TCG ERRORS
Nedip!

Pobody's Nerfect. That's why there are mistakes on numerous cards found in Pokémon. On this page, you will see the most complete list of errors found on every English Pokémon TCG card, and in most cases, we will provide you a picture of them. Score! First though, read the Errors FAQ. .... Heh, give thanks to my keen eye for most of these. It's not my fault, errors just stick out like a sore thumb!

THE ERRORS

• Double Play - (1st Edition Kakuna & Bulbasaur; Base Set)
  These two cards had "Length Length" instead of "Length Weight".
• The Pikachu Fiasco - (1st Edition Pikachu; Base Set)
  A number of Pikachu cards have a number of small errors in their flavor text and images.
• Other Flavor Text Errors - (1st Edition Voltrob; Base Set)
  This card refers to Poké Balls as "Monster Balls". Obviously a result of a direct translation.
• Tipsy Turvy - (Unlimited Diglett; Base Set)
  Some Diglett have their attack energy cost symbol rotated 90 degrees.
• Flip Out - (1st Edition Metapod & Caterpie, and all Vulpix; Base Set)
  Some Metapod, Caterpie, and Vulpix cards are listed as "HP XX" instead of "XX HP".
• WHAT?! No Damage?! - (VERY FEW Base Set Ninetales; Base Set)
  A rare number of Base Set Ninetales lack the damage done for their attacks.
• This Card Has An Error - (1st Edition Sandshrew; Base Set)
  Sandshrew's attack saus "this attack does nothing" when its supposed to say "that attack does nothing".
• Catch-22 Evolution - (Wartortle; Base Set)
  Apparently some Wartortles have a picture of Wartortle in its evolution box.
• Double Evolution - (Any Seaking & Rapidash; Jungle)
  Seaking and Rapidash are Stage 1 Pokémon but the text tell you to "Put XXX on the Stage 1 Pokémon".
• Plan B from Edition D - (1st Edition Butterfree; Jungle)
  Due to a bubble in the printing ink, a number of Butterfree are "Edition d" instead of "Edition 1".
• Split Personality - (1st Edition Nonholo Electrode; Jungle)
  Some Jungle Electrode have the image of their Base Set counterpart.
• Have You Seen This Symbol? - (Some Unlimited Jungle Rares; Jungle)
  Some Jungle cards during the last few Jungle print runs were printed without a Jungle Symbol.
• Zapdos' Cutting Out - (1st Edition Holo Zapdos; Fossil)
  Some Fossil Holo Zapdos cards have an Evolution symbol punched out of the holo, even though Zapdos is a Basic Pokémon.
• Back to the Future! - (Any Dark Arbok; Team Rocket)
  Dark Arbok was first printed with the copyright "©1999-23000 Wizards".
• Bloody Reversal - (Any Dark Golbat; Team Rocket)
  The English Pokémon Power mentions "Apply Weakness and Resistance". Per the Master Rulings Document, the Japanese Dark Golbat's Pokémon power says "Don't apply Weakness and Resistance." ... Plus there's no space between the words "Pokémon" and "Apply". (Reads "Pokémon.Apply")
• Going Deep - (Any Holo Dark Dragonite; Team Rocket)
  The attack cost symbols for Holo Dark Dragonite are off center.
• Gas Mask - (Any Grimer; Team Rocket)
  English TR Grimers' Poison Gas attack puts Pokémon to sleep, even though the Japanese version Poisons them.
• Lengthy Mistake - (Any Dark Rapidash; Team Rocket)
  Dark Rapidash's stats lacks the word "Length".
• Allergic to Fighting - (Any Holo Dark Vileplume; Team Rocket)
  Holo Dark Vileplumes have a weakness of Fighting, even though it's supposed to be Fire.
• To Be Holo, or Not To Be Holo - (VERY FEW Dark Dragonites; Team Rocket)
  About 5000 Holo Dark Dragonites were actually printed as nonholo.
• Really... I'm Not THAT Dark... - (Dark Raichu; Team Rocket)
  Dark Raichu's Evolution Box is colored light grey (as opposed to the dark grey found on other Dark Pokémon). Plus it tells you to "Put Raichu on the Basic Pokémon" instead of "Put Dark Raichu..."
• Fighting Fire With Fire - (Blaine's Charizard; Gym: Challenge)
  Some Blaine's Charizards have a Fighting symbol instead of the Fire symbol that's supposed to be there.
• The Real Rocket Sneak Attack - (Rocket's Minefield Gym; Gym: Challenge)
  This card lacks how many damage counters to put on a Pokémon for an unsucessful flip (for the record, it's 2 damage counters).
• Wal-Mart's Cutting Attack Damages! - (Giovanni's Pinsir; Gym: Challenge)
  Pinsir's "Snapping Pincers" attack is supposed to do 20+ damage and not 10+ damage.
• Up With Damage - (Slowking & Typhlosion; Neo Genesis)
  These card's damages are off center.
• Down With Energy - (Horsea; Neo Genesis)
  The attack cost energy symbol for Horsea is oddly off.
• Blame It On the Black Text - (Meganium; Neo Genesis)
  The Pokémon Power title text is black instead of red.
• Out Of Focus - (Focus Band; Neo Genesis)
  The picture on Focus Band has a white bar beneth it, as if the picture wasn't properly positioned when they were doing the layout on the computers.
• Y2K Bug - (Kakuna; Neo Discovery)
  The copyright text of all Neo Discovery cards is "©1999-2001". But for some reason, this card's copyright is "©1999-2000". On a side note, this is probably the most punn-ish title for any of these errors.
• Unown Problem - (Unown O; Neo Discovery)
  There is an obvious grammar error on Unown O.
• Add to Misery - (Scizor; Neo Discovery)
  The attack's damage done is "20+" when it's supposed to be "20x". For the record, you play it as "20x".
• Its Eyes Were Bigger Than Its Stomach - (Umbreon; Neo Discovery)
  The Psychic symbol in Umbreon's resistance is bigger than normal.
• Raise Your Symbol If You're Present - (Delibird; Neo Revelation)
  The energy cost for Delibird's attack is off center.
• Big Bold Raichu - (Raichu; Neo Revelation)
  The "Put Raichu on the Basic Pokémon" text is unnecessairly bold and italic.
• The Ultimate Resistance - (Zubat; Neo Revelation)
  Zubat's resistance lacks the "-30".
• Why Were We Born To Feel Pain? - (Suicune; Neo Revelation)
  This card was a mistake to begin with. Nuff said. (If you didn't notice, this is a joke post. :P)
• Rockets Breed Good - (Dark Croconaw; Neo Destiny)
  Doesn't Croconaw have only 48 teeth in its mouth? The card says it has 49. Whooo!
• Don't Shoot The Executo-- err.. Messenger! - (Dark Exeggutor; Neo Destiny)
  There's an unneeded C in the name.
• 8 On Your Bench? No Problem! - (Dark Haunter; Neo Destiny)
  Dark Haunter's Call Back attack's clause leave out the word "opponent's". (Therefore I can keep putting Baby and Basic Pokémon on my opponent's bench as long as I don't have a full bench! :P)
• Capital Error - (Light Flareon; Neo Destiny)
  The "b" in "benched" is supposed to be CAPITALIZED.
• I Don't Have A Punny Title For This - (Togepi; Neo Destiny)
  The "(before applying Weakness and Resistance)" text should be in italics.
• Flying Energy - (Gligar; Neo Destiny)
  The energy symbols on Gligar is not in the correct position.
• It Hust A Spelling Error - (Shining Tyranitar; Neo Destiny)
  The word "hust" in its flavor text is supposed to be "just". Lousy keyboards sticking the H and J close to each other!
• Metaphysical Style - (Unown C; Neo Destiny)
  Unown C's Chase power adds a useless "Apply Weakness and Resistance" considering the power doesn't do damage.
• Scraping The Bottom of the Barrel - (Unown P; Neo Destiny)
  There's an extra space in Basic Pokémon title on Unown P. XD
• No Silly Title Here, Sorry - (Reverse Holo Exeggcute; Legendary Collection)
  Normally on Reverse Holos, the Energy costs for attacks aren't reflective. On Exeggcute, they are.
• Darkness Goes Evil - (Darkness Energy; Expedition)
  The card text implies that you can do extra damage to Benched Pokémon (considering that normally you can't).
• Tilted Text - (Alakazam; Expedition)
  The "This power stops working if..." text is italicized when it's not supposed to be.
• Quick 'Volvin' Charizard - (Charizard #39; Expedition)
  This card tells you to "Put Charizard on the Basic Pokémon". Hmmm!
• Lazy Text (Gengar; Expedition)
  Gengar's Chaos Move Pokémon Power game text has a few spots where the text could obviousl go up a line.
• Big Fists (Dugtrio; Expedition)
  Like the Umbreon error with the oversized Psychic symbol, Dugtrio's attack's Energy cost's symbols are larger than they should be.
• WANI--- Er... TOTO! (Totodile #134; Expedition)
  When you scan in Cyndaquil's card into the E-Reader for GBA, you can use a "Cynda!" sound for your Melody Box. However when you scan in the Totodile card, you get "Wani!" instead of "Toto!". "Wani" is in reference to Totodile's Japanese name "Waninoko". Now either Totodile is the error, or Cyndaquil is. [shrugs]
• Read Error - (Multi Technical Machine 01 & Energy Removal 2; Expedition)
  When you scan in these two cards in your E-Reader for GBA, the TM01 card tells you that you can use the "Paralyzing Stare" attack (when the card attack name is really Paralyzing Gaze), and the reader refers to "Energy Removal 2" as just "Energy Removal".
• Holo Punch Out - (Pretty Much All The Holo Rares; Aquapolis)
  For some reason, the bottom most holo "cut out" on the left side of the card is not holofied. As in the mask for the holo wasn't correctly... masked.
• Imperfect Crystal - (Crystal Nidoking; Aquapolis)
  The Crystal Type power mentions Grass/Lightning/Fire energy, but the attacks only use Grass/Lightning/Fighting energy. Hmmm....
• Mysterious Body - (Reverse Holo Lanturn #20; Aquapolis)
  For some God-awful reason, there's a PokéBody icon on it. Why? I don't know.
• Can't Draw Well On Metal Pokémon - (Magenemite #52; Aquapolis)
  The text on this card is quite, quite faded. As opposed to other Metal Pokémon in the set.
• Akward Text - (Weakness Guard; Aquapolis)
  This isn't an error, per se. But I found it strage that they put the "Attach this card..." text in it's own seperate paragraph, unlike other cards in the past.
• Last Minute Changes - (Ariados; Aquapolis)
  Funny how the holo-rare and nonholo-rare cards differ greatly from each other. One in particular is Ariados; in it's Spider Force attack, the holo version says "defending Pokémon" while the nonholo version says "Defending Pokémon". I could write a book on these sorts of differences. :D
• The Rarest Card Ever - (Prerelease Raichu)
  Rumors fly. Does this card exist? Does it not? Me thinks it's an error card where they stuck the "Prerelease" symbol on a bunch of Raichu cards, but caught it before it was delivered to anyone. Hmmm....
• The Second Rarest Card Ever - (Promo Pikachu #1; Promo Card)
  Promo Pikachu #1 was accidently released with 1st Edition Jungle, with a 1st Edition symbol on it when it wasn't supposed to.
• I Seriously Thought This Was A Fake - (Promo Meowth #10; Promo Card)
  Well, the HP is too far over to the left, and the attack cost symbols are much smaller than they should be.
• Slashed Out - (Promo Eevee #11; Promo Card)
  Promo Eevee's Pokémon Power text lacks the accent mark ( ' ).
• Gasious Form - (Promo Persian #17; Promo Card)
  Some Promo Persian cards lack an HP. More interesting, the MTM, MTP, and DMTM will deny its existance. Well they would, I mean because it IS one of my fake cards! ;)
• Space... Space... I Got Nothin'. - (Team Rocket's Meowth #18; Promo Card)
  TR's Meowth type is listed as "Scratchcat" instead of "Scratch Cat".
• Where Do We Even Begin.... - (Promo Marill #29; Promo Card)
  As Wizards first Neo card, there are a few errors on this one.
  • It's stats is listed as "Height" instead of "Length".
  • It's Water Gun attack lacks a Water energy symbol (for the record, you play it as it's written)
  • It's 20+ damage done is off center.
• Unslashed - (Promo Scyther #45; Promo Card)
  Scyther's game text in (parenthesis) isn't in italics when it should be.
• We're CONFUSED Why This Card Took So Long To Come Out - (Promo Mew #47; Promo Card)
  "Lily Pad" Mew's attack Confused when it was supposed to Paralyze.
• Aaaaaaaye! - (Promo Celebi #50; Promo Card)
  The art is credited to "Hajime Kusajim", although the name is spelt "Hajime Kusajima". And if you'll also notice, the copyright text on Celebi is listed as "Pokémon/Nintendo" instead of "Pokémon / Nintendo".... as in that there is no space seperating the two names on Celebi as opposed to other Card-E Cards. Hehehehe
• What's An Inch Between Kings? - (Slowking; Southern Islands)
  Slowking's length is listed as 6' 8" instead of 6' 7" (which is what it's supposed to be).
• Retiring Champ - (Hitmonchan; Best Promo)
  Hitmonchan's HP is 60 when it's supposed to be 70.
• Can't Demand Perfection First Time 'Round - (Promo Kyogre and Groudon #1 & 2; Nintendo Promos)
  These card's text says "Does damage..." when it's supposed to say "This attack does...".

THE NOT-QUITE ERRORS - Significant differences that might have been intentional

• Before The Shadows - (First and Second? printings of Base Set)
  All of the cards in 1st Edition Base Set, as well as one or two printings afterwards are different looking from the cards found in Jungle and after. They lack a shadow under the images, have thinner looking HP's, and have any number of minor layout differences. These aren't errors.
• Let's Do The Time Warp! - (Virtually every card in Neo Revelation)
  The copyright for all NR card is "©1999-2000", even though NR was released halfway through 2001. (It's not quite an error because Neo Destiny cards are afflicted with the same thing. We believe that most likely what's when the Pokémon licencing dates were or something.)
• A Very Transparent Error - (Feraligatr; Neo Genesis)
  The Pokémon Power title text is somewhat transparent. Plus part of the Feraligatr's image isn't transparent as it's supposed to be. (It's not quite an error because other Water types with Pokémon powers also have a somewhat transparent Pokémon Power title text. Probably for the best, making it a bit easier to read.)
• Make Up Your Mind! - (Any Card With a "Flip a coin. If heads, If tails" type attack)
  A number of cards in the history of the Pokémon TCG have had "Flip a coin. If heads.... If tails..." type attacks. For some reason, Wizards switches between "If heads. If tails." and "If heads; if tails." Note the use of a period or a semi-colon, and how the "if" is some upper case or lower case. (It's not quite an error because it switches between the two every so often... so whether or not Wizards can make up their mind is not really an error-worthy find.)
• Ain't No Master At Gramma' - (Master Ball; Gym: Challenge)
  "Show it your opponent." If you speak American English, there's a grammar error. If you speak British English, then there's no error. If you don't speak English, then learn it! .... Anyways, I'm on good authority that this card text, although awkward sounding in American English is correct, in British English. But then this card was produced by Wizards of the Coast in Seattle Washington USA. So... I think there's an error. I really got nothin' this time.
• Back From The Shadows Again - (Trainer Cards from Neo Genesis and Discovery)
  For some reason, Wizards decided to give all Trainer cards from Genesis and Discovery a more bolder title than before. Hmmm!
• Missing Info - (Most Reverse Holos from Expedition)
  Most Expedition cards lack their Stats, mostly because you can scan in the card to get them. Holo-rare cards on the other hand have them on the card because there is no Dot-Code for its stats, mostly because the E-Reader can't read Dot-Codes on glossy surfaces. The only problem is that the Reverse Holos are glossy as well (and thus have no Dot-Code for their stats), but lack their stats on the card when they really should have had them. Now we're not sure of this was intentional or a down right error.....
• Black Ink Problems
  In Expedition as well, there seems to have been a little error at the printers; the black layer of every card has shifted up a tinsy bit. You can see it in the Expedition symbol, the one on the bottom-right hand side... the "e" isn't centered inside the white circle. However the holo rares don't seem to have suffered this dilemma as the black symbol is centerd exactly within the white circle. How odd....
• Another Expedition Question
  For some reason on every Expedition trainer card, the copyright text of those Trainer cards have shifted up and to the left relative to Pokémon and Energy cards. It's as if this error occured when Wizards designers were actually working on the orginal blanks, and wasn't noticed until too many Trainer cards were made to jusfity a change. Hmmm!

Hmmm... that's about all that we have. We know that there is more however. There are probably dozens of other errors, but none of them stand out more than with these. Oh well. BTW, this page is not meant to be a mockery of Wizards editing skills. We at PA! in fact congratulate Wizards and Nintendo for doing their best to avoid ALL their cards from looking like this. Of course, Nick15 IS quite a sticker about errors. That's his own problem though.