Week #1 - link
Hey Everyone!
Here we are for Week #2 of the Complete Nationaldex Artwork Quest!
This week we are running through Pokemon #19 to #36!
Rattata, Raticate, Spearow, Fearow, Ekans, Arbok, Pikachu (GOOD LUCK), Raichu, Sandshrew, Sandslash, Nidoran F, Nidorina, Nidoqueen, Nidoran M, Nidorino, Nidoking, Clefairy & Clefable!
I’m looking forward to seeing everyone’s favourite artworks!
Rattata - ex Team Rocket
Raticate - Skyridge
Spearow - Unleashed
Fearow - Unbroken Bonds
Ekans - Shining Legends
Arbok - ex Team Rocket Returns
Pikachu - Pop 4
Raichu - Bulbasaur Deck
Sandshrew - Gym Heroes
Sandslash - BREAKthrough
Nidoran F - Skyridge
Nidorina - Team Up
Nidoqueen - Mysterious Treasures
Nidoran M - Aquapolis
Nidorino - Steam Siege
Nidoking - Secret Wonders
Clefairy - Secret Wonders
Clefable - Expedition
This was a contender for Pikachu, however because it is a jumbo I didn’t consider it 
Also for Pikachus, I had a lot of other cards I did consider, however I refrained from the Poncho Pikachus, Pikachus featuring other pokemon and stuck strictly to Pikachu by itself. I also did not consider the Art Academy Pikachus as I find they hold a different place in my heart and collection than being in this journey. What do you guys think?
@quuador - I was thinking that after the entire dex is complete, we should do a bonus entry for “forms”
Instead of including them in the original pokemon. Like this week I could’ve done a separate entry for Alolan Rattata, Sandshrew etc… but they deserve their own love too.
Other interesting things I found this week - Nidoqueen and Nidoking don’t really have any “ultra rares” despite being the final evo of a line of three… There is Crystal Nidoking and a BREAK (though I don’t consider BREAK much of a positive achievement. lol)
Clefairy has a ton of great artwork as well - Just this one struck out as the main winner. I have found a lot of the newer sets for it seem to have a lot of smashing good cards. Just not enough to change my mind from my favourite.
Till next week!
This was a lot of fun! Doing this was a nice reminder to start collecting the Vending Series cards; such great artwork!
I do have an honorable mention for Pikachu:
Here we are, week 2 and I found this quite a bit harder than week 1 since I wasn’t as crazy about the artwork as I was for week 1. A few standouts for me are the Pikachu, Nidoking, and Clefable. The Pikachu is honestly such a great card, great artwork with Red and Pikachu in Professor Oak’s Lab. All the full art secret rare character cards from Cosmic Eclipse are great, really nice variation on the trainer’s Pokemon we had earlier on. I’d love a modern set like the gym series/team rocket, those are some of my favourites, with all the secret rares being full arts like the Cosmic Eclipse ones. The Nidoran M is pretty neat, haven’t seen that many artworks depicting the Pokemon in a futuristic setting, really liked that.
I’ll be mainly pulling from English sets and using pkmncards.com, just easier on me time wise haha but if I do remember a great Japanese-exclusive artwork I’ll go and pull it as well.
Okay let me just say choosing a favorite Pikachu card is ridiculously difficult! I went for a Jungle Pikachu - it’s definitely not my favorite art of Pikachu, not even close to that, but Jungle Pikachu used to be one of my childhood favorites and the card holds a lot of nostalgia value for me which is why I chose it 
Pikachu has so many great cards that it’s crazy to choose a top favorite out of them, I like too many of them.
Here my favorites for this week:
Rattata: EX Team Rocket Returns 72/109
Raticate: Skyridge 89/144
Spearow: Unbroken Bonds 145/214
Fearow: Phantom Forces 79/119
Ekans: Hidden Fates 26/68
Arbok: XY 48/156
Pikachu: POP Series 4 13/17
Raichu: Furious Fists 28/111
Sandshrew: Boundaries Crossed 78/149
Sandslash: Vending Machine Series 3 (Green)
Nidoran♀: Skyridge 81/144
Nidorina: Skyridge 83/144
Nidoqueen: Jungle 7/64
Nidoran♂: Triumphant 70/102
Nidorino: Base Set 37/102
Nidoking: Gym Challenge 7/132
Clefairy: 381/SM-P promo
Clefable: Hidden Fates 40/68
Just like everyone else, it was hard to pick just one for the Pikachu. Pikachu has the most artworks of all Pokémon (240 unique ones at time of writing to be exact, which is pretty insane). There are a lot of Pikachu cards and artworks I like. Obviously the Base Set one, but in terms of artwork also the Expedition Base Set; Pikachu Emotions, Hawaii Dancer, and Space Art Academy copies; Shining Legends artwork; Captain Pikachu jumbo; etc. etc. But, I decided to go with POP4 instead. When I started collecting Pikachu cards it was my favorite Pikachu artwork, and it’s still among my favorites today. Although, I’m pretty sure if I one day get my hands on the Pikachu Emotions cards, it will be my favorite Pikachu artwork instead:
Sounds good. In that case I maybe shouldn’t have added the shiny Charizard last week. 
Greetz,
Quuador
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The artwork for Raticate and Nidoran is really on fleek. There are so many hidden gems in the common/uncommon cards from WotC e-series expansions, especially from Skyridge.
Honorable mentions with commentary: Vending (Himeno) and Surge’s Rattata (Nishida). Southern Islands Raticate (Fukuyama). Jungle Spearow (Arita). Expedition Fearow (Umemoto). Fossil Ekans (Himeno). Unbroken Bonds Arbok (Baba) and Janines Arbok (Komiya).
Red Cheeks and EX Sandstorm (Arita), Illustrator and Wizards Promo Tigermouse no. 27 (Nishida), Ooyama’s, Creator Contest (Forest), Mysterious Treasures and DP16 Promo (Kizuki - These two get me in the feels) , Legend era Shoppingchu (Himeno), XY-P Art Academies (Ashley and Me!), CP6 FA (Mizutani), SM-P Munch (Iribi), Mario/Luigi (Saito), Sapporo and Zekrom TTGX (Kawayoo) Pikachu. Topps and Bandai Carddatass aren’t too bad either.
Prerelease Raichu (Sugimori - Everyone secretly wants it, they won’t admit it, that green emboss foil puts the boss into the emboss), Sandstorm ex (Ueda), PokéKyun Raichu (Kusube). EX Delta Species (Komiya) and Brock’s Sandshrew (Sugimori), it’s a wonderful piece alright, actual Sugimori art. Starting to become a fave since I caught a shining greenshrew. Little druggos. Woah, that Sandslash was a Kinebuchi, right on…
Team Up Nidoran♀ (Kudo). That Nidoqueen should have got the holo, but it is a solid rare imo. EX Dragon Frontiers (Arita), Yoshida’s Crystal, Team Up Kawayoo and classic Sugimori kings are all great. Pink looks good on Base Clef, the color variation of choice works. Imagine if they made the Charizard and Gyarados colorless??
Thanks to anyone taking the time out to give a care about my opinons about pictures.
I’ll leave you with this. 
