M6 Storm Emeralda vs M6a 30th Celebration is a choice between two Japanese booster boxes: Storm Emeralda (M6), Mega Rayquaza’s flagship set, and 30th CELEBRATION (M6a), which released worldwide on Wednesday, September 16, 2026. Both are sealed product we ship out of Tokyo.
Full card list: Storm Emeralda (M6) card list → every card by number with rarity, individual card pages and in-stock PSA 10 prices.
M6 Storm Emeralda (73+ cards) is built around Mega Rayquaza ex. M6a 30th CELEBRATION (165 numbered cards plus 8 Basic Energy) is Pokemon’s 30th-anniversary set.
- Set reference: M6a card list.
- Sealed Japanese Pokemon booster boxes are listed on our store as of this update.
USD figures convert at ¥154/USD, approximate.
M6 Storm Emeralda vs M6a 30th Celebration at a Glance
M6 Storm Emeralda is Mega Rayquaza’s flagship set: 73 or more cards, ¥6,000 tax-in MSRP. Our full breakdown of the set is in our Storm Emeralda complete guide and full 73-card list.
M6a 30th CELEBRATION is Pokemon’s 30th-anniversary flagship: 165 numbered cards plus 8 Basic Energy (173 in all; PokeBeach’s headline figure is 176), ¥7,200 tax-in MSRP. It has released worldwide. See our booster box guide and full card list page.
Price Comparison: MSRP, Store Listings and Market Asks
| M6 Storm Emeralda | M6a 30th CELEBRATION | |
|---|---|---|
| MSRP | ¥6,000 | ¥7,200 |
| Store listing — Sealed | ¥9,582 (~$62) | ¥25,999 (~$169) |
| Store listing — No Shrink | ¥8,991 (~$58) | ¥24,707 (~$160) |
| SNKRDUNK lowest ask, Sept 16, 2026 — shrink / no-shrink | ¥10,250 / ¥8,300 | ¥17,500 / ¥13,290 |
M6a’s box costs ¥1,200 more at MSRP and lists higher on our site than M6’s. On those SNKRDUNK lowest asks, both boxes were asked well above their printed MSRP, M6 at roughly 1.4–1.7x and M6a at roughly 1.8–2.4x, so M6a’s premium over MSRP is the wider of the two. These are asking prices, not sale prices; see our 30th CELEBRATION release-day market report for the fuller price history on the M6a side.
The lowest shrink-wrapped ask on SNKRDUNK moved on different tracks: M6’s box went from roughly ¥12,000 (September 10) to ¥10,250, while M6a’s box fell from ¥47,200 (September 1) to ¥28,200 (September 10) to ¥17,500.
What’s Inside Each Box
M6a’s headline gimmick is its 30-Pikachu subset (017–046, one per pack, each by a different illustrator with a fireworks-style holofoil) plus a YOSHIROTTEN Basic Energy in every pack; see our Pikachu-30 illustrator hub. Its top chase tier is the two FUR (Futuristic Rare) cards, Mewtwo ex (134) and Mew ex (135), both by YOSHIROTTEN. PokeBeach reported, from an official box opening shown before release, that one 20-pack M6a box held 20 of the 30 Pikachu, 2 Classic Collection cards, 4 AR, 1 SAR and 1 FUR — one opening, not a published rate.
M6 Storm Emeralda is built around Mega Rayquaza ex as its headline card; its full rarity structure is covered in our Storm Emeralda pull rates and best cards guide and booster box buying guide. The two sets don’t share a chase-card structure — M6a spreads its top tier across the 30-Pikachu subset, the AR/SAR/FUR block and the Classic Collection.
M6a’s rarity block runs deeper than M6’s: on top of the 103-card main set, M6a adds a 20-card AR block, a 10-card SAR block, 2 FUR chase cards and a 30-card Classic Collection reprint tier, all compiled from official images and PokeBeach’s list rather than the official database. All 32 of M6a’s secret rares have been seen. For the full breakdown of how that block is organised, see our secret-rare numbering guide.
Which One Should You Buy
If your interest is Mega Rayquaza specifically, M6 is the set built around it. If your interest is the 30th-anniversary release — the 30 Pikachu, the Mewtwo/Mew FUR pair, or the Classic Collection reprints — M6a is the set, and it’s the newer release of the two.
Budget-wise, M6 is the cheaper entry point of the two by a wide margin, both on our store listings and on SNKRDUNK’s asks. The two sets share no chase cards and no theme, so the choice is which set you are collecting rather than which one is the “better deal” — they’re not interchangeable products.
Anyone building out a broader 30th-anniversary collection alongside M6a may also want to compare it with the set’s own companion releases — the FUTURISTIC BOX and the Premium Deck Set Espeon & Umbreon, both Japan-only Pokemon Center products that released the same day. Our FUTURISTIC BOX guide and Premium Deck Set guide cover those separately from the standard booster box compared here.
Where to Buy
We ship both sets out of Tokyo with tracked delivery.
The M6 Storm Emeralda Booster Box and the M6a 30th CELEBRATION Booster Box each have a product page with the current options. Browse the full booster box collection or the Japanese Pokemon card collection. Requests for anything else go through Quick Order.
Frequently Asked Questions
What’s the difference between M6 Storm Emeralda and M6a 30th CELEBRATION?
M6 Storm Emeralda is a 73-plus-card set built around Mega Rayquaza ex. M6a 30th CELEBRATION is Pokemon’s 30th-anniversary set, released worldwide.
Which set had the bigger SNKRDUNK premium over MSRP?
On SNKRDUNK’s lowest asks, M6a’s premium over its MSRP was the wider of the two. These are asking prices, not sale prices.
What’s the chase card in each set?
M6’s top chase card is Mega Rayquaza ex. M6a spreads its top tier across the 30-Pikachu subset and the FUR chase cards Mewtwo ex (134) and Mew ex (135), both by YOSHIROTTEN.
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