Retrospective: Skyridge

This week I’m continuing to take a look back at the e-Series of the English Pokemon Trading Card Game by revisiting the final set released by Wizards of the Coast: Skyridge. As with previous Retrospective articles, the goal of this review is to highlight collecting nuances with which new and returning collectors may not otherwise be familiar. If you want to read the previous articles in this series, you can do so by clicking the links here for Jungle and here for Aquapolis .

            Released in the United States on May 12, 2003, Skyridge was Wizards of the Coast’s swan song. Like Aquapolis before it, Skyridge was the amalgamation of two Japanese booster expansions: Split Earth and Mysterious Mountains. Collectors have long speculated that Wizards continue to combine Japan e-Series sets into a single English release in an effort to release as many cards as possible before the expiration of their license, but I personally haven’t found any primary evidence either supporting or refuting this claim (but let me know in the comments if you’ve found something I missed!) Released four months apart, I’ve often thought of Skyridge and Aquapolis as “sister sets” and perhaps the best way to examine the unique elements of Skyridge is to compare the set to predecessor.

            On first glance, the similarities between Skyridge and Aquapolis are striking. As previously noted, both sets are a mix of two separately released Japanese TCG expansions. Both sets are absolutely massive, with Skyridge topping out at 182 cards in its standard set and a ridiculous 332 cards in its master set. Both prominently featured e-reader dot codes unlocked Pokedex information, mini-games, animations, and other e-Reader exclusive content. Both featured a special numbering system for holographic cards with Skyridge, like Aquapolis before it, having 32 foil versions of certain non-holo rare cards using the H__/H32 numbering system.

Arcanine H2/H32 from the Skyridge expansion. Like other foil cards in the set, Arcanine was also available as an e-reader compatible non-holo card (numbered 3/144)

            One important side note. While each of Skyridge’s 32 foil cards were also available as e-reader compatible non-holo rares, Aerodactyl, Omastar and Wigglytuff, standard non-holo rare cards in the expansion, do not have a specially numbered foil counterpart. These cards are only available as non-holo rares and as reverse holos. This may be because all three of these cards were printed as Uncommons in the Japanese expansions (Aerodactyl and Omastar in Split Earth and Wigglytuff in Mysterious Mountains) while the other Rare cards in the expansion were originally foil cards in the Japanese sets that make up Skyridge. Whatever the reason, if you are going for a complete set, be aware that these three cards do not have a specially numbered foil counterpart.

            While Skyridge and Aquapolis share many features, there are a few notable differences, the most notable being their treatment of Secret Rare cards. As previously noted, Aquapolis was the amalgamation of two separate Japanese sets: “The Town with No Map” which was Japan’s second e-series set, and “Wind from the Sea”, Japan’s third e-series set. In Japan, crystal Pokemon were introduced in Wind from the Sea. Perhaps as a result, Aquapolis only features 3 secret rare crystal Pokemon, the three featured in Wind from the Sea. The sets making up Skyridge, on the other hand, each featured 3 secret rare crystal Pokemon. Wizards not only included all six of these secret rare cards in Skyridge, but went a step further and printed them as both holographic and reverse holographic cards, an important departure from the precedent set with Aquapolis. The six crystal Pokemon from Skyridge continue to be some of the most sought after and expensive cards from the Wizards of the Coast era of the Pokemon TCG to this day (Celebi, Charizard, Crobat, Golem, Ho-Oh, and Kabutops). 

Foil version of crystal Charizard from Skyridge

            Perhaps fortunately for collectors, Skyridge did not feature the “a” and “b” dot code card variants that made Aquapolis so notoriously confusing. So while Skyridge is labeled as consisting of 144 cards, collectors had a much easier time arriving at the true set number of 182 (144 standard cards + 32 specially numbered foil cards + 6 secret rares). 

            I’ve covered this separately in my article on Jumbo cards but it bears repeating that each booster box of Aquapolis and Skyridge featured one of four jumbo box topper cards unique to each expansion. The four from Aquapolis included jumbo versions of holographic rares from the set: Entei, Espeon, Sczior and Suicune; while the four from Skyridge featured jumbo versions of four of the secret rare crystal cards: Charizard, Crobat, Ho-Oh and Kabutops.

            One final bit of trivia to note. Skyridge is the last Pokemon TCG set to feature Kadabra.  That may seem surprising, especially since Alakazam EX and Mega Alakazam EX were fairly recently released in the Fates Collide expansion, but if you look back at versions of Alakazam and Abra since the release of Skyridge, you will notice that Alakazam is either printed as a Basic Pokemon (whether as a gold star, an elite four variant from Rising Rivals, or an EX in new format) or Abra provides a method to evolve directly into Alakazam without the need for Kadabra (as was the case for the version of Abra and Alakazam printed in the Mysterious Treasures expansion). A particularly litigious self-proclaimed psychic, Uri Geller, claimed that Kadabra was an unauthorized parody of his likeness and initiated a number of legal proceedings against Nintendo in connection with their use of the Pokemon. In an effort to avoid litigation, Nintendo has avoided using Kadabra in the TCG ever since. If your collecting goal is to have one of every Pokemon in the Pokedex, this set was the last opportunity to obtain this Pokemon.

Uri Geller and Kadabra. Twinsies?

Thecardpletionist has been collecting Pokemon TCG cards since the game’s English release in 1999. You can read more from the author at http://thecardpletionist.blogspot.com/ and can follow him on Instagram at www.instagram.com/thecardpletionist.