Favorite card art from each set

[Quuador]

@bk2021

How do you get the cards the same size?

I’ve been wondering the same thing. @pfm might know a better alternative, but you could replace the:

[grid]
![image1_here]()
![image2_here]()
[/grid]

with:

<div data-masonry-gallery>

![image1_here]()
![image2_here]()
    
</div>

(note the empty lines after opening the div)
<div data-masonry-gallery> will always be three columns, whereas grid will try to fit it. Although the result of the grid looks a bit cleaner imho, so I prefer to use it when possible.

Here is what it would look like for your post.

EDIT: Nvm.. Apparently <div data-masonry-gallery> doesn’t work within [detail]-tags.

Another alternative in this case, is to use grid for every multiple of 3 images. And then wrap the last one or two into the <div data-masonry-gallery>.

Here is what that would look like:

Here is what it would look like for your post.

Greetz,
Quuador

[ddk]

Kept it to WOTC & ex

At one point I could’ve been a Dragonite line species collector (tho it was really hard choosing between Dark Charizard, Blastoise and Dragonite, I love them all)

FRLG, Crystal Guardians and Power Keepers were the most barren sets for me. I don’t really like many (if any) cards from those sets

[c0ll3ct0r]

Change/add the percentage without the grid, then space correctly. I use pictures from pkmn so they’re roughly the same size (most of them are exactly the same size.) If they’re not, gauge with the percentages.

[subcat]

This exercise really woke me up to how much I love ex-era Nishida

[bk2021]

Gen 4 starts off with probably the worst art thus far and then ends up with some of the strongest once it reaches HGSS. Although there have been Sugimori stock art all the way, I’d argue that the first 6 sets or so really shows how without nostalgia, the compositions are awful/non-existent.

Although I don’t think anyone considers this peak era or anything, to me it is unthinkable how these majorly boring, bland and ugly sets can be compared with Gen 8/9 sets.

[Mintyfresh756]

I rated (almost) all sets, including many japanese exlusive promo sets, from the start through gen 4, which is what I consider vintage pokemon. I did not include sets that featured all reused arts and a couple promo sets because so many japanese promo sets are largely reused arts. Additionally the japanese promos are often grouped in multiple ways which makes it hard to decide what encompasses a set. The sets that have original art are great though, the play promo lugia is maybe my favorite card of all time.

Some cards are a bit out of place from the different image sizes sadly, but they should be mostly in order.

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I had a few thoughts while doing this, first is that my favorite era is a toss up between Neo and the E reader cards. They both have such incredible art, and even picking my top 9 cards for a page, something I recently completed, was extremely hard as I would always have a couple cards I wished I could fit in.

The worst era is probably Diamond and Pearl, as outside a couple cards per set, they are all quite bad imo other than stormfront which is good. You could also argue that gen 3 era is worse, but it has a few more sets I liked, that said there are more sets so either way. If I was to pick an overall generation though, gen 3 was easily the worst as the platinum and HGSS sets were pretty much all incredible.

The worst individual set is a easily the team aqua vs magma set. The suicune is alright but pretty much every card in that set is 3D render or Sugimori jpg in front of a random background slop.

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I also checked some stats on my card choices, including cards per type and how many times each pokemon and artist were featured, counting my double cards as one:

Types:
14 Water
11 Electric
11 Normal
8 Psychic
5 Dark
4 Fire
4 Grass
1 Rock
1 Steel
1 Trainer

What can I say, water and electricity both lend themselves to making very gorgeous art. Also electric has Pikachu, and they make a lot of great Pika cards. Good for water for coming out on top anyways.
Pretty bad showing from steel here, especially as the one steel was a hybrid electric type lol. Ironically I actually quite like steel types. Rock is also quite sad, but they are held back by fighting types which imo often have pretty mediocre cards. Trainer cards barely squeezed in 1 with the last promo, and tbh there werent many other options in that set, but I want to say that Komiya’s neo era trainer cards were all excellent, and a few almost made the list.

Pokemon:
5 Pikachu
3 Dragonair
3 Magneton
3 Doduo
2 Arceus
2 Squirtle
2 Ninetales
2 Jigglypuff
2 Gyarados
2 Umbreon
2 Ampharos
2 Wailmer
2 Suicune
(technically wingull also appears 2 times as a background pokemon)

Nothing too surprising here, but magneton and doduo appearing 3 times was a great showing. Also wingull sneaking his way onto the list by technicality while never being the main mon is funny.

Artists:
9 Kusajima
8 Arita
5 Komiya
5 Himeno
4 Sugimori
4 Umemoto
3 Imakuni <-!!!
2 Kizuki
2 Chiaki
2 Kimura
2 Higuchi & Tayaka (they did both of the double cards)

Kusajima barely beats out Arita for the top spot, very impressive as he started in gen 2. Surprising Arita wasn’t number 1 but Kusajima really carried gen 3 imo. Komiya is another one of my personal faves, as is Himeno. Sugimori used to make good cards, weird to think about since his cards were a plague in gen 3-4. I never knew he made the Shining Gyarados art. Imakuni of all people having 3 cards is actually insane though, he actually has a pretty diverse artstyle so I didn’t even notice until after.

Well, that’s all from me. Now I need to finish buying all the cards I’m missing from this list.

[bk2021]

BW sets- I guess it’s pretty obvious now that I gravitate towards certain artists who dominate most of the slots in each generation. I guess it doesn’t help that there fewer artists per set back then.

I think this gen was also pretty drab with a lot of the art. Muted colours and uninteresting compositions.

[bk2021]

XY sets. Started off mainly with kawayoo, but then somewhere along the line feeling like or realizing that storytelling with a single frame is actually a different quality from just what looks cool or is lit well.

I think the Aya Kusube Elgyem illustrates this well - a card I discovered by someone else further up the thread. The colouring, environment and context give it a dark, creepier vibe, but the Elgyem curiously inspecting its own reflection in the glass is one of innocent curiosity.

We were also talking about set themes in different threads and Hasuno’s Omastar is a great example of worldbuilding. Human-made signs and buildings now covered with natural growth and water. Seems like such a great world to explore but we are limited to a single image.