Pokémon cards that tell a story

[Hero of Legend]

Brought to attention by the Out of Context Pokemon twitter account, I was reminded of these and these are some wholesome things that must be shared.

Plus two more examples folks have shared in the twitter thread as well. Any you remember you want to share? Now's the time to do so!

 

[Bane]

Are the Char ones from the same set? I'd love to put those in a deck.

 

[Youabra]

I think these were part of a promotion or something.
Edit: I tried to find a image that puts the story in order, but every picture I see puts Grookey first. So I just changed the picture with the 3 cards.

 

[Firestorm]

Are the Char ones from the same set? I'd love to put those in a deck.

Click to shrink...

Yes.

I used to use that entire Emboar line in my RayBoar deck. Loved the art.

 

[Rolento]

This is something that like a lot about the TCG, though I wish it had more opportunities for emergent storytelling, something Fantasy Flight's LCGs do very well, as opposed to a specific narrative.

Didn't' they have at some point specific pokemon in the game that were named as being owned by specific gym leaders or something? I always thought that was cool.

 

[Tavernade]

This is something that like a lot about the TCG, though I wish it had more opportunities for emergent storytelling, something Fantasy Flight's LCGs do very well, as opposed to a specific narrative.

Didn't' they have at some point specific pokemon in the game that were named as being owned by specific gym leaders or something? I always thought that was cool.

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Yeah there was a whole Gym Leaders set that had character owned Pokemon. I'm trying to remember way back when, I think it was the fifth or sixth series released on the west? There was basic, jungle, fossil, rocket...

 

[Jintor]

Is the Tepig dad the OG charizard trainer?

 

[Bremsstrahlung]

Whoa, that Charmander line is awesome.

 

[Ridley327]

This is something that like a lot about the TCG, though I wish it had more opportunities for emergent storytelling, something Fantasy Flight's LCGs do very well, as opposed to a specific narrative.

Didn't' they have at some point specific pokemon in the game that were named as being owned by specific gym leaders or something? I always thought that was cool.

Click to shrink...

You are correct! There was a whole expansion that focused on the Gym Leaders of gen 1, where you needed to pair them up with their corresponding evolution in order to make the most of them, but they also tended to have very powerful attacks and abilities going down that route, and I'm pretty sure almost all of them featured Sugimori's art.

(Zoroark before Zoroark!)

 

[Whimsical Phil]

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I have the English versions of these framed on my desk at work.

 

[Quinton]

These are friggin' awesome.

 

[Birdie]

There was a manga in Japan that basically had this as the main idea...it gave back stories to Pokemon cards.

It's never been shown anywhere else but it have a backstory to Giovanni rescuing a Persian as a kid

 

[RecRoulette]

I always liked when Imposter Professor Oak made an appearance too

 

[TYRANITARR]

This is super cool. I just started playing TCG this summer, I had no idea cards did this.

 

[thebeeks]

 

[Giga Man]

I learned about these from watching a video, but I can't remember which video it was. Did JWittz do a video on this?

 

[RecRoulette]

I was looking at cards and forgot about the really crazy Delta Species subset where Pokemon were exposed to radiation causing them to be a completely different type

Grass Quagsire

Electric Tyranitar

Fire Gardevoir

 

[Loreth_94]

This just reminds me why I have always had a fondness for pokemon cards. I love the art so much. Pretty much have never played the card game itself.

 

[TheAggroCraig]

Not a story so to speak, but I really liked the Southern Island set and how it took larger pieces of art and made them into cards

 

[Unicorn]

Not a story so to speak, but I really liked the Southern Island set and how it took larger pieces of art and made them into cards

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Had these (the cards from the set, not this large-art book) and man, probably the rarest cards I ever got.

 

[TriggerShy]