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

The Cards Of Pokémon TCG: Obsidian Flames Part 14: Sinistea Line

An evocative Yuka Morii-crafted clay Sinistea features in Pokémon TCG's summer 2023 expansion Scarlet & Violet - 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 continue with the Psychic-types.

Ghost-types become Psychic-types in the Pokémon TCG. The big standout for me is the Yuka Morii-crafted Sinistea, which shows Morii using her clay sculpting and photography skills to absolute perfection. Sinistea is rendered as a clay creation in the center of actual cups of tea, which is such a brilliant concept executed to perfection. You can experience a journey through Morii's previous contributions here.

Artist Megumi Mizutani brings a more traditional but still powerful image here, which shows the area where the tea gives way to the actual Pokémon.

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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