Most Iconic Cards

General
1

Does anyone have a top 5 list?

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charizard base
illustrator
pikachu base
blastoise base
venusaur base.

by no means my favourite cards but all i can think of.

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In terms of the wider public, I doubt the vast majority of people have ever heard of this card. I feel like the 1st edition Machamp which came with that Base Set deck is probably significantly more iconic.

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Steam Siege Steelix Ex is second to none.

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fair enough. i remember hearing about it in 2001 or so as a rumor on the playground. id add ancient mew and surfing or birthday pikachu to the list.

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There is no other

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  • Charizard Base (1st Edition, Shadowless, Unlimited)

  • Pikachu Base

  • Rayquaza Gold Star

  • Shining Mew Corocoro

  • Ancient Mew (1st Movie)

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  1. Base set Charizard

This one needs no explanation. Everybody knows this card by now.

  1. Base set Pikachu

From the most iconic card to the most iconic Pokémon, Pikachu is definitely a recognizable face for everybody and the base set version was for many people their first experience with it.

  1. Ancient Mew

The hype around this card, back in the day, makes it iconic in my opinion. The alternative artstyle of both the front and back and the all-holo appearance left a big impression on many.

  1. Birthday Pikachu

This was thought to be the holy grail back in the day. All my friends knew about it and would easily trade their collection for one. It was for many their first actual big goal in Pokémon TCG collecting.

  1. Pre-release Aerodactyl

This was the first time me and my friends experienced this type of promotion; A stamped card from a set which wasn’t available yet. Everybody I knew had one, but only one. It was the center-piece in many of our collections and as far as I’m aware, nobody around me ever heard of a pre-release Clefable; those cards started to appear later via international trades.

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  1. 1st Edition Base Charizard
  2. Pokemon Illustrator

These two are the most iconic for me and I don’t think any other single card could represent the Pokemon Card Game any better.

  1. 1st edition Base Blastoise
  2. 1st edition Base Mewtwo
  3. 1st edition Base Venusaur

These are cool too I guess.

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Do you have a top 5 list?

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I’d *maybe* add base set Gyarados to these lists.

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  1. First Ed base charizard
  2. First Ed base pikachu
  3. First Ed base blastoise
  4. First Ed base venusaur
  5. The WB11 movie promos

The first 4 have been seen and recognized by just about everyone except those that sleep under a rock. “Fat” Pikachu has been revised only a zillion times and everyone and their mother went to that first movie.

I really do want to throw dragonair from base in there, but I know it’s just the feelz getting in the way :wink:

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5 most iconic to me are…1 base set charizard, enough said. 2 Jungle scyther, was in all my decks. 3 Trophy kangaskhan (parent child winner), I remember it off pojo when it was the spot to go. 4 Neo Genesis lugia 1ed, will never forget pulling it from a pack after pokemon leauge. 5 Ancient Mew. I Saved my allowances for a few weeks so i could go and by 4 tickets for 4 ancient mews…five most iconic in general… 1 base charizard. 2 illustrator pikachu. 3 base set professor oak/bill. 4 raquaza gold star. 5 burning shadows rainbow rare charizard

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Pretty much the same as everyone else but I thought 4th Print Base could also fit up their somewhere but then again, I would assume the question as if the most widely known which would fit with what @hersheycardcollector said.

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  1. Base Set Charizard
  2. Base Set Blastoise
  3. Base Set Venusaur
  4. Base Set Pikachu
  5. Fossil Dragonite

Legitimate arguments can also be made for Jungle Jolteon and any of the Base Set first-stage starters.

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1.) Charizard base (1st, shadowless and unlimited)
2.) Illustrator
3.) Ancient Mew/WB first movie promos
4.) Pre-release Raichu
5.) Pikachu trophies

Base Charizard and Illustrator I feel deserve the first two spots. The other spots are more shaky.

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After my earlier, less serious post (although, I think Slowpoke is an iconic example of minimal artwork, maximum impact), let me dive into it a bit more serious.

I’ve played many collectible card games over the past decades. Some have been more popular then others, but in all of them when you ask about iconic cards, the cards everybody remember, are cards that actually were iconic in the game itself.

For Magic this are obviously the Power 9 cards, for Yu-Gi-Oh you have your Blue Eyes, your Dark Magician, Exodia, Feather Duster, Pot of Greed. All cards that have high playability, were almost in every deck list and every collectors wish. But for Pokemon the iconic cards everybody here seems to name are the cards trophy cards, promotional cards and printing variants from Base Set.
Nothing wrong with this, in a way, but if you ask anyone nowadays a card that really marks the Pokemon TCG, most people will probably say Zoroark GX or even maybe a Trainer card like Guzma. Players will not name Base Set Charizard. Magic players will obviously name the Power 9, maybe cards like Liliana and Snapcaster. Probably some other spells and monsters will be named too. Same goes with Yu-Gi-Oh. Players will name not those limited promotional cards, they name those cards that at one moment changed the game. Changed game mechanics, had influence on tournaments etc. There is a reason why WotC/Hasbro has pumped out sets like Iconic Masters 7 times in a row. To give everybody the ability to play and own these iconic cards.

Maybe this is due to Magic having an actual Vintage and Legacy tournament format. And in Yu-Gi-Oh basically every single card is still legal to play. Pokemon? Pokemon just doesn’t have this. There is no tournament format for older cards. Players would name iconic cards out of the last tournament legal block, cards that created meta decks.
So, maybe we have to look at this from a whole different angle. And this is my two cents. (Fossil Slowpoke is iconic!)

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Based on your own personal top five or just in general?

I could be wrong, but I don’t remember Gyarados even being a top five most popular Base Set holo back in the day. It usually went something like this:

  1. Charizard
  2. Blastoise
  3. Venusaur
  4. Raichu
  5. Mewtwo

That’s still probably the case today, too.

I personally love the Base Set Gyarados artwork, though.

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The only thing I’ll say about this is that the Pokemon TCG has always been more about collecting than playability. I don’t think you’ll find anyone who collects that won’t name Base Set Charizard as the most iconic card in the set unless they weren’t born or were too young when the original Base Set was released.

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Obviously talking about the most iconic cards are going to be very subjective. However, as someone who have very strong nostalgia from playing the actual card game during the original WotC era, I would definitely say iconic cards are those that had a memorable impact on the actual game. For the Pokemon TCG this will mean that each format and time period have their own iconic cards.

In this case my top 5 iconic cards would be something like:
1: Rocket’s Zapdos
2: Jungle Wigglytuff
3: Jungle Scyther
4: Neo genesis Sneasel
5: Neo genesis Slowking

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