The most iconic cards of the Neo era!

General
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With the recent spike in set card prices, I’d love to know what you guys think are theTop 3 Most Iconic Cards of the Neo era!

When saying iconic, I mean: Cards that defined the era; the first artworks that come to your mind when you think of Neo sets; cards that always stuck out of the mass and are just in the spotlight!

I’ll start.

  1. Lugia (Genesis)

Not my personal favorite, but there’s just no denying that it’s the Base Zard of the Neo era. Also rookie of a very important Legendary. Pure classic.

  1. Shining Gyarados (Revelation)

One of the two first Shinings and absolutely unforgettable artwork. First red Gyarados in the TCG. Best Shining by a long shot IMO.

  1. Umbreon (Discovery Holo)

This was thight desicion between this one and Revelation Ho-oh, but I went for Umbreon because it’s the first Darkness Holo and I just assume it’s a little more well known and popular than the flying rainbow chicken. I adore both though.

p.s. this thread is virtually asking for someone to put T17 in all three slots. So act quickly and snag your well deserved internet points!

Jokes aside, I’m curious to see your picks! :blush:

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I love that even the stock photo for lugia has a print line and holo scratches lol

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Attempt at an objective Top 3 iconic card list:

  1. Shining Charizard
  2. Shining Gyarados
  3. Shining Magikarp

Top 3 personal favorites:

  1. Umbreon
  2. Lugia
  3. Politoed
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  1. T172. T173. T17

Someone was gonna do it so why not me

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Haven’t been collecting for as long as most of you, but I think of:

  1. Lugia Genesis (in my mind I still put Crystal Lugia ahead of this one for early iconic Lugia, even though it’s not Neo)
  2. Umbreon Discovery
  3. Suicune Revelation

Agree with @joakimstore , though on the Shinings–can’t really do a top 3 without them, have to do like top 5 or 10.

Then I’d finish with (for me and what I think of) Entei Revelation, Espeon Discovery and Dark Espeon Destiny to finish.

Then Gengar cause Gengar belongs in every top 10 of anything good.

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  1. Ho-oh
  2. Suicune
  3. Shining Gyarados
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Your top three is hard to beat!

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shining magikarp, shining tyranitar and Lugia are my favorite.

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2.

3.

This is just me. When I think back to opening Neo packs as a kid, these cards come to mind. Pichu is quintessential Johto hype.

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These are two of my personal favorites:

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1st edition Shining Charizard. 1st edition Shining Tyranitar. 1st edition holo Umbreon. I love all of the Neo sets so this was hard. All Shinings. Legendarys and Starters would be my pick if I was able to pick more. I also love the Espeon and even simple cards like holo bellosum

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The 3 non-holo dogs from Neo Rev

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I also love the Bellossom!

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I’d be inclined to agree with @muk, on your top 3 most iconic list. I can still remember seeing that Lugia card for the first time as a little kid and desperately wanting to pull it. Gyarados is my 2nd all-time favorite Pokémon, so when I saw the shinning card of course I had to have one as well. Umbreon is another of my favorite Pokémon as well as my favorite eeveelution along with Flareon, so it was another that really popped for me. Many great Pokémon and artworks in this era though, so many good choices to be made!

However, my personal favorite card from the Neo era was Light Dragonite as obviously Dragonite is my all-time favorite Pokémon and I absolutely love the artwork (2nd only to Fossil). I actually still have several in binders and a couple PSA 10 1st editions along with some others.

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  1. Neo Discovery Espeon holo
  2. Shining Charizard
  3. Neo Genesis Lugia
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Agreed :blush:

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In all seriousness, this is hard to choose between. Also, my picks are based on judging neo on a Johto based level, so a lot of the shinings I dont think fit that niche (sorry charizord).

Id probably have to go with:

  1. Lugia
  2. Shining Gyarados
  3. Ho-Oh

As for personal favorites:

  1. Dark Typhlosion
  2. T17
  3. T18
  4. Lugia
  5. Ho-Oh
  6. the beasts/doggos
  7. Umbreon/Espeon

theres really nothing i dont love about neo, but thats my picks in a nutshell

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Some honorable mentions

Light dragonite
Light arcaninie
Ho-oh
Light jolteon, flareon, and vaporeon.
Shining mew and southern island mew as promos

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I love the answers so far, especially the Genesis Pichu that @thane posted! I totally forgot about that one, but the concept of Baby Pokemon and a “second” Pikachu was mindblowing at the time. A classic for sure!

I definetly expected Shining Zard to be mentioned, but other than that the Destiny Shinings don’t seem to have a big standing in the S-tier. Even though the ebmossed texture is nice, I guess I’m not alone when I say the artworks aren’t exaclty overwhelming. So to spice the topic up a little, I’ll go ahead and say that they most likely wouldn’t be as desiralbe without the Zard as carrier.
Do you agree/disagree?

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Artworkwise, the winner for me personally is Neo Discovery by a longshot.

  1. Espeon/Umbreon Neo Discovery Holo
  2. Scizor Neo Discovery Holo
  3. Smeargle Neo Discovery Holo

And totally agree with you muk, artworkwise, shinings except magikarp/gyarados and kabutops do nothing for me. Rarity and nostalgia wise it´s a different story.