Magnus: Hello, and welcome to The Autism News Network. My name is Magnus, and today I am with Chris and Kyle. Today we’re going to talk about something from our childhood: the Pokémon cards. You know, how Pokémon changed the card game. When Pokémon became huge, like big you know, where were you guys? I was in elementary school. I think it was like 1999. Pokémon cards are coming out, the games are coming out, the Pokémon show. What about you guys?

Chris: I was in a similar area. I was maybe a little further along but not [inaudible 00:00:40]. Not by much. Because we’re pretty close age ranges. I was in school at the time.

Magnus: All right. What about you, Kyle?

Kyle: I was pretty much in the same boat. I was in elementary school at the time.

Magnus: Yeah, man. Same. I guess all three of us were elementary school at the time. We’re mostly … I guess we’re millennials, you know? What’s your guys’ favorite card? Mine back then … I don’t really play Pokémon now. I don’t have any of the cards. Mine will always be Charizard. What about you guys?

Chris: That used to be one of my favorites, but now pretty much lately would have to be the Zacian V card. It’s one of the ones from one of the current sets for the year.

Kyle: Mine would happen to be the Dark Cloak abilitied Darkrai from I don’t know how many sets ago.

Magnus: That’s pretty cool. All right. What’s the rarest card you guys have gotten from a booster pack? Me, Charizard. Luckiest card ever, you know. I was so happy when I got it, man. When you just open that fresh pack up. You just scroll through the cards, and there’s a holographic. You don’t know. You see the tip of it. You’re just hoping it’s something good, you know not a bad one. I see red. I see red, and I’m like, “Oh my god. Is it Charizard? Yep, it’s a Charizard.” What about you guys?

Chris: Mine was a secret rare from the Sword and Shield set. Basically the same as my favorite card, just a lot more rarity to it. Gold border, all kinds of neat looks to it.

Magnus: And you, Kyle?

Kyle: Rarest card I’ve received from a booster pack, again, is my favorite card.

Magnus: Oh, okay. Oh, so lucky. Same likewise. I just remember spending money-

Kyle: And it happened to be the card I built the deck around.

Magnus: Yeah?

Kyle: Oh, yeah.

Magnus: And I remember just spending my daily allowance going to Toys R Us and buying like four booster packs. You know, because I only got an allowance of like $20. Every Saturday, I’d be like, “Mom, take me to Toys R Us.” You know? I spent my entire allowance on like four booster packs.

Chris: I remember those days.

Kyle: I remember them as well.

Magnus: Man, you guys remember-

Chris: It was cool, man. [crosstalk 00:02:58].

Magnus: Nostalgic, you know?

Kyle: I remember the last pack I actually opened was from the BREAKthrough.

Magnus: Yeah.

Kyle: And I ended up getting an Yveltal BREAK.

Chris: Nice.

Magnus: That’s pretty cool, man. You guys remember like-

Chris: [crosstalk 00:03:14]-

Magnus: … all the violence that came with the Pokémon cards, man? Every day at school, someone was getting … There was a lot of stealing, man. A lot of people were stealing cards, man. They were bringing their cards to school, and kids were kidding into fights over cards, man. It was bad.

Chris: Oh, yeah. I remember.

Kyle: I remember.

Chris: I remember some of that stuff. People stealing from each other all the time, trying to break into other kids’ lockers in middle school and stuff, too.

Magnus: Even like … It got up to like stabbing and gun violence, you know? It was bad. It was … Man, people went to the-

Chris: I’ve heard the story.

Magnus: It got bad. Let’s just … I’ll put it that way.

Chris: I’ve never seen much of it myself, but I’ve heard the stories.

Magnus: Yeah, the schools were starting to ban the cards, man.

Kyle: [crosstalk 00:03:59]. I remember being bullied in school about having the Charizard and Blastoise cards, and I stopped bringing my cards to school because of being bullied over them. And it’s not just violence in Pokémon which we’re talking about, but it’s pretty much any of the card games.

Magnus: Yeah.

Chris: Yeah.

Magnus: That’s true. But honestly, it never had the same effect as Pokémon. I’ll never forget it.

Kyle: That’s true.

Magnus: There’s never been a card game like Pokémon that just came in and shifted the culture completely that’s still mainstream, still pretty popular. I’d say it’s the most popular card game still.

Chris: Pretty much, yeah.

Kyle: One of the [crosstalk 00:04:39]-

Magnus: I mean, you still have other cards games, but it’s just not as popular as the Pokémon name brand.

Kyle: Yeah. A lot of people even-

Magnus: So-

Kyle: I know people even older than me, and to give age range for this podcast I’m 31, and I know people like 5+ years older than me that still play the card game.

Magnus: Yeah.

Chris: Oh, yeah.

Magnus: Yeah, man. I had a nice little collection, and then they got stolen. Someone broke into my house, and my whole collection, all the holographics, every rare card. I had like every original, the 151, Pokémon. All of it. Every rare. I had multiple Charizards. But yeah, man. You guys ever participate in any tournaments?

Chris: I’ve done one before the pandemic hit. It was pretty fun. It wasn’t really my best, I guess you could say performance, on my end, but I still had fun and talked to a lot of cool people.

Kyle: As for me, I haven’t really done any of the Pokémon tournaments, but I’ve been in a few other card games such as Magic: The Gathering and Yu-Gi-Oh. I did pretty well. Pokémon, I’ve never really had current enough decks or current enough cards to participate. It’s still an issue to this day.

Magnus: Yeah. Have you guys ever went on eBay or any of the card … like the auctions? To see like what the cards are going for. Because I browse eBay from time to time to see what the cards that were stolen from me are going for. I get sad from time to time, man. I’m telling you. Some of those cards I had are worth like thousands of dollars now.

Chris: Oh yeah, I’ve heard that from a couple card shop owners in the area. That some of the cards are pretty much in the thousand range now, maybe even a little more.

Kyle: Yeah, especially those from the base set, the original set that came out way back in 1999. Those are the ones that have the most value.

Magnus: Yep, and that’s the ones I had that I got stolen, man. I had every one in a plastic little sleeve with that little hard, plastic cover on all of them. You know, every holographic card, multiple Charizards, everything. Sad times, you know? But good times at the same time.

Kyle: Yeah.

Magnus: You guys actively still play Pokémon, right? Because I don’t really … I don’t even play like the games. [crosstalk 00:07:10]-

Chris: Every now and again.

Magnus: Every now and again? How have the rules changed over time?

Chris: Well, there’s been a couple changes since when it first came out. Some of the cards you can’t play if you’re the first one going now, aside from not being able to attack or … I think it was something else, but aside from not being able to attack, you can’t play certain cards on the first turn if you’re going first. That’s where it’s basically become like a benefit overall that a lot of people try to go second.

Kyle: And as he was saying about certain cards, back when the card game first came out there were only a few types of cards. To clarify, there were energy cards, the Pokémon themselves, and trainers.

Chris: Yep.

Kyle: Now it’s expanded in the trainers. They have tools. They have supporters. They have the stadium cards.

Chris: And item cards as well.

Kyle: That’s what I meant by tools, but the item cards they’re not just one specific type of card anymore. Like, they used to have the energy cards which you knew what they were, the Pokémon cards, and then the trainer cards which were all gray from way back when. There were no uniqueness about the trainer cards. They were just trainer cards. Supporter cards have rulings that you can only play one supporter per turn. Stadium cards you can only have one stadium out at a time. If you play a stadium and your opponent then plays a stadium, your stadium is discarded so your opponent’s stadium can take effect. Those kind of things. Those are changes to the rules since the card game has evolved and expanded. Those didn’t exist when it first came out.

Magnus: Nice. So what are your thoughts on like the future of Pokémon cards? Me, I think Pokémon changed the card game. You know? I think it’s the first like mainstream card game that really got into our youth. The games, the Pokémon games on Game Boy: Red, and Blue, and Yellow. Then you had the Pokémon shows. There weren’t … Sorry, excuse me. There was Magic: The Gathering and Yu-Gi-Oh card games, but I just feel like Pokémon’s still going strong. Don’t get me wrong, Yu-Gi-Oh still has its fanbase, but that’s just a really, really loyal fanbase. Do you think Pokémon still has a future? I think Pokémon will go on for a while, a long time. They really, really love their fans and listen to their fans.

Kyle: I think as long as there’s still a fanbase for the show and the show keeps expanding and evolving and adding more different series and more different aspects and more different Pokémon, the card game will continue to evolve and grow.

Chris: Yeah, they’ve got [crosstalk 00:10:02]-

Kyle: Because all of the cards are hinged on the show.

Chris: Yeah, they’ve got long, long … a lot of years ahead of them still before they ever fizzle out. They recycle cards that have been in past sets to reintroduce them into current sets every now and again, but other than that they don’t produce everything at one single time like some other companies might. They’ll do like so many a set, and then do something completely different with some of the other cards. They still end up holding collector value and stuff along with the usefulness of the cards.

Kyle: Yep. So I think the future of the Pokémon game in general is still pretty bright as long as the show continues having its fanbase, they continue to produce video games, create new Pokémon, the card game will still be around.

Magnus: Yeah, man. I hope … Pokémon, it’s a huge part of my childhood. Even though I don’t collect the cards or watch any of the shows anymore, I’m glad it still lives on. I’m really, really glad. Pokémon has just been, honestly, and I think I speak for a lot of us, it’s really part of my childhood and our child … millennials, you know? I’ll never forget when Pokémon came out. The culture everywhere, you know? Oh my, it was huge.

Chris: Oh, yeah. It was big and still is to an extent.

Kyle: Indeed.

Magnus: Well guys, I’m Magnus. I’m here with Chris and Kyle, and that concludes our podcast for today.

Chris: It’s been a fun one, man.

Kyle: Thanks for joining us at The Autism News Network.