Hey there efour! It’s been a few months since I last updated this thread, but in the meantime I’ve managed to cross off a few more colleciton goals/complete a few more binder pages starting with:
Pal City
There’s a lot to like about the Pal City cards for me — the shared artwork (with the titular Pikachu tent and pokeball balloons in the background), the inclusion of pokemon that (mostly) reflected the various regions where the events were held, and the tie in to the battle road events where these cards were distributed to the participants. Checks all of the boxes, and thensome!
I’ve been chasing this set shortly after discovering them in late 2019, and although I spent much more than I should have on acquiring a complete set I’m glad to finally be able to have these amazing cards in my binder.
Full Art “UR” Stadiums
I find these stadium cards to be some of the most underated cards currently on the market! I don’t mean to say that these cards should be valued more, but rather that I don’t see many people talking about them. They’re great examples of 5ban Graphics’ work, especially considering the flac they often receive for producing “lifeless” CGI FA cards of Pokemon. Lots of nice little detail in there too!
Poncho Eevee Promos
I’m a sucker. Need I say more… (bonus Munch Eevee to round out the page!)
Artists
Admittedly I haven’t made a lot of progress on my subgoal of having a binder full of artists I enjoy, but I am getting closer to finishing off single binder pages for this particular thread/binder. This time I’d like to showcase my favourite cards from two modern artists, that I think rival sowsow’s ability to create endearing designs and detailed backgrounds — both artists use watercolours (afaik) but create a completely different aesthetic that I absolutely adore:
sui
Sekio
Misc. Japanese Trainer/Stadium promos
These are some of my absolute favourite Japanese trainer/stadium (and one supporter) promos distributed across the various eras — with my favourite being the 2016 Teammates Battle Festa card (bottom right). It was given out at a side event during the 20th Anniversary Battle Festa events, where participants were split between two age groups: those born before 1989, and those born after 1989. The group that collectively won the most games were awarded a copy of this card.
I love cards that play around with generational gaps, or have some form of fun twist to them (like the Touch Exchange/Generation Change cards) and find this card to be especially approriate because the name in Japanese is “Senpai/Kouhai” which is a way to address those senior and junior to you in age/profession. A great way to commemorate the history of these side events that have been happening since nearly the beginning of the TCG (Trophy Khan was awarded at such an event!). I’m hoping there’s something similar this year, but we’ll have to wait and see.
As always, thanks for taking a look! I’ve made some changes to the main body of this thread to account for some changes in my binder, but they’re all minor. If you’d like to chat about any of the cards listed here, or Japanese promos in general, feel free to DM here or on Instagram 
Until next time~