The Best Art In The Pokemon TCG

Yung Dramps

awesome gaming
I'll take "threads that somehow haven't been made" for 500

Title is self-explanatory so I'll just lead off with an example

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sleepy bianca

Bulbapedia's image archives often break images, if you want to link directly rather than reupload you can just grab them off Pokemon's official card databases:
https://www.pokemon.com/us/pokemon-tcg/pokemon-cards/ - English (doesn't have WOTC-era)
https://www.pokemon-card.com/card-s...ebar_form=all&pg=&illust=&sm_and_keyword=true - Japanese

Or this handy fan-run database https://pkmncards.com/ , though this won't display Japanese cards.


(or can just dig through pokebeach)
 
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Bought some more cards and went through my collection a bit, and had to bring up this one, not just for the card art, but for the fact that it's impossible to search for on any of the websites linked. Seriously. Making a character named N feels really bad to search for when any single N in a card text will bring it up, and even searching for the card text, this specific art doesn't show up on pokemon.com for some reason, but anyway

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Great idea for a thread! I remember that a few years ago, there was this user named Xaviere who used to post a lot of great TCG art in the likes thread. Too bad he isn't around anymore, this thread would have been perfect for him. Maybe someone should go through his posts about TCG art in the likes thread and repost the very best of it here. Maybe I should do it... but not right now.

As for me, I haven't been into the TCG since I was a kid, so I don't have a lot to share. But here are two somewhat more modern pieces of TCG art that I really like:

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Adorable Lilligant

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Glorious Reshiram

Edit: Changed to larger images.
 
I really enjoy Akira Egawa's work. I love how her illustrations capture the feel of oil paintings that she makes using the mixer brush of Adobe Photoshop. In particular, I'm a fan of Origin Palkia/Origin Dialga- it shows off the physical capabilities of their new forms, especially the former. And this is from someone who doesn’t enjoy either Origin forme.
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I really enjoy Akira Egawa's work. I love how her illustrations capture the feel of oil paintings that she makes using the mixer brush of Adobe Photoshop. In particular, I'm a fan of Origin Palkia/Origin Dialga- it shows off the physical capabilities of their new forms, especially the former. And this is from someone who doesn’t enjoy either Origin forme.
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This set of cards is top 3 official Pokemon art of all time and what inspired me to make this thread. Probably the closest we'll ever get to Yoshitaka Amano doing illustrations for this series.
 
I find it funny it's one of the few propertly Dragon types. I know it's kind of the point of the set but the idea of Appletun deserving it more than say, Black Kyurem is hilarious.

Speaking of Black Kyurem, worth mentioning the art too, it may not be up to the level of most of this thread, but as someone who loves Zekrom but usually hates Black Kyurem, my first reaction towards it was that it's very cool.
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I think it's because of the way the lines have been drawn. It isn't the usual for exes but it looks very dynamic.
I don't think I ever put together that Appletun's helmet thing was supposed to be all that's left of the original apple.
Flapple is the most obvious about it, but even Hydrapple seems to have the original apple stuck into its main head's horn showing how much it has grown.

I'm still surprised by how much I love all of the line, it's one of my favourites despite being quite recent.
 
Bought some cards recently, went sorting through some bulk i already had, feels appropriate to shout out some gems i picked up along the way

First up, a card I didn't know existed but apparently I had, probably not one people often think about but I find the art very charming
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Next, I just find this card effortlessly cool

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Lastly, this one might just be my bias talking, but I do really like this art

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Not just Aerodactyl, but a treasure trove of other fossil mons as well.
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Favorite WotC era card, hands down.
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I always liked Delta ex cards, and this is my favorite of that group.
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Gen 5 Secret Rare Shiny cards are amazing too, but I can fully admit they didn't always pick the best-looking Shiny mons. Here's one instance where they absolutely did (as well as Chandelure, Zoroark, and Serperior).
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And I thought I was "splurging" when I paid $175 for one of these a few months after Evolving Skies came out.
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I don't have much to say other than that Jolteon has never looked more awesome.
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Give an illustration rare to a Pokemon I already love, and there's a good chance I'll love the card just for that reason (that plus all of these look amazing in general). Now let's have some for Alolan Ninetales, Volcarona, Dragapult, Kommo-o, Eelektross, and Grumpig.
 
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