It’s been a while (yet again ). Here another set to discuss with a lot of cute artworks: XY Generations.
XY Generations bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Generations_(TCG)
Discuss:
Favorite cards in the setWorst cards in the setHow you feel about this set in general
This XY set was mainly released in celebration of the 20th Anniversary of the Pokémon TCG. This is again one of the few sets which was released in English (one February 22nd, 2016) before it was released in Japan (February 27th, 2016). In English, the set also includes the Radiant Collection sub-set, which was a separated PokéKyun Collection release in Japan (on January 29th, 2016).
Another thing that was rather special about this set is that there were no booster boxes or loose booster packs available. These booster packs only came in special 20th Anniversary-related merchandises, like special boxes and tins.
Let me start with the regular part of the set. Here are some of my favorite artworks:
I really like that Mr. Mime cleaning the windows. And that Vaporeon artwork is probably one of the best Vaporeon artworks out there imho.
As for the Radiant Collection part of the set, there are almost too many to choose from:
All the Full Arts above are cute, colorful, unique, and beautiful. I also really like that they picture multiple Pokémon in the same artwork. And multiple cards telling a story, like the Charmander through Charizard in this case, is something they should do more often. It’s really something unique to have the cards tell a story, and also a nice additional collectible.
Hated this set then, still don’t like it. Honestly the laziest reprint set they ever made. Call of Legends at least gave alternate artwork, but at least half of the main expansion of Generations is straight reprints from earlier XY cards. And then it’s called “Generations” but all of the main expansion focuses on Gen 1 unless it’s an EX card leftover from Japan that they pressed in there. And here’s Radiant Collection 2 because we had nowhere else to put it!
Most of the best artwork is from RC2 though, since at least that was made with an actual vision in Japan and not pressed together to fit an English set. The Eeveelutions and Gardevoir EX cards especially are great. The Eeveelution EX cards were lovely too since it’s rare to get chase cards that are actually hand-drawn instead of 5ban CGI.
I absolutely love the Flareon EX full art card, as it is my favorite eeveelution…not to mention it includes the other 2 og eeveelutions in the card art. Plus flareon was actually playable in the tcg, as I was able to do pretty good with it paired with Volcanion and won a lot of games with the duo. Overall the design and playability of this card made the whole set for me and I have a full play set of full art flareon ex in my collection.
P.S. I also loved the Articuno, Gyarados, and Gardevoir as well.
I agree with many statements above. I was expecting Generations to be similar to what Evolutions was but it ended up to be a disappointment overall. The RC set inside the Generations set helps it a little bit as pull rates are quite good and the RC set has some quality cards. I very much prefer the RC set in Japanese though thanks to their pretty holo pattern which the English cards lack.
Lot of my favorites have been shown earlier on this thread as well, including the FA Flareon EX and Vaporeon EX for example. I also love this M Charizard EX, I think the art is cool:
And the Charmander line with evolving artwork is amazing
Only Arceus knows why they did not include full art cards of the EX’s, man oh man imagine that M Charizard in FA form. Articuno & Zapdos were my favorite. I also think Evolutions was better executed as an anniversary set.
This set is particularly nostalgic for me. Regardless of whether it did a great job as an anniversary set or not, it was the set where I started collecting again. I had none of my cards from my childhood, and the artwork of the Radiant Collection, including some of the full arts, really drew me back into the hobby.
This set was also a part of my first ever grading submission. In the pictures, you can see a few of the carss from my personal collection. All of these were pack fresh pulls that I sent out, and I feel like a couple may be good candidates for regrade to a 10. I love the story told through the charmander evolution line in this art, and the pikachu card is a personal favorite of mine.
So this set may not have been the nostalgia of evolutions, but looking back on it now, it is definitely nostalgic for me.
Also, it may not say it on the label, but the charizard is holo. Im not sure they did a non-holo version of the card.
The Flareon EX from this set is one of my favorite arts of all time, but for me it’s actually the regular, non-full-art version:
Overall, this set was kind of a directionless mashup of different things, as many English sets tend to be. Hey guys, it’s a nostalgic Gen 1 anniversary set! But with… Meowstic! And XY-era trainers!
But I’ve still got a soft spot for Generations - it did bring the PokeKyun cards to the west, had some awesome basic energy designs, and was pretty much the set that got me back into the hobby.
). Here another set to discuss with a lot of cute artworks: XY Generations.
