You crack your first pack of Fantasy Wonderland. Five cards fan out. One has a weird ※ symbol next to the rarity code. Good pull? Great pull? Moonbreon of this set, or bulk?
Kayou’s My Little Pony TCG uses eight base rarity tiers plus a parallel “Shining” (※) subset of alternate-art chases. If you’ve only ever cracked Pokémon packs, nothing about it is obvious on first sight. This is the decoder ring.
How a pack actually breaks down
Every MLP pack contains 5 cards and always includes a scene card (an Emerald Rare, or occasionally a Shining Emerald Rare). The other four cards are drawn from a confirmed pack structure: about 30% of packs in a box are 2 commons + 2 uncommons/Sapphire Rares + 1 scene card (no rotating rare), and about 70% of packs swap one of those uncommons for a card from the main hit rotation (SR, RR, CR, GR, or one of the Shining variants).
If you see a ※ symbol next to the rarity code, stop what you’re doing. That’s the Shining subset — alternate art, premium finishes, and the actual chase tier. Everything else is a spectrum from bulk to solid.
The 8 base rarities, translated into Pokémon
Common (C) and Uncommon (U) are exactly what you’d expect. Bulk. Binder filler. Roughly 4 of your 5 cards per pack.
Silver Rare (SR) is a shimmer-finish upgraded pose. Think Pokémon Reverse Holo or a base Holo Rare — the Sword & Shield-era “Holo Rare” slot, not the Scarlet & Violet Illustration Rare. Pulls about one in three packs. Binder-worthy, not trophy-worthy.
Ruby Rare (RR) has painterly textures — colored pencil and oil painting treatments that read more like fine art than cartoon. The closest Pokémon analog is the Illustration Rare (IR) slot that Scarlet & Violet introduced. One in 20 packs. Only six in the set — one per Mane 6 pony (BP01-RR01 Twilight Sparkle through BP01-RR06 Rarity).
Colorful Rare (CR) is vivid, saturated full-character art. Treat it like a Pokémon Ultra Rare — the ex, V, or VMAX tier. One in 10 packs, 12 in the set.
Emerald Rare (ER) is the oddball. These are scene and location cards — Canterlot Tower, Manehattan Streets, Ponyville Suburb — with holographic backgrounds. At the Shining tier, six iconic locations (Golden Oak Library, Fluttershy’s Cottage, Sugarcube Corner, Sweet Apple Acres, Cloudominium, Carousel Boutique) come in both Day and Night variants, which collectors chase as matching pairs. There’s no clean Pokémon equivalent, but mechanically they sit somewhere between a full-art Stadium and a holo Energy. Every pack contains a scene card (ER pulls at 1 per 1.05 packs, with the remaining slots filled by ※ER), which raises the floor on MLP packs above what Pokémon players are used to.
Gold Rare (GR) is the main base-set chase. 3D foil stamping, cinematic art, premium textures. This is your Full Art or Special Illustration Rare equivalent. One in 10 packs, but with only 12 in the set, pulling a specific GR you want is harder than the odds suggest.
Sapphire Rare (SPR) covers event and item cards — “Pillow Fight,” “Make a Cake,” “Pinkie Pie’s Flying Device,” “Fluttershy’s Bell” — with sapphire foil treatment. 28 total in the set (21 events + 7 items). Visually it resembles a Pokémon Gold/Secret Rare, but functionally it’s closer to a Trainer or Tool slot. Common in the hit rotation.
The Shining (※) tier — where the real chases live
Shining cards are alternate-art, premium-finish versions of the base rarities. They behave like Pokémon’s Alt Arts, Special Illustration Rares, and Hyper Rares.
About the ※ symbol. ※ (Unicode U+203B) is a CJK typographic mark called a “reference mark.” In Japanese it’s 米印 (komejirushi, “rice mark”) — named for its visual resemblance to the kanji 米 (rice). In Chinese and Korean usage it works like an English asterisk: it flags a note, disclaimer, or item of special attention — roughly “note well, pay attention to this.” Kayou’s choice of ※ to mark Shining variants is on-brand: the symbol itself means “this one is worth a closer look.”
※ER (Shining Emerald Rare) — one in 20 packs. Scene cards with holographic depth and day/night variants that collectors chase as pairs.
※GR (Shining Gold Rare) — one in 20 packs, but only six exist in the entire set. Reimagined softer artwork, iridescent rainbow borders, lenticular effects that shift with viewing angle, and artist signatures. These are the grails. Roughly equivalent in stature to a Pokémon Special Illustration Rare.
※SPR (Shining Sapphire Rare) — one in 80 packs. Laser etching, glitter silk screening on the foil. A real pull.
※CR (Shining Colorful Rare) — one in 160 packs. Enhanced foil, reimagined color palettes. This is Hyper Rare / Gold Card territory.
※RR (Shining Ruby Rare) — one in 640 packs. That’s exactly one per sealed case (20 packs × 32 boxes = 640). This is the single rarest card in Fantasy Wonderland, and it’s the moment every opener is hoping for. This is your Moonbreon (Evolving Skies Umbreon VMAX Alt Art), your Special Illustration Rare Charizard ex — the card that pays for the case on its own.
Pull-rate cheat sheet (rarest first)
| MLP rarity | Pull rate | Per sealed case (640 packs) | Pokémon-brain translation |
|---|---|---|---|
| ※ Shining Ruby Rare (※RR) | 1:640 | 1 | Alt Art Chase (Moonbreon tier) |
| ※ Shining Colorful Rare (※CR) | 1:160 | 4 | Hyper Rare / Gold Card |
| ※ Shining Sapphire Rare (※SPR) | 1:80 | 8 | Gold Secret Rare |
| Ruby Rare (RR) | 1:20 | 32 | Illustration Rare |
| ※ Shining Gold Rare (※GR) | 1:20 | 32 | Special Illustration Rare |
| ※ Shining Emerald Rare (※ER) | 1:20 | 32 | Premium scene alt |
| Gold Rare (GR) | 1:10 | 64 | Full Art |
| Colorful Rare (CR) | 1:10 | 64 | Ultra Rare / ex |
| Silver Rare (SR) | 1:2.86 | 224 | Base Holo Rare |
| Emerald Rare (ER) | 1:1.05 | 610 | Guaranteed scene holo |
| Uncommon (U) / SPR | 1:1 | 640+ | Reverse Holo / Trainer |
| Common (C) | 2:1 | 1,280 | Bulk |
What a sealed box actually gives you
Here’s where MLP diverges most from Pokémon. A Pokémon booster box (36 packs) typically guarantees one “hit” slot per pack, which shakes out to maybe 4-6 ultra rares and one or two cards worth photographing. An MLP Fantasy Wonderland box (20 packs) guarantees the following on average:
- 1 ※ Shining Gold Rare (grail-tier alternate art, ~1 per box)
- 1 Ruby Rare (one of the six Mane 6 painterly cards)
- 1 ※ Shining Emerald Rare (one of 12 day/night scene cards)
- 2 Gold Rares (base-set chases)
- 2 Colorful Rares (ultra-rare equivalent)
- ~7 Silver Rares (base holos)
- ~19 Emerald Rares (scene holos — one per pack)
Plus a ~25% chance at a ※SPR, ~12.5% chance at a ※CR, and ~3% chance (1 in 32 boxes) at the ※RR chase.
Translated: MLP boxes have a higher floor than Pokémon boxes — you’re nearly certain to walk away with a ※GR grail — but the ceiling is caseworthy-rare, not boxworthy-rare. Worst-case MLP beats worst-case Pokémon. Best-case Pokémon still beats best-case MLP, because at least you can chase the chase inside one box.
Short version: treat any ※ card as a hit, treat a non-Shining GR as a Full Art, and treat everything else as trade fodder for something with a star on it.
What to do with your pull
If you pulled a ※RR, ※CR, or ※GR, treat it like any chase card: penny sleeve immediately, then a toploader or semi-rigid. Don’t shuffle it into your deck (MLP TCG cards are playable, but you’ll want a copy to protect and a copy to play). On grading: the Chase the Magic sweepstakes offers free PSA grading for qualifying ◇ZR Zenith Rare pulls from Moon Edition 2 — which signals that PSA is a supported grading route in the Kayou MLP ecosystem. CGC is the other logical choice.
A couple of practical notes that Pokémon-brain may skip over:
- The ※GR features “iridescent rainbow borders” and lenticular effects. Lenticular cards scratch easily. Do not thumb the surface before sleeving.
- Day/night ※ER pairs are more valuable as matched sets than singles. If you pull the Day, don’t trade it until you’ve tried to complete the pair.
- Shining variants share card numbers with their base-rarity counterparts (e.g., ※BP01-CR01 Twilight Sparkle vs BP01-CR01 Twilight Sparkle). The ※ symbol on the card face is how you distinguish them — label your binder accordingly.
The TL;DR
- Two commons + two uncommons + an Emerald Rare = standard pack, move on.
- Gold Rare (GR) in the hit slot = nice pull, Full Art equivalent.
- Anything with a ※ = real hit, worth sleeving.
- ※RR = stop opening, sleeve it, photograph it, price it. You just cracked the set’s case-level chase.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does the ※ symbol mean on Kayou My Little Pony cards?
The ※ symbol on Kayou My Little Pony cards indicates a Shining variant, which represents the premium chase tier featuring alternate art and upgraded finishes. These Shining cards are the most valuable pulls in the set, similar to special illustration rares in Pokémon. If you see this symbol next to the rarity code, you have pulled a high-value card from the actual chase subset.
How many cards are in a My Little Pony TCG pack?
Each My Little Pony TCG pack contains exactly 5 cards and always includes one scene card, which is either an Emerald Rare or occasionally a Shining Emerald Rare. The remaining four cards follow a structured distribution: approximately 30% of packs contain 2 commons and 2 uncommons or Sapphire Rares, while 70% replace one uncommon with a higher rarity hit from the rotation.
What is a Silver Rare in the My Little Pony TCG?
A Silver Rare (SR) in the My Little Pony TCG is a shimmer-finish card with an upgraded pose, comparable to a Pokémon Reverse Holo or standard Holo Rare from the Sword and Shield era. It represents the entry-level holo rarity in Kayou’s My Little Pony set, sitting above commons and uncommons but below the premium Shining variants and other higher chase rarities.
How many rarity tiers does Kayou My Little Pony TCG have?
Kayou’s My Little Pony TCG features eight base rarity tiers ranging from Common to ultra-rare categories, plus a parallel Shining subset marked with the ※ symbol. The Shining subset contains alternate-art versions with premium finishes and represents the actual chase tier, functioning as a separate parallel system layered on top of the standard eight-tier rarity structure used throughout the set.