Cynthia’s Garchomp ex Special Illustration Rare Revealed from “Heat Wave Arena!”

Okay, I'm going to address the elephant in the room. The people who are saying the set is a failure are saying it because Ethan's Ho-Oh ex got a less detailed illustration in the same style, only to get card sleeves featuring a beautiful and thematically fitting alternative art style. Meanwhile, the backlash has resulted because Cynthia's Garchomp ex honestly has the best reason for being in this particular art style out of any of the owner's ex illustration rares given the scene depicted. You want a crisper, less-stylized art medium to capture those bleachers, and the anime style works well for what is obviously meant to be a callback to the Master's Eight Tournament held at Wyndon Stadium.
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Cynthia's Garchomp ex looks too much like the other owner's ex illustration rares. That just means the others should have been different. I mean, the card could have featured a different scene, but Cynthia already has a range of scenarios featured on her cards, so showing her going all-out in a high stakes battle was the logical next step wherever it was set.
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(Edit: Actually, maybe we did need a more stylized Cynthia. Two of these three illustrations seem to have been done in the same style as the most recent one.)
 
Looks good! Although I feel like the big screen with Cynthia kinda makes it a little... redundant? I think it'd look nicer if it was just the crowd in the back behind Cynthia and Garchomp. But great nonetheless
 
Finally, a good SIR. I don’t know why Ethan’s Ho-oh couldn’t be Ethan fighting Ho-Oh on Tin Tower in a Japanese style, but at least Cynthia’s Garchomp is a battle in a giant stadium as it should be
 
CytochromeT said:
Starting to feel a sense of dread that this cycle of owner's pokemon is a failure on every level
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While I don’t like either of the depicted characters or battle scenes as cards, I have to say, this is more than a character standing besides their pokemon. Is a highly dynamic scene in the context of a Pokemon stadium, even doing the big screens from the anime.

Maybe you need to look at what it looks like when people stand still? That’s said, that is also nothing bad. Emotion can expressed through position, gestures and expressions. Deeming that boring is kinda narrow minded.
 
2 sets of this? For what? To not influence the meta in any highly significant way? Why did we not go the way of Radiants/Prism Stars and have a second 1-of in the format? Even the Megas are a little disappointing so far, we'll see. I block's gonna suck
 
jdubs4lief said:
2 sets of this? For what? To not influence the meta in any highly significant way? Why did we not go the way of Radiants/Prism Stars and have a second 1-of in the format? Even the Megas are a little disappointing so far, we'll see. I block's gonna suck
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Are you trying to say that the cards won't see play? Because Mega Lucario will absolutely be played with Cynthia's Garchomp.
 
I kinda hate how the Trainer's Pokémon turns out to be mostly beautiful cards with mid gameplay, just because TPC already decided that they're going all in with Mega Evolution.
 
CytochromeT said:
Starting to feel a sense of dread that this cycle of owner's pokemon is a failure on every level
Click to expand...
Is your reasoning that every Trainer has items/text exclusive to them? That's what's killing it for me. I feel like we're getting locked in, particularly because right now it seems that trainers won't be getting cards outside of their set.

I do like what we've seen for Cynthia so far.
 
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