Topps is fun too
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As much as people love to shit on WoTC for poor MTG decisions, they have excellent storytelling for most sets. Bloomburrow is a great example.
MTG goes beyond single set cohesion. WoTC used to release sets in blocks of 3. Each block had an identity, but each set within the block was unique. This led to phenomenal storytelling and world building while retaining hype for individual set releases. Unfortunately, blocks were killed seven years ago.
Even with blocks disappearing, MTG has a knack for revisiting and expanding planes. For example, look at the original Tarkir Block in 2014-2015 and the current Tarkir: Dragonstorm set released yesterday. Or Wilds of Eldraine following up on Throne of Eldraine. Or the numerous sets that explored different areas of the Zendikar plane.
Long story short - MTG is the best TCG at world building and set cohesion. There is really no excuse for Pokemon to not reach these basic expectations.
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If only America’s “low culture” can aspire to be as high brow as the 2023 Japanese waifu craze!
In all seriousness, the US has all of the major aspects of the market: largest auction sites, largest grading companies, largest sales volume, not to mention, the global reserve currency. These are true beyond Pokemon; Art, Coins, Cars, MTG, Sports Cards, you name it, the US is the major outlet.
Rather than fantasizing for all of that to fail, the more rational take is the word “also” exists. Japanese cards, and more likely Chinese can also grow, perhaps to the point where Chinese can place themselves on the podium and become the Big 3, rather than just English & Japanese. I don’t doubt that the growth in the east will bolster Japanese & Chinese cards, but as we’ve experienced many times, growth can happen in one market and have little to no affect on another. They aren’t mutually exclusive.
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You could also argue that MTG, being based on no source material, has to be good at world-building. Not that it lessens their achievements, of course. I’m not a MTG player or collector but I do appreciate the set themes, cohesion and identities.
Pokemon should aspire to that, but what would that look like? The first sets should be easy - since there are barely any cards that feature the worlds we already do know - Kanto-Paldea and etc
Beyond that, what would work? Late EX era with Holon? The TCG does have loads of potential to enrich and go deep into lore that goes untouched in the MSG and anime. It is a pity they haven’t done so already but it would take a visionary that they do not presently have or even aspire to.
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I agree globally but WOTC sets and their 1st Edition mark will always be a pillar of the hobby.
I don’t k ow if it’s the structure of the cards itself or the fact that WOTC will never print Pokemon cards again, but their value it’s undeniable.
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I wonder what the long term implication of declining birth rates in these East Asian cultures will mean for cards. Japan, China and Korea all have really low birth rates at the moment. A growing population would expect a birth ratio of 2.1 children, in contrast this number is as low as 0.6 in South Korea.
The same is true for Italy, the US and other countries but to a lesser degree.
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More than a couple MTG sets have been crap at worldbuilding lately.
Duskmourn was good, though out-of-character. Tarkir? Amazing! “Deathrace thing”? Meh, and so was cowboys and Gorgons… The new Ixilan was good tho. A personal fave as of late. Kamigawa neon dynasty was dripping with theme, but I feel that WotC has also lost the world-building to some degree as they’ve chased the collectors more than the players.
Odd since a lot of collectors AND players like set theme. It might be a creative resources and time thing: Design teams have less time as they create so many new sets and themes. Magic worlds used to span 2 or 3 sets in a world block. Now it’s just one.
The Plasma sets actually had a little theme of changing seasons, moreso in JP releases, and I think the XY era may have had some relation to story progression thru the sets… I honestly don’t know after Black and White, because I couldn’t keep up with all the cards in each set…
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- Biomes (e.g., desert, arctic, forest, under the moonlight, etc.)
- Gyms / Cities (e.g., a set focused on Brock’s Gym and the Pokemon found in Pewter City)
- Settings during holidays (e.g., haunted house Halloween set, snowball fight winter holiday set, tropical island vacation - Southern Islands 2?)
- Sets based on the anime (e.g., a set highlight all of Ash’s Pokemon, a Red vs. Blue set based on Liko vs. Roy and the Pokemon that they gravitate toward)
- An Ancient vs. Futuristic set involving Scarlet / Violet paradox Pokemon as chase cards and set art highlighting the opposing areas
- A Cute Pokemon set like what was developed in Generations: Radiant Collection subset
- A Pokemon Partner Occupation set, where Pokemon are paired with trainers of specific occupations (e.g., Smeargle with an Art Teacher, Alcremie with a Cook, etc.)
How do these sound? If my Sunday brain can come up with these examples, I would hope that seasoned set designers at TPC could come up with these and better ones.
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It doesn’t even have to be that hard. Have the word “fire” or “flame” or “burning” in the set name and make the set 75% fire type pokemon. Same for “dark”, “night”, “black”, etc and making the set 75% dark type pokemon. Jungle felt like a cohesive set because a bunch of plant and bug type pokemon felt like they would belong in a jungle. Same for fossil, it was a bunch of fossil and mysterious pokemon. There’s so many pokemon now you could easily group ones that share similarities into sets that make sense. A set focused on say ice type pokemon would be unique and memorable.
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Is another charizard “themed” set not enough??? Talk about high expectations!
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Sounds like a good start. I feel like there was already an older thread about this but maybe we could make a new one. I’ll see if anything comes up in search.
You need to keep in mind that there is a playing side as well. You cannot have 75% of cards be Fire types playing-wise. At most it would be like 30% though that is probably too high as well, seeing that there are 9 types.
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Agreed! The water looks like jello too ;_; I was so disappointed in that artwork personally
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For me it’s the opposite hated the Vmax Umbreon (beautiful baxkground, won’t like how Umbreon is painted) I really like the ex. Really dislike the Espeon ex personally because I’m not a fan of Sui’s art (with the exception of 3 cards) The Espeon V and Vmax easily win in terms of art for me.
How would you rank the other eeveelution ex SIRs?
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easily my fave Umbreon card, what’s yours. The Vmax is ugly to me and the ex is an 8/10 but nothing mind blowing
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Which ex are you referring to?
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Prismatic/Terrastal SIR/SAR
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8/10 is generous 
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It is, but I’m a groupie lol. The Leafeon is another 8 for me and the Sylveon is a 10. The rest were trash for my tastes art wise
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If the older arts were full arts do you think you’d like those ones more? Just curious as to how people feel about modern/older cards
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I definitely would. These are some of my all time favorite eeveeloution arts, from vintage to modern. A larger size would change up the composition but it could definitely change my personal rankings
Full art versions, while 3 of 4 of these are crappy ai mockups I found on the internet I can only imagine how nice the full arts from the actual artists would be
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