Does anyone else feel that Hyper Rare artworks are boring?

General
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This is long, so bear with me.

When it comes to collectors, I think we can all safely say that the main thing we look for is artwork. Card art is what gives us that visceral feeling and what makes us want to keep collecting.

To me, a big problem with modern sets is the hyper rares.

Now, I am not a fan of full arts in general, but, at the very least, there is variation between ultra rare cards. But hyper rares? You can look at 20 different hyper rares from 10 feet away, and you’ll have a tough time differentiating between the cards and figuring out what’s what.

The rainbow pattern looks exactly the same on every hyper rare, and, in my opinion, it takes away from the collecting experience.

I really hope Pokemon does something different for Gen 8, because I doubt this will change before the end of Gen 7.

To be perfectly honest, I kind of feel like Pokemon has gone a bit too far with the different levels of rarities in general. I understand that they couldn’t just stick with holos and Shinings forever, because things would have gotten stale, but I loved what they did in the EX era with EX cards and still think those are some of the best artworks in the TCG.

Now we have holos, ultra rares and hyper rares all in the same set. Holo patterns are horrendous in modern sets (at least in my opinion), and it just feels like they have been cheapened altogether. It just feels like there are too many levels of rarity and it makes sets too complicated. And don’t even get me started on reverse rares.

Obviously, what Pokemon is doing is working overall, because they are printing new sets every couple of months and they are selling like hot cakes. I get it. The kids love it, and I’m sure some collectors feel differently than I do.

I just think it would cater much more to collectors if Pokemon would make only a FEW real chase cards per set instead of around 20 ultra rares and around 15 hyper rares ALONG with all of the holos. I personally think Neo Revelation is the best example of this model, with two Shining cards.

I think holos need to come back to the forefront a bit as, at the very least, being the second most desirable cards in the set, and Pokemon really needs to work on making the holos look better. You can barely even tell that some of these cards are holos anymore because the foils are so bland.

What I would do is make it so it goes Ultra Rare > Holo > Non-Holos rather than the Hyper Rare > Ultra Rare > Holo > Non-Holos setup that Pokemon has currently employed. It would just give us all much clearer goals as far as collecting and would weed out what I feel is a lot of unnecessary fluff (sets these days are just too big).

And of course, I feel there should be a 1st Edition stamp to add even more incentive for collectors, but it just doesn’t look like that is going to happen.

I understand that not everyone feels the same way as I do, and that’s fine, but I’m curious as to what everyone’s thoughts are on this overall subject as far as hyper rare artworks and rarities in general?

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I was initially pumped for a new rarity. I quickly realized, they all look the same. :slightly_frowning_face:

Also XY full arts > SM full arts. Secret Rares stayed the same, and FA trainers are nice.

1st Edition would only work if they actually made it limited. I don’t know if it would have the same value for younger generations who never grew up with that concept.

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LV. X era did it right for me, 2/3 per box with secret rare cards that were actually different. You had the SH set, the reprint cards, Rotom set etc. I do like the split in rarities with HA + FA but alot of top tier players actually prefer FA as HR are actually ugly. The new Alternate full arts are actually cool. But this current system has made normal holo cards completely un-special.

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FTFY. :blush: But I agree. Although I like them on a select few cards (the Lapras looks pretty good for example), they are becoming boring now. And I already thought from the very first Sun & Moon set there are WAY TOO FREAKING many Secret Rares.
They kinda remind me of the Ghost Rares in Yu-Gi-Oh. Very collectible and popular, but from a distance you only see a vague reflection of yourself and nothing of the artwork…

Basically, this graph someone posted a few months back says it all:

PS: I’d like to see an updated version of this graph with all Sun & Moon sets instead of just the first two…

I actually posted a similar thread before: Do Secret Rares still mean something since S&M?

I personally disagree with some parts of your post, but everyone has a different opinion of course. I personally like Full Arts and Reverse Holos, and wouldn’t mind if 1st edition didn’t come back at all (since it saves me loads of money with my Pikachu and Seviper collections). I also collect Full Art Supporters, and don’t think there is a single one that I didn’t like. FA Supporter cards are one of the main plus-points for the XY & SM era imo.

But to answer your title: yes, I think Hyper Rares are boring and lazy on their part. They just create the same card a bunch of times with different colors, and bam, we have a set bois.

I’m not saying the new sets are bad in general. There are loads of artworks I like, and as I mentioned, I love the FA Supporters. Every generation of cards has positives and negatives. I hope they will keep the Secret Rares to a minimum again with gen 8, although I highly doubt it…

Greetz,
Quuador

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I like the hyper-rare aka rainbow rares. It’s always a special feeling to pull one from a booster. So distinguishable from anything else in the set that it’s immediately recognizable. So much so, that you can see the glimmer of the rainbow as soon as the pack is opened. Even better are the gold bordered cards, although they tend to be less interesting with items instead of Pokemon. The full gold Zecrom and Reshiram style cards are in a league of their own for modern.

That said, I hope they close the curtain on them soon. Perhaps at the end of the Sun and Moon era. Making the same kind of secret rare cards for every set can get kind of boring, so a new style would be welcomed.

One thing I dislike is the confusion on what the hell to call these: Ultra Rare, Secret Rare, Hyper Rare, Rainbow Rare, Gold Cards
Keep it simple Pokemon!

Might just be the comparative differences, but their regular foils are just so boring now. I pulled a couple last night and I was like “meh, nothing from this pack”.
In the WOTC days of Pokemon, pulling a foil card meant something. Now it’s just more junk to add to the the bulk pile.

My personal favorite hyper rare: Gyarados Crimson Invasion 112/111 RR

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I think this is the part that bothers me the most.

Not only are foils so low on the list of rarity these days, but they look awful. I don’t see any reason why they can’t go back to the cosmo foils they had back in the day.

It’s not like this was only in WOTC, either. Holos in the EX era looked fantastic. Diamond and Pearl ones looked great, too. It’s the newest sets that have essentially made a mockery (for lack of a better phrase) of the foils.

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A set shouldn’t have 20+ hyper rares, it makes getting a hyper rare feel less special. A hyper rare shouldn’t have the EXACT SAME artwork as a it’s full art counterpart. There are so many hyper rare cards that I just find myself thinking “why even bother” when it comes to collecting them.

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Hyper Rares would indeed be much more exciting to me if they weren’t just rainbow foiled versions of the Ultra Rares. Taking a card, reissuing it with a tweak to coloring, and increasing its rarity, seems pretty lazy to me.

I also don’t believe that most Ultra Rares should be automatically made into a Hyper Rares in this way. Maybe there should be more correlation between the top rarity tier of a set and its theme? What I mean is that I bought a Team Up ETB when it released and pulled a Cobalion Hyper Rare (that was also really off center) and all I could think was, “What a waste.” I was so excited for these new tag team cards and I was lucky to pull a very rare card, yet my box became like any other set box at that moment.

With sets becoming larger and larger, I feel it would be better to release a smaller set of cards that really focuses on providing rare cards that feel important to the set it’s from. Instead of having 10-20 Hyper Rares, with most of the Pokemon being direct translations from the Ultra Rare versions + Rainbow foiling, it would be nice if maybe only the important theme cards to each set were made into Ultra Rares, and even less into Hyper Rares. Then when you do pull an amazing card you walk away with that feeling of “Wow!” rather than “Pulled a Gumshoos GX Hyper Rare…yaayyyy…”

There shouldn’t be a split feeling between, “It’s a really unexciting Pokemon/card” and “But it’s really rare!.” Hyper Rares, or whatever top tier rarity there is should have both the wow factor and rarity factor working for it…and preferably unique artwork.

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I’m always excited by the new hyper-rares when they’re first released, but any one has yet to leave a lasting impact on my buyer’s consciousness. I’ve never bought one. Aesthetically, while nice, they’re all too similar IMO. They just don’t feel special.

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Secret Rares haven’t been cool since plasma storm

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I always wondered why new holo patterns are so bad…

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Only issue I have is that they look too much alike. The Hyper slot should have had the shiny version(similar to USGX) or an alternate art(similar to the new birds and rowlet&exeggutor).

There is an abundance of secrets but it’s nice that they are spread around. Variety is nice instead the same few fan-favorites getting the top cards in every set. I know it’s hard to believe but people like pokémon other than the starters and legendaries. I’m excited as hell for the new Mawile GXs to come out even though I watch people pull them and complain. It makes me want to make a deck around them even though the meta is going to be heavily fire. lol

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I really enjoyed the hyper Lunala I pulled from S&M base, but then got bored of them. They should pick a few from each set and make it a unique art, that would fix the issue I think. Will be disappointing if they carry through to sword and shield sets.

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Sun & Moon era Full Arts have been boring unfortunately. I like the Raindow Rare style but there’s just too much of that. I wish the secret rare versions were the actual Full Arts.

Examples of what I mean (The PikaZekrom became a Promo card in English, but anyway):


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The rainbow hyper rare and gx cards are what first got my attention to look at cards. While I grew up with Pokemon around I missed out on playing with the games or the cards. As an adult I got drawn in with Go and thought maybe I would like the 3ds games and got hooked. Playing another card game at my local game store I saw the gx and hyper rare cards in a glass case and thought they were so pretty that I had to just buy them even though I don’t play. Once I started with those I began watching YouTube videos of people with their collections and pack openings which led to SMPRATTE. His videos introduced me to a whole world of cards I had no idea existed and I fell in love with all different types of art from a wide variety of eras. My current favorites are the modern Japanese promos and illustrations by Hajime Kusajima.

Comparing all the cards I have now with the hyper rares there is no comparison. In my opinion they don’t measure up at all. With out them though I don’t know if I would have ever started collecting cards which I love doing so they will always hold a special place for me. Sometimes people need something really shiny to get their attention :blush:

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The secret rare version of the Reshiram & Charizard GX deserves so much better than to be a tin promo. A shame it couldn’t be a chase card; it’s one of my favorite artworks in the TCG.

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Pokemon used to rarely recycle artworks, if anything the only reprint artwork you would see would be in a Japanese end-of-era set like EX Battle Boost or Best of XY. If a card was reprinted it would at least get different artwork to differentiate it (see stuff like Evolutions starter megas). Not so with Sun & Moon.

Now the same artwork appears not only multiple times in the same era, but multiple times in the same set. The only change between full art and hyper rare is them clicking the rainbow button on Photoshop, which to me is just lazy. This is made especially worse by the horrendous GX full arts with bland, solid-color backgrounds. They couldn’t even be bothered to get new artworks for GX Ultra Shiny, could you imagine how amazing that set would be if the shiny FAs were in the same style as the new special art Tag Teams? I’d spend all the money I ever get on those cards. The new special art Tag Teams should be the standard for the future, and I hope Pokemon learns from their mistake in the Gen 8 TCG era.

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Those cards would look great in a tin.

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I don’t have an issue with hyper rares IF it was 1-3 PER set. There’s far to many ‘secret’ rares it’s getting out of hand. And pulling a holo is about as exciting as pulling a common card there’s nothing to them

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Gen 7 TCG is a humongous drag because of every single set having 30+ secret rares and looking at the trend the series has followed of adding more and more “chase” since Gen 4, it’s only going to get even worse in Gen 8. I don’t know how, but they’ll find a way and maybe it’ll make me quit collecting for good. What is the incentive to even buy a booster box anymore? I started doing that back in Gen 4 when you could buy one box and get 90% of a set, not the whole thing but enough to make it feel worthwhile even if the value of the cards within were junk. Now if we are lucky we can get one (or zero!) of the 30+ super shinies in any given set by buying a $90 booster box with 36 packs.

Is the strategy even working that well? I’m noticing the TCG is dragging out more and more Waifus & Charizard every set now, which feels more like a desperate way to drum up sales than a franchise that’s actually on an upswing. There’s a few collectors who enjoy the challenge of dropping $1000+ every 3 months to complete a set but most are broken and/or disinterested. Especially where there’s videos of Youtube channels opening 1000+ packs of Unbroken Bonds and still not even completing the set.

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