@dizzylochs, You’ve organized my brain on the topic of Stadium cards. Before this thread I never really took note of how all these particularly sexy trainer cards were in fact their own distinct category.
Haha I always think of your stad collection when posting these things. Agreed tho this one falls a bit flat, to it’s credit tho I do like it more than the regular version. Colours are kind of fun and low perspective kind of interesting. They’ve shown the next KATO coming which has a pretty nice artwork. Hopefully it gets a secret from him too, and will be sure to post it.
Glad to hear it, for sure there’s some real nice ones out there. It’s always cool to hear people think about stadiums as not trainer bulk
Stadium Set Review: Time Gazer & Space Juggler
KATO You’re so close! Secret rares edge one step closer to artistic stylisation.
We’ve got another double set, each bringing 2 new stadiums. All 4 KATO. This includes 2 new secrets that take steps far beyond KATO’s first and previous secret. That said, both are still far from what we know KATO is capable of.
Time Gazer
Gapejaw Bog
At first glance this stadium didn’t do much for me, although on second thought, it may be the most important stadium of the 4. It may not look like much and certainly doesn’t show off KATO’s technical skills; it does however really set itself apart from recent set stadiums. I mean those brush strokes are huge in the foreground, super stylised. It looks more like a rough first sketch than maybe any other stadium printed. While it may not be my favourite, it does show variation; which is something set stadiums have been largely missing for a very long time.
Path to the Peak
Ok, spicy secret here. Best thing about this by far is that half of it is covered in snowflakes. The original Path to the Peak has a great illustration. Despite it being a space with little to depict, the original used colour, shadow and perspective to create an interesting image. While these 2 goldies still lean into the 3d nature of all secrets, KATO still uses shadow and perspective to create an interesting image. On top of that the giant snow flakes are a great way of giving this card some character.
Space Juggler
Temple of Sinnoh
Really like this artwork, very clean. Love the colours, looks fresh af.
Love the perspective on this, the way this warped temple sucks you into the centre of the the image and up into the stadium. The inviting steps lead you up into the space, which is extended by the rift sucking up a storm at the top of the image. One of the coolest looking stadiums in recent history and surely a new fan favourite?
KATO’s doing great things and I feel like we’re literally seeing progress with every set. Surely we have to be close to unique artistic interpretations of these spaces. Let’s hope it continues as planned.
Pretty nice new Secret Rares! I’m excited to see where this is going and if we continue to see multiple SR Stadiums per set!
I love that Gapejaw Bog card. Reminds me of some of the places I’ve hiked in northern Japan.
Oh nice, I didn’t know there were many boggy places in Japan, I’ll have to look those up
@muk I hope so too, although I think we’ve only had doubles on the double sets Def some nice goldies tho
Stadium Set Review: Dark Phantasma
Dammit @muk , you jinxed it
A single stadium set with a New KATO; yet no new secret stadium for the first time in a year. While there may be no gold, the sparkly silver Pokeball reverse holos from last set return in this set.
Lake Acuity
Another beaut from KATO, a great space with a suggested pokeball centre mark, using rocks as the middle and the lake the ball. Great colours, very inviting. Lovely stadium.
And that’s it for this one. Glad it at least comes in the nice reverse.
@dizzylochs ahh too bad that this new one doesn’t get a SR version. Surley could’ve looked pretty nice.
Still a very good looking card from our Stadium MVP Kato!
Stadium Set Review: Pokemon Go
I will certainly take it
Happy to get a stadium in this set as I wouldn’t have expected one.
PokeStop
It’s not much to look at, but love the set stamp on the illustration and love that it’s linked to Pokemon Go. Also the first stadium card by Studio Bora Inc. An interesting stadium to be able to add to the collection.
No reverses or secrets so just the one variant this time
Stadium Set Review: Lost Abyss
This is truly special set for stadiums. 2 great new cards, 1 new stadium artist, 1 all time KATO secret.
Lost City
This past year has seen a huge amount of new stadium artists come and go and this stadium sees another enter the mix. Its the all-caps, no messin AYUMI ODASHIMA. First off, love the coloured smokey abyss vibes around the illustration. Was very happy to see this variation added to this set’s new stadium. This design is on many cards in the set and much like the Pokemon Go logo from the previous set, I love when stadiums have features to set them apart. The city space is a little mundane, but the flat colour that matches the out-of-illustration design really does work for this card.
Collapsed Stadium
I really think we pretty much made it with this one. Stylised secret stadium arts. KATO, my hero. You could def argue it was the case with the previous Path to the Peak secret, but looks at all this juicy texture in the foreground. Love the colour scheme and perspective.I would argue that all that remains for stadiums secrets is give some to artists who have a more abstracted art style or use different media to create their stads. What a nice card tho, one of the all time favourites.
This was a killer set. It will be interesting to see if we’re in for another hard reset of stadiums with the new gen of cards coming in, like we saw at the start of SW & SH. Hopefully not as this was a killer set and would love to see it continued.
P.s This is so late, mb
Dizzy my brother, where art thou? As I’ve lamented before, I’m completely lost in the world of stadiums without your “kind-of-giant” guidance. So much so that I completely missed the release of another stunning KATO UR Stadium!!! I found the English version by pure accident while browsing ebay and obviously had the get the Japanese one ASAP.
I do think it’s one of the prettier artworks in the grand scheme of stadiums, even though the textures on this one aren’t all that spectacular.
What I really like is that it perfectly finishes off the Sword & Shield era stadiums in my binder (I have them ordered 6x3 across the whole double page).
As you can see there, I caved and got that damned “Path to the Peak” for something like €60. That sucker simply refused to become cheaper, even months after release. Still don’t know why that is? It’s a decent artwork for sure, but is it really 4-6 times better than all the other Stdiums, as the price indicates? Or is it just very playable?
Anyway, hope you revive this thread sometime when you have a little spare time. Surely there have been some Stadium releases since your last update and we’re all eager to see what the Scarlet & Violet era has to offer Stadium-wise
I’ve also been struggling to pull the trigger on the path to the peak. It is indeed super playable as it shuts down several of the meta decks at the moment. I’m hoping it will get cheaper eventually once it rotates, but that will be a while!
Yooooooooooooooo @muk, thanks for sparking some life into this dead thread; I love to see it. I’m also glad that the KATO had a chance to sneak up on you unsuspectedly.
You’ll be glad to hear that the stadium collection is still very much alive and strong, I’ve just been pretty quiet online with it. The job I’ve had for a while now keeps me really busy and posts have always taken me a while to type up. I’ve been meaning to post for ages, but both stadium news and collection updates keep building up and it’s a bit overwhelming now I guess. That said, this site is so good and I really appreciate hearing both that the stadium chat has been missed and that your collection updates are looking good.
Yea, that Path to the Peak price was such a killer. Nice to know that it is because of it’s playability @tcgmaine. Always assumed that might be the case as it has been reprinted a tonne these last couple of years.
That binder page is looking CLEAN Muk.
There have been some very cool updates this last year and it’s all so late that the pressure of keeping on top is pretty much gone i guess haha. Updates incoming. Scarlet and Violet looking to be kicking off strong