Brilliant Stars has 14 secret rares — cards numbered above 172.
Where Brilliant Stars' secret rares begin
Secret rares sit past the printed total of 172, so in Brilliant Stars they run #173 to #186 — 14 cards, the hardest pulls and most of the set's value. By tier that's 21 Rare Ultras, 20 Rare Holo Vs, 10 Rare Holos and 8 Rare Rainbows.
The Brilliant Stars secret rares everyone wants
The rarest is Arceus VSTAR (#176), a Rare Rainbow. The priciest by market value is Charizard V (#154) at about $356.51 — so the scarcest pull and the most expensive one are different cards here.
- Charizard V (#154) — Rare Ultra (~$356.51)
- Charizard VSTAR (#174) — Rare Rainbow (~$80.57)
- Arceus V (#166) — Rare Ultra (~$62.22)
- Charizard V (#153) — Rare Ultra (~$39.82)
- Pikachu V (#157) — Rare Ultra (~$27.99)
- Ultra Ball (#186) — Rare Secret (~$19.54)
Star Pokémon among Brilliant Stars' secret rares
The headline Pokémon whose top prints land in the secret-rare range:
- Charizard — Charizard V (#153), Charizard V (#154), Charizard VSTAR (#174)
- Arceus — Arceus V (#165), Arceus V (#166), Arceus VSTAR (#176), Arceus VSTAR (#184)
- Pikachu — Pikachu V (#157)
- Galarian Moltres — Galarian Moltres V (#183)
- Galarian Articuno — Galarian Articuno V (#181)
Finishing the Brilliant Stars secret-rare run
Landing all 14 is the hard part of completing Brilliant Stars; they push the full checklist to 186 cards and a master set to 318. Most of the set's resale value sits in this 14-card band, so even a near-complete Brilliant Stars binder can be missing the bulk of its value if the secret rares aren't in yet.
Figures are from the pokemontcg.io dataset (TCGplayer pricing), as of June 2026.