Posted in: Card Games, Games, Pokémon TCG, Tabletop | Tagged: gloom, Obsidian Flames, pokemon, pokemon cards

Cards Of Pokémon TCG: Obsidian Flames Pt 26: Illustration Rares Begin

Artists Masako Tomii and Narumi Sato respectively contribute Illustration Rares featuring Gloom & Lechon to Pokémon TCG: Obsidian Flames.

With Sword & Shield officially concluded, the Scarlet & Violet era of the Pokémon TCG kicked off in March 2023 with a focus on the ninth generation of Pokémon games and the new region: Paldea. It all began with the Scarlet & Violet base set, which introduced major, lasting changes to the hobby. Now, the borders of the cards have become silver, matching the Japanese releases. Another major change is that now, each pack culminates in at least a holo-rare and two reverse holos. The major mechanic of this era is the lowercase ex, which features a double holographic pattern of a horizontal shine and a starry sparkle. Full Art exs now use a green, foil outline around the Pokémon. The Secret Rare section of expansions going forward features Full Arts, Illustration Rares and Special Illustration Rare exs, Full Art Trainers, Special Illustration Rare Trainers, and Gold Hyper Rares. On August 11, 2023, the Pokémon TCG released the third set of this era, Scarlet & Violet – Obsidian Flames, which introduced Tera Pokémon with a Tera type differing from their base type. The chase card is a Dark-type Tera Charizard ex. In today's installment of this Scarlet & Violet – Obsidian Flames art spotlight, we move to the Illustration Rare section of the set.

The Illustration Rares of this set begin with new Gloom by Masako Tomii. This card is a beautiful burst of color, showing Gloom walking on a mossy tree branch in a vibrant jungle. The attentive collector will note another Kanto species below, as two Weedle chitchat below the sauntering Gloom. Artist Narumi Sato shows Lechonk living up to its name, taking a nap next to its bowl of devoured food. This card reminds me in a positive way of the Tyranitar V Alternate Art from Sword & Shield – Battle Styles, which showed the fearsome Pokémon passed out in a cute illustration. That card works against type, but this one? It leans into it in an equally satisfying manner. You can read more about Narumi Sato in our Artist Spotlight series here.

Stay tuned for the journey through this special set as we continue to spotlight the cards and artwork of Pokémon TCG: Scarlet & Violet – Obsidian Flames. Next time, the spotlight continues with the standard section of the set. You can read more about this iconic trading card game right here at Bleeding Cool.

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