I don’t know…I kind of like the simplistic booster art of R&S and Sandstorm because they reminded me of the WOTC packs, especially with having a single Sugimori-illustrated 'mon on the front.
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I agree there isnt a bad ex era set but youre supposed to simply compare them to eachother so which would be the weakest ex era set an that would get F tier. Youre gonna skew the results when I average everyones tier list 
Hot take:
Emerald set list isn’t so bad
It’s a pretty good overview of all hoenn mons. The Holo rares are stronger than most sets Holo selection and the reverse pattern is A tier. Just like frlg and unseen forces are meant to be mono generation sets, emerald is mono hoenn. Emerald just doesn’t have gold stars or Charizard so it gets the hate. It’s pretty scarce as well and if we are talking pure stonk, most ex 10s from emerald are worth more than ~ half the gold stars atm
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Emerald is carried by the holo set in my opinion. Best regular holos (i.e. non-delta, non-TRR) in the entire generation in my opinion. The ex cards aren’t all that exciting and no gold stars is rough, but it’s brought back by the great non-holo set. I put it in B tier as it’s got a nice mix of everything for me.
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Wasn’t Emerald a garbled mess of leftover Japanese cards, that they just threw together and called a set? I mean it doesn’t really have an identity, because the cards were never meant to go together.
Anyhow, if there is one hill for me to die on, it will be that Sandstorm belongs in the highest tier. It has superb set design, where the backdrop thematically ties the cards together similar to the E-series (with a small handfull of exceptions). The set also features many stunning common and uncommon cards. The full attention is drawn to the more regular cards of the set that would go overlooked in other sets. Practically every card in a pack would be worth your attention, there is no potential goldstar shouting for it. Not to mention that the set is basically a highlight reel for a few artists at their prime: Hajime Kusajima, Mitsuhiro Arita, Midori Harada, Atsuko Nishida, Kagemaru Himeno.
Sandstorm deserves this 
That’s one of the significant things with Emerald to me, it’s like Base set 2 just without the…well, Base set 2, lol. And then it goes a bit further than a base set because it’s supposed to encapsulate the whole game, it doesn’t have the luxury of trio’s and beyond like R&S had (nor should it really.)
I’ve always been a bit undecided on where to rank it. I like the booster design, I’m not crazy about it, maybe there’s a bit too many anonymous nishidas. The set list is a bumpy road, it’s not seamless perfection like the e-reader sets. Holos are ok for the most part, nothing spectacular except Rayquaza.
It’s the ex cards for me, that’s the standout. 11 ex cards, 6 of them are perfect, Regis, Cacturne, Altaria, Dusclops the beloved. And, if I were a Milotic fan, that’s a very solid card too.
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The reverse holos in Ex Delta Species, Crystal Guardians, and Holon Phantoms are the most underwhelming reverses of the era in my opinion. The lack of unique holo on each card compared to the others are night and day. While overall being good sets, that is one thing that holds those 3 back for me based off of that as I love the reverses and holos of this era.
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i think you have the highest Power Keepers placement. I admire your bucking of the consensus
I’ve had to go and have a look at the ex-Emerald set list and gallery now to refresh my memory. I remember buying a fair few packs of it back in its day but I often confuse the common/uncommons between some of these sets.
Although most of the art is amazing by the default of it being vintage artists and nostalgic, nothing jumps out at me really.
The one card I did pull from a booster as a kid and would like to own again is the Deoxys EX (I think it’s the Speed form in this set?) as that is a beautiful card - really nice green holo background. The Milotic is rather nice too.
I never liked the reverse holos in these sets once they started whacking the set logo stamp on them. I’m probably in a minority there as I seem to frequently see people saying that they love the stamps but, for me, they intrude on the card art. Also, couldn’t stand how the reverses from some sets (Hidden Legends springs to mind) curled up and warped so drastically. This never happened with older reverses from R&S, Sandstorm etc.
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100%. I just looked through the full set on pokecolletor right now and nothing jumps out as bad, but nothing jumps out as particularly good either for the most part. There are some exceptions. I really like the regi trio in this set, the foil energies and the rayquaza art is a banger of course but overall its a very weak ex set.
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It was one of the first sets I ever opened. Will always have.a special place in my heart.
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So I thought it would be fun to partake. Lot of wild opinions on this! I personally am someone who doesn’t let a set be defined by chase cards—though of course they are important. It’s about the art all the way down to the commons, in fact commons more or less define a set. Left to right best to worst for ranking within each tier.
E reader sets automatically get bumped up a grade even if their respective set lists are comparatively underwhelming to another otherwise equally ranked set. Like Ruby Sapphire, which would already be lower, had it not been for those STELLAR ex’s. Like, WOW.
Even for the very polarizing TMTA, sure, they didn’t go the distance, but I really, really love the commons and their very unique art style. This is coming from a guy who has no emotional attachment having never played the game it’s associated with. Still love them, obviously my preferred gen 2 cards being really adored, but objectively finding the gen 3 still amazing as well.
Deoxys on the merit of the reverses alone is nearly S tier. And that’s coming from someone who isn’t particularly crazy about the objective quality of the chases.
I cannot see the appeal of emerald. Mediocre everything.
Unseen forces already has all banger c/uc/r and then when you factor it has lugia ex forget about it. Sold.
If they did delta species holos in silver border like Japan, they’d all be S tier. Still rank high though for the art. Holon phantoms same principle just a little weaker, still very good, some great c/uc. Crystal guardians is weird in that it has some of the best singles in the whole era but overall so many meh cards. Same JP principle for dragon frontiers as well.
TRR is god. It’s what got me into the whole era first thing, I have zorloth in particular to thank for that with his og collection thread post (which I think you edited out last I remember??), and of course he and fourthstar overall just getting me into the era. So thank you guys, this won’t be the first time you have my gratitude.
Overall one of the best eras ever so naturally one of the best rankings threads you could ask for. Would love to see the overall stats when the thread dies down.
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@brendantheclayboy I did not know the ninetales was done by imakuni! I’ll definitely put together an averaged ranking based on everyones plus some tidbits when the thread dies down.
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I feel like these lists would be hugely different outside of e4 lol
they are in order within the tiers at least
Not sure if you know… that set has Rayquaza gold star 
, one of the S-tier gold stars, for your info.