That guy's a Maniac...

 We've mentioned before our love of the effort that goes into the artwork of Pokémon trading card game umm trading cards. Last time around we had a look at Chilling Reign but we're back for a spot of art judging for the whopping set Fusion Strike. As the name of the set hints to, Fusion Strike adds to the rapid and single strike gimmick introduced in the Battle Styles set by adding a third 'battle style' attribute that some cards have as well as adding more rapid strike and single strike pokémon cards and trainer cards. But we ain't interested in that are we? We're here for the pretty pictures.  Slugma  Unlike the video games, in the TCG, all pokémon are equal. That is, if they have a card, someone's got to go to the effort of making some card art for it. Sadly the Slugma-Magcargo line had to sit on the sidelines for Pokémon Sword and Pokémon Shield but makes a joyful return in Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl. We love this card art by artist olum

It seemed like there was a return of the late 1990's Pokémon card fad as bored rich Youtubers, blew the scene up again, the scalpers went a-scalping and professional card graders couldn't even keep up with the demand with the volume of cards being sent in for grading by locked down boredos desperate to cash in on the hype. Ultimately it lead to card shortages, as the millionaire youtubers and scalpers bought boxes by the hundreds and for a hot minute there it felt like everyone was cracking packs on their channel on the hunt for the illustrious chase card (one of the 4 million charizard cards most likely) and likes, follows and subscribes. Much like the NFT craze but slightly less pointless, it seemed like the cards themselves sort of got lost amongst the hype. But we've been long term fans of the game and even have the promo cards and PTCGO beta rewards to show it but today I'd like to look at an often overlooked aspects of the cards, the card art.  In the only readil