Regional Differences: Diamond and Pearl Pt. 5 Legends Awakened

It's been a while since I last posted a Regional Differences article covering the Diamond and Pearl era of the TCG. In Part 4, I examined how corporate synergy between the TCG and the movie "The Rise of Darkrai" created a plethora of regional differences spanning the West's Secret Wonders, Great Encounters and Majestic Dawn expansions, and the Japanese DP3 and DP4 sets. You can read the previous article by clicking here if you need a refresher.

The next sets in the block, "Legends Awakened" in the West, and "Cry from the Mysterious" and "Temple of Anger" in Japan, brought things back into alignment between the East and West, with a few notable exceptions.

MFW "Cry from the Mysterious" is the accepted translation.

Background

DP5 was released in Japan on March 14, 2008. Like Moonlit Pursuit and Dawn Dash, DP5 was composed of two subsets: Cry from the Mysterious and Temple of Anger. Each subset contained a total of 65 cards, all of which were exclusive to each subset. In other words, unlike Moonlit Pursuit and Dawn Dash, in which a handful of cards were available in both booster subsets, all of the cards in Temple of Anger could only be obtained in Temple of Anger packs, and vice versa with respect to Cry from the Mysterious. Each subset contained 15 Rares, 8 Holos, and 3 LV. X ultra rare cards.

The Western version of DP5, Legends Awakened, was released on August 20, 2008. At the time of its release, Legends Awakened was the third largest set in the English TCG, weighing in at an impressive 146 cards. Legends Awakened included the 130 cards from DP5, along with 16 cards from Japan's Heatran vs. Regigigas Deck Kit, a complementary product released alongside the DP5 booster sets. The Deck Kit contained a number of unique cards, most notably Gliscor LV. X and Mewtwo LV. X, that could not otherwise be obtained in the DP5 booster sets.  

Heatran vs. Regigigas Deck Kit. See more at http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Heatran_vs_Regigigas_Deck_Kit_(TCG)

Notable Differences

Overall, there are not many differences between the English and Japanese releases of these sets. Nearly all of the English cards can be found in either the DP5 subsets or the Heatran vs. Regigigas Deck Kit. That being said, there are still a handful of regional differences worth highlighting.

1. Porygon Z LV. X

The most glaring difference between the sets is the inclusion of Porygon Z LV. X in Temple of Anger. In the English TCG, Porygon Z LV. X was originally released in Majestic Dawn. In Japan, the card was originally printed in Temple of Anger, and later received a DP-P promotional card variant with alternate artwork. The English version of the card in Majestic Dawn uses the Japanese promotional card's artwork instead of the original artwork used in Temple of Anger. The Temple of Anger artwork was not released in the English TCG and, as a result, remains a Japanese exclusive to this day.

Temple of Anger print (Japanese exclusive artwork)

Majestic Dawn print (using artwork from the Japanese promo version of the card)

 2. Rarity Disparity

Like previous sets in the Diamond and Pearl block, certain cards had their printed rarities altered between the Japanese and English releases. In Japan, Castform, Catform Rain Form, Castform Snow-cloud Form and Castform Sunny Form were all printed as rare cards in Cry from the Mysterious. These cards were changed to Uncommons for the English release of Legends Awakened.

Does Castform have testicles? Because it kind of looks like Castform has testicles...

In addition, the cards from the Heatran vs. Regigigas Deck Kit were given new printed rarities for their release in Legends Awakened.  The Deck Kit was a fixed product, meaning the contents of every Deck Kit were the same without a substantive rarity, and PCI had no choice but to create rarities for each card imported from that product. Their choices were... unusual. 

Heatran and Regigigas, the namesakes of each half deck, were each printed as Rares. Mewtwo, a card from the Regigigas half deck, was the only card from the Deck Kit printed as a Holo Rare in Legends Awakened. Mewtwo's counterpart in the Heatran half deck, Gliscor, was strangely printed as an Uncommon. It is unclear to me why PCI made these choices, perhaps it had more to do with the cards' competitive qualities than anything else, but it is somewhat unusual that the cards from the half decks received such disparate rarity treatment.  

That's all for this week's installment of regional differences. As always, please let me know if you have any comments, questions or suggestions for revision. 

I will update this post later with links to images of my completed sets of Legends Awakened, Cry from the Mysterious and Temple of Anger. 

Regional Differences: Diamond and Pearl Pt. 4 the Rise of Darkrai

Regional Differences: Diamond and Pearl Pt. 4 The Rise of Darkrai


Welcome to another edition of Regional Differences, the series that examines regional differences between Pokemon TCG releases. Today's article resumes our discussion of the of the Diamond and Pearl era of the TCG. You can read the previous articles here:


Part 1
Part 2
Part 3


Today's discussion focuses on the most powerful force in the universe, corporate synergy. 

More specifically, how corporate synergy in the Pokemon multi-media empire led to substantial regional differences between the English and Japanese TCG over the course of the next three sets in the Diamond and Pearl era. 

Background

There are a number of important dates to consider when discussing the sets in this article, so below are the flow charts from the first Diamond and Pearl article to keep everyone properly oriented.

With that out of the way, let's talk about:

Pokemon is, of course, much more than a TCG. It is a multi-media empire that includes everything from TV shows and movies to mobile games. Every so often, the initiatives in one branch of the empire will reach out its tendrils and ensnare the other parts of the Pokemon machine. Take, for example, the tenth Pokemon movie, "The Rise of Darkrai." This film marked the debut of Darkrai, a legendary Pokemon from the Diamond and Pearl video games (pictured below). 

2spooky4me

The Pokemon Company higher-ups decided that the theatrical debut of Darkrai should coincide with its debut in other media, including the TCG.  In Japan, the Rise of Darkrai movie premiered in theaters on July 14, 2007, one week after the release of Shining Darkness, the third set in the Japanese Diamond and Pearl block. In connection with the release of the film, Shining Darkness heavily featured Darkrai, Dialga, and Palkia, Pokemon that played prominent roles in the film. In the United States however, the film did not premiere until February 24, 2008. The problem facing the Pokemon Company International ("PCI") was how to handle the third set of the English TCG’s Diamond and Pearl block which was scheduled for release in November of 2007, three months before the release of the film.

PCI essentially had two options: either alter the contents of the set to preserve corporate synergy, or release the set with the contents unchanged. Unsurprisingly, PCI went with the first option and removed Dialga, Palkia, and Darkrai from Secret Wonders and moved them to Great Encounters, the fourth English set in the Diamond and Pearl block (which released right around the English debut of the film). 

That of course left PCI with the issue of how to replace the cards they removed from Shining Darkness. Fortunately, the fourth set(s) in the Japanese Diamond and Pearl block, Moonlit Pursuit and Dawn Dash, had just released in Japan, so PCI took certain cards from those expansions and added them to Secret Wonders.

Gardevoir Lv. X: released in Secret Wonders in English and Dawn Dash in Japanese

So for those keeping score at home, the following cards were featured in Shining Darkness but were removed from Secret Wonders and added to Great Encounters: Darkrai, Dialga, Palkia, Darkrai Lv. X, Dialga Lv. X, and Palkia Lv. X. The following cards were added to Secret Wonders from Dawn Dash, Moonlit Pursuit, and the Japanese half-decks released alongside those expansions: Gardevoir, Roserade, Electivire, Magmortar, Weavile, Roselia, Electabuzz, Magmar, Gardevoir Lv. X, and Honchkrow Lv. X. 

Moonlit Pursuit and Dawn Dash

Moonlit Pursuit and Dawn Dash are interesting expansions worth briefly discussing. Each set contains 70 cards, nearly all of which are only available in their respective expansion. In other words, nearly all of the cards in Dawn Dash can only be obtained in Dawn Dash booster packs and nearly all of the cards in Moonlit Pursuit can only be obtained in Moonlit Pursuit booster packs. The emphasis on unique content for the subsets was a welcome departure from Space-Time Creation, where nearly all of the cards in the set were available in both Diamond Collection and Pearl Collection. While the contents of the subsets are almost entirely unique, they are both still considered part of the overall DP4 release as, like Diamond Collection and Pearl Collection, Dawn Dash and Moonlit Pursuit share a single “DP4” set symbol.  

In the English TCG, the contents of these sets were split into three different expansions. First, as previously noted, certain cards from Dawn Dash and Moonlit Pursuit were moved forward into Secret Wonders to replace the cards removed from Shining Darkness. Second, the bulk of the remaining cards from Moonlit Pursuit, plus the cards held back from Shining Darkness, made up Great Encounters. Finally, the remaining cards from Dawn Dash, along with certain unreleased Japanese promo cards and the Japanese ancillary product “Entry Pack ’08” made up the fifth English set in the block, Majestic Dawn.

Entry Pack 08. You can read more about this product at http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Entry_Pack_%2708_(TCG)

So to summarize, because of the importance of corporate synergy, the English and Japanese Diamond and Pearl eras, which had otherwise been fairly similar up until this point, embarked on widely divergent paths around July 2007 due to the release of The Rise of Darkrai. As a result, collectors have the benefit of collecting a number of unique sets that vary widely in composition from their regional counterparts.

You can see my completed sets of Secret Wonders, Great Encounters, Majestic Dawn, Dawn Dash and Moonlit Pursuit by following the links below.

Secret Wonders

Great Encounters

Majestic Dawn

Dawn Dash

Moonlit Pursuit

As always, please let me know if you have any comments, questions or suggestions for revision. 

Finally, if you are a new or returning collector and are looking for a place to start in the Pokemon TCG, be sure to check out my article on the newest English set, Sun and Moon, on Flipside Gaming's website at https://www.flipsidegaming.com/blogs/news/a-pokemon-tcg-collectors-guide  

Regional Differences: Diamond and Pearl Pt. 3 Secret of the Lakes

Welcome to another edition of Regional Differences, the series that examines regional differences between Pokemon TCG releases. Today's post continues the discussion of the Diamond and Pearl era of the TCG by taking a look at the second set of the era: Mysterious Treasures a/k/a Secret of the Lakes. You can read about the first set in the block by clicking here.

The real secret of the lakes?

Background

"Secret of the Lakes" is the kind of title I would give to a Scooby Doo episode or a Boxcar Children mystery

Pretty close

or at least the title of a crime thriller in which Officer Jenny is tasked with solving a series of murders after bodies start turning up at Lake Valor. 

Releasing direct to DVD Summer 2006

In reality, the set derives its name from the TCG debut of Mesprit, Uxie and Azelf, the three legendary pokemon that can be found and captured in three different lakes in the Diamond and Pearl video games. There are a number of obvious, and perhaps not-so-obvious regional differences to cover with this set, so lets dive right in (pun intended). 

Notable Differences

1. Pack distribution - If you take a look at this set on Bulbapedia, you will notice that the set list for Secret of the Lakes includes 8 spots for basic energy cards while the English set list for Mysterious Treasures does not. At first glance, it might appear that the Japanese set is actually larger than the English set (a truly rare phenomenon in the TCG) but the inclusion of these energy cards is somewhat misleading. Each pack of Secret of the Lakes includes 11 cards, including 1 holo, 1 rare and 1 basic energy card. The basic energy cards are identical to the energy cards released with the first Diamond and Pearl set, Space-Time Creation: they do not have a set symbol and they feature the same 2006 copyright date. In light of the foregoing, I'm not convinced its fair to include these cards as a part of the set, even though they do appear in the set's booster packs. The English booster packs only contained 10 cards, including 1 rare (with an approximate 1:3 chance for a holo) and 1 reverse holo. No energy cards were included in the English Boosters. The obvious observation here is that the Japanese packs really give you more bang for your buck than the English packs. 

2. Secret [rare] of the Lakes - Mysterious Treasures featured a special secret rare card that was not included in Secret of the Lakes: Space-Time Distortion.

In Japan, this card was instead awarded as a prize in a number of different competitive TCG tournaments. 

3. Rarity Differences - Perhaps the greatest "secret" of the lakes is not the English exclusive secret rare card, but rather the mystery of why the rarities of certain cards were altered between the English and Japanese releases. The following cards have different rarities in the Japanese and English versions of the set:

Bastiodon and Ramparados (JP - Holo; US - Rare). Note that English holo versions of each of these cards were available as theme deck exclusive variants. The non-holo print was the version included in the English booster packs. 

Magmar (JP - Common; US - Uncommon). 

Magby (JP - Uncommon; US - Common).

Pichu (JP - Uncommon; US - Common)

Side note: what kind of a name is "Chupi" for an attack? 

Multi-Energy (JP - Uncommon; US - Rare)

Thanks for reading this week's edition of Regional Differences. You can see copies of my completed English and Japanese versions of this set by clicking the links below:

Mysterious Treasures

Secret of the Lakes

Let me know if you have any questions, comments or suggestions for future regional difference to cover. 

Regional Differences: Diamond and Pearl Pt. 2 Space-Time Creation

Welcome to another edition of Regional Differences, the series that examines regional differences between Pokemon TCG releases. Today's post continues the discussion of the Diamond and Pearl era of the TCG with an examination of the first set of the era: Space-Time Creation a/k/a Diamond and Pearl.

Background:


Diamond and Pearl, like other "base" sets before it, reset the layout for the TCG cards of the era in both the English and Japanese versions of the game. An examination of the differences between the English and Japanese layouts is presented below:

As reflected in the photos above, there are a number of differences between the English and Japanese cards.

1. Overall Layout Differences - Note the different card backs in the lower picture, along with the yellow vs silver border in the top picture. These layout differences are not new (the Japanese back was changed in the VS expansion and the silver border was implemented in the Ruby and Sapphire Expansion Pack) but both of these layout differences remained in place for the D&P era. Different fonts are used for the English and Japanese versions of the TCG. Height and Weight are presented in metric units on Japanese cards while English cards use the imperial system. Flavor text, last seen in the Wizards era of the TCG, returned to the cards in the Diamond and Pearl era in both the English and Japanese releases.

2. 1st Edition Symbol - As seen in the bottom left corner of the cards in the top picture, the Japanese Diamond and Pearl set was released in first edition and unlimited prints. The English TCG did away with First Edition cards after the Neo Destiny expansion. The English print, however, featured reverse holo versions of each of the cards in the set, other than energy and LV. X cards. The Japanese print did not include reverse holos.

3. Card Number - English cards featured a card number in the bottom right corner of the card. Even though Japanese cards in the ex era featured card numbers, this feature was removed from cards in the Diamond and Pearl era. I am not sure why this card number was removed from the Japanese cards (and as a collector, I find it very frustrating). Instead, Japanese cards featured a collector number based in part on the Pokemon's evolutionary family and pokedex number (see the bottom right corner of the Japanese card). English cards also included this number in the bottom left corner of each card.

4. Set symbol - As noted in the first D&P era post, the cards in each set featured different expansion symbols (see the bottom right corner of each card).

5. Copyright information - As reflected in the orange circle in the top picture, the Japanese and English cards list different copyright text.

Bulbapedia has a pretty comprehensive list of other changes between the Diamond and Pearl expansion and the ex era of TCG releases.

Other Notable Differences

1. Release Procedure - Space-Time Creation was released using two different booster sets: Pearl Collection and Diamond Collection. Certain cards were only available in each of these booster sets, much like how certain pokemon were only available in the diamond and pearl cartridges.

Pearl Collection exclusives included: Palkia, Mismagius, Bonsly, Glameow, and Purugly

Diamond Collection exclusives included: Stunky, Stuntank, Dialga

Each Japanese booster box came with 20 cards and each booster pack contained 11 cards.

The English expansion was released in much the same way as the prior expansions, in 36 card booster boxes. The size of booster packs, however, was increased from 10 to 11 cards per pack.

2. Empoleon Lv. X Error



Emploeon Lv. X was intended to have a Poke-POWER (as reflected on the Japanese card). The first print of the English release, however, used the graphic for Poke-BODY instead of Poke-POWER. This error was corrected in later printings of the English set.

Thanks for reading this week's edition of Regional Differences. You can see copies of my completed English and Japanese versions of this set by clicking the links below:

Diamond and Pearl

Space-Time Creation

Let me know if you have any questions, comments or suggestions for the next regional difference to cover. In the next issue, I'll be covering Mysterious Treasures and Secret Wonders. 

Diamond & Pearl Pt. 1
Countdown Calendar
European McDonald's Promos

PokePark

Team Rocket

Gym Heroes/Gym Challenge

Call of Legends Shining Pokemon

Regional Differences: Diamond and Pearl Era Overview

Welcome to another edition of Regional Differences, the series that examines regional differences between Pokemon TCG releases. The Diamond and Pearl video games introduced some fairly complex themes into the Pokemon Mythos via legendary Pokemon.

There was Palkia, the Pokemon god of space.

http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Palkia_(Pok%C3%A9mon)

Dialga, the Pokemon god of time

Dialga, time sorcerer

And Giratina, the Pokemon god of anti-matter, banished to rule over the Distortion Realm for all eternity.

Giratina, the Pokemon Devil

In the Diamond and Pearl video games, you can capture each of these legendary pokemon and bend them to your pre-pubescent protagonist's will.  I am no pre-pubescent protagonist,

Picture unrelated

But I'll be borrowing the powers of Dialga to take a look back at the Diamond and Pearl era of TCG releases for the first in a multi-part series of Regional Differences articles. So without further Aku ado, let's head back to the Diamond and Pearl Era...

Diamond and Pearl Overview

Explaining the overlap between the English and Japanese releases of the Diamond and Pearl era expansions is actually fairly complicated. To assist with this process, I've put together the timelines below.

As you can see from the timelines, the English Diamond and Pearl era ran from May 23, 2007 - November 5, 2008 and covered a total of 7 expansions. The Japanese Diamond and Pearl era ran from November 30, 2006 - July 10, 2008, but evaluating the total number of expansions released during that period requires some explanation.

Unlike the English D&P releases, certain Japanese expansions were released via tandem mini-expansions. For example, the Japanese Diamond and Pearl Base set, known as "Space-Time Creation," was released in the form of two distinct booster packs: Diamond Collection and Pearl Collection. Diamond Collection and Pearl Collection together make up the Japanese expansion DP1, but Diamond Collection and Pearl Collection each contain certain cards that are unobtainable in the other booster pack. Similarly, Moonlit Pursuit and Dawn Dash both share set symbol DP4, but they are each their own mini-expansion. Of the 143 cards in DP4, 65 were only obtainable in Dawn Dash and 65 were only obtainable in Moonlit Pursuit, with 13 cards available in both expansions. Thus, the Japanese Diamond and Pearl era consisted of 9 booster pack releases, which together account for a total of 6 main expansions.

Astute observers of the Pokemon TCG timeline will note that I have not included the Japanese version of ex Power Keepers (World Champions Pack) in the Japanese timeline. While this set was released at the same time as Shining Darkness, I think it is more appropriate to consider this set a part of the "ex era" of releases and will be covered at a later date, but not as a part of this series of articles.

Over the next several weeks I'll be reviewing the regional differences between the English and Japanese expansions of the Diamond and Pearl era. Once I've finished DP6 and Stormfront, I'll circle back to discuss the Korean versions of these expansions. In the meantime, you can check out the previous Regional Differences articles by clicking the links below.

Countdown Calendar
European McDonald's Promos

PokePark

Team Rocket

Gym Heroes/Gym Challenge

Call of Legends Shining Pokemon