Life Herb

What it does

Life Herb is a gamble healing card: on a coin flip heads, it clears Special Conditions and damage from a chosen Pokémon. Early wordings removed 6 damage counters and excluded Pokémon-ex from targeting, a restriction dropped in the Platinum printing, while Celestial Storm's wording simplified the effect to a flat 60 damage heal, removing the earlier damage-counter math entirely.

Printing history

Life Herb first appeared in Hidden Legends in 2004 with art by Ryo Ueda, who illustrated most of its printings through Platinum and into Celestial Storm. Hideaki Hakozaki illustrated the Unleashed printing in the HeartGold and SoulSilver era, and the card's final catalogued appearance came as both a Regular and Secret Rare treatment in Celestial Storm, spanning a run across four separate eras. In Japan it was reprinted in the Venusaur, Charizard, and Blastoise Random Constructed Starter Decks and the Metagross Constructed Starter Deck in the EX era, and reached the Platinum expansion alongside the Japanese Entry Pack DPt before its final Celestial Storm printings.

Trivia

Life Herb is noted as the first Trainer card to appear in two consecutive English-language sets, a distinction it held until Bebe's Search and Night Maintenance repeated the feat in Mysterious Treasures and Secret Wonders. It is based on the Revival Herb, a herbal medicine in the games that revives a fainted Pokémon to full HP.

Cards to know

• Life Herb (Hidden Legends #90)

  Hidden Legends printing is Life Herb's first appearance, illustrated by Ryo Ueda

• Life Herb (Platinum #108)

  Platinum printing drops the exclusion of Pokémon-ex from targeting

• Life Herb (Celestial Storm #136)

  Celestial Storm printing introduces the flat 60 damage heal wording

• Life Herb (Celestial Storm #180)

  Celestial Storm printing also includes a Secret Rare treatment