Great Ball

What it does

Great Ball originally let a player search the deck directly for a Basic Pokémon and place it on the Bench, excluding Pokémon-ex in its first wording. The Emerging Powers wording changed this entirely into looking at the top 7 cards of the deck and optionally revealing a found Pokémon into hand rather than the Bench, a meaningfully different effect from the earlier direct search.

Printing history

Great Ball first appeared in FireRed and LeafGreen in 2004 with art by Nakaoka. Kent Kanetsuna illustrated the Stormfront printing, and 5ban Graphics and Toyste Beach handled the Black and White and XY era reprints. It has reappeared through several trainer kit products in the Sun and Moon era and again in Paldea Evolved in the Scarlet and Violet era.

Origin

This card's effect from Emerging Powers on matches the pre-Black and White Series prints of Master Ball. The Great Ball is a type of Poké Ball in the games with an improved catch rate over the regular Poké Ball, and unlike the Poké Ball card, this card never required a coin flip to work. Nakaoka's original artwork carried Great Ball through the EX era, and later illustrators including 5ban Graphics, Toyste Beach, Ryo Ueda, and Studio Bora Inc. have each contributed new art as the card moved through the Black and White, XY, Sun and Moon, and Scarlet and Violet eras.

Cards to know

• Great Ball (FireRed & LeafGreen #92)

  FireRed and LeafGreen printing is Great Ball's first appearance, illustrated by Nakaoka

• Great Ball (Emerging Powers #93)

  Emerging Powers printing changes the card's effect to a 7-card deck look

• Great Ball (Paldea Evolved #183)

  Paldea Evolved printing brings Great Ball into the Scarlet and Violet era