I don’t know if this is a frequent question. However, if so, please direct me to the most recent thread, and I will delete this. I don’t want to clog the forum with repetitive posts.
But I am curious: what card layout is your favourite over the years? I found this image online, and it represents each of the layouts used with date approximations for their use. I find it fascinating that Diamond & Pearl saw the introduction of the Pokemon level at the top of the card, and thus far is the only time it was done. Similarly, the “Basic” box has been consistently placed at the top left since this style was introduced.
Personally, I like the EX-era layout without the e-Reader most, but I think this is primarily due to nostalgia, as this was when I was playing most until very recently.
I’m partial to the “Expedition” layout which includes the different art box design that feels a bit more panoramic or art focused—which is exactly what I love about this era. I think Skyridge, Expedition, Aquapolis (e-reader) and Vs. is the best set artwork in the TCG.
The HGSS layout with holo borders (SL) looks fantastic. The golden BW shiny layout looks good. Delta is ok, same with Gym. I strongly dislike all the newer ones.
e-Card definitely … They didn’t fill the card layout with so many things. Things such as Pokédex data, height, weight, dex number, evolutions & others were sent directly to e-Viewer (short Dot Code) and they left the most important things in the card. In that way, it is not very overloaded.
About borders, this is one of those cases where I consider that yellow borders are better than silver or blue borders … Silver or blue borders would have made e-card scanning much more difficult imo.
Ex is my favorite followed by e-reader (both types). Aesthetics, nostalgia, it just looks good! I did enjoy how HGSS era gave us our biggest art box to date, and for English I’m glad they switched to gray/silver borders finally. Looks nice. That’s my 2 cents
NEO for me: I love how classic it looks, while still being an updated version. It’s readable and full of info, like the flavor text box and pokedex name-height-weight. Beautiful iconic helvetica font too.
Border color aside, Neo. But man, the silver borders just make everything with a yellow border look dated. e-reader functionality aside, it’s the better border color and I just don’t think there’s enough difference in these designs to overcome that.
