Introduction
To celebrate E4’s Eeveelution Wars, I thought it would be cool to shine a spotlight on some real-life Eeveelution events that happened last year
In the latter half of 2021 from summer to winter, TPCi would release a set of alternate Eevee Evolution VMAX promos.
Across nearly every Asian and southeast Asian region that Pokemon cards were printed in, these promo cards were distributed via special campaigns or tournaments. Only in Europe and America were they included as box promos in a retail store product.
Some regions also included an Espeon VMAX card in this promotional line-up, while others kept its distribution separate.
One other note
This article will go into how each of these promos was distributed in various regions around the world. Much of the research and writing work for this article was performed by @rabby250 Rabby250 and @kranz Kranz. Major thanks to them and their efforts in documenting this multi-country campaign.
The full article features the actual tournament rule PDFs as well for each region, so be sure to check it out at here
Japan
In Japan, the cards were distributed via a lottery campaign known as the “Summer Pokemon Card Lottery” during the summer of 2021. Traditionally each year during the summer, Japan held “sealed deck” tournaments that awarded exclusive full art promo cards as prizes. This was the case in previous years with the Zekrom SR / HR tournaments, Mewtwo SR /HR tournaments, and the Charizard SR / HR tournaments.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, most in-person tournaments were unable to be held. It is thus speculated that these Eevee evolution promo cards were meant to be prizes for the 2021 summer sealed deck tournaments, but were distributed by lottery instead. This is especially apparent by the method of entry, which involved building a deck through an online tool.
Entry
To enter the lottery, Entrants were first required to register at the Pokemon Card Game Player’s Club website and then create a 60-card deck consisting of 40 cards, and at least 20 energy cards.
To create a deck, users were first required to be registered at the Pokemon Player’s Club, with an accompanying name, address, and other contact information added to the “My Page” section so the lottery cards could be mailed to a physical destination.
First, players would have to search for cards to add to the deck, then tap the appropriate cards they wanted to add. They could then add multiple copies of each card to their deck.
Next, players would have to register a deck by submitting it for a regulation check. If everything was input properly and the deck was legal and complete, a deck code would be displayed. This code was required for the application form.
Finally, entrants were asked to enter the rules and deck they played in a lottery application form to await results of the drawing.
Prizes
3000 winners were mailed their copy of the 3 promo cards in October 2021. These arrived in a branded cardboard mailer.
Espeon VMAX
In Japan, the Espeon VMAX alternate art promo card was distributed with a retail product, the Eevee Heroes Eeveelution Set.
Hong Kong & Taiwan (Traditional Chinese)
A series of “sealed” tournaments called the Eevee Evolution Championship were held at local card game stores in Taiwan and Hong Kong to promote the latest expansions. All participants of these tournaments got a promo Gym Trainer card
Unlike traditional tournaments where players brought their own decks, “sealed” tournaments involved building entirely new decks on the day of the competition Participants would open 15 packs of latest expansions, Skyscraping Perfect (S7D) or Blue Sky Stream (S7R), on the day of the tournament. They would then use the cards within along with basic energy cards to construct a 40-card deck.
These sealed tournaments awarded the Chinese versions of the alternate art Eevee Evolution promo cards, but unlike the Japanese lottery, players weren’t able to get them all at the same time.
In both Hong Kong and Taiwan, there were 3 event sessions that each awarded a specific Eeveelution VMAX card. For example, here’s Taiwan’s schedule:
- Session 1: October 5 – 17, 2021 (Vaporeon VMAX)
- Session 2: October 18 – 31, 2021 (Jolteon VMAX)
- Session 3: November 1 – 14, 2021 (Flareon VMAX)
Because each of the tournaments was scheduled ahead of time at each Official Pokemon Gym store, it’s possible to estimate the total number of copies for the Chinese cards.
For Hong Kong, it is estimated that 110 of each Eevee evolution VMAX promo card was distributed.
For Taiwan, it is estimated that only about 323 Vaporeon VMAX, 325 Jolteon VMAX, and 326 Flareon VMAX promo cards were given out based on the number of gym store participants signed up for each allocated event date range
In total, this means the estimated distribution for each of the Chinese promos is as follows:
- 433 Vaporeon VMAX
- 435 Jolteron VMAX
- 436 Flareon VMAX
Espeon VMAX
Traditional Chinese copies of alternate art Espeon VMAX were given out as winner’s prizes in Battle for Espeon VMAX, a tournament series separate from the original Battle for Eevee Evolutions tournaments.
Battle for Espeon VMAX games were played in a tournament-specific format:
- Decks must contain 60 cards and are legal in Expanded format.
- Each deck must contain at least 6 cards with “Eevee or a Pokémon evolved from Eevee” in their names. Players must reveal their decks to their opponents and officials after games for them to confirm that this rule is being followed.
- Games are played with 6 prize cards on each side.
Players would receive a copy of alternate art Espeon VMAX by winning 4 games, or booster packs if they won 3 games or less.
In Taiwan, Battle for Espeon VMAX was a side event of the Pokémon TCG Regional League 2021-22 Taipei tournament, which was held in Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center during January 8 and 9, 2022.
Thailand
In Thailand, alternate art copies of Flareon VMAX, Vaporeon VMAX and Jolteon VMAX were distributed in the Battle for Eevee Evolutions tournaments. The event was held as a Remote Pokémon TCG event by Gen4 – the official distributor of Pokémon TCG in Thailand at the time of the event – with local card merchant LYNX Trading Post acting as the organizer. This meant that players would play virtually from home with each other using online tools.
The event was originally planned to be held on each Tuesday to Saturday between September 28, 2021 to November 6, 2021 with each day having one session held at 6:00 PM local time and another session held at 8:00 PM. However, the event schedule had eventually been extended to November 20, 2021, and games on November 4 had been canceled.
All participants of these tournaments received a Gym Trainer promo card.
The Thailand tournaments followed a similar sealed tournament ruleset like the Hong Kong and Taiwan tournaments. However, each player only needed to purchase 10 booster packs instead of 15, and the tournament was played via a Swiss-style system instead of single elimination.
Players were also required to set up their own remote play environments where they would play their games during the event by following the official Remote Pokémon TCG guidelines.
Apart from the participation promo card, players would receive a random assortment of Pokemon Gym promo cards depending on placement. The eligible promos were the following cards:
Promos from this pool were distributed via the following methodology:
- Players in 1st place received 6 cards.
- Players in 2nd place received 4 cards.
- Players in 3rd and 4th places received 3 cards.
- Players in 5th and 6th places received 2 cards.
- Players in 7th and 8th places received 1 card.
The tournament document specified that officials were planning to release 100 copies of each card in the tournaments, and reserved an additional 250 copies each for future events. On the other hand, the event schedule originally planned would result in 30 game days x 2 sessions per day x 32 slots / 8 slots per group x 1 card given out per group / 3 different cards = around 80 copies of each card given out to participants if all sessions were fully attended.
However, LYNX Trading Post announced the participant lists of each session through Facebook posts.
From the available Facebook posts we can count the number of players and calculate the number of cards actually given out, as shown in the table below:
From the table we can see that the actual number of cards given out was 189, or 63 copies each if the cards were distributed equally. It is currently unknown whether the remaining cards allocated for the Battle for Eevee Evolutions event (around 37 copies each) or the extra copies reserved for other events (250 each) were eventually released to the public.
Espeon VMAX
Thai copies of alternate art Espeon VMAX were first revealed officially in the official Thai card database of Pokémon TCG Trainer’s website as 073/S-P. However no events were ever announced to distribute them, thus making them unobtainable.
#Indonesia
Indonesia would be the final region to hold tournaments that rewarded the Eevee Evolution VMAX promo cards. From November 5 – December 30, 2021, a series of sealed tournaments called the Eevee Evolution Championship was held at local card game stores in Indonesia.
Unlike other regions, the Indonesian tournaments would also award the Espeon VMAX promo, making it the only region where all 4 Eevee evolution VMAX promos were available from the same tournament series.
The promo distributed depended on when the tournament was held. Similar to to the Hong Kong and Taiwan tournaments, there were multiple event periods that each rewarded a different promo card.
- Session 1: November 5 – 18, 2021 (Vaporeon VMAX)
- Session 2: November 19 – December 2, 2021 (Jolteon VMAX)
- Session 3: December 3 – 16, 2021 (Flareon VMAX)
- Session 4: December 17 – 30, 2021 (Espeon VMAX)
Similar to other regions, all participants received a Gym Trainer promo card.
However, the Indonesian tournaments also gave each participants a V-UNION pack. This pack would contain a Professor Burnet promo card, along with the 4 cards for a random V-UNION Pokemon (Greninja, Mewtwo, or Zacian).
The Eevee Evolution VMAX promos were awarded to the top-ranked players based on the number of participants and placement in these tournaments.
| Number of Participants | Grand Prize |
|---|---|
| 4 – 7 people | Awarded to 1st place |
| 8 – 11 people | Awarded to 1st and 2nd place |
| 12 – 15 people | Awarded to 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place |
| 16 – 19 people | Awarded to 1st through 4th place |
| And so on… | And so on… |
Essentially, every 4 players would add another promo card to the prize pool for each event.
America & Europe
In America and Europe, the Vaporeon, Flareon, and Jolteon alternate art Eevee Evolution VMAX promos were released as box promos in special collection boxes in retail stores on December 3, 2021.
The American version of the box retailed for $39.99 USD. Each American Pokémon TCG: Eevee Evolution VMAX Premium Collection included:
- 1 etched promo card featuring Vaporeon VMAX, Jolteon VMAX, or Flareon VMAX
- 1 full-art card featuring Vaporeon V, Jolteon V, or Flareon V
- 1 etched oversize card featuring Vaporeon VMAX, Jolteon VMAX, or Flareon VMAX, suitable for display
- 1 colorful pin featuring Vaporeon, Jolteon, or Flareon
- 6 Pokémon TCG booster packs
- 1 large metallic coin
- A code card for the Pokémon Trading Card Game Online
The European versions featured a slightly different box design, 1 less booster pack, and didn’t have the metallic coin. They retailed for £37.99.
The alternate art Espeon VMAX card was released as a secret rare in the Fusion Strike set when released in western territories, so it did not have its own collection box set.
