Dratini

Dratini sits at #63 in Neo Destiny, the eleventh of the Wizards of the Coast print runs. Illustration by Yuka Morii.

The flavor text on the card reads: "Large from birth, this Pokémon increases in size throughout its life by regularly shedding its skin." 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.

A Dragon-type sea-serpent Pokémon. Famous for being the rarest Pokémon in the Safari Zone in Gen 1. Base Set Common Dratini has sentimental demand thanks to game rarity.

Neo Destiny shipped in 1st Edition, Unlimited, and Shining prints. Shining cards are an entirely separate rarity tier above standard holo with an alternate-color holo pattern. Shining cards are pulled at significantly lower rates than standard holos and are a defining feature of the late Neo era.

Commons grade most forgivingly of any tier in the set. Centering is the typical grade cap; the soft Wizards-era cardstock picks up edge whitening easily but the high print runs mean clean copies remain affordable. A first-time grading submission on a Common is the cheapest way to learn what each grading service is actually looking at.

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.