Pokemon Art Project 2025 - Secret Oasis

He looks like he’s checking in on his friend Sandstorm Trapinch. :desert: :exsandstorm:

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Trapinch POV :joy:

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Jesus christ your art is better than I previously saw. What inspiration do you get from which pokemon you choose for the set? Again, awesome work.

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Thanks! Haha, when I came up with an outline for the set I just picked Pokemon I like and that I’d want to see in the setting/some Pokemon that don’t get much love in the tcg cough johto mons cough

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Such an amazing project!! Hopefully there are no Kakunas in that desert!

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They will burn

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absolutely sick callback if it is a call back. One of my favorite cards. And I have a certain love of aron and lairon. Its just kind of got some good arts and I love the little guys.

also no idea how I missed this thread until now. I also echo that the ex era was great for making up its own lore, and I am here for it.

I hope this leads to some kind of groom lake/area 51 stuff. Maybe a elgym beheeyem thing? Im guessing as to what may draw the pokemon out into the desert and what is to be found when they rearch their destination.

Love everything about this. I like and love mysterious places and genuinely look for mysterious places on earth. One of my favorite things was when those strange monoliths popped up in the desert in 2020, and then they disappeared.

Interesting that so many of the pokemon thus far as ones that are seriously not suited to being in a harsh hot and dry desert. Ogrepon teal mask, snorunt, aron. Keep it up.

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Thanks so much! If there are any Kakunas there, they didn’t make it!

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Chikorita basks in the dusty desert sunrise. There’s something so beautiful about this time of day and in this place specifically. The beginning of a new day, the genesis of new opportunities and adventures. Chikorita may be too busy to notice, but only in the blazing sunrise can the ancient messages etched into the deep dark canyon be seen by anyone. What could it mean?

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Thanks so much for your enthusiastic reply! Now that you say that about crystal guardians Aron, it is a callback hahaha. I did not initially think of that card when making this artwork but now it is a callback! (cuz it just makes sense and is more fun haha) Retroactive callback lezgooooo

In terms of the theme, you’ll just have to find out, but I can say it’s more “in universe” than an Area 51 type deal. But I love the theories brewing! Keep up the discussion. I love to see it!

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Sandstorms envelop a large area of desert all at once. On top of this, they give the surrounding area an eerie orange hue. While visibility for most Pokemon is down to almost zero, others that are used to digging and tunneling, like Steelix here, can use the obfuscation of the harsh desert sun as cover to make long journeys while remaining cool.

Best to not get in its way when it’s barreling through the storm like this! It seems we are in its path…. Well it was nice knowing yal- gets trampled by steelix

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Natu gazes upon the giddy wanderer Ogerpon as she gleefully sprints through the desert. While her sense of direction is questionable to say the least, Natu can sense she is lost and in need of assistance. She knows just the friend that could help!

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Natu brought Ogerpon to her friend Xatu, since he’s so good with directions (also can see the future and past which helps). Xatu points the right way to get to where she wants to go. Hopefully Ogerpon can take it from here…

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The Master Ball, the ultimate catching device. Capable of taming any Pokemon, no matter how small or mythic. Truly an artifact of incredible power! Why is there one here in the middle of the desert though? Did someone drop it on accident? How did it get here? Curious….

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interesting development. Here is what I see…

Ogrepon was drawing a map in the sands, why, when we know how quickly the sand will get blown away? Perhaps it doesn’t need to be for long. Leaving a trail for someone coming after her. Either way, we can see that she is plotting what seems to be her plan of travel. One big X being where sh is, and another x next to a circle within a circle. Perhaps the oasis? I think so. It looks like she is in the bottom of a dune, so it should be protected for a while.

Next we have Aron. Could the shooting star be Jirachi, or minior or clefairy’s spaceship? But what is clever, is that aron sees something at the bottom of the dune where he has crested. And he is facing the footprints, not away. Those are not his! Aron is folloiwng the footsteps left by ogrepon and he sees she left a map of her next goal.

Is Lairon the same Aron we saw earlier? I’d like to think so. Perhaps he is still following the map, but also he could just be following a ravine to stay cool. As a hiker myself, I can attest to this tactic. The temperature differential can be over 10 degrees. And if water is present, it boosts that coolness difference in a ravine.

Chikorita is interesting. I’d like to think that among the cacti is a cactowacto(a desert form of sudowoodo), a psychic type that uses the heat mirages of the desert to hide itself. But it also has water absorb because i really do be hot and dry out there. It also has a bird or something up in the art. What it is, I can’t tell. Staraptor, pidgeot, ho-oh, an F-15??? But the unown here says “Master”. Perhaps a clue to the location of the secret oasis? And maybe I’m reading too much into it, but on the rock, looks like a drawing of a circular pool of water, with a little cindercone volcano next to it.

The cave Natu is in, also has a single unown in it. But what else is in that cave?

And at last, something seems to be coming together. The masterball. Who would seemingly abandon such a valuable piece of technology that Giovanni sought to steal from Silph Co. with Team Rocket in the middle of a desert…But…what is that? Do I see trees in the distance? Glints of light blue are around the masterball, atistic choice, or is it maybe not so crazy that snorunt 1 and 2 came out into this harsh environment? Is this a magical and otherwordly icy oasis? Chikorita’s art had “master” in it, a clue to find the Masterball perhaps? Is it even a real masterball? Or is it just there to guide us? Is a pokemon trapped inside? Is the pokemon inside calling out to get someone to release it? So many questions. And again back to ogrepon, based on her drawing, the X on her map seems to be next to a circle, which could be an X marking the spot for the masterball, which is next to the oasis? Or perhaps its all a mirage, and leads to the next step to find the true oasis.

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Lots of great thoughts and theories! Lot to unpack here.

Some things I can say:
Ogerpon is characterized here by a sense of wonder, a lack of navigational skills, and a penchant for getting lost. The map she made, well, who’s to say it’s any good or accurate? Hence the reason she keeps getting lost despite the way she thinks her environment is laid out :joy:. It seems her map has failed her?

For Aron, the tracks could be another Pokémon’s for sure! The shooting star could be a Minior, or it could just be a shooting star? Who knows from this distance :person_shrugging:

Lairon is definitely keeping cool, but was also curious about the ravine! Looked like a nice place to explore for a bit.

The Chikorita piece is a bit more lore filled for sure. Your observation about the Unown was correct, it does spell Master. However, there is no drawing on the rock below Chikorita :joy:, just the grooves and such of the rock. The teensy cameo in the sky is Xatu! He’s a native of this desert and has helped numerous folks find their way. He knows this area like the back of his hand.

Hmmm what else is in that cave indeed :thinking:

I’m not sure what you meant by the glints of light blue around the master ball, most likely just light reflecting off it from the sky

The master ball is still a mystery that I can’t reveal anything about as of right now, but great thoughts!

That’s about all I can say in reply to your post but I’m loving the theories! Keep em coming!

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This is so cool!

I must admit, I was originally just admiring the artwork but now I’m intrigued by the storytelling.

Looking forward to the next update :slight_smile:

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join me in the fun!

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