Vol. 3, Issue 14 - Interview with Pokumon
An interview with Emory, the webmaster of a Pokémon TCG archival website called Pokumon. Plus, a recap of the latest Pokémon news, including the latest information on the Nintendo Switch 2
Welcome to another issue of Johto Times! In Vol. 3, issue 14, we are sharing our interview with Emory from Pokumon, an archive dedicated to the Pokémon Trading Card Game which began in December 2020. As always, we also have a recap of the latest Pokémon news, including details from the latest Nintendo Direct streams!
News
Nintendo has announced that the Switch 2 will launch on June 5th, 2025. The suggested retail price for the console is $449.99 in the United States, £395.99 UK, $629.99 CAD, €469.99, and ¥49,980 in Japan. A console bundle, which includes Mario Kart World, will cost $499.99 US, $699.99 CAD, £429.99 UK, €509.99 EU, and ¥53,980 in Japan.
Pokémon was also represented in this Nintendo Direct, with the company confirming that a Nintendo Switch 2 Edition of Pokémon Legends: Z-A will be released. This version of the game will include enhanced resolution and frame rates and will be released in 2025.
Pokémon Colosseum and Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness will be coming to the newly announced Nintendo GameCube – Nintendo Classics, exclusive to Nintendo Switch 2, for those with a Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack membership. GameCube games released as part of the service will have clearer image quality and higher resolution than their original releases. No date was given for the two GameCube Pokémon titles, but it will be the first time they have ever seen a re-release.
Finally, Pokémon Scarlet & Violet will be among the Switch games receiving a free update on Nintendo Switch 2. More details will be shared once we have them.
Source: Nintendo, Nintendo Direct
Last week, Nintendo shared a new trailer for the upcoming Pokémon Legends: Z-A title, which will launch on Nintendo Switch and Switch 2 later this year. The trailer confirmed a new nighttime competition called "Z-A Royale", taking place at various points across Lumiose City. These Battle Zones allow you to engage in fierce battles with other trainers, where you can rise through the ranks from Z to A. According to Nintendo’s press release, players who receive the top rank will be granted an in-game wish!
Source: Nintendo
Ex Starter Deck missions have been added to Pokémon TCG Pocket, where players can complete missions and receive a special deck to use in battles. Players can also receive a Cyclizar promo card by completing one of the missions.
A Ranked Match mode has also been introduced to the game, allowing players to receive rank points by winning battles. Players can obtain emblems based on the rank they attain by the time the season ends.
For the latest Pokémon TCG Pocket News, be sure to check out the in-game news.
Source: Pokémon TCG Pocket, In-game news
Pokémon has released an update on Pokémon TCG product availability, acknowledging the difficulties that some fans are experiencing in obtaining certain products due to very high demand. The update confirms that reprinted products are expected to be available at participating retailers as soon as possible and that in the future, they will maximise production to increase product availability upon release and continue to reprint impacted products. They ended their statement by thanking the community for their continued support and patience. The full update can be read in the source below.
Source: Pokémon
Feature: Interview with Pokumon
Pokumon is an archive dedicated to the Pokémon Trading Card Game, which launched in December 2020. It features articles, card scans, and a detailed timeline which highlights important milestones in Pokémon TCG history. Its webmaster Emory shared lots of information about his website, including his approach to researching information for Pokumon and his opinion on shortages of Pokémon TCG products.
It’s great to be speaking with you, Emory! Can you please introduce yourself to our readers?
Emory:
My name’s Emory and I’ve been collecting Pokémon cards since I was a kid in 1999. Like most other children, I was caught up in the Pokémania hype of the late 90s. Presently, I work in tech and run Pokumon.com, the internet’s largest Pokémon TCG history archive and database of special release and promotional cards. I also do some freelance art and graphic design for various clients (you can check it out at Human for scale), and co-run a specialty card display company called Vhett with a friend of mine.
Prior to the creation of your website, you had been researching the Pokémon Trading Card Game for a few years. What encouraged you to start documenting information?
Emory:
I started out collecting Pokémon cards from booster packs just like anyone else, but I also started playing the TCG competitively as a kid. I remember competing in local leagues where organizers would give you promo cards for winning or participating, which really sparked my interest in these “special” cards. When I got older (and had a bit more disposable income), I began researching all the cool promos cards that had been released in Japan.
I found that I enjoyed the process of learning the history behind the distribution of each card almost as much as obtaining the card itself. There’s a heightened level of appreciation when you manage to track down a card with a very limited release, especially if it brings you in touch with other collectors and players from across the globe.
In order to actually find some of these cards, I had to do a lot of research to verify that what I was buying was actually the card specified. I kept a folder of documents and notes around each card, and over time [I] realized I had amassed a lot of information.
Your website Pokumon launched on December 1st, 2020, as a database and museum for the Pokémon Trading Card Game. It has event details, articles, and useful information about the history of the game. What encouraged you to make it?
Emory:
Prior to the COVID pandemic, I commuted anywhere from 1-2.5 hours each way to work on the train five days a week. When remote work became the norm, I suddenly found myself with a lot more spare time. At the same time, the Pokémon TCG scene reached peak amounts of interest.
This combination of factors led me to do something I’d been thinking of for some time, which was to actually publish a lot of my research around Pokémon TCG history. I had always been intimidated because I am probably the world’s worst web developer, but through a lot of trial and error, I got the bones of the site working. From there, it was a bunch of effort in populating the cards into the database. Every card is tagged with various attributes like its Pokémon name, type, release events, etc. This is all done manually, but I found it pretty rewarding to “collect” the information, especially as card prices had skyrocketed so it became less financially wise to “collect” the actual cards.
I also realized that a lot of information around the early years of the TCG had started getting lost to the annals of time. So much of the early history is told by word-of-mouth on discussion boards like PokeGym, or in decaying print material like old CoroCoro magazines. I decided it would be a rewarding hobby to preserve as much of this as possible in a way that I would want to read through it, which created the website’s article-to-database structure, as well as its visual timeline.
One of my favourite features of the website is your timeline, which displays the history of Pokémon’s major events and milestones, for both North America and Japan. It’s easy to navigate and gives a lot of information. How did you come up with the idea for it?
Emory:
Haha, how relevant – like I mentioned previously, I wanted to create a site that I would also enjoy reading through. I’m a pretty visual person (maybe it’s my art background), so I knew in addition to the copious amounts of text and thousands of card database rows, I also wanted an aesthetically-pleasing way to browse through the history of the game.
The timeline is one of the most time-intensive things to compile together since it requires that I mostly be done with the “coverage” of that era’s articles before I construct it. I’m quite far behind where I’d like to be with that, but unfortunately my full time job and other obligations mean I make pretty slow progress there.
The website has a dedicated article page, which is searchable by year, detailing all sorts of interesting information relating to Pokémon's past. What are some of your favourites?
Emory:
That’s tough to pick! There are so many, but some of the ones I spent the most time on were:
Lizardon Mega Battles
This article involved a lot of research through online tournament reports that were still archived from 1998, as well as poring over pages in the official commemorative photo book. It was awesome looking at all the photos from the event, and the photo book even documents the turn-by-turn results of some of the matches!
Tamamushi University Campaign
This article is probably the one that took me the longest. The campaign spanned the course of an entire year and distributed the well-known University Magikarp promo card. It was particularly difficult to gather data on the campaign since it was distributed entirely through old children’s magazines, many of which were exceptionally difficult to track down.
Pokémon TCG 25th Anniversary Creatures Deck
This article was fun to write because the cards involved were meant to celebrate the rich history of the Pokémon TCG. I obtained hi-res scans of the cards from one of the first buyers of a full deck and thus also published the first ever English translations of the cards! It was a real pleasure reading through the commentary from the creators of the TCG.
At the time of writing, you have almost 9,000 promo and special release Pokémon TCG cards in your database. Some of these scans are of very rare cards. What challenges have you faced in trying to track them down?
Emory:
I think the beautiful thing about the Pokémon TCG is that collectors are often happy to share scans or images of their cards, making even some of the rarest cards pretty easy to get images of. However, the most difficult cards to track down are ironically some of the more recent ones.
With multiple countries like Hong Kong, Taiwan, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, and more each getting special stamped promo cards for their tournaments, images of these cards are incredibly hard to track down. In particular, some of the Champion cards are 1/1 copies, meaning I generally have to reach out to winners to get a photo, which can be challenging given the language barrier.
Some older prize cards like the Tropical Mega Battle VS cards in various languages have never been seen online, meaning that they still remain without images in Pokumon’s database as well.
What have been some of the biggest success stories that have come out of Pokumon so far?
Emory:
Honestly, I’m just happy that others enjoy learning from and contributing to the site as much as I do. Contrary to popular belief, running a website like this is not at all profitable, so even though I get thousands of Pokémon fans reading every day, I consider it a financial success when it’s able to cover its server bandwidth costs. Serving full res PDFs and image scans isn’t cheap!
Pokumon mostly subsists from donations, ad revenue, and affiliate links. But finances aside, the site has given me the opportunity to speak to people from incredibly interesting Pokémon backgrounds. I’ve interviewed (and met in person) multiple national and world champions, as well as spoken with old Wizards of the Coast employees and tournament organizers who have been in the game for decades.
I think the biggest success of Pokumon is that it’s allowed me to meet people from all walks of life, with our only commonality being that we love Pokémon cards.
As the years go on, information about the past becomes more difficult to find, while some details can be lost entirely. What are some of the mysteries you would love to try and solve that you haven’t been able to at the time of writing?
Emory:
There’s quite a few! However, I’d say the top 3 are:
Battle Road 2002 “Elite 4” CardsIn 2002 a Japanese TCG player posted an image of a never-before seen trophy card in a reward plaque on Twitter. I exchanged some comments with them, hoping to uncover more details about the card, how it was distributed, and if there were others similar to it. They initially agreed to a chat, but unfortunately they stopped responding to me, so it might be a mystery that is never solved!
Jumbo 2009 Illustration Contest cards
The 2009 Illustration Contest produced coveted Pichu & Arceus promo cards. However, it’s a little-known fact that the runners-up also each got a Jumbo card made with their artwork. The only full-color winners publicly seen were printed in the Pokémon Fan magazine. These cards have never surfaced, and many of the runner-up entries were printed on black and white comic pages. It’d be amazing to see them in full color.Ishihara’s personal cards
There are some very neat cards that the Pokémon Company has made as special gifts for their president, Tsunekazu Ishihara. Understandably, these have never really been documented, but it would be amazing to see them in higher resolution. I had the pleasure of meeting him once at a World Championships!
Johto Times and Pokumon share similar DNA, in how we try our best to document the past and care about the history of Pokémon. How important do you believe it is for projects like ours to exist and thrive?
Emory:
Pokémon is one of (if not the) largest media franchises in the world. While it is relatively young compared to other ones like Disney / DC Comics / Star Wars, it definitely is going to be around for a long, long time.
This means that Pokémon’s history will only continue to grow. Disney for example has entire museums dedicated to its history. Many of the items displayed there and historical narratives are provided by private collectors and personal friends of Disney employees. My belief is that eventually, Pokémon will wind up in a similar situation where some information will only have been preserved by those outside the company. That makes projects like ours important for the future.
What are some of the challenges you face while trying to research accurate information, and how have you been able to overcome those difficulties to find solutions?
Emory:
By far the biggest challenge is the lack of 1st party official documentation for the early (1998–2002) and middle (2006–~2012) years of the TCG. The former is difficult because of aging, non-digital documents covering most of the details. The latter is difficult because this was the period of the internet where every website decided that they wanted to use Flash to make things more animated and interactive. Those Flash SWF files were not archived by anything, so many pages during this time period are simply empty with some metadata.
To fill in the blanks, I try to interview and research multiple sources who either attended the events or provided media coverage during that time. I’ll try to source them independently and see if their information lines up, since anecdotal one-offs can be unreliable. Still, it’s not the most straightforward to piece together the events, but I think that’s part of what makes this really enjoyable, since you feel like you’re uncovering secrets.
In recent years, the hobby has been plagued with scalpers, a practice where people buy up large quantities of products and sell them for a huge profit. It has led to shortages and driven up prices. As a fan who cares about the Pokémon TCG, I am curious to hear your thoughts on this!
Emory:
To be honest, I’m fairly neutral regarding the modern scalping situation. It’s something that existed in 1999 when Pokémania was at its peak, and will continue as long as the product is sold at MSRP for less than others are willing to pay for it on the secondary market. I do believe that physical violence and toxic conversations that are had around the practice show the TCG in a bad light, and it does highlight how immature some people can be about a hobby that is ironically rooted in a children’s media franchise.
Pokémon has taken steps to overprint or limit bulk purchases, but that can only do so much. When I see someone selling TCG products that they managed to obtain for far above MSRP, I think that they’re just capitalizing on an opportunity that many would do given the same chance.
Ultimately, Pokémon is a luxury good and isn’t a necessity. Additionally, the TCG has never been more affordable to play. Due to the chase cards all having much rarer UR / SR / etc. variants, you can build a top tier deck very easily. I think as long as people are able to play the game (which is how many get into the TCG as kids) without breaking the bank, things will be OK.
Pokémon means an awful lot to us, and I am interested to see what kinds of Pokémon-related items you own which mean something to you! What can you share with us?
Emory:
I’ve got way too many things, but in keeping with the theme of three responses per question, here’s some below. I keep most of my rarer cards in specially-designed UV-resistant display shields.
I own a cool chronological set of cards themed around the Tropical Mega Battles. This tournament was the TCG’s first true multi-country competition, which fulfilled Ishihara’s dream of hosting international tournaments for the game. Here’s a photo of a 1999 Tropical Wind, 2000 Lucky Stadium, and a 2001 / 2002 Tropical Breeze. I was lucky enough to be able to purchase the Tropical Breeze directly from the 2002 World Champion herself, Mindy Meldrum (and she was kind enough to sign a certificate for me). I also have the bilingual Exeggutor distributed at the 1999 Tropical Mega Battle, but it’s not in this photo.
As part of my work in Pokumon, I routinely reach out to, interview, and even get to purchase cards from TCG champions from around the world. I have a collection of trophy cards with their original display shields and boxes from multiple countries around the world. They’re a great reminder of how truly international Pokémon is. Seeing how tournaments differ around the world and then ultimately culminate in the World Championships is one of my favorite things about the TCG.
I began drawing as a hobby as a kid, and it eventually was lucrative enough to help pay my rent during college. One of my earliest inspirations for drawing was Pokémon cards, and I remember drawing the Eeveelutions that Himeno-san illustrated in the Jungle expansion in the margins of my homework. I’ve been lucky enough to meet her a few times now and have a few signed cards from her, as well as this gorgeous original watercolor shikishi (traditional Japanese-style, square illustration board) with a dragon. I hope someday I can win an illustration contest and illustrate my own Pokémon card!
I truly appreciate everything you are doing with Pokumon, and I know it’s going to continue to grow and be a great resource of information for fans such as myself. What is the future for Pokumon and your research into the Trading Card Game?
Emory:
I consider myself a decent-ish researcher and writer, but even I was surprised by how slowly I was able to populate the site’s content. I told myself I would essentially try to do 40 articles per year and eventually catch up to the “current” state of the TCG. However, with the expansion of the TCG globally and the unique events being held everywhere (recently they’ve started doing a ton in mainland China), the list grows faster than I can chip away at it.
I anticipate Pokumon being something I keep up for the rest of my life. I used to travel quite often for work and would be able to write an article or two on planes as well as in hotel rooms. It’s something that I truly do as a leisure activity to wind down my days. Whenever I eventually retire, hopefully it’ll just be that hobby I do to fill the days. Who knows how many Pokémon will be out by then!
Emory, it has been a pleasure to speak to you and learn more about your website! Do you have any closing comments you would like to make?
Emory:
As the Pokémon TCG has matured as a hobby, I feel like it’s also ironically in its least mature phase – the cliquey teenage years. Tribalism is pretty rampant now, with labels like investors, collectors, scalpers, players, and flippers all thrown around in both positive and negative lights.
People enter this hobby for a variety of reasons – they love Pokémon, money, or even playing the game. I don’t think there’s a particularly right or wrong way to enjoy it. Certainly harming others is pretty bad (stop fighting in Costcos), but I don’t think anyone has ever been “hurt” if they can’t afford a certain card or sealed product.
As a kid, I played competitively in local store leagues until I stopped with Neo Genesis (Slowking was not fun). Years later, I was buying niche cards because I wanted them, without any thought about what they’d be worth now. These were cards like DP–BW-era Korean trophy cards or interesting promos like the Worlds promo sets. They weren’t necessarily cheap (paying over $100 for a card back then was kinda ridiculous), but looking back they were amazing “investments”. I’ve sold off many of those cards to buy other cards at much higher prices. Does that make me a flipper? A collector? A player? I’m not sure, but all I know is that I love Pokémon and will probably keep loving it until I’m an old, old man.
Thank you, Emory, for answering our questions. It was extremely interesting to speak to you and learning all about your website. We wish you the very best of luck with Pokumon’s future and your card display company!
That’s all for this week’s issue! If you enjoy what Johto Times provides, be sure to share our newsletter with your friends and loved ones to help us reach even more Pokémon fans. For Discord users, you’re welcome to join our server for the latest notifications from our project. We are still open to sharing your mailbag entries, so if you have anything you would like to share with us, drop us a line by visiting this link to contact us directly!
I had never heard of this website before! Also announcing the Pokemon Colosseum and XD: Gale of Darkness games was exciting. I suppose they'll never remake them now, or not for ages, since just re-releasing them is way easier but oh well, I hope to play them one day.