Charizard ex Special Illustration Rare

Oh my gosh, it’s such a beauty. I couldn’t care less about Charizard, but I can’t stop staring at this card’s art. Heck, I’m right now admiring my own artwork giving the card its own wings.

This is another colossally stunning card by Akira Egawa, who must surely be the best artist working on the TCG. Her cards have recently proved to be some of the most popular and highest earning in any number of sets, including Crown Zenith’s astonishing Gold VSTAR cards, Silver Tempest’s Gardevoir, and Fusion Strike’s Mew VMAX

What’s so special here is how Akira blends her distinctive painterly style with the look of the crystal cards 5ban Graphics have been making for SV’s terastalized Pokémon.

This card is surely going to go huge, boosted by also being enormously playable. Evolve Charmander or Charmeleon into it (you’ll definitely want a Rare Candy to do the former) and you can immediately attach three Energy from your deck to your Pokémon however you please, and with just two of them on the Zard, you can do a minimum of 180 damage, adding on an extra 30 for every Prize card your opponent’s claimed. Oh, and while it’s benched it can’t be harmed.

Still, if you pull this one, I’d sleeve and binder it asap.