What card do you believe from any set deserved to be a holo? Is there any card that you think should have been a holo in the set and has been robbed of its time in the limelight? This could be a third or final evolution, maybe the artwork was just THAT good, or could you have some bias towards your fav pokemon? Or maybe it’s an uncommon that should have been a rare, or a common that should have been an uncommon. Once you list your card, which holo should it have replaced? Interested in what people come up with!
I’ll start. Base set: I think with Growlithe being an uncommon, Arcanine fully deserved to be a holo. Arcanine is one of the more stronger artworks in base set. It looks elegant, yet powerful. Imagine looking at the top row of your binder base set and seeing Alakazam, Arcanine and Blastoise. And if I had to replace it I would have to go with Clefairy. Stick Clefairy in Jungle set as an uncommon instead witth Clefable as the holo rare.
To a lesser extent, in base set I think Starmie should have least gotten an uncommon. With Staryu starring in the pokemon tv show as Misty’s sidekick I would have expected its evolution to get an uncommon, maybe even a rare at the least!
The first thing that comes to mind for me are the Dark Jolteon and Dark Flareon cards in Team Rocket. I always loved the artwork on both of them, and while it’s awesome that Dark Vaporeon later became a holo in Legendary Collection I would’ve loved to see the same happen for the other two. I’m surprised they weren’t in the set at all, honestly.
If I could swap them out, I’d probably just switch them with the Jolteon and Flareon holos reused from Jungle.
Or at the very least, either one of them would’ve been better than Muk
On the brght side the Neo Destiny Eevee variants also equally are strong candidates. Dark Exeggutor and Slowking comes to mind from that set but the problem is when you go holo over artists who dedicate the entire scene i’ll explain furthermore.
Jungle Persian.
Worse then the mixed bag of Eeveelutions decided on Legendary Collection was choosing it’s blander dark variant over the set’s most under appreciated beauty in the Jungle.
As much as I love the Umbre/Espeon Neo Discovery rare’s comes the sacrifice of losing the depth of the background at the cost of it being highlighted in certain areas so they are niche in a great way of there own. Again with their Gold Star counterparts.
Rocket’s Zapdos, Blaine’s Moltres and Sabrina’s Gengar are all great examples of art detail that is washed out for the subtlety which is why I’m ever so greatful for the reverse options made for Crystal Rares like Golem, Celebi and Ho-Oh. Sandstorm has also got an impressive array of rare arts that hop on the woulda, coulda, shoulda train.
Although the top tiers in the VG’s don’t usually reflect the holofoil choices, I wonder how WOTC original era would appear having Starmie, Rhydon, Golem and Tauros as holofoil.
Contrastingly the new Ancient Mew SM as non holo would had been more inspiring.
Oh and Base set Kadabra. If bitches like Electrode, Yanma, Haunter, Clefairy and even Eevee made the holo sheets and Dragonair didn’t, then even more important is Kadabra. Fuck it, Jynx, Magmar and Electabuzz oh you know where this is going, it could also apply at the babies in Neo.
You all pointing for Muk out it seems, but if we’re going to play it that way then Muk deserves the best and it’s Dark alter too. Muk is a boss.
Lots of great ideas so far in this thread. I especially like the idea of Base Set Dragonair, the Dark Eeveelutions, and Jungle Persian.
A bit more obscure ones that I thought of would be Misty’s Cloyster from Gym Heroes (cool pose with a pretty plain background would work well as a holo). Neo Genesis Sneasel would be sweet so that the set that introduced Dark types could actually have a Holo Dark type haha. It’s got Steel holos with Skarmory and Steelix so would’ve been cool to have at least one Dark-type holo there. Lastly, Jungle Exeggutor. It was only an uncommon, but it was such a notoriously powerful Pokemon in Gen 1, was allegedly the favorite Pokemon overall amongst the Gen 1 game development team, and–most importantly–is one of the most beautiful arts ever produced in the TCG.
How has no one mentioned my boy golem uncommon that got left out from fossil holos.Also a special mention to omastar, still not sure why haunter got the holo
Jungle Rhydon! Always thought that it was a very rare card as a kid, before understanding that there is actually a rarity indicator in the bottom right corner haha!
Dragonair didn’t exist in a Base Set ‘anniversary’ along with the Abra line and the original Venusaur and Blastoise families, but 7 Charizards instead because players still wasn’t getting into Charizard and PSA wasn’t getting enough submissions of it. I have very mixed feelings about that set.
@mtajaj32 Everything you brought up nailed it for me, agreed with it all. I got several LC reverses of Exe and even mentioned it’s Dark sequel but still overlooked poor Jungle.
Ironically this thread made me appreciate when cards decided to not go holo only and give both options like the Power Of One legendary bird Black Stars and Vending series. When Rares held weight of there own.
Sneasel and perhaps darkness energy as well from Neo Genesis. Neo Genesis introduced metal and dark type for the first time where metal got 2 holos (Steelix and Skarmory), while dark got two non-holo rares (Sneasel and Murkow). Skarmory could then have been reduced to a non-holo rare. Both dark types from Neo Genesis were extremely powerful and Sneasel was the first card to get outright banned in the TCG. If it had been released as a “harder to obtain” holo card, and consequently had been the first darkness holo ever, then maybe people would consider it more iconic today?
I also agree that the Rocket’s eevolution easily could have replaced less iconic holo cards like Dark Dugtrio, Dark Golbat and Dark Slowbro.
You beat me to it, was about to mention Base Set Dragonair as well.
Btw, Dragonair (nor Dratini) isn’t even in the XY Evolutions set. Not even as non-Holo.
Some other cards I’d love to see as a Holofoil, besides some of the ones already mentioned (like English Espeon Gold Star or Dark Jolteon):
WotC Promo #2 Electabuzz. We did see a Holofoil reprint for the Pikachu recently, but would love to see the Electabuzz (and Mewtwo perhaps as well) in Holofoil
Light Dragonair, Light Jolteon, Light Flareon, and Light Vaporeon from the Neo Destiny set
And one I would personally like to see as a Holofoil is the Neo Genesis Sudowoodo. Not sure why, but I always liked that artwork
Not only that, but Rhydon was one of the most powerful Pokemon in the game. It definitely deserved to be a holo.
I’ll just do the original four sets:
Base Set: Arcanine (how is this an uncommon?).
Jungle: Rhydon, Tauros, Persian (that artwork would have looked gorgeous with a holo).
Fossil: Golem, Cloyster.
Rocket: Eeveelutions, Dark Rapidash.
Good question! I’ve always thought base set electrode would have made a awesome holo. I’ve also wondered what the scream promos would of looked like as holos.
