Which EX era English set has the best pack art lineup?
Shout out to @koala for compiling the pictures used here!
I know English pack arts are usually a bland single Pokemon slapped on the cover but some are better than others.
After looking at ex dragon packs i thought i couldn’t be topped but damn, so many good ones and very different ones! Ex dragon might still take the cake for me but ended up voting a lot more than i originally thought
oof they really weren’t sending their best at this time for pack artwork commissions
Emerald and Delta Species are easily my two favourites, but I can see the appeal in EX Dragon. Mainly I just prefer art sets which have a unique style or artwork.
Ruby Sapphire and Sandstorm are objectively the worst I think, just stock looking art dropped in the centre of some benign pattern
When I first saw koala’s thread, I had to do a double take on some of them. If I didn’t know any better, I would think that the packs were fake.
Unseen Forces is probably the worst of the lot.
I don’t really like any of them. Harada’s EX Dragon probably by default even if the Absol and Rayquaza both look off-model.
FRLG has a decent Venusaur and Blastoise but then Charizard and Pikachu look like fakes.
TRR and Dragon Frontiers are also decent for CGI models.
Can’t wait to have a poll for the Japanese EX-era pack design. And a poll for the box art!
I don’t know much about the jpn sets so I’ll leave that poll to you or someone else if you’d like to make it. @koala has all the images nicely formatted so it’s pretty easy to make!
Dragon and Emerald easily. I will also probably be an extreme minority in liking R/S and Sandstorm - the design may be super basic but it harked back to WOTC and the holofoil boosters themselves look amazing imo.
FRLG also gets my vote but the rest look very CG (not sure if they actually ARE in every case) so that’s a no from me.
Has to be Dragon, followed closely by Emerald. Fire red and Leaf Green are great, but that Pikachu totally throws it off for me, something about its face is so goofy.
Honestly, I all the pack art from Deoxys-Power Keepers is incredibly cool to me.
Power Keepers might be a weak set imo, but I think it has some of the coolest packs from this era.
The fact that Dragon doesn’t have Shedinja on the pack art dispite it being the best card in the set is a tragedy I will never fully accept
(thats me comforting myself)
I think they leaned a bit too heavy into the CGI after dragon. i am surprised to see TRR up there in 2nd, its agreat set but those pack arts look super wonky. Good species choices on the pack though
I really love the goofy cgi for some reason! I definitely understand why someone wouldn’t be into it though, it does look super weird sometimes lol.
Legend Maker and Hidden Legends get my vote solely for Banette and Regirock, respectively. But overall, my favorite set of 4 is Holon Phantoms.
I bought way more Deoxys packs than I was comfortable with as a kid because of the booster artwork. Something about the overkill CGI, the clean look and intense set logo just works. They were and still are insanely appealing.
As a set I’d put those, Dragon and Hidden Legends in my top 3, in some undetermined order.
I’m a sucker for the Unseen Forces Umbreon pack art
