The winning designs from 2024’s Pokemon Illustration Contest were turned into real-life cards and given away as promos earlier this year. If this is the first you’re hearing of this, or you simply want the cards but missed out the first time around, good news, Pokemon is giving them away again for a very limited time.
Pokemon revealed the good news by adding a banner to the Pokemon Center website that features all three of the winning designs. As was the case with the initial giveaway, the promo pack will include all three cards, so no need to worry about only getting one of them and having to make three purchases in the hope you land all three and don’t get any duplicates. The promo is live now and ends on December 31, 2025, or until stock of the cards runs out, which is very possible.
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Pokemon’s Illustration Contest Cards Are Back
Unlike other Pokemon promo card giveaways, these freebies will not be added to your virtual cart automatically. To make sure you get them with your purchase, you will need to enter the code draw2025us when prompted before you check out. You don’t need to spend over a certain threshold to qualify; the cards will be included with all purchases aside from pre-orders and digital items, so no combining this offer with the one that gets you a free plush when you pre-order Pokemon Legends: Z-A.
This offer is available outside of the US, but the code you need to enter to qualify will be different depending on where you are in the world.
The three cards up for grabs were the winners from last year’s Illustration Contest. The overall winner was Kazuki Minami’s Pikachu, the artwork for which features the world’s most famous Pokemon sitting on the sidewalk, letting out a big yawn. Joining it is Acorviart’s Feraligatr which won the top prize in the standard illustration category, and rounding out the trio is Anderson’s Toxtricity which was deemed the best illustration ex card in last year’s contest.
If you’re wondering why 2024’s Illustration Contest was particularly memorable, but this is the first time you’re seeing these cards, you might have heard about the AI controversy that overshadowed the event. After revealing the 300 finalists, many noted that a handful of them appeared to have used AI-generated imagery in their entries.
Pokemon naturally took the accusations incredibly seriously, and the offending entries were investigated and eventually ousted after it was confirmed that AI had been used in their designs. Great that the entries were booted from the contest, and the three winners clearly weren’t created with any help from AI, but worrying that AI art managed to slip through Pokemon’s net in the first place.
- Original Release Date
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October 20, 1996
- Player Count
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2
- Age Recommendation
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6+
- Length per Game
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Variable
- Franchise Name
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Pokemon
