EX Team Rocket Returns is my favorite set from the EX era. The art is incredible and I love how they showcased Gen 1 and Gen 2 Pokemon with a sneak peak at Gen 3 through the starters. I have a strong connection to Hoenn, and specifically Pokemon Sapphire. Here’s some Dyl backstory from another post.
Hoenn holds such a special place in my heart. I was obsessed with Pokemon Sapphire when it came out in 2003. The newly added Pokemon, music, locations, legendaries - everything was so cool.
At this time, I had lost my copy of Pokemon Silver, lost my Pokemon card collection, and no longer had a reliable system that would play Pokemon Red, Blue, and Yellow. So, needless to say, Pokemon Sapphire was one of the only connections that I still had to the hobby throughout the mid-to-late-2000s.
Fast forward to 2014, Nintendo announces the release of Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire. At that time, I didn’t own a Nintendo 2DS/3DS (still don’t), so I revisited my original Pokemon Sapphire on the Nintendo DS.
I was flooded with nostalgia.
I began to watch the Gen 1 anime/movies again, and I picked up the most recent anime/movies at the time (XY-era) to learn about the Pokemon in Kalos. Without Pokemon Sapphire, I don’t know that I would have reentered the hobby multiple times over the past two decades.
Oh and the TRR Dark Dragonite Reverse Foil is my favorite Dragonite card.