Pick a Pokemon.
Now show us, in your opinion, what the most underrated card featuring that Pokemon is.
It can be underrated artwork, popularity, or whatever.
I chose Charizard because the Secret Rare from EX Dragon what gave me the idea to make this thread. I think the popularity for this card is far below what it should be. It’s a wonderful piece of art and it’s a tough card to get.
Love the idea, especially since its not just about price, but any kinds of popularity.
Was actually just rummaging through an old deck and actually had this idea on my mind. Going old school for this one with Cleffa from Neo Genesis. Ran 4 in every deck I played, just a complete staple that took a gash into the standard decks at the time being haymaker, or mass wigglytuff.
Its a complete underrated piece due to the shear fact a 30hp mon was a rare, and could set any opponent on edge.
Couldn’t agree more with your pick, funny enough english version looks 10 times better than japanese PCG-P promo. 
My choice is probably Bellossom from Neo Genesis, seriously speaking one of the most stunning artworks from whole set. Sadly it won’t never rival heavy hitters like Lugia etc. with price/popularity but still a beautiful card amongst other holofoils. 
I wholeheartedly agree with this, milhouse. Something I think about all the time, a SECRET RARE CHARIZARD that gets no love? I understand its easy for people to overlook when surround by ex’s during that era as the premier rarity, but regardless its just as scarce and aesthetically desirable. My honorable mention actually comes from the same set:
I understand it lives in the shadow of other Rayquaza chase cards, but with as big a player this mon has become in the tcg and Pokemon franchise as a whole, I can’t believe how much people sleep on what is essentially the Rayquaza rookie card. Ray has pretty much become the poke-collector’s poster child second to Charizard. There’s no reason I should have won a PSA 10 example at auction for $40 a couple weeks ago. I was totally prepared to drop $75+
I really like the emotion this artwork projects.
I honestly always thought that was one of Charizards best artworks, although i also think that the E template hurts it.
I feel as if some of the delta species holos are ridiculously underrated. Take this Latios for example:
Delta Species i agree has some PHENOMENAL ARTWORK!
take this Aero for example.
then again, aerodactyl has always been blessed with solid and amazing artworks.
Japanese black and white era secret rares, especially the red collection meowth.
Pictures don’t do it justice but it’s got a glittering gold textured sparkle on meowth and a 3Dish ‘aura’ around meowth’s coin. Plus the giant shiny gold coin over the attacks area. These cards have so much going for them. They rival neo destiny shinings in my opinion.
Was one of my absolute favorites as a kid. I still have the exact one. Will post my underrated card when I get home =)
Love this thread Milhouse
Damn… I wish I hadn’t seen this card - now I need one badly haha.
They are pretty cheap on ebay (like $5-$10 I think) and you won’t regret snatching one up. Gotta go japanese though cuz the english has a different holo style to it and is doo doo in comparison lol.
I really love this Haunter
From vending series. The art is simple and fun, and the background is to die for (hehe)
This dude climbed steadily in value and popularity for years. Recently though there’s been a decline. This is pretty common with Japanese cards once the Japanese catch on and millions start showing up (i.e. Birthday Pikachu etc.)
Regardless, it’s one of the Pokemon worlds true beauties.
I really feel like the full card holo really puts a negative on this card. I think it’d be better as a Neo 4 style shining, or a regular holo card (like Fossil Mew). Having just picked up some Rocket decks with cards that have the same affect (like Japanese Shining Magikarp & Gyarados) it’s more apparent that there IS a regular holo pattern alongside the full card holo dots and I just don’t think it adds anything. It’s sad because it actually is a beautiful artwork in my opinion, and I love the rainbow colours in the background too.
Mitsuhiro Arita even though he is one of the most famous Pokemon artists is still very underrated, more recently I have noticed him breaking the mold of how we can portray artwork on Pokemon cards. Arita is saving us from having a future where Pokemon cards will be all flashy over the top 3D art.
And now the upcoming MewtwoGX:
Just wanted to point out Arita also does 3D too, like this awesome Banette card
I was just going to say this as well. I’ve never paid much attention to it because the hologram seems to distract from the artwork, even though the artwork is exceptional. That said here are my top choices.
I think there are several E-readers that deserve more attention, but this Charizard art ranks near the top of the list.
This card was underrated since the Japanese → English transition removed the crucifix’s in the background, which I believe should never have been removed. The original art really demonstrated what Gengar is supposed to be… a “ghost” Pokemon.
I have always thought this card was neat and still point out that the Dugtrio depicted is the same as the one from the game, which I feel adds so much more to the character of the card. I love cards that depict parts of the character from the original game & story line.
Another character depiction from the game is Zapdos hanging out around the Kanto Power Plant, which was only accessible by using the Surf HM in the game.
@jkanly Great shout with the Zapdos. Hard to say if it’s underrated or just relatively unknown. Bit of a difficult question to answer really, I could pick out any number of non-holo cards but then it could easily be argued that they get all the rating they’re ever going to get as non-holo’s. The only one that can really compete with the best of holo’s, ratings wise, that spring to my mind is Dragonair.
I decided to go with Fossil Hitmonlee, because it seems to be one of the less popular Fossil holo’s, judging on value and generally never seeing many people that like it in particular. I’d say it’s probably my favourite Fossil holo, I love the pose and illustration of Hitmonlee and I also particularly like how the illustration and artwork blend in to the rest of the card. Both in English and Japanese, the background of the card blends nicely with the artwork, artwork background & gold/yellow borders of the card and it just ‘fits’ as a package really well in my opinion.
@jkanly that dugtrio was definitely on my mind second to the Porygon2 I posted. But I hadn’t had a convo about the porygon like I’ve had about the Dugtrio before. Definitely a dope card and underrated Pokémon. The thought of him busting into a room like that is so cool!