I loved collecting Pokemon cards as a kid. I remember getting a limited edition Ancient Mew after going to see 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Mewtwo Strikes Back in the cin🐲ema when I was four years old - I still have it today. Unfortunately, retaining this card and many others wasn’t enough for me to maintain interest in the Pokemon TCG throughout my teenage years, during which time Pokemon ඣwas “stupid,” “for kids,” and “something I maybe played when nobody was looking but would never dream of telling anyone about - football, football, football.” Ah, the joys of youth.
Whil𝄹e I always kept up with the games - often in secret but never in the absence of behind-closed-doors enthusiasm - I also fell off the anime before it even reached Sinnoh. Still, the TCG was the first casualty. I don’t think I ever owned a Gen 3 card, and in my schoolyard, Yu-Gi-Oh reigned supreme. I’ll never forget the day an older kid scammed me out of a Black Skull Dragon. Fortunately for me, the joke was on him - he got in trouble with the teacher for cheating because the card was a great big fake. Haha.
Anyway! Over the last few years, I’ve semi-regularly entertained the notion of trying to get back into the Pokemon TCG specifically. I know everything about the games, have seen some of the more recent anime episodes, and just generally enjoy reading up on all things Pokemon. The TCG, at the time of writing, is my only remaining weak spot. With such an overwhelming amount of histo😼ry to trawl through, I’ve always ended up dismissing the idea on account of how daunting it seems. That all changed yesterday when I opened my first Evolving Skies pack.
Evolving Skies is the latest major expansion for the Pokemon TCG’s Sword & Shield collection. Rudimentary research wou𝓀ld inform you that a lot of its significance has to do with its emphasis on Eeveelutions and reintegration of Dragon-types, both of which are big deals in and of themselves, but the main thing about this particular expansion is that it’s just… nice.
I opened ten packs yesterday and didn’t fare particularly well - my rarests cards were Golurk V and holos for Dialga and Zygarde. Not terrible by any means, but across ten packs, I was hoping for more. What shocked me is that I ♌wasn’t disappointed - after going throu🧔gh every pack and seeing the complete absence of cards I thought I wanted, all I felt was joy.
There’s a certain kind of magic to th𒊎is expansion that transcends pulling Umbreon Vmax and three different types of Rayquaza. It’s pretty ironic given that every ETB under the sun was swooped up by sca🌌lpers, but Evolving Skies isn’t about expensive rares or profit projection. It’s about the cards and the Pokemon they represent, which is perhaps best evidenced by how much love and care has gone into every single piece of art in the entire collection.
For example, my favourite card I pulled was Drampa, who, to be honest, I’ve never really cared about. Even in New Pokemon Snap - a game that proves 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:there are no bad Pokemon - it’s drastically outshone by just about every other ‘mon around it. The Evolving Skies Drampa, however, has changed my entire perspective on it. It’s like a post-impressionist painting, with thick, vibrant brush strokes vaguely shaping the figure it’s supposed to depict. It is, put simply, an extremely detailed illustration in which the artist’s affection for their subject💛 is evident. There have always been great Pokemon cards - a colleague of mine pointed out that this was handled by the same artist behind the famous alternate Hypno and Clefairy designs - but it’s still amazing to see. Unlike a lot of people, I was never really one for the flashy foil cards anyway. Seeing a more standard one with this much style and attitude 25 years after the series debuted is proof that even with the a🦹mount of money it generates, the people behind the product still see it as something more.
Other favourites I’ve pulled so far include an action shot of Gigalith, an Eevee gazing at Rayquaza in the sky above, and a cutesy little Teddiursa sitti𒐪ng among a bunch of flowers. While I’d love to nab myself a Suicune V, Dragonite V, and admittedly aforementioned Umbreon Vmax, I’d be equally happy to pull standard versions of Ampharos, Salamence, and Milotic. I mean, I don’t play TCG competitively - I’d gladly take Zorua over the expansion’s rarest Duraludon because I’m only interested in collecting my favourites.
Given how prevalent scalping is in Pokemon TCG communities right now - or, more accurately, given how prevalent scalping communities adjacent to them are - I’ve ജbeen struggling to find a worthwhile box for a decent price. Still, I don’t mind waiting a bit - thanꦉks to Evolving Skies, my interest in the Pokemon TCG in general has skyrocketed for the first time in over 15 years.
I may have an ostensibly unwinnable game of catchup ahead of me, but thanks to Evolving Skies, I’m confident I can bring myself up to speed in time to dive headfirst into the next expansion knowing full well what it entails. Now all I have to do is build a deck, on which note… okay, maybe I do need more than Zorua, but I definitely don’t need Rayquaza - although I wouldꦿn’t say no if I did manage to snag one, eh?