Card illus. Hajime Kusajima
I wasn't sure if a post like this should go in Creative Works or Beachfront, or if it would be allowed on the site at all, but I wanted to give it a shot as I'd like to be able to post these layouts somewhere other than just Instagram. They're my attempt to celebrate the TCG and the amazing sprite art from the games. Cards featured are from my own collection and photographed by myself.
I decided to start with Skyridge Crystal Ho-oh, as it's my favourite card of all time, with Hajime Kusajima being my absolute favourite Pokemon TCG artist. I've paired it with the Pokemon Gold Beta, probably most well known from the 1997 Spaceworld Demo.
I don't want to go into too much detail as I'm not an expert on what's exactly true about this early draft of Gen 2, however the city I've used for the background, 'Font', is likely a beta version of Ecruteak City, the tower in the middle actually being the Ruins of Alph. Ho-oh and the Unown seemed to have a stronger connection in this version, I don't think Lugia had been invented yet, and the Kanto region was compressed down to basically one big city area. Interestingly, there are some cities in this not-yet-called-Johto region that are dead ringers for some cities in Sinnoh.
I've also used Ho-oh's beta sprite, which I really like.
And again, if this kind of content doesn't belong in this section or on the site at all then my apologies.