Since I mainly collect sealed products (boosterboxes and packs) the artwork on these boxes and packs is something I pay a fair bit of attention to.
Lately, the pack artworks (and also the box artwork) have not been my favorite although I did enjoy the Surging Sparks artwork with a somewhat more playful design and the featuring of Exeggutor, one of my long time favorites. Mostly, the modern artworks don’t really do it for me.
Going back in time, I think the Base set artworks are quite stylish, although also a bit generic (it’s Base set after all). The sets that followed Base set (up to the Gym sets) had this same simple, but stylish look.
For me the Neo - Skyridge era is where the pack art (and also box art) really was at it’s peak, with sets like Neo Revelation and Skyridge boasting absolutely beautiful pack/box art (I think the Skyridge box is the most striking). The best pack artwork however is Neo Discovery;
While the box captures the Ruins of Alph mystique very nicely, the packs take it even further and follow a morning/day/evening/night cycle. They all capture their time of day perfectly, so much so that these are among the few packs I wouldn’t want to open because the full packs look beautiful.
kawayoo and Arita was a powerful duo during the HG/SS era, the whole era was one of my favorites. But if I have to choose favorite pack arts specifically, it would be these:
I totally agree with you, Neo Discovery feels so intriguing and definitely captures the right mood!
There are surely other artworks that would have captured my interest, if I were a kid choosing a booster pack:
I have to admit though, that Japanese totally outclassed English with pack arts. Beautiful artworks, with great dynamic compositions and way way more colorful:
Yeah, Japanese products are a lot more interesting from the outside. Although in some cases I do prefer the cleaner English variants, mainly in older sets.
Dragons Exalted also features some interesting art. I like the weird ´in your face´ color-scheme of the boosterbox.
There are so many fantastic pack artworks over the years and in my opinion Japanese packs are usually way better than the ones that we get in the West. My top three would be:
