Some sets have one or two cards that make a good page. Prismatic Evolutions has nine that make a good binder. The Eeveelution Special Illustration Rares, numbered 144 to 167, were painted as a family: soft light, deep colour, each Pokémon shown at rest in a place that suits it. Put them side by side and they read as chapters of one book. Expand each into a page and the book becomes a binder.
The nine cards
Every one of these is in the catalogue.
- Leafeon ex #144. Forest floor, dappled light. Expands into canopy above and undergrowth below.
- Flareon ex #146. Warm, low sun. One of the easiest cards in the set to expand; the palette forgives everything.
- Vaporeon ex #149. Shallow water and reflections. Try the card in a bottom pocket so the water fills the page.
- Glaceon ex #150. Snowfield and pale sky. A near-monochrome page that looks stunning in the binder.
- Jolteon ex #153. Storm light. The most dramatic page of the nine.
- Espeon ex #155. Dawn, violet and rose. Pairs beautifully with Umbreon across a spread.
- Sylveon ex #156. Blossom and ribbon. Soft enough that seams disappear.
- Umbreon ex #161. Moonlit rooftop over a city. The card everyone asks for, and it deserves it.
- Eevee ex #167. Golden meadow. The natural first page, or the last.
Why they expand so well
Three things about these illustrations make the expansion step behave.
Consistent light. Each card has one clear light source and a palette built around it. The model has an unambiguous answer to "what colour is the sky in the pocket above?", and it gives that answer consistently across the page.
The Pokémon is placed, not posed. The Eeveelutions are sitting or lying in their environments rather than lunging at the viewer. That leaves the surroundings intact at the card's edges, which is exactly what the expansion continues from.
Painterly rendering. The brushwork is soft. Small inconsistencies between the card and the expansion, the kind that would show on a crisp vector-style card, vanish here.
Arranging a full Eeveelution binder
A nine-pocket binder shows two pages at a time, so think in spreads. Here is the arrangement we settled on after a few attempts.
Spread 1: Eevee, and a title page
Eevee ex on the right-hand page, card in the centre. On the left, a page for whichever Eeveelution is your favourite, or leave the left page for your other Prismatic Evolutions pulls.
Spread 2: Flareon and Vaporeon
Fire on the left, water on the right, both with the card in the centre pocket. The warm and cool pages face each other and the contrast is the point.
Spread 3: Jolteon and Leafeon
Storm and forest. Place Jolteon's card in the top centre pocket so the lightning has the page below it to strike into. Leafeon centre.
Spread 4: Glaceon and Sylveon
The two palest pages together. Glaceon in a bottom pocket, so the sky takes the top two rows. Sylveon centre.
Spread 5: Espeon and Umbreon
Dawn on the left, night on the right. This is the spread people photograph. Both cards centred, and if you print the card's own pocket as well, do it for these two so the pages are complete even when the cards are out.
Beyond the Eeveelutions
The rest of the set's Special Illustration Rares are worth a look too. Roaring Moon ex #162 and Dragapult ex #165 both have the depth that makes a page, and Ceruledge ex #147 makes a striking dark page if you want a break from the pastel run. Bloodmoon Ursaluna ex #168 is the darkest card in the set and one of the moodiest pages.
A note on cost
Nine pages at the nine-pocket price comes to under fifty euros, which is less than a single one of these cards. And because the Prismatic Evolutions pages are among the most requested, most of them are already in the shared library, so they load instantly rather than generating. For the practical side, our printing guide covers paper and scaling, and binder page ideas goes further into arranging spreads.
