The Pokémon TCG has been killing the promo game recently and the trend continues with a special promo card featuring both Pikachu and Charizard to hit western stores soon.
As two of the most heavily marketed Pokémon across the franchise, just including Pikachu and Charizard on a single card is a win for casual fans and collectors. This special promo has an incredible story, however, making it even cooler.
According to The Pokémon Company International, Pikachu promo SVP #101 will be handed out to players in November who compete at Pokémon League events at participating stores. These events are officially acknowledged by TPC, hosted in game stores, and typically promoted as open tournaments TCG and VGC players of all ages and skill levels can participate in.
TPCi has also noted these cards will have a limited availability and given out “at the discretion of each Pokémon League” organizer, which means you are not guaranteed to get a card if you attend an event. This also could be a slight measure against potential scalpers looking to collect multiple of these promo cards and ruin the experience for other players—like what happened with the Pokémon Van Gogh museum collaboration and its promo Pikachu card.
This promo, which PokéBeach notes has been released prior to this in several Asian countries for World 2023 and the Asia Championships 2023, is now making its way through Japan’s Gym event circuit to match its arrival for Pokémon League events in the West. And, if you inspect the art, you can dig into how this card came to be.
The art for this Pikachu promo was drawn by the winner of the 2020 edition of the Pokémon Illustration Contest, Jiro Sasumo. Not only that, but it acts as a flipped image of his original Charizard card, which showed the Fire Starter staring down an unknown Pokémon in a stadium.
Based on this art, we now know Sasumo’s Charizard was staring down a Pikachu on the other side, which has more significance now the original Pokémon anime has ended and the final big battle was between Ash’s Pikachu and Leon’s Charizard.
If you want a copy of this Pikachu promo for yourself, just build yourself a TCG deck or VGC team and find your nearest Pokémon League tournament shop. The card won’t be available until sometime in November, but checking out your local spots now can save you a bit of hassle closer to when they do drop.
Published: Oct 18, 2023 10:02 pm