Van Gogh Pikachu

Greetings to the new Cooltrainers joining us via Fan X last week! You’re at the best place on the internet for entertaining Pokémon news each week. The Victory Road is like a full-odds, random shiny encounter: unexpected and life-changingly awesome.

Here’s this week’s rundown (estimated read time, 5 minutes):

• A new hint for the Indigo Disk release date?

• Pokémon GO event and announcement roundup

• The 151 TCG expansion is here!

• Van Gogh & Pikachu: a match made in scalper heaven?

A release date clue for the Indigo Disk?

Even before the Teal Mask came out, there’s been speculation about when we’ll get Indigo Disk. All we know for certain right now, is that it’s coming “Winter 2023.”

Problem is, this leaves a pretty big window. Based on the nebulous date, I’ve maintained two things about the Indigo Disk release date:

1. Winter 2023 technically includes January and February 2024.

2. However, the Pokémon Company won’t miss the holiday sales window by delaying the Indigo Disk release until after Christmas.

Well, like a wild Koffing, my second theory exploded in my face this week with the announcement of Scarlet & Violet physical bundles that include The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero DLC. They’re releasing just in time for the holiday season on Friday, November 3.

Wahoo! Indigo Disk is coming out November 3!

Nope, pause your Ponyta.

According to Serebii, it’s been confirmed that these physical bundles won’t include the content for Indigo Disk on the cartridge. It must still be downloaded upon release.

All signs point to Indigo Disk now coming in January at the earliest. Here’s why.

The Pokémon Company wouldn’t bundle half of the DLC before the mega holiday sales season if Indigo Disk was coming before 2024. Before this product announcement, I told everyone who would listen that “no way would Pokémon miss out on holiday sales by delaying Indigo Disk until January or February.” My original guesstimate was Indigo Disk would land the week before Thanksgiving.

Well, this bundle is their answer to capture those holiday sales. It makes zero marketing or business sense for them to drop Indigo Disk 2-3 weeks after launching a physical bundle that doesn’t include it.

Stranger things have happened in the past but as things stand now, don’t expect to play Indigo Disk this Christmas season.

Pokémon GO news roundup

Lately it seems like there’s more announcements with GO than you shake a Sudowoodo at. Here’s what’s happening now, and what’s coming in the next few weeks.

October’s Pokémon GO Community Day: get ready for Timburr on Sunday Oct. 15 (stay tuned for complete coverage).

Two Niantic Announcements:

• Pokémon GO will end support for devices running on Android 7 in the next release (v. 285.0).

• Because shiny Shadow Zapdos was not available on Sept. 16, a free Item Bundle containing three Premium Battle Passes is available in the Shop starting Thursday, Sept. 28 at 10:00 am local time to Sunday, Oct. 8 at 10:00 pm local time for any Trainers who Raided during the affected time. Shadow Zapdos will be available in Shadow Raids on Oct. 6 local time.

Out to Play Event - now live!

Running now through Monday, October 2, at 8 p.m. local time, the Out To Play event debuts shiny Hisuian Growlithe for the first time in 2 km and 7 km Eggs plus Filed Research Encounters. You can get all of the deets about it in last week’s coverage.

Azurill Hatch Day

Coming this Saturday, from 2-5 p.m. local time, Azurill will hatch “much more frequently” from 2 km eggs. Shiny chances are also increased!

Other event bonuses include 2x Stardust from hatching Eggs, 2x Candy from hatchings Eggs and increased drops of 2 km Eggs from PokéStops.

Scarlet & Violet 151 TCG is out!

People are HYPING over Pokémon 151 and many collectors are saying this is the first time they’ll go after a full set in years.

(Obligatory Old Man Millennial comment) I haven’t seen this much love for a Pokémon TCG expansion since the Fossil set came out!

If you’ve been living under a rock and off social media for the last week, you’ve missed dozens of pack rippings and pull pics like it’s ‘99 and we’re at the local Walmart with a month’s worth of allowance money.

Results and pull rates are all over the place. I’ve seen several people boasting about “god packs” while others are getting 3-4 big hits (full art cards, not even secret rares) after dozens of packs.

I’m personally waiting for my Ultra Premium Collection to arrive on preorder, so watching the hits is the best I’ll get for another week. The nostalgia is dialed up for this one!

Card of the Week

That’s right, the Van Gogh Museum x Pokémon crossover not only resulted in some epic art, but this promo card as well. Visitors of the museum in Amsterdam can get a single card after completing the completing the “Pokémon Adventure” inside the museum, now through January 7, 2024.

Note: This morning, PokemonDealsTCG reported that one Pikachu promo card will be given per item purchased from the Van Gogh Museum Collection via the Pokémon Center. For the love of Marill, just don’t be a butt and try to sell them on eBay, mmmkay?

The sad thing is, scalpers flooded the museum, grabbing up all the merch they could find, presumably to sell it online for a ludicrous markup. It’s gross. What should have been a wholesome collaborative event is being ruined by the worst of the worst Pokémon fans. Hopefully this doesn’t discourage other organizations from doing crossovers in the future.

Random encounters around the internet

• The next Scarlet & Violet Tera Raid Event will be 7-star Grass-Tera Hisuian Decidueye, coming Oct. 6-8 then again Oct. 13-15

• Because no one should have to suffer through this alone, take a gander at Day 69 of fusing every Gen 1 Pokémon together. I can’t tell if it’s terrifying or quaint anymore.

• Sign up in-game for the Kitakami Prologue beginning this Sunday, Oct. 1 @ 5 p.m. Pacific Time. This is an online competition featuring double battles using Pokémon from the Kitakami Dex.

Obscure Pokémon Fact of the Day (from u/Mx_Toniy_4869)

Until next time,
Cooltrainer Ace