Two weeks are over fast!.. Anyway, as I mentioned two weeks ago, I will be using a random name picker from now on for the remaining sets. Although the pick for today was Sun & Moon promos, I’m gonna skip that for now since the Sun & Moon era isn’t over yet and more promos will be released in the near future. So instead, the second random pick will be today’s set of fortnight, which is EX Emerald:
Discuss:
Favorite cards in the set
Worst cards in the set
How you feel about this set in general
(Don’t ask me why the logo is so small, I always use the one from Bulbapedia’s set pages… Sometimes they’re huge, sometimes they’re tiny… )
EX Emerald was the ninth set during the EX era, released in English on May 9th, 2005, at the same time as the Pokémon Emerald Game Boy Advance. There isn’t any Japanese set that matches this one, so the cards are from other Japanese sources, like some PCG-P Promos, some Master Kits, some Gift Box boxes, some Construction Packs, etc. etc. Because only the Quick Construction Packs that they’ve used from Japanese sources had the competitive play of the TCG in mind, the EX Emerald set wasn’t very popular or good for TCG players. This is also the first English set to contain Holofoil Energy cards.
Ah yes I have been waiting for this moment! Ex Emerald is one of my favorite, if not THE favorite set for me. That probably sounds weird for many people. I know the reasons why many people don’t like this set - it doesn’t have any Gold Stars and most of the cards are reprints from Japanese Meiji Promo cards, decks and PokePark Blue file. I completely understand where people are coming from. But hear me out…
I was 13 years old when Ex Emerald came out and I had spent years without opening any booster packs, because a) they completely disappeared from my city and b) my parents wouldn’t buy me TCG packs anyways because she considered them as “expensive”.
So it happened that TCG booster packs came back to supermarkets here when Ex Emerald was released, or for some reason I only noticed cards being back when the set was out. Anyway… I finally had a bit of pocket money to use and I saw those Ex Emerald packs with pretty artwork with my favorite Pokemon like Rayquaza and Groudon. I bought one and opened that pack and I was so happy, I think I didn’t even get a holo from it but I kept looking at the artwork and loved it so much. After that every time when I had spare money I kept buying booster packs. Some packs later I got my first ever ex card - Raichu ex. And back in the day that was amazing and as a 13 year old I didn’t know the origin of the card art (Japanese Promos) or didn’t care about the fact that there were no Gold Stars. To point out, I never pulled a Gold Star from a pack anyways, so overall it made zero difference to me if a set had Gold Stars or not.
I absolutely love the art of the cards on this set and it’s actually thanks to Ex Emerald that both Fukuda and Saitou are my favorite TCG artists. The set has lots of art made by those 2. The reverse holos of the set are amazing as well and I have built a complete reverse holo set of it as I love it so much. So this set is kind of a nostalgia set for me. It’s when I seriously started to buy packs (as a kid you don’t really have control over it, I was collecting but rarely got anything) and Ex Emerald also plays a huge part on why Ex series is my favorite era of TCG.
So, here are some of my favorites from the set. And let me just mention that Ex Emerald Rayquaza is one of my top favorite cards of all time!
My favorite card in the set is this ninetales, especially in the reverse holo variant! That blue looks so nice once the shine is added. Ninetales was really gyped by nosepass being a rare and not it…
Yes. This card doesn’t have that many listings either, for being a regular 3rd gen ex of a fairly popular pokemon. It’s up there on priority purchases for me rn. Stunning art, whoever made it pokeblocks did a great job.
Absolutely love the art from this set. The semi faded/wispy/soft edges on the art of the mons just helps this era stand out and Emerald has a lot of good looking commons and uncommons as a result
Milotic EX is another awesome one already mentioned, but my favorite EXs from this set are the Regi Trio. Generally not given a lot of love, they are at peak awesomeness in this set with amazing artwork just oozing mysteriousness and an idea of ancient/lost knowledge. My absolute favorite arts of the trio respectively
People give this set shit for being a mix and match of different Japanese releases and for having no coherent theme, but I actually find Emerald to be one of the most beautiful sets in the entire EX Series. The art is pretty much universally phenomenal, and this set is the peak of the reverse holo. Emerald has the most beautiful reverse holo pattern of the entire EX Series, IMO. Overall, I really do love this set. My one complaint is that the exs are of kind of uninteresting Pokemon lol, with the exception of Milotic/Deoxys.
Emerald is a quality set for sure. Not a single piece of stock Sugimori art in sight. However, I just wish there was some Tanaka, Baba, or Komiya art included in this set.
Honestly not sure how no one has talked about this card yet but my god the Blaziken card is badass. Looking at this card you just can’t help but think “Damn, I’m about to get my ass beat.”
)
Those cards are from the Platinum set instead of EX Emerald.
