Giovanni in the Pokémon TCG: From Gym Challenge to Destined Rivals
By Dexhaul Team · September 28, 2026
No other named villain in the Pokémon TCG appears as a playable card across 25 years of English print runs.
Giovanni entered the game in October 2000 as part of the Gym Challenge set, introduced alongside the other Kanto gym leaders. He disappeared from the card pool for 15 years, then returned in 2015 as a Full Art Supporter in XY BREAKthrough. Two more appearances followed in the Scarlet and Violet era: Giovanni's Charisma in 2023's SV 151, and Team Rocket's Giovanni as a Special Art Rare in 2025's Destined Rivals.
This guide covers every Giovanni Trainer card across all four eras, what each costs right now, and which one to add first if you're building a Giovanni collection.
Gym Challenge 2000: Giovanni's First Cards
The Gym Challenge set shipped October 2000 in North America, completing the Gym Series alongside Gym Heroes. Gym Heroes covered the first four Kanto gym leaders; Gym Challenge went deeper into the lineup with Blaine, Koga, Sabrina, and Giovanni. Each leader received a holo Trainer card, a non-holo Trainer, and a suite of named Pokémon.
Giovanni 18/132 is the holo Trainer card for the Viridian City gym leader. As a Trainer card in the pre-Supporter era, it let you search your deck for any Giovanni's Pokémon when played, giving players a consistency tool that also doubled as collection centerpiece. Raw Unlimited copies in played condition currently run $50; lightly played examples push toward $65 depending on the seller.
The set also contains six Giovanni's Pokémon at holo rarity. The naming convention follows every other gym leader in the set: each holo carries "Giovanni's" as a prefix, tying the Pokémon directly to his gym identity rather than a generic card pool.
Giovanni's Gyarados 5/132 sits at the top of the Giovanni's Pokémon price tier at $144.80. Giovanni's Machamp 6/132 runs $60 despite being a recognizable heavyweight, and Giovanni's Persian sits at roughly $30. The price gap between Gyarados and the rest is pure character demand: Gyarados commands a premium at every holo rarity tier regardless of era, and that pattern holds in 2000 as much as it does in 2024.
For a collector entering the Gym Challenge Giovanni pool, the 18/132 holo Trainer card at $50 is the natural first purchase. It's the card that bears his name directly, carries the holo treatment, and represents the original printed form of the character in the TCG.
BREAKthrough 2015: Giovanni Returns After 15 Years
Giovanni was absent from English TCG for 15 years after Gym Challenge. He returned in November 2015 in the XY BREAKthrough set as Giovanni's Scheme 162/162, a Full Art Supporter card.
Giovanni's Scheme is a Supporter that lets you draw two cards, or look at your opponent's hand if they have more Prize cards remaining. It saw competitive tournament play during the XY era as a situational disruption tool in decks that could use hand information to close out games.
The card carries set number 162/162, making it the final card in the main BREAKthrough numbered set. Secret Rares in that set sit above 162 (numbered 163/162 and 164/162); as a Full Art Supporter, Giovanni's Scheme occupies the highest numbered slot in the non-secret portion of the set. That structural position is unusual for a Supporter card and worth noting for collectors who track card positions within set design.
At $24.99, it's the most accessible full-art Giovanni Trainer card in the collection and a natural addition for anyone working through the XY Full Art Supporter pool.
The SV Era: Giovanni's Charisma and Team Rocket's Giovanni (2023–2025)
Giovanni's biggest modern TCG moment arrived with Scarlet and Violet 151 in August 2023. Giovanni's Charisma 204/165 is a Supporter that lets you draw two cards and discard one, with a Special Illustration Rare alternate art featuring Giovanni with his team in a dynamic composition that stands out within the 151 set's roster of SIR cards.
The English SIR (204/165) currently runs $15 to $17. That pricing makes it one of the most accessible SIR entries in the 151 set, which includes far pricier pulls for cards like Mewtwo and Mew. It's both a playable card in Standard-adjacent formats and a clean collection anchor for anyone building around the Giovanni trainer subtheme.
The Japanese SAR 207/165 from the sv2a print run runs $24. The higher price relative to the English SIR reflects the tighter JP print run and the separate collector base that specifically targets JP SAR treatment over English SIR. Both use the same art; the format and grade of the card itself differs by print origin.
In 2025, Destined Rivals raised the ceiling with Team Rocket's Giovanni 129/098, a Special Art Rare that features the villain in a dramatically different composition from the 151 Charisma art. At $122, it's the most valuable Giovanni Trainer card in the modern era and the premium target for collectors working through the full set.
The 8x price gap between Giovanni's Charisma SIR at $15 and Team Rocket's Giovanni DRI SAR at $122 captures exactly how the market prices Full Art vs. Special Art treatment for the same trainer: the composition, the rarity tier, and the set context all compound.
For collectors arriving from TCG Pocket's Team Rocket's Ambition digital expansion, the DRI SAR and SV 151 SIR are the two physical cards that map most closely to the Giovanni cards featured in the digital game. The SIR at $15 is the accessible physical parallel; the DRI SAR at $122 is the statement piece.
Which Giovanni Card to Buy First
The answer depends on whether you're collecting the character, the vintage era, or the competitive card.
For a collector new to Giovanni, Giovanni's Charisma SIR EN at $15 is the right starting point. It's the most visually striking modern illustration at the lowest cost in the Giovanni Trainer card pool, it's playable in current formats, and it works as the anchor for building out the rest of the collection. TCG Pocket collectors will recognize it as the direct physical counterpart to the digital set.
Vintage-first collectors should target Giovanni 18/132 from Gym Challenge. At $50 raw, it's the original named Trainer holo from the WOTC era. Giovanni's Gyarados 5/132 at $144.80 is the single most expensive Giovanni's Pokémon card and belongs in the next tier of the build once the Trainer card itself is secured.
The BREAKthrough Full Art at $24.99 fills a gap between the eras. It's the only Giovanni card from the XY generation and is priced accessibly enough to add alongside either a vintage or modern build without significantly adjusting the budget.
Team Rocket's Giovanni DRI SAR at $122 is the high-end modern finish. It belongs in a Destined Rivals SAR collection run or as the final premium piece once the rest of the four-era Giovanni pool is covered.
Search DexHaul for current Giovanni TCG card listings from independent Pokémon sellers across all eras: dexhaul.com.