Finally finished my epic quest to rate every card based on artwork. Averaging it all out, my top five sets are:
Next Destinies, 8.184/10
Undaunted, 8.209/10
Legendary Treasures, 8.25/10
Call of Legends, 8.264/10
Emerging Powers, 8.276/10
At first I thought I got more lenient with grading as I had gone along since the newer sets absolutely crushed the older sets in scoring, but I went through everything a second time, buffing the older sets and nerfing the newer sets, and the only set that came out with an 8+ average before Platinum’s Rising Rivals set was Jungle. So… I guess I just really do like the artwork of the newer sets more.
There are other aspects to picking favorites than just a rigid averaging system, though. Trainer-centric sets got dinged because Trainer cards rarely got scores as good as Pokemon do from me, and bigger sets were at a disadvantage because it’s harder to have 164 amazing cards than 98 or so. Jungle, Legends Awakened, Rising Rivals, HGSS, Boundaries Crossed and Phantom Forces would all move up quite a bit without doing a strict average.
A lot of the hatred for EP is because the cards were garbage playability-wise, as the set was kitbashed together from random Japanese promos and pre-made decks. The set doesn’t get nearly as much hatred in regards to the artwork, and these ratings were specifically for art.
I’m looking through my Emerging Powers set now, and I just can’t see it. The set is just too bland. I don’t necessarily hate the line holo pattern, but these holos are just so boring. Plus the C/UC all just sort of blend together.
I tend to go for vibrant colors, nice color contrasts, general cuteness, detailed/striking backgrounds, or quirky poses/stories. Most of EP’s cards have at least one of those things to me. Conversely, it has very little of the things that drag down set averages for me: overabundance of bland Trainer cards, Ken Sugimori stock art, bad CGI, early Tomokazu Komiya…
If I went with a gut top 5 listing, EP wouldn’t be my #1. Out of all of the nostalgic sets, Jungle has the biggest place in my heart. Legends Awakened and the other late 2008-2009 sets, when I got back into collecting, also have a lot of sentimental value, and I was really fond of most of the HGSS block (Unleashed kind of sucked, but otherwise). But numerically, it is EP.
So… is the Base Set love mostly because it’s the first and/or has the most nostalgia for you all? Other than Mitsuhiro Arita’s work (and indeed, Base Dragonair was one of the very rare cards I gave a full 10/10 score), I could take or leave most of the set, especially the Trainers and their bad mid-90’s CGI. lol
People are always throwing out ideas for “20th anniversary” celebration things. One of my votes would be for them to go back and redo all of the Base Set art like how Undaunted Sneasel was a remake of Neo Genesis Sneasel. It’s undeniably in the same style and spirit as the original, but without that Sugimori stock art feeling. The Trainers and other CGI cards would also benefit greatly from this.
The 4 are because it was cards from these sets i use to play with when i was young, trading with friends and neighbor to try and a complete a set.
i also chose Skyridge because i like everything about the set from the crystal effect to the artwork to the look of the e-reader part of the cards. The quality of them really stands out to me
