Pokemon.com starts the new year with a complete website makeover. Gone are the other official websites such as Go-Pokemon.com (Pokemon TCG and Organized Play) and Pokemon-Games.com (Pokemon video games), which has been combined in a neat package at Pokemon.com instead.

A lot of new content is also available at the new Pokemon.com. You will be able to watch the entire first season on Pokemon.com’s episode viewer. The first three episodes are available now, and each week new episodes will be added. It was announced in the press release that it will “continue beyond the first season, giving younger fans a chance to follow the series in its entirety for the first time.”

The Pokedex has been updated, and a new Pokemon TCG card database are available. New online mini-games are added to the website as well.

Pokemon TCG: HeartGold & SoulSilver will be released on February 10, 2010:

Pokemon Company International Announces New HeartGold & SoulSilver Trading Card Game
Ultra-Cool Pokémon In All-New Card Designs Revealed in HeartGold & SoulSilver!

PokĂ©mon are the heart and soul of any great PokĂ©mon Trainer, and now is your chance to catch some of the greatest PokĂ©mon of all time with the all-new PokĂ©mon Trading Card Game (TCG): HeartGold & SoulSilver! New kinds of cards will change the way you play-like PokĂ©mon Prime and the astonishing PokĂ©mon legends Ho-Oh and Lugia-plus you’ll find lots of Trainer cards that will accelerate your game and select Energy cards with a brand-new look. The HeartGold & SoulSilver expansion will get you started on your journey to greatness!

With more than 120 cards, the brand-new Pokémon TCG: HeartGold & SoulSilver expansion will arrive in stores nationwide on February 10, 2010.

Features of the new Pokémon TCG: HeartGold & SoulSilver expansion:
- All-new card designs that give the set a unique look
- Introducing 2 dual-card Pokémon LEGENDS (Ho-Oh and Lugia)
- Discover 6 amazing Pokémon Prime (Ampharos, Blissey, Donphan, Feraligatr, Meganium, and Typhlosion)

Some new offerings from the Pokemon TCG are releasing this month:

Pokemon TCG Rumble

Pokemon TCG Rumble, as the name implies, is based on the Pokemon Rumble video game on the Wii. The set contains 16 Pokemon TCG Rumble cards (that’s the entire set of Rumble cards). The three cards shown in front of the box, Pikachu, Mewtwo, and Venusaur are foil cards (all cards have the Pokemon Rumble foil stamp on them as well). The set also includes 4 Energy dice, 1 Target die, 52 damage counters, 14 player makers, 1 full-color Battle Royale game mat, and 1 Pokemon TCG: Rumbles rules sheet.

The game can be played with 2-7 players. Without getting too detailed, basically you control two Pokemon on the board. To attack, you use the Energy dice and hope you get enough energy to attack the other Pokemon (most of the time you do have enough energy). Every Pokemon you knock out, gives you a point (bonus points are given to those left standing at the end of the game). There’s a lot of luck to it, but there is some strategy as well. Which Pokemon you choose in the beginning and what your opponent chooses has an impact on the game.

For players that have never played the Pokemon TCG, this would be an easier way to start learning the game (it can’t get too complicated with just 16 cards). Many of the basic rules from the regular Pokemon TCG also remains. You can also use these cards in the regular Pokemon TCG. Younger fans might enjoy this more than the older crowd though. Pokemon TCG Rumble is available now. (Suggested Retail Price: $9.99)

Pokemon TCG: Arceus Collector’s Tin

The new Arceus Collector’s Tin comes with a Arceus LV.X promo card (DP56), and four booster packs (two packs of Arceus, one pack of Rising Rivals, and one pack of Mysterious Treasures).

The tin itself is a nice collector’s item, good for storing all your Pokemon cards and damage counters. The Arceus Collector’s Tin will be released next week on December 16th. (Suggested Retail Price: $14.99)

The Statesman Journal has an article on their local Pokemon TCG City Championships event:

A card game where players battle odd creatures with special powers held the attention of players ages 6 to 60 on Sunday in downtown Salem.

PokĂ©mon players showed up at Borderlands Games on 546 High St. NE with their carefully assembled decks of cards — each deck packed with the player’s preference of PokĂ©mon characters. Eight-year-old Marc Chenard of Corvallis likes the blue seahorse character named Horsea.

“I really love seahorses” he said. He also included Kingdra in his deck, another seahorse type character, and Nidoran, also known as the poison mouse.

His mother, Janet Chenard, 47, said the game has helped her youngest son learn reading and math. She also was playing in the tournament, while trying to catch up on work with her laptop between rounds.

“It’s more like chess with a bit of luck. It’s very strategic,” she said.

 
In this particular tournament, the entries were as follows:
Players 10 and younger: 13
Players 11 to 14 years old: 18
Players older than 14 years old to adult: 58
Total participants: 89

Here are pictures of the 2009 Pokemon TCG World Championship Decks: Crowned Tiger, Stallgon, Queengar, and Luxdrill.

The cards are not tournament legal (they have a special back to show that). However, if you just want them to play with friends or for collecting, it’s an inexpensive way to get these rare cards in the decks. The decks will be released later in the month.

Product Description:

Players can experience the thrill of competing like Master Trainers every time they open a Pokemon TCG 2009 World Championships Deck.

There are four powerful decks to choose from – each one a card-for-card replica of an actual title-match deck! Learn winning strategies from some of the best players in the game and start making your own plans for the 2010 World Championships!

Each Pokemon TCG 2009 World Championships deck contains:
- 60-card deck (cards have a different card back and are not tournament-legal)
- 2009 World Championships booklet

Po Bronson, author of the book “NurtureShock: New Thinking About Children” and a Newsweek blogger, has posted an essay about how Pokemon has helped his son’s math and reading. They were reluctant to allow their son to have any Pokemon cards in the beginning, but soon saw the benefits of Pokemon:

That following school year, in his first-grade class, Pokémon became social currency. About half his class was entranced by the cards. At times it seemed ridiculous, but then I’d hear my son plop down two cards and talk out more complicated math problems than anything he saw at school: “160HP minus 110HP plus 30 resistance points minus 20 weakness points equals 60 points left,” he’d say, then plop down two more cards to solve.

I didn’t know then what I know now: Through this repetition, his brain was transforming. Heavily used neurons were learning to fire together, and these chains of neurons were becoming myelinated in thin sheaths of fat; by this process, “gray matter” is converted into “white matter.” The sheath surrounding the nerves acts as an electrical insulator, increasing neural speed by 100-fold. Active repetition also began tuning up the nerve capsules that connected his prefrontal cortex to his parietal cortex in the back of the brain. When these superhighways of nerve tissue come on board, the brain learns to delegate math to the back of the brain, making computation speed radically faster.

While we weren’t aware of the neuroscience, it was plainly obvious: Pokémon cards were making our son’s brain really fast at elementary-school math. I began to buy him cards. Lots of cards.

The second half of first grade, our son started reading the fine-print paragraphs on the cards. He got more reading time in through his love of Pokémon than he ever did at night, when we handed him books. He did read the books out loud to us, but it was a necessary chore. Pokémon was never a chore. And I noticed the paragraphs on the cards were syntactically far more complicated than anything he read in books. Soon, the same brain transformation that drove his math speed was reproduced with his reading speed.

Pokémon had taken over his brain. But in ways my wife never expected. Early in second grade, his math teacher told us he was as fast at math as the fifth graders. Not bad for a kid turned away by most of the local private schools prior to kindergarten.

 
Po Bronson has another follow-up posting here as well: Marshmallow Boy vs. The Pokemon Kid – The Neuroscience of Children’s Passions

It has been announced that the 2010 Pokemon World Championships will be held on Saturday, August 14th, and Sunday, August 15th. And for those that want to push your luck on Friday the 13th, the Pokemon TCG Last Chance Qualifier will be kicking off the events on Friday the 13th.

The 2010 Pokemon World Championships will be held at the Hilton Waikoloa Village on the Big Island of Hawaii. Th event was previously held there back in 2007.

The next Pokemon TCG expansion, Pokemon TCG: Platinum—Arceus, will be released on November 4, 2009:

Announcing the Pokémon TCG Platinum—Arceus expansion, coming November 4th!

Stepping out of ancient times comes a Pokémon so mighty that legends say it shaped the Pokémon universe! On November 4th, 2009, Trainers everywhere can prepare to harness and wield the awesome power of the new legendary Alpha Pokémon Arceus with the arrival of the all-new Pokémon Trading Card Game: Platinum—Arceus expansion. Multiple Energy types of Arceus, such as Fire, Lightning, and Grass, will have opponents preparing for the devastation of fantastic new attacks.

With more than 100 cards in all, the brand-new Pokémon TCG: Platinum—Arceus will arrive in stores nationwide on November 4th, 2009.

Features of the new Pokémon Trading Card Game: Platinum—Arceus:
- Introducing the new Alpha Pokémon Arceus
- Collect multiple versions of Arceus—one of every single Energy type!
- Discover new Pokémon LV.X cards, including 3 Arceus LV.X!

The 2009-2010 Pokemon TCG league cycle has been announced:

Announcing the 2009-2010 League Cycle: Trainer Challenge!
The 2009-2010 league cycle launches on September 21st, and Trainers everywhere will be grabbing their cards and gathering at their local leagues to have fun!

Starting with the Rival season, players of all ages will be able to enjoy all-new seasonal themes based on the toughest Pokémon Trainers in the Sinnoh region, earn all-new league rewards, and even earn credits toward our revamped Player Rewards program! This cycle also marks the first time that the Pokémon League features prizes specifically for Pokémon video game players!

League Rewards
Each season, players will have a chance to earn two different promotional cards. The cards will be printed in a new foil pattern never before used on any other Pokémon card, and not only do they look amazing, but they are also cards that competitive players will be happy to include in their favorite decks! For example, Rival season will offer players a chance to earn Snorlax and Uxie—both of which are popular and instantly recognizable!

In addition to the promo cards, players who play in multiple league seasons and meet certain goals will also have the opportunity to earn unique league-themed Nintendo DS™ skins! These DS skins are available exclusively through league participation and will be rewarded every other season.

For a complete list of cards you can earn as league rewards, and for more about how you can earn all four of the new league-themed Nintendo DS™ skins, check out our league page in the coming weeks!

http://www.go-pokemon.com/op/leagues/

Pokemon TCG Platinum: Supreme Victors was released yesterday:

Increase your power with impressive new Pokémon that will take you to the pinnacle of Pokémon battles—the Battle Frontier! The brand-new Pokémon Trading Card Game Platinum—Supreme Victors is available now!

In the new Pokémon TCG set, Platinum—Supreme Victors, you’ll find more sizzling Pokémon SP like Blaziken, more ferocious Pokémon LV.X like Charizard LV.X, and more opportunities to battle your way to the top. Victory will be supreme when you play with Pokémon trained by Team Galactic, the Battle Frontier elite, and the Sinnoh League Champion! This latest installment of the best-selling Pokémon TCG contains more than 150 cards and features new Pokémon SP and new Pokémon LV.X including Rayquaza, Garchomp and more!

- Collect Dragon-type Pokémon including Charizard and Rayquaza
- Discover new Pokémon LV.X including Charizard, Garchomp, and Blaziken
- More Pokémon SP including Frontier Brain’s Pokémon and Champion’s Pokémon