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Bleeding Cool’s journey through the Sun & Moon era of the Pokémon TCG continues. Now that our spotlight series has moved through the first seven sets of this block (Sun & Moon base, Guardians Rising, Burning Shadows, Crimson Invasion, Ultra Prism, Shining Legends, and Forbidden Light), now it’s time to look at the next set from this era: Sun & Moon – Celestial Storm was released on August 3rd, 2018. This set has some interesting focuses including the expansion’s mascot of the Dragon-type Rayquaza, the Hoenn Starters, and Kanto Pokémon. This set also continued the inclusion of Prism Star cards which could be pulled by lucky collectors in the reverse holo slot. Today, we move to the Full Art section of this set.
The Full Arts begin, and I think Celestial Storm has quite a strong offering. Sun & Moon Full Arts are hit and miss more so than those of the XY era and Sword & Shield era because of a dominant trend here that has zero deviation. I’m talking about the backgrounds. Sun & Moon-era Full Arts have flat backgrounds with a single color chosen based on the species’ type. So Shiftry gets green, Blaziken gets red, and Articuno gets blue. In the case of some Pokémon, like Fighting-types, an entire typing is doomed to a bad background. However, the foil makes the green, red, and blue background sparkle like jewels here. All three of these look terrific in person due to that deeply etched foil, even if the digital version of the cards isn’t stunning. Far and away my favorite is the Articuno, whose light blue coloring gleams gorgeously from this Full Art GX. I do prefer the Shiny version we get in Hidden Fates, but this standard coloration is still a beauty.
Stay tuned for the continuing journey through Pokémon TCG: Sun & Moon – Celestial Storm. To look back on this series, click the Celestial Storm tag below. Next time, this journey continues with Full Arts of this set.
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