Applin · Evolving Skies, what to know.
About the Applin card
Applin sits at #17 in Evolving Skies, released in August 2021. Evolving Skies is part of the modern English Pokémon TCG era and uses the standard contemporary card frame and rarity tiers. Illustration by Miki Tanaka.
The flavor text on the card reads: "As soon as it's born, it burrows into an apple. Not only does the apple serve as its food source, but the flavor of the fruit determines its evolution." Pokédex entries from this era are short and often quirky, written by the original Japanese localization team for a specific stat-block layout that no longer exists in modern cards.
Print variants and how to spot them
Evolving Skies shipped in Holofoil, Reverse Holo, V, VMAX, Alternate Art VMAX, and Rainbow Rare. The Alternate Art VMAX cards (numbered 203 onwards in the set) use entirely different artwork from the standard VMAX prints and are the most-chased modern Pokémon cards in any set.
Grading and condition
Modern Commons grade easily and trade thinly in graded condition. Raw pack-fresh copies are the practical buy for set completion. PSA 10 submissions on a Common from a modern set rarely return enough premium over raw to justify the service fee.
If you are buying this card
Raw copies of this card are inexpensive enough that the grading math rarely justifies submission unless you have a clearly pack-fresh example. For set completionists, picking up a clean raw copy and sleeving it is the practical move.
