Posted in: Games, Pokémon TCG, Tabletop | Tagged: pokemon, Pokemon TCG, xerneas

Pokémon TCG Spotlight: The Best Xerneas Pokémon Cards Part 2

Published Mon, 17 May 2021 23:13:10 -0500

In honor of the end of the Luminous Legends X event in Pokémon GO, let's take a look back at some more of the most iconic Xerneas cards from the Pokémon TCG. Don't miss Part One! We'd love to hear from you, so chime in with your top Xerneas picks in the comments below.

BREAKthrough Xerneas. Credit: Pokémon TCG

The iconic Mitsuhiro Arita illustrated this majestic Xerneas for the underrated XY: BREAKthrough set. Now, the era's holo style was somewhat basic, with a flat foil surface without any real pattern as in the previous galaxy foil and liney styles. However, it's still quite a nice card and the sunshine lights up like the real thing when the light catches the holofoil.

5ban Graphics are known for their computer-generated style of art, but this Forbidden Light Xerneas breaks from that in my opinion. I love the watercolor background here and the way this Legendary Fairy-types rainbow antlers seem to be casting a radiant glow throughout the meadow it is leaping through. Many GX cards see the Pokémon in standard poses, so this one stands out as quite dynamic to me.

Forbidden Light Xerneas. Credit: Pokémon TCG — Forbidden Light Xerneas. Credit: *Pokémon TCG*

5ban delivers one of their more standard offerings for the Full Art version of Xerneas GX from Forbidden Light, but I end up liking this one more than most GXs of the era. The full pink contrasts nicely with the blue lineart used to make Xerneas stand out here. That style of blue lines is on every Full Art GX (with the exception of Ultra Beasts, which actually use red) which breaks from the golden lines used in Full Art EX cards during the EX era, but the blue works particularly well on Xerneas.

Shin Nagasawa illustrates this Xerneas Prism Star from Lost Thunder. If I'm going to be completely honest, the pose here is a bit odd. For some reason, Busta Rhymes' song "Break Ya Neck" comes to mind. What I love about this one is the classy style of the card. Prism Stars were a very short-lived style of card, much like BREAKS and (unfortunately, it seems) Amazing Rares, and I already miss them. In fact, I miss them all.

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