ex era stamped Reverse Holos are the single best thing that ever came out of the English/Western side of Pokemon.
Japan has almost all the exclusive art, the sleek elegant borders, the superior print quality.
But the “reverse” (/special/alternate/stamped) holo treatment that the English ex era cards received is something else entirely. It created a completely unique identity for each set and finally paid the well deserved respect to all the common and uncommon cards and gave everyone its time to shine.
Many artworks got lifted from “really great” to “outstanding masterpieces” and once you’ve seen them with foil, you can hardly imagine why anyone would’ve wanted to print them as non-holos in the first place. I think my favorites are Legend Maker and Deoxys so far, but I’m pretty much a bloody noob on the ex front.
I feel weird to call an English release better than its Japanese original for once, but for the ex era, English just takes the cake all day every day.
I’d love to hear your opinions on the matter and please share your favorite Reverse Holos!
EX English Reverse Holos are FANTASTIC (save for a few sets that just use the bland Expedition/Aquapolis/Skyridge style for their reverses). These are the way reverses are SUPPOSED to be done.
100% agree. One of my close friends in the community picked up on this a little while ago and has been buying up a ton of RH c/u/r from the EX era on the belief that they’re dramatically undervalued for what they offer.
I had a few thousands of these and bulked them for like $0.10/ea at Nationals ten years ago like a fucking moron.
Amen. Probably my favorite thing about collecting EX master sets are the reverse holos. They’re so beautiful, and they vary so much from set to set. A few standouts:
I know right?! So much variety and identity! Deoxys’ pattern is probably the most ballsy and in-your-face of them all and it doesn’t work equally well on all cards IMO. But when it fits, it slaps HARD (like on that Sableye for example… once you’ve seen its reverse holo, every other version is actual garbage compared to it).
One thing I hate about the Deoxys reverses is how warped they usually are. Even in mint condition, they look like taco shells lol.
Another thing I hate about them is how fragile they are. It was such a bitch to put together my Deoxys set. I’m not kidding when I say that I ordered 30+ of specific reverses just to find a suitable, unscratched one. Of course, this was almost a year ago when they were mostly like 50 cents each lol, so it didn’t feel too bad.
Aside from these factors and the fact that they probably aren’t suitable for people with epilepsy, Deoxys had awesome reverses.
Team Rocket Returns is easily one of the best sets ever. The art looks like it’s straight from a graphic novel. And the exs and gold stars are amazing. Can’t recommend it enough. It’s a money pit though; makes the original Team Rocket set (even in 1st Ed.) feel like child’s play lol.
of course these RHs are incredible, but I also have a soft spot for the RS-magma/aqua ones. they’re my favorite of the ‘bland’ RH pattern simply because of how bright and colorful they are. seriously looks like a rainbow’s embedded onto each one.
I absolutely agree with OP. I remember when ex sets were new and I was excited to see how the reverse holo pattern would look in every set! Too bad they never did anything similar with reverses afterwards. I really wish they would bring individual reverse patterns back. It would give sets more identity while I feel like reverses have been more or less soulless since DP era.
