What are your top 5 arts of your favorite pokemon?

[pokecollectoramy]

Great posts so far guys. Love to see everyone’s faves!

My fave Pokemon is Rayquaza, followed closely by everyone else in my sig space

Top arts for me:

1. Ex Emerald
   

   

2. Blackstar EX promo
   

   

3. Gold Star!
   

   

4. Supreme Victors
   

   

5. Evolving Skies Alt Art
   

   

[thsigma]

@shinru

The amount of nostalgia I have for this Espeon ex card is through the roof. I have fond memories of running around showing every kid in summer camp this card.

It is one of my favorite ex cards as well! Ryo Ueda has so many fantastic cards to his name.

[thsigma]

@pokecollectoramy

My fave Pokemon is Rayquaza, followed closely by everyone else in my sig space

I see you are a fellow gen 3 enjoyer

[pokecollectoramy]

Big time! The Ruby game brought me back to Pokemon after years away. Wish I had gotten back into the cards back then too

[candle]

These are some controversial pics for ray ngl

[trainerjack]

I love that one too! I opened so much BC trying to pull it!

[candle]

Here are my top five for Tyranitar! I’m fortunate that there are a lot of really strong cards to pick from - including a few modern cards at lower rarity that have been fun (and cheap) to collect.

For my choices, I considered the art first and foremost, but also can’t help but take holo patterns and card frames and even attacks into account. It’s all about the appeal of the card a whole for me.

1. Dark Tyranitar (19): EX Team Rocket Returns
   

   
   
   High contrast comic book style art makes this one striking and unique.

2. Tyranitar EX: EX Unseen Forces
   

   
   
   Diagonal perspective and 4 attacks make this card seem larger than normal to me. I also love the rainbow background that fades to black blending in with the Dark type card frame.

3. Tyranitar: HGSS Unleashed
   

   
   
   The appeal for me here is the pose and the full moon in the backdrop. HGSS has great art all around. The era has art direction that feels distinct from other eras.

4. Tyranitar: Aquapolis
   

   
   
   Ancient, mystical, hidden. Just like its sibling in Expedition, this E series art would have you believe Tyranitar was 10 stories tall.

5. Karen’s Tyranitar: VS
   

   
   
   Finally, the Japanese exclusive by Kusajima. I really like Rocket’s tyranitar as well, but this one wins out due to the artistic license taken by the artist. This Tyranitar sports extra spines that are pointer than normal - very menacing!

Honorable Mention) Dark Tyranitar: Neo Genesis

this card deserves an honorable mention for me because while this Tyranitar isn’t listed as being shiny, it undoubtedly is. I think it’s a cool little find when you notice it for the first time. It makes me wonder if they commissioned two shiny Tyranitar arts by mistake, or maybe this art is the first they received for shiny Tyranitar but it didn’t fit with the others in the cycle so they repurposed it into a second Tyranitar card. Who knows!

[candle]

not a fan of EX Deoxys? that one might be my personal fav. Hard to go wrong with Kusube imo

[fresco]

Not a fan of that one tbh.

For me showing the Pkm interacting in some way with his environment or showing him in his “thing” is a huge plus for me so that one despite being a cool art doesn’t make it for me.

[A.P.Speeze]

@fresco What about Holon Phantoms, Crystal Guardians, Secret Wonders, Art Academy, or even the most recent one in Lost Abyss? I feel like those are each really great Sableye arts too.

[khairis]

[fresco]

Not a fan of those maybe Secret Wonders one could have make it .

[ayoveer]

Are you my long lost best friend?

[lamplamp]

Great discussion idea. I’ll try to pick my top 5 for Flareon:

1. Jungle Flareon
   

   

2. Fireplace Flareon
   

   

3. Big Flareon
   

   

4. Run Real Fast Flareon
   

5. Papercraft Flareon
   

[trainerjack]

Ttar has so many great arts to choose from honestly!

[darkapples]

Here’s my selection for my boy Lapras! Might do one for zigzagoon as well later on

#1. Lapras ex: Old school ex cards are my favourite in the hobby, Lapras is my favourite pokemon, my instagram name is DarkLapras and this is the closest I’ll ever get to having a Dark Lapras card. I just love the dark blue. All in all, one of my favourite cards of all time!

#2. Skyridge: Just a beautifully drawn artwork, that’s all I can say about it

#3. Shiny VMAX: It’s 5ban, I know, but it’s one of my favourite modern cards. The beautiful purple colour really pops!

#4. Southern Islands: This the only Lapras card where he actually looks cute instead of menacing or ‘‘too cool for school’’, plus it looks like he’s splashing around which just makes me happy

#5. Platinum Base Set: Mitsuhiro Arita coming in 5th with my boy enjoying a beautiful sunset

[ddk]

Ho-oh has always been my favourite Pokemon since I was a kid. I absolutely love birds and the phoenix is no different. It’s such a majestic, awe-inspiring mythical creature and Ho-oh wowed me from the moment I saw it in the anime’s first episode.

Pokemon is notorious for giving the illusion of equal choice and then spitting on it with preferential treatment. Most notably would be with how much they shill Charizard and Greninja compared to their other starters, despite all three being presented as ‘equal’ at the start of your adventure. While not to the same extent, Ho-oh receives some of this too in comparison to its counterpart, Lugia. I always saw them as two chaotic halves; Lugia’s sea (yin) to Ho-oh’s sky (yang). Both make up a whole yet why is one always being positioned as better than the other?

Anyway, enough of my ramblings. Let’s show the big rainbow bird some love!

#5: Neo Revelation Ho-oh #18 - The pose is so iconic of Gen 2 Ho-oh. The colours and texturing are outstanding as well.

#4: HeartGold & SoulSilver Ho-oh Legend #111 & #112 - I’m less fond of the more modern depictions of Ho-oh, as many of them make it seem like just another bird rather than the legendary it truly is. While I find this one a bit over the top, it is absolutely the best depiction of a fiery Ho-oh that you wouldn’t want to mess with.

#3 POP Series 5 Ho-oh #1 - I love cards that tell a story across multiple cards. This is one half of a climatic battle between Ho-oh and Lugia and Mitsuhiro Arita’s art is just so nostalgic for me to see.

#2: Skyridge Crystal Ho-oh #149 - If there’s any card that does justice to Ho-oh’s legendary status, it’s got to be this one. The artwork really evokes that feeling of a lithograph from the Ruins of Alph and adds to Ho-oh’s mythical quality.

#1: Neo Revelation Ho-oh #7 - You’ve got to see this one in person to believe it. I had already stopped collecting Pokemon cards before Neo Revelation released so I was absolutely floored to see this card when I got back into the hobby almost 20 years later. In a way, seeing it was like reconnecting with my younger self all over again.

The vibrant colours and majestic pose are just everything I love about this Pokemon and has made a perfect 1st Edition copy of this card a current grail for me to chase.

[thsigma]

@ddk

#1: Neo Revelation Ho-oh #7

This one is one of my favorites as well. Neo has some crazy good arts.

[khairis]

I really am loving this topic! I have a small list of favorites and I think I’d like to do one for each of them. Everyone loves lists, right?

Up next, Cramorant! (Not in any particular order)

[khairis]

Vaporeon! A lot more modern for this Pokemon this time.

Bonus cards: These cards are just weird imo. In this first one Vaporeon is just so oddly chunky. I can’t stop staring at how chubby Vaporeon’s arms are. The second one is a melting Vaporeon and I love how this unique artwork is found in the Topps line.