The Best Art In The Pokemon TCG

I have by & large never enjoyed the "Gold" rares the TCG does. There's a few exceptions here & there (the Treasures of Ruin & Raidons, the stadiums because they're full arts that use the gold as outlines) but for the most part I find them gaudy and it's always just gold versions of the existing full arts (which I also dont like!)

However the newest set has Mega Ultra Rares and this is how you do a gold card, hot damn
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The texture work is great, the reflections are incredible and the artwork is all new. They look like championship belts
 
And now I dont have to worry about double posting as I continue my way through the Gen 6 & 7 eras
XY
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Cassius. Hey remember what I said ages ago about Bebe? Goes double for Cassius. Did YOU even know that Cassius existed, or that he had a name? Bebe at least gives you an Eevee, Cassius is tucked off to the side running the servers and he’s from a game that frankly I feel a lot of people don’t tear apart that much. Anyway the art here is so charming, love a punk in a cramped space covered in “I basically live here” trash.
(side note, kind of weird Amanita didn’t get a card when all her contemporaries did)

(even more unrelated side ntoe: did you notice all the gen 6 Pokemon here have 3D Model arts? Guess they wanted to emphasize the move to 3D)

Flashfire
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Metapod. It was a tie between this and the Walrein, but I went with this one for its sun-through-the-trees lighting on everything, and how it emphasizes the “material” of Metapod’s shell.

Furious Fists
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Thundurus. This set is FULL of dynamic art with strong posing, colors and lighting and a bunch of “paired” arts too. It was hard to pick one, but I think this one stood out the most because of how it depicts Thundurus. Usually the clouds get a lot of “flying around” or “gathering winds” type artwork, whiel looking angry, so seeing one in a town doing a show of beefy strength and lifting a recked car over his shoulders owns. Extremely unique.

Phantom Forces
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Lysandre’s Trump Card (Full Art). Him and those inexplicable, unexplained beetle tech nontheless make for a really cool pose, expression, lineart and a good use of the abstract background being reminiscent of his battle background

Primal Clash
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Ludicolo. Had to pick an ancient trait card here, those were the proto-illustration rares except they were just normal cards. No clue why they decided to have this aesthetic be the gimmick of just random cards but it gave a ton of great art. I went with this one because of the sparkles, presumably from the Splash Dance attack. Ikamen Ludicolo

Double Crisis
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Team Aqua’s Grimer. Another miniset but how can I ignore art this good? Every single card is incredible. I went with this one for the creepy vibe (carried through to the Muk) of Aqua’s Grimer about to get the pounce on some Magma grunts.

Roaring Skies
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Shuppet. Playing on its origins here; you’d think Castform would do this type of art first but that’s okay because Shuppet is way cuter. The “crayon” coloring here is very distinct.

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Gyarados (Ancient Trait). This is fine. Don’t worry about it, Fisherman.

BREAKThrough
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Swoobat. This set has a lot of cards depicting the Parallel Cities (did you know all the BREAK sets have a continuous background storyline?? Alakazam goes off in one of them) offering a number of great “Pokemon in the life” arts so anyawy I threw all of those away for the cutest swoobat you’ve ever seen flying at sunset look how happy it is!!!!!

BREAKPoint
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Hypno. Listen, I really wanted to pick the Deliquent full art with the adorable Mightyena but just. Look at this. I have to pick it. Goodnight, Babies

Generations
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Gulpin. This is also a reprint set but with way more regular arts. Thankfully there’s a Radiant Collection and what you thought I was going to choose the “Charmander grows up with its trainer” artwork? Of course not. Look at these two dweebs. Where’s the sequel of teen kid doing this with his Swalot

Fates Collide
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Omastar. The story for this set is the two worlds have been forcibly merged, so things are a bit of a mess. I like this one for taking that concept into a “ruined” aesthetic whiel also being drawn beautifully. What a mood

Steam Siege
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Mareep. Oh my goddddddddddddddddddddddddd

Evolutions
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Misty’s Determination (Full Art). This was the “base set reprint” type set, where they reused like all of Base Set but with a few other cards and some new Exes and Supporters and such so...there wasn’t a lot of new art to pick from. But I enjoy Misty’s outfit and more dynamic pose, so she wins.

Sun & Moon
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Charjabug. The sun coming out after a rain while all the water droplets are still glsitening is such a nice mod. Love how you can match up the drop on the head as coming from the leaf right above it.

Guardians Rising
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Slowbro. I was going to pick this just because the scene of Slowbro goofily reaching for a drifting tamato berry was good enough on its own, but then I noticed the Shellder not liking where this is going. Doesn’t like spicy food!

Burning Shadows
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Simisear. Objectively the coolest Simisear depiction.

Shining Legends
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Reshiram. TOKIYA’s style is very expressive and cartoony, everything just has this style to it hat fits reshiram perfectly, and there’s something about the posing that feels different than the norm.

Crimson Invasion
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Registeel. I won’t lie, there was a lot of other artwork that I think might be better drawn or more stylistic or just depicting trainers really stylishly but like. I just love the concept of this. “Registeel talking with an Aether Resort guy, in the resort”. It’s so nonchalant. I want more like this. Show me a Reshiram that has to sit there and talk to some Hiker. Depict Snacksworth shared snack with Virizion under the tree.

Ultra Prism
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Lusamine (Full Art). I was going to pick Manaphy but then I saw this set had THIS card. Look at it, incredible. What a design.

Forbidden Light
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Delphox. Kawayoo you’ve done it again. A great depiction of the “robes” of delphox in particular.

Celestial Storm
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Minior. An underrated Pokemon, glad one of its first arts is so pretty. The clouds, the stars falling heind it, the depiction of the Pokemon itself….also for some reason this set had a bunch of modern reprints of a lot of Gen 2 & 3 cards? Weird.

Dragon Majesty
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Zinnia (Full Art). Her “fierce” pose is pretty iconic, so cool to see it depicted here. Well drawn! And I like the “aura” of presumably dragon energy built around her.

Lost Thunder
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Moltres. Moltres is kind of an awkward Pokemon in a lto of angle,s but here I think it works. It reminds me of old depictions of phoenixes and such. Pretty flames, both surrounding it and on its body. The tail in particular is a highlight.

Team Up
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Gengar & Mimikyu GX. The introduction of Tag Team cards, and all of the EX cards have stellar drawn artwork instead of more 3D models. Fantastic posing, great team up, love the moon in the background, the dark forest. A++++

Unbroken Bonds
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Greninja. I mean just look at it. What a(n unintentional) metaphor, too. Ohmura’s one of the official artists for the series, by the way.

Unified Minds
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Dhelmise. The motion of the waves as it carries around all tehse wishiwashi and pyukumuku is just endearing to me alright.

Hidden Fates
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Moltres & Zapdos & Articuno GX. Everyone’s depicted perfectly in a mix of elegant and gonna fuck you up. Arita doesn’t miss!

Cosmic Eclipse
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Solgaleo & Lunala GX. It was a tie between this one and the alt art, but I love the visual of Lillie riding Solgaleo more than standing with deterimination.
 
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This is a very dynamic style, and the swishing of Arbok's tail is quite unique.
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Another by Naoki Saito. I love how the roar is drawn.
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This one's cute. Happy Politoed. The foam looks wonderful.
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It's a shame to leave out the colorful pebbles of the Dimension Valley, seen on many of Phantom Forces's cards, but I like this Joltik a lot. Its eyes are beautifully drawn, and I can't resist the blue lighting. It's a shame I also missed Night March.
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Another Groudon-EX! I really wish they let artists draw Pokemon-EX more often, because this is positively explosive. Just like the DEX one, I love the golden glow.
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I forgot the last micro-set, but here's my Double Crisis pick, in which we see Aggron crashing a Team Aqua party. It looks appropriately huge and imposing. I've been playing too much Persona but it reminds me of Persona 3's Thanatos
I love that instead of the same copy-pasted Pokedex entries, this set gave us Aqua and Magma Grunts boasting about their Pokemon's strength.
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Zekrom is a good fit for kawayoo's style. The storm clouds look really good here as well.
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Holy shit this one is good. I'd never have expected the vibration-like blur effect on the energy orb but it works so well to convey Gardevoir's power.
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I wonder what Elgyem's feeling. Is it sad or just curious? In any case, it's a wonderful scene.
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Another beautiful orb. Although, it's not very green for an attack called "Green Force".
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awwwwwwwwwwwww
The Radiant Collection gave us wonderfully unique flavor text too. I'd love for them to do something like that again.
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I love the Omastar in their cozy clearing adorned by junk. Such a mood.
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Another beautiful rendition of fire breath. The sky is beautiful, the sparkles are beautiful, and I love the Braviary taking flight.
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There are too few non-reprints in Evolutions for me to make a proper choice fine, here's Mewtwo
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Cute guy. I like the faint glow around it. The dewdrops are very well placed.
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Those eyes are chilling. The forest appearing to warp like that is a very good way to display the terrifying power of a Psychic-type.
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so-taro started drawing cards around this time, their Glalie from last set only narrowly missing my list. They only drew 19 cards in total, but each of them is breathtaking.
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Very cute card. I like how the Pokemon take up a good 5/6th of the art, that's quite a unique look and the Zoroark line pulls it off well here.
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Jigglypuff's expression is perfect. Is it just me, or does this match the style of SM's official art really really well?
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That is the look of a mon about to Exact Revenge. I'm such a kid, I see these flashy elemental effects and something lights up in my brain.
Fun fact: They reused this art next set for a Fighting-type Toxicroak that plays the exact same, except it avenges your Psychic-types. Brilliant design and I'm not sure there's been a situation quite like it.
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This is my Ultra Beast bias speaking but I think that's an amazing way to draw poison, especially an otherworldly poison like Poipole's.
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Beautiful view, I love all the colors of Minior you can see blurrily in the distance.
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Like I said, these effects just do it for me. The trees in the background complete the piece quite well.
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I have very fond memories of this one. Those "flames" are beautiful, yada yada
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This is a good style for a Pokemon made of stardust, and I like how bright its eyes and mouth glow. Also, cute.
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Unbroken Bonds has a lot of good choices. This one has just the right amount of red, and I love the feathers. The birds in the background are a nice touch, although I wish they were Murkrow.
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Extremely charming.
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Amidst all the reprints and 3d Pokemon-GX we have this stunning Clefairy art. The flowers made of light are an incredible choice and I adore whatever Clefairy's doing here.
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This is one of the first cards by my favorite illustrator, AKIRA EGAWA, and it showcases two of the things I love most about her work: her cityscapes and her fire.
That was a lot. I found myself putting in more and more of the cute cards near the end of this batch. Maybe I just got self-conscious about choosing all the cool flashy action ones.
 
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Fun fact: They reused this art next set for a Fighting-type Toxicroak that plays the exact same, except it avenges your Psychic-types. Brilliant design and I'm not sure there's been a situation quite like it.
That set did that for a few other mons too, like Lucario.
It was an interesting idea, but they didn't do a lot with it.

Was fun to see how many picks we overlapped on, by the way.
 
That set did that for a few other mons too, like Lucario.
It was an interesting idea, but they didn't do a lot with it.

Was fun to see how many picks we overlapped on, by the way.
What Lucario are you referring to? I'm not sure I see what you mean.

I was very close to picking Metapod and Thundurus, too.
 
My favorites of Gen 8
Sword & Shield

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Bede (Full Art). There were lots of good ones, but I really loved Bede’s card here. The colors and splashes with the pastel background of him at the top of a town really fits his posing here. Also like that the trainer backgrounds have like, actual background now.

Rebel Clash

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Morpeko. It would make sense that in the wild Morpeko would likely use Aura Wheel just to move around, huh? That’s clever, and I like how it’s depicted here. Weird the actual card doesn’t use the move.

Darknes Ablaze

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Karrablast. I had a three-way tie between this, Larvesta & Feebas but the sleepy just-waking-up feeling as the dawn rises and the morning mist clears won out in the end.

Champion’s Path

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Lucario V. I didn’t remember this set at all...seems like it was a Special set to just dump a bunch of Japanese promos/alt arts maybe? Oh well, I liked this Lucario a lot and “big” cards getting actual art is always a positive.

Vivid Voltage

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Wailord. Seeing this in real life would probably be equal parts breathtaking and horrifying depending how close you are. This gets bonus points for sending a Wailmer flying

Shining Fates

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Piers (Full Art). A mostly reprint set but with a bunch of new art. I love how happy a younger piers & his Linoone are and setting it in the locker room is cute. Good use of the “young piers” design we had from his league card.

Battle Styles

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Tyranitar V (Art rare). I believe this is a chase card for the set and easy to see why. It’s drawn so cutely and seeing Tyranitar all sleepy and hanging out with others is very charming!

Chilling Reign

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Ice Rider Calyrex V (Art rare). There’s SO MANY good art rares this set, it was so hard to pick one. I had the Zeraora V for a while but the soft depiction of Calyrex providing an icy path for all the little Pokemon is so cute. & The lighting! (also I want to shoutout the weedle in this set which is doing sit ups)

Evolving Skies

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Glaceon V (Art rare). Oh what you thought I’d choose Moonbreon?? You are like baby. Look at this glaceon just lazing about on a bench in the afternoon, smiling at a flower starting to bloom amid melting snow, and maybe you’ll feel something.

Fusion Strike

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Impidimp. I went into this exacting once again to grab an excellent art rare (Genesect breakdancing) but then I saw this. It’s so damn cute wtf.

Brilliant Stars

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Oranguru (Trainer Gallery). I wanted to pick so many regular cards but then there was the trainer’s gallery??? God. You could make a top 10 out of this set alone. I liked the colorful “lazy sunday” vibe going on here so it won out but it was a REALLY TIGHT RACE.

Astral Radiance

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Mightyena (Trainer Gallery). This isn’t fair. You can’t just do this to me. Punks who love and spoil their pets?? And the cake? The expressions?? Get out of my sight.

Pokemon Go

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Aipom. The Pokemon Go Experience, truly.

The only reason I’m not looking at the special Chinese-exclusive art is because keeping it to the English releases is simpler.

Lost Origin

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Spiritomb (Trainer Gallery). The eerie lighting, depicting a “character” & side quest that would be easy to just never acknowledge again, the reflection in the window and of course the Spiritomb itself all come together wonderfully.

Silver Tempest

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Incineroar. Can’t choose a trainer gallery or full art if you just pull out as soon as you see the silly cat man lazing about in the sun of kukui’s lab! I really do adore this artwork.

Crown Zenith

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Melony (Art Rare). There’s wayyyyyyyyyyy too many good cards. Anyway. Snomlet.

Honestly....I should probably have just set a rule to not pick the full arts. This era went crazy. Maybe for Gen 9.
 
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Mightyena (Trainer Gallery). This isn’t fair. You can’t just do this to me. Punks who love and spoil their pets?? And the cake? The expressions?? Get out of my sight.
"I am cake!"
"Stupid best Pokemon is going to eat the stupid best cake... I wanted some."

Nothing's going to top this. Ever. <3

Honestly....I should probably have just set a rule to not pick the full arts. This era went crazy. Maybe for Gen 9.
You could do the best Full Art and best Non-Full Art.
 
swish
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This is the first full art supporter I've chosen. Late Sun & Moon is where I feel full art supporters really picked up, with gems such as Giovanni's Exile and N's Resolve. Now in Sword and Shield we have physical backgrounds rather than patterns, which I like a lot.
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Narrowly beating out Ninetales is this incredible Magmortar standing amidst an eruption. The huge brushstrokes add so much.
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Staraptor is right in your face, as it should be! The mountains are stunning.
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I love the contrast at play here. I also love the sense of motion all the diagonal lines give.
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Coral is such a good prop. Wonderful bubbles, wonderful motion.
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The best I've ever seen a Floatzel look. The sparkles are exquisite. I'm running out of adjectives
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Starting in Battle Styles with the debut of SwSh's alt arts I will be selecting one main set card and one alt art.
This is a very tough-looking Electivire. The background's very gritty, and Electivire's mane is much longer and more jagged here than usual. Dangerous palm right at the camera is a cool look.
The scene Empoleon V finds itself in is very cute, very pretty, and a perfect fit for Battle Styles. I like Mienfoo's expression.
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I may not understand what's happening in that pool of water, but Porygon2 looks very intent on understanding it. If you squint, Porygon2 looks like a 3d render, which is of course exactly the right look.


I haven't picked the more abstract ones much, but I like this Moltres. The grid of lines creating all the trees is a great choice. I like the gold, too.
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It always amuses me when I get to put a (formerly) meta card on here. Between all the night skies, city lights, suns, moons, and glowing energy I've picked I'm pretty sure I just like lights. This card certainly has a lot of light in it, between Flaaffy's beautifully glowing mane, its tail, the stars in the background, and the crackling electricity.
Espeon V: Great concept, very cute, very cozy.
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EGAWA's making some of these way too easy for me.
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I always forget how much I like Meltan. Intriguing background, pretty sky.
This card shows off how cool Gigantamax Inteleon really is. It's really neat to see the pillars of light from all the Max Raid Dens around from a view high in the sky. A lot of these alt art Pokemon VMAX show one or more such beams, but this is among the best to me, right next to EVS Rayquaza VMAX.
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Boss's Orders (Cyrus) is another card that just nails my personal tastes. It looks even better in holo.
The Trainer Gallery greatly expands the number of competitors in the alt art half, but this one's just a typical alt art. The colors are amazing, the lighting is sublime.
Funny that "Lumineon V, search for Boss" was a very common play.
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This Overqwil has a good mix between cloudy poison and thick swirling poison. The bubbles are a really nice touch.
Those crystals do it for me. The Trainer Gallery gave Peony Ice Rider Calyrex and the player Shadow Rider Calyrex, which is interesting. The older one gets the slower form! or something
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I didn't want to do another "wow, it's city, I like cities" but nothing else in GO jumped out at me so here's Spark. Wow, it's city, I like cities.
GO doesn't have many alt arts, so here's Mewtwo. Wow, it's city, I like cities.
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Another easy EGAWA pick, moving on.
Eternatus is of course huge and imposing but the real star of the show here is Rose. That right there is a villain.
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Ralts! Pretty flowers, pretty energy flowers, pretty architecture, pretty sky, I like how Ralts is glowing.
Even more city and even more light than ever before. My choices are getting rather predictable. Anyway, this scene is very Raihan.
They made the templating for Dragon-types really special in Sword and Shield. One aspect of this that I didn't notice until just now is that the left side of the weakness/resistance bar is the Dragon-type bronze.
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I love the blue night sky in one corner (of course) and the red embers in the other. Baltoy is yet another Pokemon I did not know could look this good.
CRZ's Galarian Gallery is a ridiculously stacked lineup but my choice is the humble Deoxys. Deoxys breaking the rules by having all three fighting styles was already really funny and really thematic. Effortlessly floating upside down is always awesome, and it makes for such a cool effect. Untangling and crossing its arms such that each side is one color is a really creative pose that only Deoxys can do. Of course, the best part is all the Single Strike, Rapid Strike, and Fusion Strike items flying around it, which is the kind of TCG-specific reference I always adore.
 
Pokemon Go might have the biggest gulf between art in all the sets. The alt art situation is dire. I understand WHY they are the way they are but also they're just real bad
Conkeldurr EX is both a baffling pick and an even more baffling alt art.
 
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