Our sixth international specimen, from the 2019 set Cosmic Eclipse, presents Onix not just as a creature, but as a part of a grand, natural landscape. The artwork emphasizes its immense size and its harmonious existence within a powerful geological setting.
Card Details
- Pokémon Name: Onix
- Set: Sun & Moon – Cosmic Eclipse
- Year: 2019
- Card Number: 103/236
- Rarity/Edition: Common
- Artist: Mitoshi Ariga
- National Pokédex No.: 095
Card Text & Attacks
- Type: Fighting
- HP: 110
- Attack 1: Bedrock Press
- Cost: [Fighting]
- Damage: 20
- Effect: During your opponent’s next turn, this Pokémon takes 20 less damage from attacks (after applying Weakness and Resistance).
- Weakness: Grass x2
- Resistance: None
- Retreat Cost: [Colourless][Colourless][Colourless][Colourless]
- Flavour Text: Burrows at high speed in search of food. The tunnels it leaves are used as homes by Diglett.
Collector’s Notes
The artwork by Mitoshi Ariga is the star of this card. It depicts a colossal Onix resting at the base of a powerful, multi-tiered waterfall. The composition is masterful, using the scale of the waterfall and the surrounding cliffs to give the viewer a true sense of Onix’s immense size. It looks less like a creature in a landscape and more like a feature of the landscape.
For our Geological Pokémon exhibit, this card is a beautiful representation of erosion and the water cycle. The powerful waterfall carving its way through the rock is a fundamental geological process, and placing Onix within this scene suggests it is a being born from, and entirely at home within, these epic natural forces. The attack name, “Bedrock Press,” reinforces this connection to the deepest, most solid layers of the Earth. The flavour text also adds a wonderful ecological note, linking Onix’s geological activity (tunnelling) to the creation of habitats for other Pokémon.
