Artist set · curated by Ninth Pocket

Mitsuhiro Arita

726 cards · 132 sets · 1999–2026

Every card illustrated by Mitsuhiro Arita, the most iconic artist in the TCG — from Base Set Charizard and Pikachu to today. Tracked like any other set: a complete set is one of each card, a master set is every variant of each.

Mitsuhiro Arita has illustrated Pokémon cards without interruption since the very first English set in 1999 — his Base Set Charizard and Pikachu are arguably the two most recognizable trading cards ever printed. The same brush runs through every era of the game: Team Rocket, the tag-team GX giants of Team Up and Unbroken Bonds (Pikachu & Zekrom, Reshiram & Charizard, Latias & Latios), Lugia V in Silver Tempest, and on into the newest sets.

An Arita artist master set is one of the great long chases in the hobby: more than 700 English cards spread across 130+ sets, a third of them from the WotC years. His favorite subjects come back again and again — Gyarados leads with ten cards, ahead of Raichu, Charizard, and Pikachu — so many collectors start with a single-Pokémon slice of his catalog before committing to the full illustrator run.

See also: Base Set · Ken Sugimori cards