In the previous test, I measured 20 packs from a Japanese White Flare booster box and compared pack weight with SR, AR, RR, Poké Ball Mirror, and Master Ball Mirror results.
This time, I tested Mega Brave.
Mega Brave is a Japanese expansion released as part of the Pokémon TCG MEGA series. Its cards were later combined with those from Mega Symphonia for the international Mega Evolution expansion.
This article focuses specifically on the original Japanese Mega Brave booster packs.
For this experiment, I used all 30 five-card packs from an unopened booster box that I purchased myself.
Every sealed pack was weighed individually to the nearest 0.01g. I then opened all 30 packs and recorded the relationship between pack weight and the rarity of the cards inside.
The overall result was interesting.
The SR cards in this booster box appeared in relatively heavy packs.
However, AR and RR cards also appeared within similar weight ranges.
Therefore:
Although some weight tendencies were visible within this booster box, pack weight alone could not accurately identify the rarity inside an unopened pack.
This article documents an experiment into whether what is commonly known as “pack weighing” can actually distinguish card rarity.
It is not intended to encourage weighing packs in stores, selecting packs by weight before purchase, or selling packs that have been sorted by weight.
Pack weight may be affected by the foil wrapper, the cards themselves, manufacturing variation, humidity, the measuring environment, and the accuracy of the scale.
The measurements shown here are results from this specific booster box.
They should not be treated as universal standards for other booster boxes, production batches, or loose packs.
Test Conditions
The test was conducted under the following conditions.
- Product: Japanese Mega Brave expansion
- Purchase format: unopened booster box
- Number of packs measured: 30
- Cards per pack: 5
- Every pack was weighed while sealed
- Measurement precision: 0.01g
- Location: normal indoor environment
- All 30 packs were opened after weighing
- Card rarity was recorded after opening
Unlike Black Bolt and White Flare, no special Mirror Holofoil cards were observed in this booster box.
This made the pack configuration somewhat simpler when comparing differences in weight.
However, this test represents only one booster box.
More boxes would need to be measured before determining whether the same patterns are reproducible.
Mega Brave Pack Weight Results: 30 Packs Measured
The 30 packs measured in this test ranged from:
Measured range: 8.47g–8.61g
Packs containing higher-rarity cards: 9
In this booster box, the SR cards were found in relatively heavy packs at 8.58g or above.
However, AR and RR cards appeared around the 8.54g–8.58g range.
Different rarities were therefore found at identical or very similar pack weights.
Some R cards also appeared in lighter packs.
Overall, the results did not form a simple pattern where higher rarity always meant higher pack weight.
Instead, multiple rarities overlapped within similar weight ranges.
Results by Weight Range
The opening results from this booster box can be divided into several approximate weight ranges.
✅8.47g–8.50g: Mainly common and uncommon cards
No higher-rarity cards were observed in this range during this test.
However, this result applies only to this specific booster box.
It does not mean that every Mega Brave pack below 8.50g will contain only common or uncommon cards.
✅8.51g–8.53g: Some R cards appeared
Most packs in this range contained standard cards, although some R cards were observed.
Pack weight alone was not enough to determine whether an R card was present before opening.
✅8.54g–8.57g: RR and AR results overlapped
Both RR and AR cards appeared within this range.
Because different rarities were found at very similar weights, the measurements did not provide a clear way to distinguish RR from AR packs.
✅8.58g–8.61g: SR, AR, and other results appeared
The SR cards observed in this booster box were found within this heavier range.
However, AR cards also appeared at similar weights.
This means that even a relatively heavy pack did not necessarily contain an SR.
Can SR Packs Be Identified by Weight?
The SR cards observed in this booster box came from packs weighing 8.58g and 8.61g.
Both measurements were toward the heavier end of the 30-pack distribution.
Looking only at those two results, it might appear that SR cards tend to make packs heavier.
However, an AR was also found at 8.58g.
This means that the exact same displayed weight produced different rarity results.
Therefore, the only conclusion supported by this test is:
In this booster box, the SR cards were found in relatively heavy packs.
This does not mean that every heavy pack contains an SR or that the heaviest pack in another booster box will contain an SR.
Can RR and AR Be Distinguished by Weight?
RR and AR cards were mainly observed between approximately 8.54g and 8.58g.
In this test, the lightest RR pack weighed 8.54g, while the lightest AR pack weighed 8.57g.
At first glance, this may suggest that AR cards were slightly heavier.
However, the difference was only around 0.01g to 0.03g.
Differences this small may be affected by:
- The foil wrapper
- Individual card variation
- Printing differences
- Humidity
- The measuring surface
- Scale measurement error
More importantly, both AR and RR cards were found at 8.57g.
Therefore, RR and AR could not be reliably distinguished using pack weight alone.
The Same Weight Can Produce Different Rarities
One of the most important observations in this test was the overlap between different rarity levels.
An identical displayed weight did not always produce an identical result.
This is important because a digital scale displaying measurements to 0.01g does not show differences below that level.
For example, two packs both displayed as 8.57g may still have slightly different actual weights at the 0.001g level.
The wrapper, individual cards, printing, and manufacturing differences can also influence the final measurement.
As a result, even very precise-looking measurements should not be treated as exact rarity thresholds.
Can Japanese Mega Brave Packs Be Weighed to Identify Rarity?
This booster box did show some tendencies.
In particular, the SR cards appeared toward the heavier end of the measured range.
However, the full dataset also showed:
- Different rarities appeared at the same displayed weight
- AR and RR weight ranges overlapped
- Heavy packs did not contain only SR cards
- Differences of 0.01g may be affected by manufacturing and measurement variation
Based on these results, pack weight showed some correlation with rarity within this booster box, but it could not accurately identify higher-rarity cards before opening.
The measurements in this article should be viewed as data recorded after fully opening one booster box, not as weight thresholds for selecting “hit packs.”
Summary of the Mega Brave Pack Weight Test
After measuring and opening all 30 Japanese Mega Brave packs, the main results were:
- The measured range was 8.47g–8.61g
- The SR cards in this box appeared at 8.58g or above
- AR and RR cards overlapped within similar weight ranges
- Different rarities appeared at the same displayed weight
- Pack weight alone could not accurately identify the rarity inside
The SR cards in this booster box were found toward the heavier end of the distribution.
However, that tendency was not strong enough to use pack weight as a reliable indicator of rarity.
Because this test covers only one booster box, another Mega Brave box may produce a different weight distribution.
This is the fourth pack-weight dataset published on the English version of tekemero.com.
The next test will focus on Mega Symphonia.
Mega Symphonia was released alongside Mega Brave and also uses five-card booster packs, making it a useful comparison under almost identical testing conditions.
The next experiment will examine whether the weight pattern seen in Mega Brave—particularly the relatively heavy SR packs—is reproduced in Mega Symphonia.
