Today's Pokemon Presents brought several announcements for the Pokemon TCG, including the location of this year's Pokemon World Championships as well as a brand-new product that will bring back the feel of the original Pokemon card releases. No Mega Forms, no Tera Forms, no Z moves--Classic Pokemon brings the game back to its roots with a brand-new packaged set.
Designed in collaboration with studio nendo, Pokemon Trading Card Game Classic set will cost 35,000 yen (roughly $260 USD) and contain three unique decks: a Blastoise and Suicune ex deck, a Charizard and Ho-oh ex deck, and a Venusaur and Lugia ex deck. The set will also include a playmat that's integrated into the case, three deck boxes, three full sets of card sleeves, and tokens for marking conditions and damage.
Note that the cards in each of the three decks will not have regulation marks, so they won't be tournament legal.
Pokemon Trading Card Game Classic will be available online through the Pokemon Center and in-person at local game stores in late 2023.
Elsewhere in today's Pokemon Presents, we learned that the Pokemon World Championships 2023 will be held in Yokohama Japan for the first time (surprisingly). The most recent World Championship took place in London and saw over 10,000 attendees after some difficult pandemic years. We also got to see the key art for the Yokohama-based World Champs, and naturally, the Scarlet and Violet starters took center stage, but there was also a ramen-slurping Pikachu in the middle of the circular design.
Ever heard of the Waifu tax? Me neither until a recent report confirmed that Scarlet EX and Violet EX boxes aren't being priced the same from a Japanese importer. Violet EX boxes are being priced almost 50 percent higher than Scarlet EX because they contain a higher concentration of "waifu" cards, like Cynthia, Miriam, Bianca, and Skyla. These cards are just more expensive on the secondary market, and those prices are reflected in the Violet EX import price.