Trading card games
Full Art
Also written: Full-art · FA
A Pokémon card whose illustration covers the entire face, with the game text printed over the art instead of beside it.
ArtThe picture changes
A full art is a Pokémon card where the illustration covers the entire face. There is no framed picture window and no plain border: the artwork runs to the trimmed edge, and the name, the HP and the attack text are printed on top of it rather than in panels beside it.
How to spot one
- Look at the edges. If the picture reaches them on all four sides, you are holding a full art. A normal card has the art contained in a window with frame around it.
- Look at where the text sits. On a full art the name and HP float over the artwork. That is the single fastest tell at arm's length.
- Touch it. Full arts commonly carry a raised texture worked into the surface, so the card feels patterned under a fingertip. Not every one does, but a textured card is almost never a plain rare.
Where it sits
A full art is a second, premium version of a card that also exists in a normal printing — same name, same attacks, same numbers, different presentation and a different card number. It sits above the ordinary rares and below the illustration-led tiers that modern sets put at the top of the checklist.
The distinction that trips people up: a full art changes how the card is laid out, while an alternate art changes the picture itself. A card can be both, and the most expensive Pokémon cards in a modern set usually are.
Waffles.cards sells packs of real singles we physically hold, with the odds published on every pack. Rip a pack or browse the card shop.