Mentioned in hushed tones on this forum and in other corners of the web is the “Sliver Bible,” a sacred text that contains the deepest secrets of early Japanese Pokemon cards. Acquiring this revered tome is difficult enough, but understanding its moon runes can be challenging for even the most devout collector. In this thread I’d like to reveal its secrets by scanning and translating pages as my way of giving back to the community.
What is the Silver Bible?
Published by Media Factory in February 2000, the Pokemon Card Book 2000 (lovingly referred to as the “Silver Bible”) is a 366-page comprehensive guide to the early Japanese TCG, including an exhaustive image gallery AND description of every card printed up until the Neo sets. This includes set cards, promo cards, trophy cards, and cards included in special products such as the Gym decks and intro pack. In a time before the internet could handle displaying every Pokemon card in high resolution, this book was an invaluable resource to contemporary players and collectors. I’ve read elsewhere that this book was the sole extant source on impossible-to-find cards like the Illustrator and trophy cards.
Today the book is more of a relic, an encyclopedia of the first few years of the TCG in Japan. Its intended audience wasn’t collectors, but players. The vast majority of the book is devoted to explaining how to use card abilities in battle and solving frequently asked questions. But tucked away in its hallowed pages are real gems showcasing the ephemera of the early card game in a way that still hasn’t been done elsewhere.
that will be so awesome if you do the whole book. Google translate does a pretty good job when I look at my copy, but if you can clean it up thatll be a great resource
I haven’t read much of it yet, but the most interesting tidbit I’ve found is that a team was formed in November 1995 to develop the TCG, three months before the games released in Japan.
Added two pages that go into detail about the Lizardon Mega Battle and Kamex Mega Battle official tournaments that took place in 1997-1998.
While the first official tournament took place only in Tokyo in the summer of '97, these two succeeding tournaments took place all across Japan with the championships held in Tokyo. These pages also confirm our current understanding of how many of the first Pikachu trophy cards are out there (each one being given to the winners of the junior and senior leagues at each event, and there were seven events for each tournament series, 2x7=14 for each variant). My assumption is that the championship winners didn’t receive a Pikachu trophy card (as they would have already had one from their regional event) so they received a physical trophy instead.
There’s also some debate over the PSA attributing the wrong dates to Pikachu trophies - technically there are 2 1997 pikachu trophy cards (since the first official tournament took place in the summer of '97, and the LMB took place in the winter of 1997-1998), though of course the text on the card is slightly different so you can tell the difference. What I do find odd is that the LMB trophy cards say “1st tournament” on them, even though they were officially the second tournament, so that may be what confused PSA.
What I find most interesting is that the Computer Error promo issued at the Kamex Mega battle wasn’t just a promo card - it was a fundamental part of the tournament’s rule set and was intended to level the playing field between new and old players in the game. It seems like each event had a different rules set, with the ultimate troll of Pokemon officials coming out on the stage before the final round to pick apart your deck in front of the audience.
It would also be really cool to know the deck lists of the winners from these tournaments! I wonder if they build their decks the same way as we did in the west.
Thanks for the photo! This is really interesting - I thought the first official tournament was an event in and of itself, but it was a side event to the Summer 1997 World Hobby Fair held at the Makuhari Messe in Tokyo (a big convention center that usually hosts Tokyo Game Show).
Only elementary and middle school students could enter, and they only allowed 80 people to play each day (for a total of 160 contestants on June 14-15). To register, you had to send a returnable postcard (a peculiarly Japanese form of postcard that was meant to be sent in and then returned to you by the addressee). You had to enter your details and answer the question - is playing the TCG easy, alright, or difficult? If you were selected to go to the tournament, you got some kind of Pokemon merch along with the tournament rules.
There is so little information on the first tournament - I don’t think the Silver Bible has much detail on it except for the images of the first trophy cards, so info like this is invaluable.
Yeah the going rate appears to be around the 15k to 20k JPY mark now. Interestingly both sealed and used copies seem to sell for around the same amount. I’ve never understood why people price some items so high on Amazon.
There’s actually a follow-up to this book released around 2004 I believe, but I can’t remember what that one is called. Not sure how the two compare - that one seems to be harder to find.
Posts have been moved because they are getting in the way of what is a nice discussion thread. If anyone has a problem with that then PM me. Further discussion of the content of the removed posts will not be condoned.
I just located this one, the 2003 official book with a blue cover here: www.suruga-ya.jp/product/detail/179018075 but there’s not much detail about it. Neither seem terribly thick, but they could have been published as updates to the Official Card Book 2000.
As to the one with the chubby Charizard, that might be the cover of one of the Trainers Pokemon TCG magazines published in Japan, though I’m not sure of the issue and a cursory google image search doesn’t bring it up.
