Since tier lists seem to be quite popular at the moment, I thought it’d be fun to see people’s rankings if we pitted what are commonly thought of as the best subsets within the whole tcg: Shinings, Crystals & Gold Stars!
I know we’ve done one of these before, but sure, it’s fun to always reassess.
Gold star are just overrated man. I’m never taken with any except Gyarados. Celebi and Umbreon are especially forgettable. Wouldn’t even buy them for $50. Though I admit the Japanese version would rank maybe a B.
The top 2 have both double holo versions, and massively killer JP versions, they are god tier. Most crystals are perfect cards.
Theyre card design is definitely the best out of all these so it just kinda auto bumps them up regardless of art and yet they still have the best artwork out of all these cards for the most part. They truly are the pinnacle of secret rares for the tcg IMO. It’s just a shame that the aquapolis crystals dont quite have the same holo treatment that the skyridge ones do which is what bumps them down a tier for me.
I agree, they’re almost flawless examples of what the Pokémon TCG can be. The holo differences between Aquapolis & Skyridge are something I only noticed a while ago…so strange how they revised the holo placement just for that final WoTC set release.
Also, just added the missing GS to the list. Here’s mine with them added:
A bit different than how I’d rate cards exclusively for their art. Price and scarcity does affect my perception on how much I’d consider something a “grail”.
Happy to at least own a couple of the cards in my S & A tiers.