At first I was going to ignore this idea and just let it pass because of how minor it seemed, but recent developments (aka, the never-released-in-America Plasma Storm Ampharos and Ninetales showing up in American Wal-Marts) give more of a reason to actually acknowledge the distinction that exists.
We all know Cosmos Holofoil (it may be known to some more as the unofficial Galaxy Holofoil, but I’m going to stick with the official name PTCGO gave us). It is the Holofoil most dear to us, as the main Holofoil for most of the run of the card game. However, we have reason to believe that there are in fact two types of Cosmos Holofoil, deemed as Pixel Cosmos and Smooth Cosmos. As reference, here are two examples of Old Pixel (Secret Wonders Suicune and Mysterious Treasures Ambipom, and two examples of New Smooth XY Promos Gogoat and Kyogre). Everything before Legendary Treasures has the old Pixelated Splotches, noticeable by the blockier shapes. They also consistently have swirls of cosmos within the image. Everything starting with the Legendary Treasures Blister Packs and afterwards, however, have much smoother splotches of cosmos, as close to circles as you can get.
Now, why is this relevant. Well, there are now 5 different Cosmos Holofoil promotional cards that have been printed both before and after the Legendary Treasures breaking point. These are Next Destinies Moltres in both the Plasma Freeze Blisters and the Black & White Two Pack Blisters, as well as the most recently "re"released Plasma Storm Blister promos: Next Destinies Wigglytuff, and BW Promos Drifblim, Ampharos, and Ninetales both before and after the break. The new ones are not old prints, they are newly printed versions utilizing the new Holofoil paper. (Further evidence, I think, would be the new packs of Next Destinies, Plasma Storm, and Plasma Freeze, which contain code cards featuring the new design introduced with Phantom Forces. They are printing old things again for whatever reason, and it includes these promos.)
Now, this distinction isn’t for everyone. I for one am happy to finally own a Ninetales and Ampharos that I didn’t have to import from overseas. But there are definitely collectors that I think would like to know about what we’ve been able to find out. If you see Bulbapedia mentioning Pixel vs Smooth Cosmos Holofoil, this is what we’re talking about. However, I’m only going to mention it on the relevant cards and pages. Everything that isn’t affected by the change will still simply be referred to as Cosmos.
