Mantine

Mantine sits at #64 in Neo Genesis, the eighth of the Wizards of the Coast print runs. Illustration by Ken Sugimori. Sugimori is the lead character designer of the Pokémon franchise itself. His TCG illustrations carry a tighter, more on-model feel because they are by the same hand that defined how the Pokémon look in the games.

The flavor text on the card reads: "Swimming freely in open seas, it may fly out of the water and over the waves if it builds up enough speed." Pokédex entries from this era are short and often quirky, written by the original Japanese localization team for a specific stat-block layout that no longer exists in modern cards.

Neo Genesis shipped in 1st Edition (stamped) and Unlimited prints. The 1st Edition stamp convention is identical to earlier Wizards sets. No Shadowless variant exists for the Neo era and no widely-recognized error prints.

Commons grade most forgivingly of any tier in the set. Centering is the typical grade cap; the soft Wizards-era cardstock picks up edge whitening easily but the high print runs mean clean copies remain affordable. A first-time grading submission on a Common is the cheapest way to learn what each grading service is actually looking at.

Raw copies of this card are inexpensive enough that the grading math rarely justifies submission unless you have a clearly pack-fresh example. For set completionists, picking up a clean raw copy and sleeving it is the practical move.