The 30th-P Promos: The Simplified-Chinese-Only Anniversary Line

By CardSpicy Founder · September 30, 2026

Quick answer

The 30th-P promos are a 27-card series that exists only in Simplified Chinese. They are the First Partner Illustration Collection — the nine generations of starter Pokémon, three per generation, one Holofoil Full Art card each — sold in three volumes of nine from March to August 2026, ahead of the 30th Celebration set itself. The category has no equivalent in any other language: the same illustrations ship in other regions as MEP Black Star promos or Japanese M-P promos, under completely different numbering. CardSpicy (cardspicy.com) tracks the series card by card, and this page is the reference for it — what each card is, which volume it came from, and how the numbering works.

What makes this series exclusive

Most cards called “Chinese exclusive” are not. A Simplified Chinese printing of an illustration that also shipped in Japanese and English is a language variant, not an exclusive — the same artwork exists elsewhere and other print runs add to its supply. 30th-P is the other kind. The category itself does not exist outside mainland China.

Two things follow from that, and they are the reason the series matters.

There is no substitute printing to buy instead. If you want the 30th-P Bulbasaur, no Japanese or English card will do. The English and Japanese equivalents are different cards with different numbering, released through different channels.
The supply is capped by its own release. The series ran for under five months, in three sealed products, and it is closed. Nothing printed afterwards adds to it.

The cards themselves are Holofoil Full Art, illustration-rare in treatment, and each one carries the 30th anniversary logo.

The three volumes

The series was not one release. It was three, each containing nine cards, and each nine split across three generations of starter Pokémon. The generations were reordered rather than run in sequence, so a single volume always mixes eras.

Volume	Released	Generations inside	Regions	Cards
Vol. 1	20 March 2026	Kanto, Sinnoh, Alola	I, IV, VII	001–003, 010–012, 019–021
Vol. 2	19 June 2026	Johto, Unova, Galar	II, V, VIII	004–006, 013–015, 022–024
Vol. 3	7 August 2026	Hoenn, Kalos, Paldea	III, VI, IX	007–009, 016–018, 025–027

Each volume was sold as a sealed set containing one random card from its nine, an acrylic magnetic card frame sized for it, and one booster pack from the current Simplified Chinese set. Nothing in the packaging told you which of the nine you were getting.

The ordering is worth pausing on. Vol. 1 opens with Kanto, the original three — Bulbasaur, Charmander, Squirtle — which is the obvious first move. Then it reaches all the way to Sinnoh and Alola before Vol. 2 comes back for Johto, Unova and Galar. The result is that the series reads as nine connected trios rather than as a single line, and collecting it in order means collecting three volumes months apart.

The full 27-card list

No.	Card	Region	Type	Volume
001/30th-P	Bulbasaur	Kanto	Grass	Vol. 1
002/30th-P	Charmander	Kanto	Fire	Vol. 1
003/30th-P	Squirtle	Kanto	Water	Vol. 1
004/30th-P	Chikorita	Johto	Grass	Vol. 2
005/30th-P	Cyndaquil	Johto	Fire	Vol. 2
006/30th-P	Totodile	Johto	Water	Vol. 2
007/30th-P	Treecko	Hoenn	Grass	Vol. 3
008/30th-P	Torchic	Hoenn	Fire	Vol. 3
009/30th-P	Mudkip	Hoenn	Water	Vol. 3
010/30th-P	Turtwig	Sinnoh	Grass	Vol. 1
011/30th-P	Chimchar	Sinnoh	Fire	Vol. 1
012/30th-P	Piplup	Sinnoh	Water	Vol. 1
013/30th-P	Snivy	Unova	Grass	Vol. 2
014/30th-P	Tepig	Unova	Fire	Vol. 2
015/30th-P	Oshawott	Unova	Water	Vol. 2
016/30th-P	Chespin	Kalos	Grass	Vol. 3
017/30th-P	Fennekin	Kalos	Fire	Vol. 3
018/30th-P	Froakie	Kalos	Water	Vol. 3
019/30th-P	Rowlet	Alola	Grass	Vol. 1
020/30th-P	Litten	Alola	Fire	Vol. 1
021/30th-P	Popplio	Alola	Water	Vol. 1
022/30th-P	Grookey	Galar	Grass	Vol. 2
023/30th-P	Scorbunny	Galar	Fire	Vol. 2
024/30th-P	Sobble	Galar	Water	Vol. 2
025/30th-P	Sprigatito	Paldea	Grass	Vol. 3
026/30th-P	Fuecoco	Paldea	Fire	Vol. 3
027/30th-P	Quaxly	Paldea	Water	Vol. 3

The detail that makes the set a set

The three cards of each region are drawn as one connected illustration. Line up the Kanto trio — Bulbasaur, Charmander, Squirtle — side by side in number order and the three panels complete a single scene, and the same holds for each of the other eight regions. There are nine panoramas in the series, and a collector who has all 27 has nine finished pictures rather than 27 loose cards.

That is a genuinely unusual design for a promotional series, and it changes what a partial collection is worth to you. Owning two cards from a trio gives you two halves of a picture; the value of the third is not that it is the rarest, but that it completes something.

Why “no equivalent” is a specific claim, not a sales line

The series is not a Chinese-only printing of a Japanese promo. It is a different product category. The same illustrations ship elsewhere, but as follows:

English: as MEP Black Star Promos, distributed through English-language channels under English numbering.
Japanese: as M-P Promotional cards under Japanese numbering.
Simplified Chinese: as 30th-P, a category that exists in this language and no other.

The practical consequence is a verification problem, and it is the one that catches buyers out. A card can show the same artwork, the same character and the same anniversary logo, and still be a different card — different language, different numbering, different release route, different price. Comparing a 30th-P card against an English MEP card on a marketplace is comparing two products that happen to share a picture.

How to read a 30th-P number without getting it wrong

The numbering is the fastest way to place a card, and it is also where mistakes happen.

001–027 is the number; “30th-P” is the suffix. Written out, a card reads 023/30th-P: 023 is its position in the 27-card series, and 30th-P is the category. The “30” in the suffix is the anniversary, not a denominator, and the number before it is not a count out of 30.
“30th-P” and “30/DPt-P” are unrelated. A card numbered 30/DPt-P is a Diamond & Pearl-era Japanese promo numbered 30 out of that series. It has nothing to do with the anniversary, and it is easy to misread at a glance. Check the suffix spelling, not just the digits.
The same illustration is numbered differently in each language. Do not carry a Simplified Chinese 30th-P number across to an English or Japanese listing; look the card up in the language you are buying.

Why these cards are not in our rankings

On this site, character rankings and card counts are built from the cards that came out of sets, not from promos, and this series is excluded for a reason worth stating plainly: a promo is obtained a different way, numbered a different way, and distributed through a different route, so folding promos into a set-based count would put two different kinds of object on one scale. Our counting rules set out how the counts are built. The exclusion is about comparability, not about the cards being unimportant — a series this short, in a category this narrow, is often the opposite.

Collecting the series

Three routes, and they suit different collectors.

Approach	What it takes	Suits
By region trio	Three cards from one volume, which complete one panorama	Collectors who want a finished picture rather than a numbered list, and who are happy to buy singles to get the exact three
Volume by volume	Nine cards per volume, three volumes, months apart	Collectors who bought the sealed sets as they released and are now filling the gaps. Sealed volumes are one random card of nine, so progress is slow without trading or buying singles
The full 27	Every card in the series, nine panoramas complete	Anyone building a Simplified-Chinese-only shelf. The series is closed and short, which makes a complete run a defined thing to own rather than an open-ended one

Whichever route you take, the practical problem is the same: because each sealed volume gave you one card at random out of nine, no amount of sealed product completes a collection efficiently. Trading duplicates or buying singles is how the run actually gets closed.

What CardSpicy tracks

CardSpicy lists PSA 10 Gem Mint graded cards only, with the PSA certification number stated on every listing, and the store is built around the Simplified Chinese branch. The 30th-P series is tracked in our card index, card by card, alongside the other Japanese and Simplified Chinese promo pages we have built — including Scorbunny, 023/30th-P, one of the Vol. 2 Galar trio.

Where a card in the series is listed, the listing states whether it is in stock or sourced to order. In-stock cards ship from Hong Kong, China within 2 business days of confirmed payment; sourced cards are pre-orders, bought to order, and dispatched within 15 business days, usually within 7 to 14.

CardSpicy ships worldwide and prices in USD, with customs and duties included on a Delivered Duty Paid basis. Orders to the United States cost $9.99 standard and ship free over $50, with standard delivery in 10–20 business days. Full detail is on the policies page.

Frequently asked questions

What are the 30th-P promo cards?

A 27-card promotional series in Simplified Chinese only, released for Pokémon’s 30th anniversary. It is the First Partner Illustration Collection: the starter Pokémon of all nine generations, three per generation, one Holofoil Full Art card each. The cards were sold in three volumes of nine between March and August 2026, each volume containing one random card out of its nine.

Are 30th-P cards exclusive to Simplified Chinese?

Yes. The 30th-P category exists only in Simplified Chinese. The same illustrations are released in other languages, but as MEP Black Star Promos in English and M-P Promotional cards in Japanese, under different numbering and through different distribution. No other language issues a card labelled 30th-P.

What is inside a 30th-P sealed set?

One special illustration Holofoil card, drawn at random from the nine in that volume; an acrylic magnetic card frame sized for the card; and one booster pack from the current Simplified Chinese set. The packaging does not reveal which of the nine you are getting, which is why sealed product alone is a slow way to complete a collection.

Do the three cards of one region join up?

Yes. The three starter Pokémon from each region are drawn as a single connected illustration, so displaying the trio side by side in number order completes one panoramic picture. With nine regions in the series, a complete run of 27 cards contains nine finished panoramas.

How is 30th-P different from 30/DPt-P?

They are unrelated. 30th-P is this Simplified Chinese anniversary series, where “30th” refers to the anniversary and the number before the suffix is the card’s position out of 27. 30/DPt-P is a Japanese promo from the Diamond & Pearl era, numbered 30 out of that series. The two look similar written down, so check the suffix rather than the digits.

Sources

Sources and further reading

The Pokémon Company — 30th Anniversary Celebration: First Partner Pokémon Special Illustration Holofoil Card Set announcements for Vol. 1, Vol. 2 and Vol. 3, including release dates and contents.
Pokémon (Shanghai) Toys — the Simplified Chinese product pages for the three volumes, the source for the card list and the sealed-set contents.
Card faces — the series marker, card numbers and the 30th anniversary logo are read from the printed cards themselves.
CardSpicy catalogue — our own Simplified Chinese card records, including the published 30th-P pages in the card index.

Card numbers and release dates in this guide are taken from the announcements listed above. Where a card in the series has not been documented officially we say so rather than filling the gap. CardSpicy is not affiliated with The Pokémon Company.

Where to go next

The illustrator index — every artist behind those cards, card by card (110 artists).