Creatures, the company that produces the Pokémon TCG, has sent out a deck very special 25th anniversary to its card illustrators. The platform will not be released to the public, but some may make it to the aftermarket. The deck was first posted on social media by @Shibuzoh and Hideki Ishikawa , who began illustrating Pokémon cards in 2016.
The 30-card deck is called "Creature Deck: Corporate History (1995-2021)." Just like in Celebrations , contains reprinted cards from the TCG's past, each representing a year from 1995 to 2021. Examples include the set Basic Charizard for 1996, Rainbow Energy for 1997, and Urshifu V Flow Style for 2021.
Each card features a 25th anniversary stamp and is printed on a shiny, starry paper stock, instantly setting them apart from the anniversary cards released this year. The cards also do not have standard backs; Instead, they display historical information about the creatures. This further distinguishes them from typical Pokémon cards.
For the 1995 card, they printed what appears to be a beta version of Chansey Base set ! They claim it is a "test card" illustrated by Koichi Oyama without giving further details. Oyama was one of the original creators of Pokémon TCG, so this is likely one of his earliest drafts. “Chansey Beta” has 140 HP instead of 120 and Double Edge has 80 recoil damage instead of 50. This is especially notable when you consider that the 120 HP barrier wasn’t broken until EX Sandstorm in 2003! "Weakness" is also called "Weak Point".
The Pokémon TCG was released in October 1996, but Creatures was founded in November 1995, hence the need to find a card that represents its history in 1995.
The deck also includes three Trainer cards: Poke Ball, Switch, and a new Stadium card called Story Gate. This brings the deck to a total of 30 cards, the size of a standard mini-deck (although it would obviously be a horrible deck to play).
Cards for each player in play that were released between 1996 and 2000 have their HP printed on them and attack damage doubled.
This card remains in play when you play it. Discard this card if another Stadium card comes into play. If there is another card with the same name in play, you cannot play this card.
The backs of all three Trainer cards feature an interview with Hirokazu Tanaka, President of Creatures, and Tsunekazu Ishihara, President and CEO of Pokémon. We looked through the historical information on the deck, but nothing special was revealed. The information speaks of common knowledge and previous Pokémon releases.
The deck was shipped in a unique wooden box. This box includes a cloth bag with energy symbols on the front and back. Also includes a pack of 32 sleeves with the original Japanese card back. The sleeves were released at Pokémon Centers in Japan several times.
Could this special deck make it to the aftermarket someday? In 2016, Creatures sent a special leather box to its illustrators to celebrate the TCG's 20th anniversary. It was just last year that one of them appeared on Yahoo Auctions (The Japanese eBay) and sold for over $11,000. So it's possible that some of these decks will one day be sold at crazy prices .
However, Pokémon generally advises against this, as it is supposed to be a special gift. That's why the back of the platform says "Not for sale." So if anyone does part ways with them, it probably won't be for a few years.
You can see all the 25th anniversary cards in the deck at Instagram stories of Shibuzoh , which I have re-uploaded here as a single video: