Incandescent Arcana is the third and final Enhanced set of 2022 (similar to Battle Region and Dark Phantasma). This means it has Character Arts instead of Special Arts as well as Radiant Pokemon.
Out of what has been revealed so far, It is easily (in my opinion) the most hard hitting collection of character arts out of a single non-special set we’ve had, but firstly, lets admire the amazing regular arts that have already been revealed so far
we are still awaiting the heavily rumored Lillie + Snowy (alolan vulpix) CSR which will likely be one of the most valuable Character arts to date as well as two more CHRs and one more Radiant, but honestly, even with what we have seen so far, this is one of the most hard hitting mainline sets released this year when it comes to artwork.
Next up after this is Paradigm Trigger with LUGIA (and my boys Regieleki and Regidrago) and THEN VSTAR Universe which will have full on Special Arts of Vs, VMAXes, and VSTARS (we’ve already seen leaks of charizard v, vmax, and vstar (with the vstar being a tandem illustration of it battling the mewtwo vstar) along with suicune v and leafeon vstar.
SwSh is the best generation of artwork we’ve ever had. IDC what any of you say
Can Pokémon just go ahead and award Mitsuhiro Arita the liftetime achievement award? That man does not stop making incredible artworks. This set does look amazing, I’m glad SW/SH will be going out with a bang!
Agreed. The creativity we have seen in this era is absolutely mind-blowing.
The improvement in art from Sun and Moon to Sword and Shield is, in my personal opinion, the biggest jump we have seen in art in the history of the hobby. It’s the type of jump you would expect to see early on in the game when the artists and the company are still getting their feet wet (like when we went from bland clipart backgrounds in Base Set to actual detailed backdrops in Jungle). You wouldn’t expect this rapid of an improvement to occur this late in the TCG. But nevertheless, here we are.
There is literally something for everyone in Sword and Shield. Quite arguably the best era we have ever seen in Pokemon card collecting. Period.
honestly, swsh is a fantastic era of cards! im gonna be so sad to see it go… which is ironic because i remember when swsh base and rebel clash came out and thinking “man these sets suck”
Perhaps the popularity of the cards has allowed for them to do this by being able to hire more artists instead of having stock background with Sugimori art cut & pasted.
I could be wrong, but it feels like the variety and quantity of artists is greater than at any point thus far.
& with 1,000 Pokemon and ever greater sets, it’s good to have that kind of variety.
May be an unpopular opinion, but without the nostalgia glasses, a lot of early art is lacking. I can’t take those off for early WOTC, but looking at RS and DP cards which are a decade old now, a lot of art is very underwhelming.
I wonder if people think SW/SH was the best era? Its the best modern era for me. Even standard sets like this or Lost Abyss were pleasantly surprising and felt fresh. I didn’t get that same feeling in previous era’s.
I’m so hyped for this set. Everything looks so beautiful plus the fact that there is a new Alolan Vulpix that hasn’t had a new card since Sun & Moon era ended makes me very excited!
yeap and with the terra form of pokemon being so focused on their head gear, im not sure about how those will apply to each pokemon, hopefully its good
I can only imagine how lauded SWSH era cards are going to be in years to come!
The peak of almost every other era relied on its subset of shiny Pokémon (Shinings, Gold Stars, SL’s etc), but here it’s all about the huge variety of amazing alts, CHR & CSR’s.
I can already hear the cries of SV trying to live up to its predecessor.
Its definitely going to be a step back i think… the beginning of eras are always kinda weak imo (at least in terms of more modern stuff) and that it usually ramps up in the second half. SM did it with the tag team sets and then obviously SwSh blasted into the stratosphere this last year
Totally agree. Look at Black and White’s first 3 sets before introducing EX as well, but by the Plasma sets had tons of really cool stuff. Sun and Moon I feel didn’t really take off until Ultra Prism, but ended really strong, and then Sword and Shield again started weak and got stronger every set (besides Battle Styles)
I honestly don’t think a bad Pokemon set exists (besides Emerging Powers but that’s a rant for another day). Battle Styles isn’t even as bad as everyone makes it out to be. There’s a lot of really cool cards in it. Just having such a heavy focus on Urshifu really hurt it, but I don’t think there’s much Pokemon could do. It’s one of the only legendaries from Sword and Shield, so you have to give it some spotlight eventually. Maybe kids who’s first game was Sword and Shield will look back on Battle Styles in 10 years and remember it fondly for the first appearance of their favorite pokemon?
I think that’s a big thing that always goes understated when evaluating sets long term. We have no idea in 10 years what new Pokemon fans will be into. Obviously older fans will always gravitate towards the original 151, but I think the further into the franchise we go, there’s going to be a lot more variance with what pokemon and trends are popular. Fans who grew up with Red and Blue and WOTC cards and fans whose first game was Sword and Shield have two completely different experiences, but at the end of the day it’s the same franchise both fans love. I’m really curious to see in 15 years what those fans who are would then be adult collectors gravitate towards.
