In the 30 years of the Pokémon TCG’s history, every Pokémon ever released has received at least one card. Most have more than one, and some – and I’m looking at you now, Charizard – seem to get a new card in each even-numbered Pokémon set.
Pokémon cards have changed a lot over the years, arguably becoming much prettier objects, with more space given over to their artwork, really allowing these creature designs to sing. And the percentage of Pokémon who have a modern, full-art Pokémon card worth gazing at is far lower. Some of the coolest Pokémon in the entire franchise lack a new card worth treasuring.
This needs to change, so in this open letter to The Pokémon Company, I will highlight five awesome Pokémon that deserve an equally awesome Pokémon card.
Arcanine
It’s truly a shock to me that not only is one of the original 151 Pokémon lacking a sweet modern card, but that a Pokémon as cool as Arcanine could be skipped out on. Arcanine has a lot of neat vintage cards: Light Arcanine and Blaine’s Arcanine spring to mind.
But more recently the best its had is a Break card from X&Y era – a decade ago – and an admittedly badass modern full art that was unfortunately exclusive to China’s Fearless Terastal release.
This seems to be because Arcanine’s spotlight was stolen, just as full art Pokémon cards started to become the norm, by its Hisuian form. Hisuian Arcanine has a V card and a trainer gallery card, while Arcanine got left out in the cold. While Growlithe has an Illustration Rare in Delta Reign, I kind of wish it was his big bro instead.
Torterra
Somehow, while it’s shown up on a ton of cards over the years, the closest this Gen 4 grass type comes to a full art is two boring-ass Ultra Rares. This in unforgivable for a full-evolved starter Pokémon, especially since this massive turtle is really fun to imagine in its environment.
Temporal Forces’ IR Grotle shows us the way. I want to see a sleeping giant with Pokémon clambering on its back, or perhaps a herd of Torterra travelling, packed shell-to-shell.
Kabutops
Another Generation 1 Pokémon that’s fallen by the wayside lately, though this one doesn’t even have a mega or regional form to divert attention. Kabutops has a lot of good old cards – in particular the Shining Kabutops from Neo Destiny is worth a buck nowadays.
But it appears much more rarely now, shunted out by younger, prettier Pokémon. Which is very unfair, given that its sibling Omaster has a really neat V card. Give Kabutops something cool!
Annihilape
So far, we’ve only covered classic Pokémon which have been overlooked more recently, but some of the coolest newer designs have been left out too – including, unbelievably, Annihilape.
I genuinely am not sure how we went through 11/12 entire sets of Scarlet & Violet without anyone thinking to give this Pokémon a proper full art. It’s one of the most popular designs of its generation, competitive in VGC, and just generally rad. So why does it not have an SIR?
Clodsire
Another update to an older Pokémon that has sadly missed out on getting anything neater than an ultra/super rare. Clodsire does at least have the joyous full art card above in Pokémon Pocket, but I’d love to see something like it in the physical TCG as well.
Source: Wargamer
