Unown

Unown on screen: Spell of the Unown

Unown drives the plot of the third Pokémon movie, Spell of the Unown: Entei, where the illusions they create set the whole story in motion. The film shows Unown reading the thoughts of other creatures, and a large enough group bending reality to fit the dreams and wishes of whoever controls them. That power only works when many Unown act together; no single Unown has it.

Unown on cards: an alphabet built out of one Pokémon

Unown's English card history begins in the Neo era: Neo Discovery (2001), Neo Revelation and Neo Destiny spread individual letter forms across their Rare, Uncommon and Common slots, nearly all of them illustrated by CR CG gangs. Our catalog lists 94 Unown printings across 17 sets, most from three eras: Diamond & Pearl (28), EX (27) and the original WOTC era (26), because the game kept returning to the idea of one Pokémon printed letter by letter.

The fullest version of that idea is 2005's Unseen Forces, whose Unown Collection printed all 28 forms, A to Z plus "!" and "?", as individual Rare cards numbered by their letter. Shin-ichi Yoshikawa, Nakaoka and Kyoko Koizumi split the artwork between them. Diamond & Pearl era sets such as Mysterious Treasures, Secret Wonders and Legends Awakened then scattered new letter cards across several releases. Silver Tempest (2022) gave Unown its first V and VSTAR cards: Unown V illustrated by N-DESIGN Inc. and Unown VSTAR by PLANETA Mochizuki.

Why collectors care about Unown

Unown's appeal on cards mirrors its appeal in the games: it is one species that behaves like a whole set. Chasing the Unseen Forces Unown Collection letter by letter, or lining up two decades of alphabet-form artwork side by side, gives Unown a collecting project few single Pokémon can match.

Cards to know

• Unown [J] (Wizards Black Star Promos #38)

  A Wizards Black Star Promo packed with the 2001 VHS and DVD release of Spell of the Unown: Entei, illustrated by Hideki Kazama.

• Unown [A] (Neo Discovery #14)

  A 2001 holo Rare from Neo Discovery, one of Unown's earliest English cards, illustrated by CR CG gangs, the artist behind nearly every Neo-era Unown.

• Unown [B] (Unseen Forces Unown Collection #B)

  Part of the 2005 Unown Collection that printed all 28 forms as individual Rare cards; the early letters are by Shin-ichi Yoshikawa.

• Unown [I] (Unseen Forces Unown Collection #I)

  Another Unown Collection letter card, illustrated by Nakaoka.

• Unown V (Silver Tempest #065)

  Unown's first V card, from 2022, illustrated by N-DESIGN Inc.

• Unown VSTAR (Silver Tempest #199)

  A Secret Rare VSTAR printed in the same set as Unown V, illustrated by PLANETA Mochizuki.