When you think about Pokémon cards, what immediately springs to mind? The unique artwork and cool designs? The powerful moves and abilities you might wanna use in your decks? What about something more obscure? The layout of the card itself, say? Something pretty interesting happened circa 2023 that you may or may not have an opinion on. Beginning with the Scarlet and Violet era, the Pokémon Company decided to shake something up on their English card layouts for the first time since 1995 by changing the default card border from yellow to grey. It’s been grey since 2006 for Japanese cards, so the reason for this change was most likely to align the English cards with the Japanese in terms of layout design. But, that got me thinking: I’ve opened a few Japanese packs in my time and the biggest difference (aside from the obvious different language), is the back of the card. The Japanese card backs show a Poké ball spewing forth these bubbles with each energy symbol inside. The English cards, on the other hand, show a Poké ball in some kind of spinning blue vortex. No matter which design you prefer, this got me thinking further still. Are these the only two back designs? Are there any unique ones for a certain deck, or even a certain individual card. Well I went googling so you don’t have to!
Firstly, let me take you back to 1995. The original Red and Green video games were still months away from release, Johto a mere twinkle in Satoshi Tajiri’s eye. It had already been decided that a trading card game was on the cards (pun intended), but before any official release, prototypes were made in order to test game mechanics and playability. The very first prototype cards were printed on paper and then cut and glued by hand onto a backing. The first of these cards (the ‘proof of concept’ versions – the proto-prototype, if you will) had backs that resembled the soon-to-be-released video game box art. After some refining, the second batch of prototypes (known as ‘Alpha Prototypes’) has blank white backs. After even more perfecting, playtest versions of these cards were manufactured, this time with a more recognisable back design. The design is basically an early version of what would become the final design for the original Japanese cards released in 1996. The only differences I can spot is the white border on the playtest cards, and an edgier new font on the final release set.
Before moving on to the next design, I’ve gotta make quick shoutout to one special card from 1998. Pokémon conducted a scheme called Trade Please! which encouraged collectors to send in their old cards in exchange for new ones. Alongside these new cards, collectors were sent a unique card with a pretty crude but charming illustration – but that’s not what this article is about! The back design of this card was identical to the final release cards, but this time, with a holographic texture. This is only one of two times where a card has a holographic back, but we’ll get to that.
Cast your mind back: it’s 1998. A war in Kosovo,, the Troubles of Northern Ireland in its final year, Bill Clinton impeached, and the Pokémon Vending Series was released in Japan – what a year. As part of this release, special spoof cards were produced. These might change the game rules or provide interesting things to do on your turn, like making your opponent miss their attacks or removing damage counters when your opponent isn’t looking. The back design of these cards is pretty cool as they’re unlike anything I’d picture today. They look almost as if they were from a parallel world. Gone is the Poké ball on a blue space-y background. Instead, it’s a very fancy looking white and gold back with a circle of some of the more recognisable Kanto Pokémon (including Diglett, for some reason). And this time, the text is actually in Japanese rather than English, which makes sense for once as it’s a Japanese card.
One year later and the international version of the Pokémon TCG is finally released with a back that you’ll definitely recognise as it is still the one used today. It’s an all time classic, one they’re probably not gonna change until the TCG stops completely. It’s just a shame that the Poké ball on it is an embarrassment to the company… In every other bit of Pokémon media, Poké balls clearly open with the black middle attached to the red top. However, on the card backs, the black part is stuck to the white bottom. It makes the design look a bit fake, and as if it was made by someone who has only seen a Poké ball in passing. And that’s the design they’ve stuck with for 26 years now. It’s the same for the Japanese cards at this point. A bit of an embarrassment all round, really.
Before this first wave of international cards, a couple of promotional decks were released to help all these new players get to grips with how to play the game. These decks were called, quite unimaginatively, Trainer Deck A and Trainer Deck B and the cards in these decks had there own special back designs. They were basically identical to the international card back design except they had a red border and red text across the middle saying which deck they were part of. It’s kinda boring, compared to some of the other stuff I’ve talked about thus far, but there it is.
Staying in 1999 for a bit and the release of Pokémon: The Movie 2000 (a very silly name; do I have to watch the first 1999?) gave us another very cool and very unique card: Ancient Mew. This is definitely one of the most recognisable cards in the entire Pokémon TCG and they can still fetch a pretty penny even 25 years later. The only way you could get this card when it first released was by purchasing a ticket to see the film. It’s a very snazzy looking card, with some ancient looking language and cave painting-like illustration of Mew which really enhances the mystery and lore behind this one-of-a-kind Pokémon. The back design matches the unique style of the front and is the second card in the TCG to have a holographic texture. There are actually six different versions of this card, due to different errors and the occasional rerelease, so if you want to count them as separate cards and back designs then you do you – it’s a free country!
Hopping forward to 2001 and Japan have done the unthinkable (and no, I’m not blaming them for what happened in September of this specific year). In 2001, Japan changed their cards’ back design. Apparently, one of the reasons for this change was to align the Japanese cards with the international ones. But, if that’s the case, why didn’t they just make the back identical rather than using a completely different design? Don’t get me wrong, I really like the new design; I like the little energy bubbles and how the Poké ball actually opens correctly this time (I’ll never be over it). And it’s definitely a step in the right direction that the design now has the actual logo of the company on it. It doesn’t just say ‘Pocket Monsters’ like it did before, which makes sense because who the hell is calling it Pocket Monsters?
From 2004 onwards, the Pokémon Company has held the Pokémon TCG World Championships annually, where players compete to see who is the very best (like no one ever was). Aside from cash prizes, the winners from each division get their deck copied and replicated as special sets for the public to purchase and try out these winning decks for themselves. These sets also come with branded booklets, pins, coins, deck box, playmats, and posters. All the TCG merch you could want, basically. And, why I’m talking about it now, the 60 cards in the deck all have pretty unique back designs. The designs include the logo for World Championship, which itself changes every year, sometimes themed around wherever the championship is held; for example, in 2024, the championship was based in Honolulu, so the design on the back is based around Hawaiian foliage, which is a nice touch. Maybe I’m bias, but 2022’s London themed back design is very cool, too. I really like all of these designs (side note: the World Championships weren’t held in 2020 or 2021, for reasons you can probably assume, so there aren’t any unique cards for that year) and, if I had the disposable income, I’d love to own a few. While these cards aren’t tournament legal, I still think it’s a pretty cool piece of Pokémon TCG history to collect.
The release of the Pokémon TCG Pocket app (which I spend way too much time on) brought its own new back design for its digital cards. This design is kinda like a mix of the current Japanese backs and the international ones. I think if the TCG was gonna change its back designs again like they did in 2001, this one would be what they’d go for. It’s like the perfect design. The vibrant blue vortex background looks great with the little different coloured sparkles surrounding an opening Poké ball (opening correctly, I might add). But maybe I’m just bias, owning 5000+ of these digital cards.
Let’s do a couple last minute mentions before we finish. In the Legendary Collection from 2002, the jumbo Charizard promo card has a checklist on its back so you can check off which cards from the collection you have. I don’t mind this idea, but it would probably be best to not encourage vandalising your cards. Also, fun fact: on the checklist, Articuno’s name is spelt ‘Articun’, which leads me to my campaign to change its name to ‘No-Oh’. A TCG set called My First Battle from 2023 has its own special back design too. The cards in this deck have simplified moves, in order for beginners or younger fans to understand some of the core game mechanics. “Start ‘em young!” – the Pokémon Company, probably. For the 25th anniversary of the TCG in 2021, employees at Creatures, Inc. were given a special set of 25 cards. Each card represents a different year of the TCG, and the backs include facts about the specific year or even interviews with the president and chairman of the company.
Anyway, that’s pretty much it. It’s always cool to see the Pokémon Company come up with these different ideas for sets and decks and unique cards. You can kinda see that their hearts are still in it. They don’t have to change the back designs – I could name some companies that wouldn’t bother. The fact that the Pokémon Company do is pretty admirable. I would only ask for more, and I’m sure they won’t disappoint.
