Lt. Surge's Raichu · Gym Heroes, what to know.
About the Lt. Surge's Raichu card
Lt. Surge's Raichu sits at #28 in Gym Heroes, the sixth of the Wizards of the Coast print runs. Illustration by Ken Sugimori. Sugimori is the lead character designer of the Pokémon franchise itself. His TCG illustrations carry a tighter, more on-model feel because they are by the same hand that defined how the Pokémon look in the games. In the games, Lt. Surge's Raichu evolves from Lt. Surge's Pikachu, which makes it a late-stage card in the line.
Print variants and how to spot them
Gym Heroes shipped in 1st Edition (stamped) and Unlimited prints. The Gym sets use the trainer-prefix naming convention (Misty's Tentacruel, Blaine's Charizard, Sabrina's Gengar, and so on). No widely-recognized error prints.
Grading and condition
For graded buyers, non-holo Rares are less punishing on surface but no easier on centering. PSA 10 populations for Wizards-era Rares are smaller than the Rare Holo populations in some cases because the cards were less protected and more frequently played. Edge whitening from sleeves is the typical grade-cap on raw copies.
If you are buying this card
For raw purchases of this card, verify centering by eye, edge whitening on all four sides, and surface scratches under angled light. Non-holo Rares from the Wizards era are cheap enough that PSA 10 submissions usually do not break the math if you have a clean candidate.
