the “Design” poll is just to get a rough count of participants. PLEASE make sure to vote in this.
Cards: individual cards
cards are listed in chronological order based on first release
unless it makes sense otherwise to group them with other cards released at a different time.
cards within a similar release will be grouped together, followed by an option for each individually
vote for any card that you like.
The polls will automatically close on Sunday at 12PM Pacific Time. I will edit this post and title to count down from least to most voted, and we will see which cards are E4’s Favorite.
Most of these images are pulled from quick google searches, eBay, or Bulbapedia if they had a large enough file. If you'd like me to replace an image, you're welcome to post it in the comments.
Good god… They keep destroying art concepts for this Pokemon. This was the least amount I voted. What do artists even reference when making art for this Pokemon? You’d think they were referencing a bulldog or a Jeep Wrangler.
Crystal trainer POP 3 cosmos would’ve been complete perfection if it wasn’t for the Barry the Baptist impression. All he’s missing is a cohiba, a creatine sponsorship and Robert Duvall’s cavalry hat from Apocalypse Now.
FRLG ex is sublime though. I’m not in love with the Masago but that one is nice too. Basically anything before gen 4 is either good or passable.
Honestly, while not the most consistent artwork I will disagree with some other people and say that Blastoise has a good deal more good cards than Venusaur did - at least in my opinion.
Like already mentioned in Venusaur thread this was very similar experience with very few cards i actually enjoyed. After the vintage ones the first i voted was the 2016 cp6 one and even after that i only voted two cards. In whole poll the cd one and Masago’s expedition one feel like are so much above all the other cards in the poll, i don’t want to see them anywhere else than in top 3
probably not a popular opinion but for me Blastoise is the worst starter of all time The thing looks like a cyborg turtle that someone chose to surgically modify with waterhoses. A real shame because I do like squirtle and wartortle a lot
Gigantamax better be ranked higher than Mega in overall design. Mega is an abomination.
As for the cards themselves, I was surprised how fast we reached Ariga’s one in the SM era. For such an iconic Pokemon we do go years without proper art with all these ugly CGI shit work that all look the same. For Blastoise it is worse than most because the CGI ones almost always look off model.
I noticed when planning a binder Blastoise had mostly awful cards.
On top of that, I didn’t want to use duplicates of cards I’ve got in other focused set binders.
Poor blastoise.
I feel like for the Gigantamax they went along with the Japanese time honored anime tradition of giving gun turrets the least functional layout to satisfy someone’s idea of coolness.
lol fair enough but I think many of the Gigantamax designs are fitting for the concept.
Megas are IMO almost uniformly badly designed with spikes protruding randomly that would only look cool for kids before they grow out of that phase. That’s why I also found Sugimori’s excuse for Flygon not getting one hilarious. Artist block, but what on Earth were Lati@s, Aerodactyl, Tyranitar, Steelix, Sharpedo etc