Ok Wooltchi Iām fully on board this ship now, captain.
Iām going to be objective here. This is the og era, it deserves nothing but respect.
One of the most important ones to talk about is base. Iāve been saying this for years on the forum, but every time someone criticizes the sugi stock art and the plainness of it just be reminded it was the first set. The OG. The first time pokemon would be featured. This was a necessity to have this even to the point that non sugi cards were still beautifully simple and not overly done. This was to give all of us a great first look at them, to be acquainted. Iāve compared it to their first time roster shots. This does not take away from the set and itās impact and quality. That said, we still have a ton of Kinebuchi masterpieces (diglett, gastly, magnemite, voltorb) including the insane trainer list that to this day ranks among the best trainers ever, and we have Arita coming out really strong with many jaw droppers that I still find to be unbeaten even from him (dragonair, abra, starters, machop, rattata). Imakuni made his presence known with one of the greatest cards of all time, Porygon. This set will forever deserve its place as iconic and beloved. When you compare its art objectively to its latter releases without considering it being the first and its intention and all the above additionally, you arenāt doing it right. Lastly, they have shadowless, a unique pillar, language exclusive, featured the best card palette to this day. Something that they never, ever should have discarded, akin to mtgās alpha beta card quality.
Jungle and Fossil serve a similar purpose, being that they will continue to be the final introducers for the cards as a whole and for gen 1. Jungle is the intro for Himeno, and she brought to the table the idea to be introductory but also artistically masterful. The set is vividly colorful, would be the first to make a theme and introduce pokemon that way as a first time way of adding lore and environments to them that would be definitive and game changing.
I think we can all say the same thing for Fossil but by this time all but a few had been introduced and we were ready for evolution. It would just be a tad weaker, while still amazing. Now, granted, Kinebuchiās Ditto is in this set, as well as Himenoās Slowbro, easily some of the best artwork of all time, so considering the colossal stature of some of the singles, it still has to be ranked well even if it was the final chapter and so not as original or striking.
Rocket is god tier. An explosion of creativity, theme, dark concepts, unbelievable artworkā¦ this is where Pokemon would take off and never come back down for many years, basically a decade. Rocket is responsible for so much potential realized. I still look at the art and drool, in disbelief over what Iām seeing. They look evil, menacing, captivating. Itās a tie in to the lovers of the games, itās everything.
While Iām personally a massive fan of Gym sets, and they will always be top tier for me nostalgically, they are indeed some of the more middle sets in the era. But they still get points for the themes and tie inās to the trainers, and of course the really popping artworks when they are good. They also have some of the best holos in the era for both sets, and the reason why they still rank high is once again they feature some of the best trainer sets in all of pokemon. Nishida also does wonderful work to help prop up the more underwhelming sugi stock cards, which unlike base, do feel at most times to be the first time we really saw laziness in the tcg. But remember some of the sugiās are incredible nevertheless (Erikaās Ivysaur anybody??) so thatās worth noting as well. Challenge has transparent walls and warp point, and heroes has recall, as well as the Kinebuchi og stadiums. Enough said.
Genesis had to serve a similar purpose to base but with gen 2. It shares some of that iconic vibrance, and was super exciting for everyone. With intros they tried to uphold this value, while they let artists new and old have creative license for the gen 1ās. Neo Gen is awesome for this reason, though it is no longer are the original, and so for the first time the Sugi arrangements will feel a tad tiring even if they are appealing. Trainers for all these sets will maintain perfection. But right after Neo Gen we lose the abundance of stock sugi so the quality immediately ramps up.
Masago pours onto the scene in discovery and that alone sets this set up high. But all the artwork is feeling amazing. Itās themed, itās got S tier holos, and overall better than genesis. The same can be said of Revelation, which introduces shinings (the two best of all time of course), so itās even higher. Also Masago Ho-Oh everyone (applause noise can be heard).
Destiny is already a perfect set without the shinings. That was just that extra gift they gave us to blow our minds. Thatās right, S tier without the shinings, so even if youāre a shining hater you must consider S tier art abound and across. But the shinings are original, different, and unique to this day. Perfect set.
E series is the peak of pokemon. The 3 best sets of all time you could easily argue if this is based off artwork alone. Though the list involves more than just that, this still easily places them in S tier. While I love aquapolis the most, Iād have to say Skyridge is equal in all categories, so really they are tied. You could easily interchange them.
Base 2 did nothing for the tcg. You could simply reprint its original sets more. Iām sad it exists. As a kid finding nothing but base 2 packs on a retail shelf was as disappointing as getting socks for christmas.
LC is another reprint, but this time it gave a few holo exclusives and gave galaxy holo to a few cards never give that treatment. That is fun for collectors. But you know what is more fun? Those amazing reverse holos, a set in its own right. Without those, this set is D tier. But it has the above, so its considerably better, and very worth existing as a set.
There are no D tiers, it was all very good or better with only the fail that was base 2. Even Bās are amazing sets. They are B+ and only fall in that category because as Iāve prosed before, they stand next to giants.
. While Iām most nostalgic towards early gen 1 sets, the chase cards and art get much better by the neo and e series era. That being said, Iām not super nostalgic for those sets, so I donāt rank them as highly compared to Fossil or Base Set.