at the very least, for Charmander - both have grass lit by its tail
I don’t imagine all of this set is going to be a 1 to 1 impression of Base Set cards, or any from WOTC for that matter. New artists can do their own thing to keep this set unique and fresh
charmander seems to be the hardest to argue, but i understand the other two not matching well
I think the callback to rookie artwork is more obvious on the Abra and Machop.
I’ll grant the Squirtle and Bulbasaur are tougher to see. The Charmander does callback to me. If the sky was still orange instead of blue it would be a no brainer.
I like to think the waterfall is actually connected to the lake, and Squirtle dove from the same mound of rocks at the top
Definitely the same rock formation that Squirtle was on. It even has a purple hue to it as an homage to the original grape looking rock.
So you’re saying base set squirtle is on top of rocks surrounded by water?
I’m getting an urge…An urge for Surge…
I always thought he was on top of some purple jelly like substances in the middle of a field. I never thought the green was the water reflecting trees instead of grass. I guess I’ve been seeing it wrong this whole time.
Tbh the artwork always puzzled me.
Jumping from waterfall makes more sense now.
Alright. I’m glad I’m not the only one thinking this.
Squirtle: Diving off of the rocks that it was previously Bubbling from.
Charmander: If you look closely, you can see the same mountain in the background of both images. Charmander is also by tall grass accidentally setting it aflame as it did in the original artwork.
Bulbasaur is the only one that does not match as easily.
Wow. I never noticed charmander is reacting to setting grass on fire.
Hopefully we get the same illustrators that did the first two stages do the SAR cards, Bulbasaur and Ivysaur have a theme of the Sun hitting them so I would like a Venusaur with that theme too by Yuu Nishida.
the Charmander goes from lighting up a bit of grass to Charmaleon having crazy amounts of fire around him so cant wait to see what they do in the SAR Zard
I wonder if the Blastoise is gonna be at night just because the Squirtle is day and Wartortle is at Sundown. Pokemon has done it before with some evos where the time of day changes with the evo stages
That’s actually what I’m curious about. In Triplet Beat, they completed the Paldea starters all in AR & SAR, but these are just regular commons & uncommons. Will they fill in with an SAR ex by the same artist, or will it be a separate AR/SAR line altogether? 
Not trying to sound like a broken record.
I just find it amazing how I’ve looked at these cards a hundred times and I never noticed these things.
That’s part of the magic!
Charmander and Squirtle at least seem suggestively reminiscent. Charmander has the strongest correlation, and a conspicuous purple rock unites both Squirtles - even if the depiction is so different.
Bulbasaur however… I don’t think you can make a compelling connection there.
Just the move Leech Seed
There’s still a possibility for Chansey AR and Gold Shiny Chansey. Since she has an ability and is holo there’s a chance the ability could be quite good, perhaps healing damage when you play from hand to bench.
The more playable the card = likelier to receive Gold. The AR used to be mostly based on playability but that is no longer a deciding factor.
