Posted in: Card Games, Games, Pokémon TCG, Tabletop | Tagged: Mewtwo, pokemon, pokemon cards, Pokemon TCG, shining legends

The Cards Of Pokémon TCG: Shining Legends Part 13: Full Arts

Bleeding Cool's journey through the Sun & Moon era of the Pokémon TCG continues. Now that our spotlight series has moved through the first five sets of this block (Sun & Moon base, Guardians Rising, Burning Shadows, Crimson Invasion, and Ultra Prism), now it's time to look at this era's first special set. A special set (sometimes called a holiday set) is an expansion of cards released in branded products rather than a booster box. You can tell when a set is "special" when it doesn't have the era's name as part of its title. Shining Legends was released on October 6th, 2017 and focused on Shiny Pokémon. Notably, it brought back the vintage "Shining" style of card introduced during the Neo era. Today, let's take a look at the two Full Art Pokémon-GX from this set.

Man, the Pokémon TCG sure did save two heavy hitters for this set. I have been critical of the Full Art style used in the Sun & Moon era, and for good reason. Note how Entei, a Fire-type, has a pure red background. Note, then, how Mewtwo, a Psychic-type, has a pure purple background. This is because this era had go-to colors for Full Arts that were type-based, which ended up creating a samey vibe throughout the whole era. Both Fire-types and Psychic-types made out well, though, as the chosen colors work beautifully with the textured foil. These cards lack the backgrounds of Full Arts from the XY era which would return in the Sword & Shield era, though, so there's a limit to how exciting they can be, even though they feature two of the most prominent Legendaries in the hobby. While the Alternate Art trend wouldn't begin enriching the Full Art section of Pokémon TCG sets until later down the line, you'll see in a few installments how Shining Legends introduced the seed that would eventually blossom into this idea with a different version of the Mewtwo-GX.

Stay tuned for the continuing journey through Pokémon TCG: Shining Legends. To look back on this series, click the Shining Legends tag below. Next time, this journey continues with the main set.

Enjoyed this? Please share on social media!

Stay up-to-date and support the site by following Bleeding Cool on Google News today!