Posted in: Card Games, Games, Pokémon TCG, Tabletop | Tagged: Celestial Storm, pokemon, pokemon cards, Pokemon TCG, rayquaza

The Cards Of Pokémon TCG: Celestial Storm Part 20: Rayquaza & More

Bleeding Cool's journey through the Sun & Moon era of the Pokémon TCG continues. Now that our spotlight series has moved through the first seven sets of this block (Sun & Moon base, Guardians Rising, Burning Shadows, Crimson Invasion, Ultra Prism, Shining Legends, and Forbidden Light), now it's time to look at the next set from this era: Sun & Moon – Celestial Storm was released on August 3rd, 2018. This set has some interesting focuses including the expansion's mascot of the Dragon-type Rayquaza, the Hoenn Starters, and Kanto Pokémon. This set also continued the inclusion of Prism Star cards which could be pulled by lucky collectors in the reverse holo slot. Today, we continue our journey by finishing up the Full Art Pokémon of the set.

Coming as no surprise to collectors, all three of these Full Art GXs are illustrated by art house 5ban Graphics, who is responsible for most of this card type. Both Scizor and Stakataka are Steel-types that get that silvery background, but note that Stakataka's variant of Ultra Beast GX uses red line art rather than the standard blue for Full Arts of this era. That's one of the cool things that separates Ultra Beast GX Full Arts into a slightly different card type.

The main Full Art Pokémon hit of Sun & Moon – Celestial Storm is Rayquaza GX. The set mascot, Rayquaza is one of the most popular Legendaries of all time and manages to be a major chase card of almost every set in which it appears. The one thing that unfortunately knocks this card down a peg is the murky olive color that the Pokémon TCG used for Dragon-type Full Arts during this time. If only they used the XY era iridescent black that we saw on Dragon-type cards back then, I think this card would be even cooler. As is, it's the fifth most valuable card in the set, beaten by its own Rainbow Rare equivalent, Rainbow Rare Scizor, and two Full Art Trainers.

Stay tuned for the continuing journey through Pokémon TCG: Sun & Moon – Celestial Storm. To look back on this series, click the Celestial Storm tag below. Next time, this journey continues with Full Arts of this set.

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