Ever had that heart-pounding moment? You’re carefully opening a Pokémon card pack, the crinkle of the foil wrapper music to your ears. You do the “pack trick,” meticulously moving cards from the back to the front, building the suspense. You see the energy card, the trainer, the commons… and then you get to the final card. Will it be a dud, or will it be the Charizard you’ve been chasing for weeks?
What if I told you there’s a secret signal, a little wink from the pack itself, that tells you whether you’ve got a banger before you even see the last card? It’s true! And it’s all thanks to the humble code card.
So, What’s the Big Deal with Code Cards?
First off, let’s get on the same page. That little card with a QR code and a string of letters and numbers isn’t just a piece of cardboard taking up space. It’s your ticket to a digital pack in the Pokémon TCG Live app, letting you battle and collect online.
But for years, this little card has been doing double duty. For savvy collectors, it’s also been the ultimate spoiler, a secret informant telling you what to expect from the physical cards in your hand. This is the infamous “code card trick.”
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Start Tracking Now — It’s FreeCracking the Code: The Two Distinct Eras
The way this trick works has actually changed over the years, kind of like how a Pokémon evolves! What worked for a Sword & Shield pack won’t necessarily work for a Scarlet & Violet one.
The Old Guard: Green vs. White (Pre-Scarlet & Violet)
Back in the day—we’re talking sets from the Black & White era all the way through Sword & Shield—the system was all about two colours.
- The Green-Bordered Code Card: You see this, and it’s like running into a wild Pidgey. It’s common, and it signals that the rare card in your pack is a non-holographic. Womp, womp.
- The White-Bordered Code Card: Now we’re talking! A white border meant you had at least a holographic rare card or something even better (like a V, VMAX, or Secret Rare) waiting for you. It was the equivalent of the tall grass shaking—you knew something good was coming!
This system was pretty consistent for the better part of a decade. But all good things must come to an end, and The Pokémon Company International eventually decided to switch it up.
The New System: The Black Border (Scarlet & Violet Forward)
Starting with the Scarlet & Violet base set, the game changed. It seems TPCi caught on that we’d all cracked their code! Now, all the code cards have a white/light grey front. So, how do we tell now?
It’s all in the border on the back of the code card—the side with the actual code on it!
- A Plain White/Grey Border: This is the new Pidgey. It means your first rare slot will contain a standard, non-holo rare card.
- A Black Border: This is your signal! A distinct black border around the code itself means you are guaranteed a holographic rare or better in that first rare slot. This is your cue to get excited!
The change was clever, but the community figured it out almost instantly. You just can’t hide these things from dedicated fans!
But… Why Does This Trick Even Exist?
This is the million-dollar question, right? Why would they put a spoiler right in the pack? The most widely accepted theory comes down to one thing: weight.
Holographic cards weigh slightly more than non-holographic cards due to the extra layer of foil. This might seem insignificant, but when you’re talking about thousands of packs, it’s enough for someone with a sensitive scale to “weigh” booster boxes to find the ones with more hits. This is a huge no-no in the community.
To combat this, the theory goes that TPCi printed the code cards on different card stock to balance the weight. A lighter, green-bordered code card went into a pack with a heavier holo rare, and a heavier, white-bordered code card went into a pack with a lighter non-holo rare. The goal was to make every pack weigh roughly the same, rendering scales useless. It was a brilliant manufacturing solution that inadvertently created this fun little “tell” for us collectors.
To Spoil or Not to Spoil?
Now that you have this forbidden knowledge, what do you do with it? This is a surprisingly divisive topic in the Pokémon community.
- Team Surprise: For many, the magic of opening a pack is the pure, unadulterated surprise. Not knowing is the entire point! Using the code card trick is like looking up the final evolution of your starter Pokémon before you’ve even left Pallet Town—it spoils the journey!
- Team Spoil: On the other hand, for content creators opening hundreds of packs on stream, it can be a great way to build hype (“Chat, we’ve got a black border!”). It’s also useful if you’re doing a mass opening and want to sort the “hit” packs from the “bulk” packs quickly.
Ultimately, there’s no right or wrong answer. It’s your collection, your experience. Whether you choose to glance at the code card for a sneak peek or toss it aside to preserve the mystery, the important thing is that you’re having fun.
So next time you open a pack, you have a choice to make. Will you seek the knowledge of the code card, or will you let fate decide? Happy hunting!
