Character info
The character
Zapdos is one of the three Legendary Birds from the Pokémon franchise, alongside Articuno and Moltres. It is an Electric-type Pokémon known for its control over lightning and its association with dark thunderclouds. In the games and anime, Zapdos is depicted as a powerful, rarely seen legendary creature.
This card
This is card number 098 from the MEP Black Star Promos set, a Promo rarity release from 2023 featuring the Pikachu 30th Anniversary stamp variant. The artwork, illustrated by Sie Nanahara, shows Zapdos in a dynamic crouched pose amid crackling lightning bolts over a landscape. The card carries the small Pikachu stamp with '30' lettering in the lower right of the image area, marking the anniversary treatment.
How it plays
Zapdos is a Basic Pokémon with 120 HP and a Lightning typing. Its Ability, Flash-Pop Flapping, lets the player attach a Basic Lightning Energy from hand to this Pokémon once per turn, but only if both Moltres and Articuno are also in play. Its attack, Thundering Lightning, costs three Lightning Energy and one Colorless Energy, deals 210 damage, and also inflicts 60 damage to itself. It has a weakness to Fighting-type attacks (×2), no listed resistance, and a retreat cost of one Colorless Energy.
Written with AI from the card and its catalogue entry, and checked by WinnTCG.
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An image of the graded card, sized for eBay and social posts. The grade, the certificate number and the verification link travel with it.
Card details confirmed
A card with this name and number exists in the public card catalogue, in MEP Black Star Promos, rarity PROMO. The details on this certificate match it.
Illustrated by SIE NANAHARA and published 2025-09-26. Both come from the public catalogue, not from WinnTCG.
A catalogue match is not the authenticity check. It confirms the card is the card it claims to be. Whether it is genuine was checked separately, on the card itself; see Authenticity below.
About this card
#145 in the National Pokédex · a Generation I Pokémon · 292 different cards of it exist.
From the card and the public catalogue, not written by WinnTCG.
Authenticity
WinnTCG authenticated this card in hand, on the bench, against genuine Pokémon cards. It was checked four ways: light shone through it to check the core, its weight on a scale, its thickness measured, and its print pattern and surface texture under magnification.
How this card was graded
WinnTCG graded this card in hand, on the bench. The card was in our hands, and we sealed the case ourselves. We photographed it here under controlled light to show which card is in the case and where anything we marked sits on it.
If you are buying this slab: the grade is WinnTCG’s judgement of the card that was in front of us, and WinnTCG sealed this case. The photographs above are of that card. Compare them against what you can see through the case, because a case can be opened by anyone who has held it since.
The working behind this grade
Every grade here is published with its reasoning. The report states what each measurement returned, what the model proposed on each axis, where the grader disagreed with it, and every defect marked on the photographs above.