I love environmental storytelling and world building and how Pokémon incorporates it into many of their sets. It hasn’t been as strong/consistent lately (at least in English sets), but many good examples come from Vintage sets like Jungle, Skyridge, Aquapolis, Sandstorm, Holon Phantoms, Delta Species, Crystal Guardians, etc
What are some of your faves?
The ones you mentioned for sure. Dragon, Magma vs Aqua and Hidden legends. Plasma Freeze is another one (gen 5 in general had some good ones.)
Fusion Arts had a tiny little metropolitan subsection, it’s not much but it really stands out as something surprisingly great.
Delta Species has a great theme. You would think that Holon originated in the video game or the anime but it actually originated in the TCG.
the Holon region was inhabited by humans who wished to search for the elusive Mirage Pokémon Mew. Establishing a city (also called Holon), scientists utilized the unique magnetic properties of the area to produce waves of electromagnetic energy via a large tower in the city center to track the location of Mew. The resulting electromagnetic waves caused the local Pokémon to mutate into abnormal types inconsistent with their genes elsewhere, with their highest evolved forms typically having Metal as a type. The affected Pokémon came to be known as Delta Species.
A great premise for a set of cards.
The weather in Holon is very strange and different from other places due to the electromagnetic waves from the tower in the city center. Magnetic storms may occur. In addition, pressure changes are not uncommon.
Castform is fit for the erratic weather. Love these, especially with the Holon Tower in the back.
And although it would have made sense to put Gold Star Mew in this set, Pokemon decided to tease us and release Mew in the last Delta Species set, Dragon Frontiers.
Great examples! Holon being entirely on the tcg was fascinating to me. I stopped collecting back then right before Delta Species and Holon Phantoms came out so I just missed that period. Wish I hadn’t! Anyway, so creative and so cool.
For me, I’d say Ex Sandstorm is my favorite when it comes to environmental storytelling and art theme throughout a set. Some of my faves include:
If you played Scarlet and Violet, the new sets from Japan are pretty strong - probably the strongest yet in terms of game setting.
Team Rocket Returns, Team Magma Vs Team Aqua (if you like that style), Double Crisis are also well themed with follow through.
I also like the HGSS sets for mostly succeeding in attempting that ancient vibe.
Think just about everything else from DP onwards fails and many more before that too.
Yes for real. All the sets you said. Incredible
I definitely agree that it kinda falls off after the ex era.
Although I do also like Chilling Reign for the snowy theme, although it didn’t permeate the sets’ artwork as much as I’d like it too
Skyridge/Aquapolis hands down. There isnt a set that creates a world better for me than those sets. The canals, the clocktower, the ruins, the ho-oh ‘nazca lines’ and so much more.
Oh man I love Aquapolis too! Reminds me of Alto Mare from Pokémon Heroes. (My favorite Pkmn movie)
Southern Islands is the best set ever for themes and art because its all one cohesive picture. The cards all tell a story if you bring them together, which makes it so unique.
Oh boy, what great tastes all of you have! All of my favorites have been mentioned already.
My very top picks would be Jungle for the OG era and Sandstorm for the ex era - that is not to say that Rocket, Skyridge or Delta Species have a worsely executed themes by any means. I just like the naturalistic themes better.
Apparently Vending is also heavily thematic release with close ties to the original Game Boy games, although I can’t really comment on that due to my complete lack of of such gaming experience (shameful, I know).
After ex, I’m essentially too much out of the loop. I think Plasma Freeze also has a super strong identity shown in the artwork, but the style just isn’t my cup of tea.
If we count mini sets, Pokekyun has to be mentioned alongside Southern Islands as well! It’s easier for smaller sets to maintain a strong identity throughout all cards, which is also why I generally like them better and am more sceptical towards 150+ card sets.
Delta species, Southern Islands, Team Rocket/Team Rocket Returns. I like when both the card and the card art have some uniqueness to it.
Quick Starter Gift Set
[quote=“odds, post:12, topic:39452, full:true”]
Quick Starter Gift Set
[/quote]That’s a controversial opinion for sure, haha 
What makes, in a thematic sense, the Quick Starter Gift set better than Vending, where literally all of its cards originate from?
For vintage, I definitely love the Jungle set. Just everything about it has a vibe that when you combine the actual Pokémon and artwork, it just all goes together very nicely to me. It just immediately takes me back to playing Pokémon Blue in the summer of 1999 as a kid with dial up internet, no air conditioning, and that was pretty much it.
It also might be slightly unpopular, but I do enjoy the Gym sets as well. I think they did a great job at capturing the early Gen 1 characters and trainers. Of course all the Pokémon in them were already printed in the previous sets, but just the overall theme of it I really like overall.
For modern, I can’t honestly say I have a favourite quite yet. There’s been some really great cards in so many of the modern sets. I’m talking mainly S&M and SWSH era sets. I guess Evolving Skies with the heavy emphasis on Eevee is looking to be one of the best, and I do really like the Eevee Heroes equivalent in Japan even more than the English if I had to choose one.
Perhaps it may be a surprise but some BW sets are very subtly coherent.
Clearly set in Pokemon NYC, Castelia City
Many cards are set at this fountain:
Very clearly set near Dragonspiral Tower:
Also clearly set around N’s Castle:
Outside:
Inside:
Note1: These are just a few examples, if you browse the sets you will see a lot more
Note2: my BW lore is very rusty, so I can’t guarantee I classified all these correct
Note3: I know the English BW a lot better than JP BW, I bet if you dug into the Japanese sets that make up the English ones, the theme would be even more coherent
Aquapolis
Nice. Didn’t realize BW had this many cohesive arts within sets! Good showcase. I believe Plasma freeze has the best sense of theme/cohesion in that block.
So much ice. Everywhere
Stormfront (the king of 4th gen) has a very uniformed theme from central Sinnoh in the routes that connect to Mt Coronet and to a certain extent the mountain range itself. The clefts, ravines and rivers that make up the northern part of route 210 and almost all of route 208 on the eastern side of the mountain are heavily featured, fields and plains with the forests of route 209 in the distance.
In terms of Pokemon selection and geographical proportions it very strongly represents the greater area I’ve marked out in red:
This thread makes me want to start so many side collections. I haven’t been very fond of bw era but things like this increase my appreciation to the sets in huge amounts
I always really liked the ‘Light’ cards in Neo Destiny. Something so wholesome about Machoke and the S Tier Jolteon.
