The Swing of Things

Happy Easter, everyone! Due to the holiday, I've found enough time to make a little post here with a bit of a status update on how the set is going. The card total right now is 194. As I said before, I've completed all the Pokemon I wanted to put into the set, but there will be a few more creatures added as I go forward. Because of this, I can't say the total creature count just yet. However, I only have 4 more commons and 2 more uncommons to make before I start pumping out more rares. I still have 23 more rares to make and 4 more mythics, so that should lead to some exciting previews in the future. It also tells you that not all the rares and mythics will be Pokemon, so that's also worth noting.

Exeggutor | Artwork by RT Radke, Alternations by Matthew Kaine

 I'd also like to take the time to make a shout out to RT Radke, who was one of the inspirations for creating this set in the first place. He went through a major Pokemon project of his own, but his is much more impressive than mine. He recreated the first 150 Pokemon through drawing using inspiration from real-life animals. His adaptations are astounding, and I highly recommend checking out the whole gallery. I used a couple of his pieces for my cards, but I made alterations to them, making their art style match Magic a little better by smoothing out the strokes and adding more colorful backgrounds. Although I am quite proud of the work I did to these images, all credit will be given to RT Radke, since these creatures are most definitely his design, and I could never create these works without his artistic vision. So cheers to him, and I hope he likes what I've done if he ever stumbles across them.

And of course I'm sure you're wondering what Exeggutor does, since he's staring right at you with that birdy-egg face of his.
Let's take a look.

Green is turning out to be a pretty strange color in this set. There aren't actually a ton of green creatures simply due to the small number of grass and bug pokemon, but the ones that I did make are pretty powerful. Exeggutor is a very effective creature at common. Being able to plop down eggs whenever you need a blocker is huge, and the fact that he can turn into up to four creatures on command makes him extremely adaptable. And that isn't even considering the possibilities that come up when you think about auras and pump spells. All in all, I think he could make some pretty big waves in Limited.

This isn't the first egg-making creature we've seen, though. In my Valentine's Day post, I revealed Chansey, who also is a pretty good at pumping out eggs. So what do you imagine these eggs will look like as tokens?

Egg Token | Artwork by Taylor Fischer

Why, they're Exeggcutes, of course! As I said before, not all of the Pokemon will be represented with their own cards, but I will implement a few extra as tokens like these guys. As we move forward, I'll be showing off some more instants and sorceries, talking about enchantments and how they'll play a key role in the set, and maybe even show off a mythic or two before the set is complete. I'm shooting for completion before May, so keep showing support if you want to see this happen! Until next time.