The Pokémon Trading Card Design Competition Has Been Narrowed Down To 300 Finalists

Remember this post from October 2021? That’s alright, we’ll summarise: There’s a competition going on right now for artists to get their illustrations printed onto actual Pokémon trading cards. Also, you can win money — but we all know that being on a trading card is way more valuable than money.

Almost 11,000 entries were submitted, and now the Pokémon Company has chosen their 300 finalists for “Round One” — you can check out the full gallery here.

You’ll notice there are a lot of repeat Pokémon — that’s because the judges are looking for specific designs.

The competition allowed artists to choose from Bulbasaur, Charizard, Pikachu, Arcanine, Galarian Rapidash, Scizor, Greninja, and Cramorant, with the specification that the art must not include shiny Pokémon, must not have the Pokémon wearing clothes, must not be Dynamaxed or Gigantamaxed, and must show the subject “going about its day either while adventuring or while enjoying its daily life.” However, the submitted art is allowed to be in the form of physical materials, like clay, wool, yarn, etc.

Here are some of our favourites:

What are your picks? What kind of design would you like to see as the winner? Let us know in the comments!