What are some cards that are in your personal pantheon of all time greatest cards, but don't have widespread popularity as a chase?
I'm including one vintage, mid era and modern.
Pidgeot Jungle:
Scyther, Snorlax and the Eeveelutions were the chases then and they’re the chases now, and I don’t think that was ever a judgment about the cards, rather the Pokemon on them. Nobody’s favourite was Pidgeot, despite any one who played the original games likely having one of their team.
Of the Jungle holos, for the most part they’re portraits, the Pokémon standing there being the Pokémon. Pidgeot is a dive with wings pinned back, talons already open, with the foil behind it doing the job of a sky it’s diving out of.
I think it's one of early Pokemon's most successful attempts at turning the art into a scene.
Unseen forces Bellossom:
Unseen Forces is a gold star set, and I’m not going to pretend Entei, Raikou and Suicune aren’t the correct answer. In fact, all of the gold stars are the valid answer for what the chase is. I'm pointing out the next layer of chases after the gold stars.
IMO, Bellossom is the best painting in the set. Saitou put three Bellossom in frame- multiple pokemon on a single card was still rare when this came out. The holo works as dimming the setting, making the sky darker and placing the other Bellossom into a dance line backgrounded by the central one. Imo, the best cards align the art with the Pokemon being featured. The energy of this card feels spot on for how Bellossom should be portrayed. I think this card is a great example of mid-era storytelling and pokemon-art alignment. I suppose mileage on this card varies based on what you think of Bellossom. If you think it's a top tier grass type, this card will hit more strongly.
Arbok Temporal Forces:
Again, putting the art first, OKUBU cut this card like a woodblock. The jungle reads as carved with flat greens and black contours. Most modern arts are a pokemon placed in a scene (in fact, a decent mountain of modern chases are actually just a popular Pokemon backgrounded by a miasma of colours- so less a scene than a vibe). This feels like the inverse, where a scene happens to contain a pokemon. The art almost feels more like a print than it does a pokemon card.
The irony of this one is that Arbok was one of the Pokemon that, since gen 1, people would complain hasn't gotten enough love.
I actually think temporal forces is an underrated modern set in terms of its art (with some being put off by the paradox pokemon), but when I was opening it, this was absolutely my chase. If PE Magikarp is the gold standard for modern IR, I see this as a tier below.