Most of the Pokémon TCG’s 30th Celebration set seems to be going down very well with the fanbase. The illustration rares are great, especially that Lapras. The classic collection has lots of excellent card choices to chase after. And if you like Pokémon, chances are you’re not going to complain about a bunch of extra Pikachus shoved into packs – especially that one with the squished face.
These are all tried and tested ideas, which also showed up in the 25th Anniversary celebration set. But the biggest innovation made for Pokémon’s dirty 30 birthday bash is also its most divisive. The new ‘Futuristic Rares’ by graphic designer YOSHIROTTEN are getting bashed hard on certain corners of the internet.
The thing is, for me personally, it’s not that I hate the look of these special rarity cards. In fact, I actually rather like the Mewtwo. The clash of the orange and purple alongside the purple text looks pretty neat. No, I don’t hate them. It’s more that I feel like I don’t get them. They don’t feel like they’re made for me as a Pokémon fan who’s nearing 30. And I’m not quite sure who their target audience is.
Call me basic, but I like Pokémon art that makes a Pokémon look cool or cute, that depicts them in a scene showing a battle, an attack, or a Pokémon’s daily life – with a trainer or in the wilds. That’s why I love SIRs and IRs and don’t care much for Ultra Rares. So just having an abstract background with the energy symbols floating around is a bad start for me, personally.
Then we get to the Pokémon themselves and well… they look weird don’t they? Mewtwo is the best of the bunch (Mew just looks ill), but ultimately I don’t understand what TPC was going for here. Why do they look like they’ve been dipped in molten chrome? Why are they such weird colors? I see that this looks ‘futuristic’, but I’m now sure how it represents 30 years of the Pokémon TCG. Is this what Pokémon cards are going to look like in the future?
Overall, I think it was an odd choice to bring on this avante-garde graphic artist for the TCG’s 30th birthday, rather than commissioning something that feels more representative of the game and its art. It feels too highbrow, like these cards should be hanging up in a modern art gallery somewhere, rather than on pieces of cardboard that form a children’s card game.
Perhaps I’m just a hater. And it does always seem to be true that people complain endlessly about the look of a new card, then go ballistic for it as soon as it actually arrives. What do you think of the Futuristic Rares? Am I right that they’ve missed their audience? Let us know via our official Discord server.
Source: Wargamer
