Last time we did the WotC Promos, one of the first releases. Now we go to the latest era, starting with the very first set: Sun & Moon.
Sun & Moon bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Sun_%26_Moon_(TCG)
Discuss:
Favorite cards in the setWorst cards in the setHow you feel about this set in general
The Sun & Moon era is the dawn of the seventh generation in Pokémon. The set is pretty big with 163 cards, including 11 new Pokémon-GX and more than 40 Pokémon native to the Alola region. This generation also introduced new Alolan forms for some of the very first Pokémon, like Vulpix, Ninetales, Sandshrew and Sandslash as Ice types, Meowth and Persian as Dark types, Exeggutor as ‘Dragon’ type, and Diglett and Dugtrio with a hairpiece to cover their baldness, just to name a few.
I know we’ve already discussed these a few months ago (which is also why I choose this first set instead of one of the newer ones that are still being discussed in general threads), but I prefer to have some variety in the eras we’re discussing in the Set of the Forthnight series.
I loved sun & moon purely because it gave me a light at the end of the tunnel for my XY collection. After seeing the 3rd card variant of hyper/rainbow rares and assuming the cost of said cards it was a good way for me to limit my purchases onward.
The set also indicated that nintendo was cashing in on the cow and not necessarily pushing the limits from a collecting perspective but taking obvious advantage of the current reborn market craze. While i think pogo was a major contributing factor, the rebirth came at the end of b&w and early xy generation and grew fast!
The re-introduction, if you could say that, of the evolution based GX mechanic which was nothing different to normal gave old school players what they had wanted since EX introduction which I thought was terrible. GX has it the way it should have always been.
Sometimes ideas are bad, sometimes good, but its not much fun holding onto the current and not “evolving” (lol)
Personally i think its a great set for players, not so great for end collectors and somewhere in the middle if you get stock to open from a distributor.
I really enjoyed the games, the tcg sets? Not so much as i’m not a player and Hyper rares got old really quick.
however the set does have a few really nice artworks!
the Hypno looks really unique and gives me the Tropical mega battle Lucky Stadium vibes.
This set already seems strangely dated to me. Guardians Rising and Burning Shadows are definite improvements thankfully. I was originally not that impressed with the Hyper Rares, and my position hasn’t changed. They are quite lazy as they lack an art variant. Hopefully they drop these soon for something a little more unique, like the secrets from the BW & XY eras.
I loved this set as soon as it came out - I dabbled with collecting during the late XY era, but the start of SM is where I really got fully back into it. Even though it’s (probably deservedly) been overshadowed by the sets that followed it, I’m a big fan of what this set did for the series. Although I don’t play the game much, I prefer the GX mechanic over the EX one, since it embraces a core aspect of Pokemon (evolution) that the EXs lacked. The new holo pattern looks better to me than the BW/XY ones, although it’s still no match for the cosmos holo. And I don’t mind the large number of secret rares and think they generally look great, although even I admit the rainbow rares would have been better if they had unique art.
But my favorite thing about this set is the new card layout - it just looks so clean, everything is straight lines and 45-degree angles. Even though the art box is very slightly smaller, the artwork still seems to pop more since there’s less on the card to distract from it. Even something as simple as a basic energy looks amazing now. It’s definitely my favorite card layout they’ve ever had.
Not as many individual favorite cards as Guardians or Burning Shadows, but these stand out to me:
You can clearly see Sun & Moon is the first set of a new era as mentioned before, I personally like Guardians Rising and Burning Shadows much more, but I have to say Sun & Moon was a decent start. You see a lot more hand drawn artwork on cards which is very welcome. I love the tropical vibe going on with various cards, I do like dem palm trees and stuff
To me the most beautiful card from this set is the normal Umbreon GX. It still stays one of my top GX cards so far, so pretty. The Espeon is really nice as well but I actually prefer Espeon’s FA and Rainbow Rare cards.
Some of my favorites. The Arcanine holo is so stunning, definitely the best holo card from this set. Also I don’t know why but to me the Grubbin card is so cute
Sun & Moon was quite an exciting set, primarily due to the new GX’s and different rarities. My favourite card from the set has to be the SR Ultra Ball, as it brings back fond memories of pulling it whilst on a train and then trying to keep it in pristine condition the rest of the way home!
This is also the set which made me fall in love with Bewear. He is just sooo cute!
My least favourite card in the set by far is Gumshoos GX. There is no political reason, I just personally think it’s an ugly card.
The regular card artwork is surprisingly and pleasantly high in quality. The GX cards, just like the EX cards, look very loud, but they pull it off sometimes. The HR cards look good in their simplicity, staying monochromatic and simple in background in favor of letting the foil and texture do the talking. The full art Pokémon, however, are awful. They lost all of the character the BW and some of the XY full art cards had. Stagnant and monochromatic backgrounds with a Pokémon in a bland pose. The full arts really got shafted by the new rarity because they for some reason have to have the same art.
My favorite card — the only one I own from this set — is Gumshoos HR. It’s a nice memento of Mr. President, mostly the campaign trail. That was so much fun and looking at the combover mongoose gives me a positive reaction.
This set was honestly the beginning of the end for me. I still collect but my general interest in collecting the Pokemon TCG took a sharp decline following SM introducing the rainbow rares on top of all the other chase card tiers that clogged up the BW and XY eras.
Good artwork overall though. This is the only SM-era set I’ve managed to complete so far.
