“Pokemon Trading Card Game Classic” Deck Lists, Holo Patterns, and Details!

By: Water Pokémon Master · Posted Posted onAug 12, 2023 at 6:35 PM · 44 Comments

The Worlds Activity Zone currently has demos for the “Pokemon Trading Card Game Classic!” I was able to take photos of the cards and accessories.

As posted last year, this premium boxed product will contain three 60-card decks headlined by Base Set Venusaur, Charizard, and Blastoise. Each of the decks will contain new and reprinted cards, although all of them are illegal for tournament play. The Japanese product will release in October and cost 35,000 yen (about $275). No English pricing or release date has been revealed yet, but it’ll release in “late fall.”

Every card in these decks is holo. The cards feature a “glittery” holofoil paper. Whereas all the Japanese cards feature holofoil borders, only English cards from the Scarlet & Violet era have them — matching how the cards were originally printed in English.

Lugia ex, Ho-Oh ex, and Suicune ex are the only cards in the decks printed on their normal holofoil. As I’ve speculated before, this is probably because any other holofoil makes it difficult to see their backgrounds.

For English fans, the decks feature a classic Mr. Mime card that was never released overseas! In Japan, this card was originally released in the Vending Machine sets in November 1998; the artwork on the card was part of the TCG’s first illustration contest in 1997. TPCi would have needed to pretend it’s 1999 to localize the card today, although they already practiced that for cards like Greninja LV.X in Celebrations.

Except for the Basic Energy cards, absolutely none of the cards in these decks are legal for tournament play. Even the new Pokemon ex are not legal. All of the cards, except the Basic Energy, say “This card cannot be used in official tournaments” on the bottom. This product is meant to be a standalone gaming experience for challenging your friends and family.

Here are the full lists for the three decks, with the Japanese cards on the left and the English cards on the right:

In terms of accessories, we already posted the product includes a foldable game board, three deck boxes, three sets of card sleeves, metal orbs that take the place of coins, and 3D damage counters that can be stacked.

For the two metal balls, you throw them down a plastic ramp in the middle of the accessories container. They’ll land in a heads or tails slot. Pretty nifty!

Here’s more photos of the cards I snapped:

View thread (44 replies)
Of course Japan gets the better looking cards, though that holo does remind me of the 25th Celebrations set and a bit of Legends. Maybe they could've gone with a different color like purple for a change?
 
That Holofoil is GORGEOUS. It really helps make these stand out as "Look at me! Look at me!"cards that we know shouldn't be treated lightly!
 
This is the first time that Professor Oak has been printed as a Supporter, correct? Does that mean that in Unlimited format all copies of Oak are now Supporter cards? Or can you still play it as an Item because this print isn't legal for tournament play?
 
Can’t wait for an English price tag! It’ll finally convince me that I can’t afford this, and I’ll stop dreaming about it.
 
PASS, WITHOUT MUCH OF A TROUBLE! They should've gone with Rocket's Zapdos instead of that Zapdos, and at least print some more vending cards. Best of all, go with the Japanese layout instead of the pitiful W*zards of the crap.
 
The Vending Mr. Mime is a neat inclusion. It really makes me wish we could get some sort of anniversary or commemoration set in English getting all that early stuff WOTC couldn't be bothered translating in favor of Base Set 2 and Legendary Collection.
 
Looking forward to buying this. Gonna be my Christmas present to myself this year. So great to see Fossil Articuno getting some love too.
 
What's up with the template change on the English Pokemon Nurse? e-Reader licensing alone doesn't explain it; the Japanese version managed to keep the template while stripping the branding and dot code.
 
I am getting one of these HOWEVER.

They best have solved one major issue I experienced with Battle Academy.

...

Those decks best host all those cards with sleeves on.
 
Goddammit I really want that Mr. Mime. MAybe I can buy a single. That was a contest winner in the Vending series, and I always loved those. I wish they'd rerelease the vending series since no one else got it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.