Yeah for me its AA then Snap Cards. Hypothetically if they had the same release and art was the only factor itd be AA. Set identity is definitely strongest with Snap, and if it was based on release coolness factor then Snap also but the art wins by a larger margin for me, especially because of space pikachu.
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Do contest winners ever get picked up to do anything else with the company?
For me it’s Art Academy > WB promos > Pichu/Arceus > SNAP > Zorua/Zoruark.
Greetz,
Quuador
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Of those I’m aware of, several winners and participants of the 2019 Illustration Grand Prix, 2020 Illustration Grand Prix and 2022 Illustration Contest have illustrated cards or tcg merchandise afterward. Just about all of them are JP artists or artists living in Japan. More will likely debut following the 2024 Illustration Contest results this year
Second this addition - Sad it wasn’t included in the OP. Also the only US-exclusive artwork contest!
Art Academy is first for me. 2 of my top 5 cards ever are Art Academy cards.
Snaps have a cool history and are quite valuable so I’m not sure what the preconditions are for this ranking system of “if you could own them”. Usually people will always value the items with the highest price tag as most valuable.
That said, if all of these cards were equally worthless or we came from another planet/time/dimension where these cards were never seen before, I think it goes without saying that Snaps are some of the goofiest, ugliest mother trucking cards in all of the tcg. They came from an old-gen video game desperately in need of more pixels and were taken by a bunch of toddlers. Meanwhile Art Academy cards have some of the the most unique art in the hobby with very little restrictions on what could be drawn. That leaves the other two sets falling somewhere in the middle since all of the cards share the same or similar outline and are just colored differently with extra layers drawn in over the top and around of the shared art.
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I agree with this. AA first, then Poke Card as the only other set with all original art. You can clearly see a degree of talent difference between the AA and PCC Contest but the originality of both is terrific. I dont really have a fav between Spikey Ear PIchu/Arceus and Zorua/Zoroark as I think they’re all great but nothing stand-outish between the two competitions. Snap is dead last as it’s essentially a screen shot from a nintendo 64 video game.
No sane person who call the winner Charizard a bad piece of artwork. It is not bad at all. Just in comparison to multiple other Charizard entries it was just flat and not nearly as interesting.
I guess it is worth the sacrifice because of the fire we got from them afterwards.
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Never forget. 
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but I feel didimoons card is the best IMO
@koala I hadn’t realized how much work Sasumo has done since their win! Thanks for sharing that
BRO, don’t bring back my trauma. The desire I had to see this on a card, was my first pick.
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The world was surely robbed that day.