Pokemon TCG News, Videos & Updates

The Pokémon Company today announced several celebrations that will be taking place on Pokémon Day - February 27th. We reported on some of these last week but more details have now been released as well as new features! First up is a Pokémon of the Year poll. This is in collaboration with Google - searching pokemon vote brings up a banner with several categories, and a vote can be cast in each of the categories. It starts today and the categories are the different regions from the Pokémon games. The voting lasts until February 14th and the winner will be announced on the 27th. They further confirmed the reveal of a new Mythical Pokémon on Pokémon Day, and also officially revealed Gigantamax Toxtricity in Pokémon Sword & Shield.

The Japanese Pokémon website has announced various events will be taking place on February 27th, 2020 - aka Pokémon Day: A special Max Raid Battle will be held in Pokémon Sword & Shield. In-game events are planned for Pokémon GO. There will be a new announcement for the mobile game Pokémon Masters. A new mythical Pokémon will be revealed for Pokémon Sword & Shield, which will also appear in the next Pokémon movie Coco. It's unknown whether it will require the upcoming Expansion Pass for SWSH. Pokémon Day is celebrated on the anniversary of the original release of Pokémon Red & Green in Japan - February 27th. This year Pokémon will be 24 years old!

The Pokémon Company has announced that Pokémon HOME, the replacement for Pokémon Bank, will be released next month. The app will be available for Nintendo Switch as well as smartphone and comes with several features for transferring and trading Pokémon. There are two plans - Basic, which is free; and Premium, which costs $3/month or $16/year. With the basic plan up to 30 Pokémon can be stored in HOME at a time, while with Premium up to 6,000 Pokémon can be stored. Using the Switch version, players can transfer Pokémon between HOME and Sword/Shield. Pokémon can also be transferred to and from Let's Go Pikachu/Eevee, however once a Pokémon has been transferred to another game (e.g. Sword/Shield) it cannot be transferred back to LGPE. Pokémon can be transferred from Pokémon Bank. Players on the Basic plan will have access for the first month, but after that it's limited to Premium plan users only. Pokémon can be transferred from Pokémon GO, though note this is a one-way transfer. Pokémon can be traded using the mobile app, either with friends, using the GTS for specific requests or Wonder Box for random trades. Pokémon HOME features a National Pokédex - any Pokémon transferred to HOME will be registered in the dex, including Mega Evolutions of Gigantamax forms. Pokémon can be searched for by ability and moves. Players on the Premium plan have access to a Judge function, which appraises the stats of a Pokémon. Points are accumulated for each Pokémon deposited in HOME. These can be converted into Battle Points for use in Sword/Shield or future games.

The Pokémon Direct has just finished airing, which announced paid DLC for Pokémon Sword & Shield. There are two new adventures titled The Isle of Armor and The Crown Tundra, to be released in June and in the autumn respectively. But first up was a port of the GBA/DS games Pokémon Mystery Dungeon Red Rescue Team and Blue Rescue Team. The new version, for Nintendo Switch, is titled Pokémon Mystery Dungeon Rescue Team DX. It will be released March 6th, 2020 however there will be a demo available today! Next up was the big news: an Expansion Pass for Pokémon Sword and Shield. It will be paid DLC and includes two new adventures plus over 200 additional Pokémon not available in Sword/Shield. New Pokémon include Galarian Slowpoke/Slowbro/Slowking; new forms for Articuno, Zapdos, and Moltres; new Regi Pokémon; Gigantamax forms of Venusaur, Blastoise, Rillaboom, Cinderace and Inteleon; and new legendary Pokémon. A new update for Sword/Shield has just gone live which allows Galarian Slowpoke to be encountered right now! It will require the expansion pack to evolve, however, updates to Sword/Shield will allow trading of any of the new Pokémon without the Expansion Pass.

A new Pokémon Direct has been announced for this Thursday, January 9th at 2:30pm UTC. It will last around 20 minutes, making it one of the longest Pokémon Directs there has been. No specifics were given on the content but The Pokémon Company asked everyone to tune in for some exciting updates coming to the world of Pokémon this year! We'll bring you the updates as soon as they happen. Times around the world: 6:30am PT (USA) 9:30am ET (USA) 2:30pm GMT (UK) 3:30pm CEST (Europe) 11:30pm JST (Japan) 1:30am AEDT (Australia)

Pokémon Sword and Pokémon Shield for Nintendo Switch have now been released worldwide! As the first games of a new generation they feature new Pokémon and lots to explore. Of course I've been busy cataloging everything with the games, from Pokémon stats and learnsets to locations and items. Our Sword/Shield section is a work in progress but I'll keep adding details as I find them. Here are some quick links to useful pages: Sword & Shield Pokédex Version-exclusive Pokémon TM locations

A new trailer for Sword & Shield has been released in Japan (no English equivalent just yet). This trailer shows two new Pokémon, which we know to be Mr. Rime, a Galarian evolution of Mr. Mime; and Runerigus, a Galarian evolution of Yamask.

A new trailer has been released for Pokémon Sword and Shield showing various new mechanics in the games. Mints are a new type of item that changes a Pokémon's stats to match a different nature. They don't actually change the nature, but for example a Modest Mint changes the stats to what they would be if the Pokémon had the Modest nature. Pokémon of the same species (e.g. two Sylveon) can pass egg moves to each other when placed in the Nursery. They must have empty move slots for this to occur. The Pokémon storage can be accessed from almost anywhere. New Exp. Candy items give many Exp to Pokémon. Also announced is a launch online competition, Galar Beginnings.

The Gigantamaxed forms seen earlier in CoroCoro have been revealed by TPCi in a new trailer. As well as Gigantamax Pikachu, Eevee, Charizard and Meowth, Gigantamax Butterfree was also shown. Here's the trailer: Gigantamax Pikachu has the special move G-Max Volt Crash, which paralyzes all opponents. It can be obtained using play records from the game Let's Go Pikachu. Gigantamax Eevee has G-Max Cuddle, which infatuates opposite-gender opponents. It can be obtained using play records from the game Let's Go Eevee. Gigantamax Charizard has G-Max Wildfire, which causes damage to non-Fire types for 4 turns. Gigantamax Butterfree has G-Max Befuddle, which causes poison, paralysis or sleep to each opponent. Gigantamax Meowth has G-Max Gold Rush, which confuses all targets and gives back money (like Pay Day). This is an event form which can be obtained via Mystery Gift until January 15th 2020.

The cover of the latest issue of Japanese magazine CoroCoro Ichiban has been revealed and features what appears to be Gigantamax forms for Eevee, Pikachu, Meowth and Charizard: There is also an official announcement coming later today at 1pm UTC (6am PT/9am ET/2pm BST) which may feature details of these Pokémon. We'll bring you the news when it happens.

Pokémon GO has announced multiple new events today! First up is a big event for Halloween, which runs from October 17th at 1pm PT (8pm UTC) until November 1st and includes the release of Pokémon Yamask and Darkrai, boosted spawns of Ghost and Dark type Pokémon, and costumed starter Pokémon. Full details below. Next, is a short event from November 1st at 1pm PT (8pm UTC) until November 4th, which features the three Regis in 5* raids, with possible shiny. Plus other boosted spawns listed below. The third event involves Regigigas - it will be appearing in EX Raids from November, however a special early-access ticket has been announced, priced at $7.99. The paid event runs from 11am to 7pm on November 2nd and gives Special Research named A Colossal Discovery and other features (see below).

Following the Pokémon Live Camera event last week, the new Pokémon seen on the stream has been confirmed to be Galarian Ponyta. It is Psychic type and has a new ability, Pastel Veil, which prevents it and its teammates from becoming poisoned. Galarian Ponyta is exclusive to Pokémon Shield version (presumably as a counterpart to Sirfetch'd which is exclusive to Sword). Galarian Ponyta

The 24 hour live-stream of the Glimwood Tangle forest has ended and it has revealed a new Pokémon! The stream was very sparse with Pokémon popping up on average only every 30 minutes or so. As the stream went on fleeting glimpses of something new were seen, but often obscured by something else like Impidimp walking through the shot. Finally we got a good glimpse of a pony Pokémon that looks similar to Ponyta and has the same cry. Nothing has been fully confirmed yet but it's presumed to be Galarian Ponyta. Galarian Ponyta

It has been announced that this Friday, a live-stream will be set up of Glimwood Tangle, a strange forest area in Galar. The aim is to apparently assist Sonia, one of the characters from Pokémon Sword and Pokémon Shield, with her research. The live-stream will start from 1pm UTC (6am PT / 9am ET / 2pm BST) on October 4th and runs for 24 hours! Check in now and again and there is sure to be something new.

The "glitchy" Pokémon that was seen last week on the official site has been revealed to be Sirfetch'd. It is a Galar evolution of Farfetch'd and is exclusive to Pokémon Sword version. Sirfetch'd is pure Fighting type with the ability Steadfast. It has a signature move, Meteor Assault, which is powerful but means Sirfetch'd is unable to take action after using it. A video showing Sirfetch'd in action has been released:

A new Pokémon has supposedly been revealed on the Sword & Shield website - however, it appears as a pixelated image: Unknown glitch Pokemon (click for animated version) The Pokémon is listed as Fighting type with the ability Steadfast. The URL segment, which normally has the Pokémon name in it, shows as zbpkxr1gw8, and the image filename is pq2ot9z9fh.gif. We'll bring more information as we get it.