Umbreon · Aquapolis, what to know.
About the Umbreon card
Umbreon sits at #41 in Aquapolis, the fourteenth of the Wizards of the Coast print runs. Illustration by Mitsuhiro Arita. Arita was the original Pokémon TCG illustrator and the artist behind the Base Set Charizard. His vintage-era art has a painterly quality that distinguishes it from the cleaner reference-style work of the Sugimori cards. In the games, Umbreon evolves from Eevee, which makes it a late-stage card in the line.
About Umbreon in the Pokémon world
The Dark Eeveelution. Black silhouette with yellow rings. The undisputed favorite Eeveelution. Across every era, Umbreon cards command the highest collector demand of any Eeveelution. Umbreon VMAX Alt Art from Evolving Skies is one of the most expensive modern Pokémon cards. The Neo Discovery 1st Edition Umbreon holo is the vintage benchmark.
Print variants and how to spot them
Aquapolis shipped in Standard, Reverse Holo, and Crystal Type prints. Crystal Type cards are rare alternate-art holos with a colorless rainbow holofoil pattern, pulled at significantly lower rates than standard holos. They are the marquee chase for this set.
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.
