Academia keeps things relatively straightforward when it comes to alternative art cards and holo treatments; despite this, the same can’t be said for its rarity system, which can definitely be confusing to newcomers.
So we’ve put together a quick guide to the rarity abbreviations and their meanings, which are as follows:
- C= Common
- UC= Uncommon
- R= Rare
- XR= Extra Rare
- SR= Secret Rare
- XSR= Extra Secret Rare
- P= Promotional
As explained above, Secret Rare cards are ones whose numbering goes above the set’s card number; Extra Secret Rares do the same thing, but are even more difficult to find than a ‘normal’ Secret Rare.
If you’re a fan of My Hero Academia and anime in general, you may also want to check out our guide to the most valuable One Piece OP-03 cards!
