Tepig, Pignite & Emboar Cards

The earliest examples that we’re aware of, when the Pokémon TCG started including narrative chains of artwork, were in 2013’s Black & White era, specifically in the Legendary Treasures set. And it burst out with a whole bunch of them, four different groups in the one set.

A Charmeleon and Swablu pairing shows the latter accidentally getting its wing scorched on the Charmeleon’s tail, before then in the second card flying off in indignance. Another double has two Natu huddling together for warmth in the snow, with a Bouffalant barely visible in the background. Then in the Bouffalant’s card, the two Natu are snugly nestled in the woolly hair on top of the Bouffalant’s head.

But the set also featured two three-parters, and there they ones we’re highlighting here. This first one depicts the three evolutionary stages of Tepig, and the family it lives with. They’re family photographs, showing a mom and dad with their son, holding the young Tepig. In the second card, you have the boy approaching teenage years and a younger sister now in the family, the family all around their Pignite. Then third card, crowding around an enormous Emboar, are the original mom and dad and their adult daughter. On the other side the original son alongside his partner and their own kid.