The next Pokemon TCG set is called EX Dragon. The release date is set for December, while a prerelease tournament is set for November. The prerelease is just like the prerelease tournament for the last set, EX Sandstorm, where players were able to join the tournament and get the new cards before the release date.

 

EX Dragon will feature two theme decks: WindBlast and FireFang. WindBlast contains Flygon, and you’ll find Salamence in FireFang. Also, the shape of the boxes have changed, if you look at the box, it's now a trapezoid shape box.

 

More details about the prerelease tournament, such as the locations, are not known at the current time. However, it will only be a matter of time until the official Pokemon TCG website will release that information: www.pokemon-tcg.com

 

Recap of Dates

Prerelease Tournament: November 2003

Release Date: December 2003

 

Images of EX Dragon (Click to Enlarge)

 

 

 

Note: These designs may not be final. These are prototypes of the design, which are computer generated. On the other hand, these designs may very well be the final design. So keep that in mind.

There’s some new dates for some of the future Pokemon release dates here in the US. Pokemon Box for GameCube will be released in December 1st, 2003 (Pokemon Channel is also scheduled on that same date). The Pokemon Heroes DVD/VHS has been pushed back a month, to January 20th, 2004. And of course, the recent news about Pokemon EX Dragon will be released in December. And even further down the calendar, Pokemon Colosseum in March 4th, 2004.

US Release Dates

Pokemon EX Dragon (TCG Set): December 2003

Pokemon Box (GameCube): December 1, 2003

Pokemon Channel (GameCube): December 1, 2003

Pokemon Heroes (DVD/VHS): January 20, 2004

Pokemon Colosseum (GameCube): March 4, 2004

*US release dates are listed here at the website on the main page, left column.

[Click to Enlarge]

Ever wanted to play multiplayer on GBA/GBA SP without the trouble of wires? Soon you’ll able to.

A wireless adapter that is compatible with both GBA and GBA SP will be coming soon, it supports up to five players using wireless technology. The wireless adapter will first be introduced in a bundle with Pokemon Fire Red and Pokemon Leaf Green, which means both the wireless adapter and games, will be released at the same time, which is early 2004, in Japan. The release date for the US is not known as of yet. Pokemon Ruby and Pokemon Sapphire was the best selling games for any type console in Japan last year, so it’s not surprising they chose the next games to be a launch pad for their newest device.

Nintendo partnered up with Motorola to make this possible, who made the chipset for the wirelesss adapter. Motorola is very well known and has long experience in the wireless business, not a bad choice.

This past week, new Pokemon episodes was aired on WB from Monday thru Saturday. Not the case this week. It will be reruns during the weekdays, and a new episode on Saturday. The new episode to be aired on this Saturday is called “Can’t Beat the Heat,” which picks up right after where “The Ties That Bind” left off (which airs on Friday of this week). The two episodes, on Friday and Saturday are good ones, featuring Ash vs Gary battle. And you'll be seeing Charizard and Blastoise in action as well, so don’t miss out!

WB Schedule: September 22-27

MON: Nerves of Steelix

TUE: Bulbasaur... The Ambassador!

WED: Espeon, Not Included

THU: Whichever Way the Wind Blows

FRI: The Ties That Bind

SAT: Can't Beat the Heat

After “Can’t Beat the Heat,” there will be four more episodes remaining in the Pokemon Master Quest season. If WB continues to show a new episode every Saturday, the last episode on the season will be aired on October 25th. If WB wants to kick off the new season on a Saturday, which is the likely case, then the earliest start date for the new Pokemon: Advanced season will start on November 1st. Of course, this is only speculation; we’ll just have to see what WB plans to do.

Here’s a better look of one of the two released screenshots of Fire Red/Leaf Green. Now you can get a better sight of the trainer, with a red hat on, just like Ash. The surroundings, buildings and trees, are pretty much the same as Ruby/Sapphire. In the image, you can spot a mailbox next to the building, and another mailbox towards the right of the image, which is also on the left of the building. Interesting, wonder if it has any function or just decoration?

Fire Red/Leaf Green still doesn’t have a release date for Japan. Predictions are for early 2004. Pokemon Colosseum (Fire Red/Leaf Green compatible along with Ruby/Sapphire) comes out in November in Japan, so it's unlikely for Nintendo to release Fire Red/Leaf Green about the same time period. Expect it to be about February 2004 for the release.

For those late on the story, Fire Red/Leaf Green are remakes of the original Pokemon games, Red/Green. Blue version was Japan’s third version, while Green version never made it outside Japan. For more information about Fire Red/Leaf Green, go here: Pokemon Fire Red/Leaf Green

The newest TCG set is now released, EX Sandstorm. The set features a total of 100 cards, which includes 14 holo cards and 7 ex holo cards. And of course, this new set features many of the new Pokemon from Ruby/Sapphire, and these cards are e-Reader compatible. There are two theme decks: Caravan and Oasis. Caravan features Cradily, and Oasis contains Armaldo.

Booster packs contains 1 foil, 1 rare, 2 uncommon, and 5 common cards, which makes a total of 9 cards per booster pack. Booster packs retail for $3.29 per pack. Theme decks contains 60 cards total, plus one holo card, card list, game coin, damage counters, and a rule book. Theme decks retail for $10.99 per deck.

EX Sandstorm Cards (Click to Enlarge)

 

Two Pokemon events will be beginning soon. One is Pokemon Rocks America, and the other is an EX Sandstorm event at the Pokemon Center in New York.

Pokemon Rocks America

Don’t ask where this will be held, it’s a secret. Well, not for long. Starting September 19th (that's this Friday), a weekly game at the official Pokemon website will reveal clues about the cities the event will be going to (the event will be visiting three cities). Check the site every Friday, and when October 3rd comes along, a final game will reveal the three cities (if you guess right, you’ll get a wallpaper for your desktop).

The event itself is held from late October to mid-November. And yes, only for three lucky cities will this event be held at.

At the event, you can meet Pokemon characters there, try out the latest Pokemon games, preview upcoming games, learn the Pokemon TCG, Pokemon contests and games, and of course, lots of prizes.

Links: Official Pokemon Website

EX Sandstorm Event

This event is to celebrate the release of EX Sandstorm, it’s held at the Pokemon Center in New York. It will be held on two days, September 20th and 21st. Pretty much just a “get together” of fans, having some fun. Probably the best reason to attend is to play some games of the TCG with so many people there.

Features of the event includes an opportunity to join the Pokemon Center NY league, Pokemon trivia, treasure hunts, and drawing contests.

Links: Pokemon Center NY Online Store

The new issue of the Coro Coro gaming magazine of Japan is out, and out come some new nifty pictures of Pokemon Fire Red and Leaf Green, as well as some pictures for another highly anticipated game, Pokemon Colosseum.

Pokemon Fire Red/Leaf Green Screenshots

Below is two screenshots of Fire Red/Leaf Green. The one on the left we have seen before, Bulbasaur battling Charmander. The one on the right shows the main trainer, with a red hat on.

Pokemon Colosseum Screen Shots

Nothing new on Pokemon Colosseum, just some more new pictures of the game. This is the next game Japan will be getting in the near future, in November of this year. While the US release date is scheduled for March 2004.

Coro Coro Magazine Scans (Click to Enlarge)

You can check out the magazine scans for Pokemon Fire Red and Leaf Green, and Pokemon Colosseum. Just click on the picture to see the larger version.

Related Links

Pokemon Fire Red/Leaf Green

Pokemon Colosseum

This week on WB, new Pokemon episodes from Pokemon Master Quest will be aired from Monday thru Saturday. WB is running late on their scheduled planned to air Pokemon: Advanced, the sixth season. The new episodes will all be in order during the week, shown from Monday thru Saturday. The schedule is below:

WB Schedule: September 15-20

MON: Mother of All Battles

TUE: Pop Goes The Sneasel

WED: A Claim to Flame!

THU: Love, Pokemon Style

FRI: Tie One On!

SAT: The Ties That Bind

Five Episodes Remaining

After the last episode of the week, The Ties That Bind, there will five more episodes left on Pokemon Master Quest, and then we can move onto Pokemon: Advanced. The remaining five episodes are (might be working titles):

-Rival Showdown! Blastoise vs Charizard

-Bashamo Returns! Battle With Hazuki

-To the End of the Full Battle!

-Farewell… And Then Depart

-The Parting With Pikachu

Pokemon: Advanced, Coming Soon?

With only five episodes left, this may mean that the Pokemon: Advanced season may start as early as next Saturday, on the 27th. The remaining five episodes will fit nicely from Monday thru Friday, and then the remaining Saturday may mean the start of Pokemon Advanced. It’s not scheduled yet, we’ll just have to wait a bit a longer as WB releases their plans for that week.

Pokemon Episode Schedule

The Pokemon episodes schedule for Warner Bros, as well as Cartoon Network, can be found on this site’s main page, on the bottom left column of the page.

On the left is the first screenshot released for Pokemon Fire Red and Leaf Green (the new games reported yesterday in the news). It’s a picture Bulbasaur battling Charmander. The Pokemon images are identical to those of Ruby/Sapphire, so that pretty means Fire Red and Leaf Green will be using the same Pokemon images from Ruby/Sapphire. Also, the gender symbols are there, so that means Pokemon will be having the gender feature, something the original Red/Green/Blue didn’t have.

More news will be here on Fire Red and Leaf Green as it comes. For more information on Fire Red and Leaf Green, go here: Pokemon Fire Red/Leaf Green

Surprise! The next Pokemon games on GBA will be remakes of Red version and Green version, the games that started it all. For those that don’t know, in Japan, Red and Green were the first two versions of the game for Pokemon. Following its success, Nintendo released a Blue version. However, for its plans outside of Japan, Nintendo only released Red and Blue, and never released the Green version in other countries.

With the history lesson on Red/Green/Blue out of the way, on to the details of the game! Red and Green will be made to GBA games of course, and that means improved graphics like Ruby/Sapphire. With Pokemon Fire Red and Pokemon Leaf Green, you will be able to trade Pokemon with Ruby and Sapphire (you can get the old Pokemon now! Yay!), as well as battling.

Pokemon Fire Red and Pokemon Leaf Green is planned to be released in Japan sometime early 2004. No word yet on a possible time frame for the US and other countries.

This news about the remakes of Red/Green was really sketchy at first. Most people believed that the rumor is remakes of Red/Blue, but now we know it’s Red along with Green, not Blue. And of course, even with this rumor, there weren’t sufficient and reliable sources to prove the claim. As all of you may very well know, false rumors are started all the time, so it’s important to get things right. Now that Nintendo has spoken about it, we now know for sure it’s titles: Pokemon Fire Red and Pokemon Leaf Green, and that it’s not Red/Blue, but Red/Green. Basically, it started out as a rumor with little information, but now we have more information (and correct information) and confirmation from Nintendo. So just wanted to clear that up.

It was nearly a month ago that reports were coming in claiming that Nintendo is working on two major projects. One of them, a GameCube game (the game is still unknown, might be a continuing series or a new game entirely), and the second is a GBA title, which we now know is the new Pokemon games.

You’ll be sure to hear more news as they come about Pokemon Fire Red and Pokemon Leaf Green, here at Pokemon Elite 2000.

Yet another new week begins, and what better to do than plan for the upcoming weekend. This weekend will be a treat for those that like the TV series, and for some folks in the North America, you’ll get a special chance of getting the upcoming EX Sandstorm set early. But let’s start with the new TV series:

6th Season, Pokemon: Advanced!

The newest season of Pokemon, the 6th season titled “Pokemon: Advanced”, will be kicking off this weekend. The new season will begin on Saturday, at 10:00AM. Pokemon will still be on the air Mondays thru Fridays, on 4:00PM. Most likely, the older episodes or already aired episodes will be shown on the weekdays, while the new episodes will be shown on Saturdays, following the format as before. The new season Pokemon: Advanced will be featuring the new Pokemon from Ruby/Sapphire, and of course, will be based in the new region of Hoenn.

UPDATE: The new season will not be opening on this Saturday. The current season, Pokemon Master Quest has not been completed yet. Though, the original plan was for September 13th (Yahoo News: WB Fall 2003 Programming), it seems that it will pushed back until Pokemon Master Quest is finished. This weekend's episode will be "Address Unown!" I forgot to mention this in the news, this is for WB.

Any new updates about Pokemon: Advanced will be posted here in the news.

EX Sandstorm Prerelease Event!

This new set won’t be out until the 17th of this month, but some lucky fans will be able to get the new cards and participate in a tournament with the new cards. The EX Sandstorm Prerelease started began over the weekend, on the 6th and 7th. And will continue on this weekend, on the 13th and 14th.

EX Sandstorm Prerelease schedule and locations can be found here: EX Sandstorm Prerelease Locator

Basically, this event is a tournament. For a registration fee of $20 (might be different at various locations), you will get 6 packs of EX Sandstorm. With those cards, you will be assembling a deck for the tournament. The deck must consist of 40 cards for the purpose of this tournament, and energy cards will be supplied to the participants. There’s three age brackets (10 and under, 11-14, 15 and older). Everyone will be able to play against each other, no matter the age. But the age will determine which group that person belongs to, and that determines the top winner of each age bracket. The top winner of each age bracket wins a booster box of EX Sandstorm. Prizes are also given to 2nd-8th place finishers (18 packs for second, 9 packs for third, 9 packs for fourth, and 4 packs for fifth thru eighth). And keep in mind; EX Sandstorm cards are not available for purchase, even through these special events. Although, all participants are able to keep the cards they were given, and obviously the prizes as well. Also, another good reason to go is getting a promo card of prerelease Amaldo for all those in the tournament.

Well, you got a taste of what to expect from the event, and this all thanks to Mega Man (member of the Pokemon Elite 2000 forum) for this in depth information. You can check out his report on the event here: Sandstorm Scans and a Prerelease Report