I'm a big fan of Budew in the Pokémon TCG. It's great that such an unassuming, forgettable Pokémon - one that until recently hadn't appeared on a card since 2008 - is now known far and wide as a menace, and one of the best Pokémon cards of recent years.
But until recently, there were no options for blinging out the Budew in your deck. If you didn't want to save up for a Master Ball Budew, a surprisingly expensive rare Pokémon card, you were out of luck.
But Pokémon Ascended Heroes changes all that, with the first Illustrated Rare for the grass type. With Pokémon MEGA Dream in the hands of fans in Japan, images of all the full art cards are appearing on social media (this one was spotted by Pokebeach). Finally, Budew will live up to its reputation with a card that looks as good as it plays.
Personally, I'd have loved it if The Pokémon Company had played into Budew's reputation, styling the card the way a badass third-stage evolution would be drawn. But I'm more than happy with this too; the Budew looks cute and its background is very attractive. Is it Starry Nights-inspired? You are a star, Budew!
In case you don't play Pokémon and only collect the cards for the pretty pictures, Budew is a competitive level Pokémon because his zero-energy attack, Itchy Pollen, stops players using any items from their hand. This shuts down a bunch of key strategies, and crucially prevents Rare Candies being used, which can stop important evolutions and ruin entire decks. Now, for a Pokémon deck to be competitively viable, it needs a way to deal with a Budew.
Ascended Heroes is shaping up to be a great set, with loads of great reprints getting attractive Illustration Rare versions. Fan Rotom, the Dreepy line, Psyduck, and Fezandipiti ex are all competitive-relevant Pokémon with full art reprints in this new Pokémon set.