PTP01

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Pokémon: Path to the Peak
PTP02 : Regionals →
The Club
PTP01.png
  PTP01  
第1話
Episode 1
Web release
Japan August 14, 2023
United States August 11, 2023
English themes
Opening None
Ending
Japanese themes
Opening None
Ending None
Credits
Animation TAIKO Studios
Screenplay Benjamin Townsend Benjamin Townsend
Storyboard Ian Mutchler Ian Mutchler
Assistant director Shaofu Zhang Shaofu Zhang
Animation director Qinghui Lü Qinghui Lü
No additional credits are available at this time.

The Club is the first episode of Pokémon: Path to the Peak. It was first released on the official English Pokémon YouTube channel on August 11, 2023.

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Spoiler warning: this article may contain major plot or ending details.
201

Blurb

Forced to move from her old town, Ava makes a fresh start and sets out on a new adventure with the school’s Pokémon TCG club.

Plot

After selling their old house in the countryside, Ava and her parents travel to a new home in the suburbs. While unpacking, Ava finds a shoebox containing her mother's old Pokémon Trading Card Game collection. Ava is displeased at needing to move, but her dad reassures her by suggesting she try out clubs during her school's club week.

The next day, Ava tries out for various clubs, but ultimately makes a mess of the event and angers most of the clubs' members instead. Joshua, a member of the school's Pokémon club, takes pity on her and slips her a note to the club, a papercraft Pikachu marked "TM10". When Ava goes to investigate and finds that the club plays the Pokémon TCG, she's thrilled at the opportunity to make new friends, and rushes home to get her mom's cards.

When Ava returns, Joshua notes that her cards are old, so he brings out his own old deck and offers to teach Ava how to play. However, Joshua is over-enthusiastic—he explains the rules very quickly, and defeats Ava by using a complicated combo of card effects.

Ava returns home frustrated and ready to throw the cards away, but her dad sympathizes with her and teaches her a "secret" to play better—imagine the Pokémon and cards as if they were part of a real battle taking place front of her.

With regained confidence, Ava challenges Joshua to a rematch the next day, visualizing the battle as the match unfolds. She manages to defeat not only Joshua, but every single club member—a group of about 16 people. Joshua gives Ava a metallic coin identical to those of the other members, welcoming her to the club.

Ava excuses herself to the hallway, where she dances in celebration. However, she is interrupted by Celestine, who questions Ava's ability in a competitive setting with Championship Points. Ava is confused, but Joshua explains that Celestine is the best Pokémon TCG player in the school, and that the competition she refers to is Regionals.

Major events

  • Ava meets Joshua and learns how to play the Pokémon TCG.
  • Ava learns her father's technique of visualizing TCG matches as Pokémon battles.
  • Ava joins the Pokémon club at her school.
  • Ava learns about the Regional Championships.

Characters

Humans

Pokémon

Appearing on merchandise

As drawings

Cards featured

Several cards from the real-life TCG appear in this episode.

In the shoebox:

In Joshua's deck as he shuffles it:

Ava's cards:

Joshua's cards:

TCG mechanics

Some mechanics from the real-life Pokémon Trading Card Game are applied during this episode's matches. This section explains them in-depth, to help give context to certain scenes.

The overall rules of the TCG can be found here: How to Play.

Additionally:

  • The circular chips placed on Pokémon are damage counters, and indicate how much damage that Pokémon has taken.
    • Orange damage counters represent 10 damage.
    • Red damage counters represent 50 damage.

Joshua's combo

In Joshua's first match against Ava, he states the following during his combo: "Evolutionary Thunder, Evolve on bench, Delta Charge, Scoop Up heads, Evolve final Eevee, 3 Poké-POWER knockouts, attach, swing for game".

To explain what he is doing during this turn:

  1. Evolutionary Thunder: Jolteon ex (EX Delta Species 109) has the Poké-POWER "Evolutionary Thunder". When this Jolteon is played to evolve an Eevee, a damage counter (representing 10 damage) is added to each of the opponent's Pokémon (the active one, as well as any that are on the bench). Joshua evolves an Eevee, and activates this ability to deal splash damage to all of Ava's Pokémon.
  2. Evolve on bench: Joshua evolves one of the Eevee on his bench into Jolteon, dealing splash damage a second time.
  3. Delta Charge: Dragonite δ (EX Delta Species 3) has the ability "Delta Charge". This allows the user to attach 1 Lightning Energy to any benched Pokémon, bypassing the usual limit of playing 1 Energy card per turn. Joshua uses this to put 1 Lightning Energy on a Jolteon.
  4. Scoop Up heads: When Super Scoop Up (Celestial Storm 146) is played, the user may return one Pokémon and all cards attached to it back to their hand, as long as they flip a coin and have it land on heads. Joshua uses this to scoop up a Jolteon and its attached Eevee.
  5. Evolve final Eevee: Joshua plays the Eevee he just picked up and evolves it into Jolteon again, dealing the splash damage of Evolutionary Thunder a third time.
  6. 3 Poké-POWER knockouts: Due to the splash damage of Evolutionary Thunder, Ava's 2 benched Pokémon have received so much damage that they have been knocked out without entering combat.
  7. Attach: Joshua selects the Jolteon that has 1 Lightning Energy on it as his active Pokémon, and he attaches 1 Lightning Energy to it, so it has 2 Lightning Energy total.
  8. Swing for game: Joshua has the active Jolteon attack using "Second Bite". This attack normally deals 20 damage, but deals an additional 10 damage for every damage counter on the defending Pokémon. Ava's Scyther (80 max HP) currently has 3 damage counters on it (current HP: 50), so Second Bite would deal 20 + 3 × 10 = 50 damage, knocking out the Scyther.
  9. Win: Since Ava's bench Pokémon have already been knocked out, and her active Pokémon has been knocked out, she has no more Pokémon remaining on the field. Joshua wins.

With the intent to knock out the active Scyther, the math of this strategy works out.

However, the math doesn't quite work out for knocking out the benched Pokémon—upon Ava's defeat, one of her benched Pokémon (another Scyther) has 80 damage dealt to it, and the unidentified second benched Pokémon has 60 damage dealt to it—but Joshua only dealt 30 splash damage.

Defiance Band

In Joshua's second match against Ava, Ava plays a card called "Defiance Band".

  • Effect - Defiance Band (Scarlet & Violet 169) can be attached to a Pokémon. If the user has more prize cards remaining than the opponent, then this Pokémon deals an additional 30 damage with its attacks. Ava has 2 prize cards remaining while Joshua has only 1, so this requirement is filled.
  • Attacking - Ava attaches Defiance Band to her Oddish (SVP Promo 102), and attacks the opposing Jolteon ex (EX Delta Species 109) with Grass Knot for 100 damage, knocking it out.
  • Win - Since the knocked-out Jolteon is an "ex" Pokémon, Ava gets to take 2 prize cards for defeating it. Ava therefore takes her last 2 prize cards, earning a win.

However, the circumstances of the game make it impossible for Oddish to have dealt 100 damage in one turn as shown. Oddish's strongest move, Grass Knot, deals 20 damage for each colorless energy in the opposing Active Pokémon (in this case Jolteon)'s retreat cost. However, the Jolteon has no retreat cost, so this move would deal 0 damage. Oddish would instead have to use Razor Leaf, which has 10 power. This combined with Defiance Band's +30 damage means Oddish could only have dealt 40 damage in one turn.

Trivia

  • Despite Joshua noting that Ava's cards are old, she has Defiance Band, which was first released in 2023's Scarlet & Violet expansion.
    • Meanwhile, Joshua's "old deck" mostly consists of cards from 2005's EX Delta Species expansion, with his newest card being from 2006's EX Holon Phantoms expansion. If reprints are considered, then his newest card would be Lightning Energy from 2022's Brilliant Stars expansion.
  • Ava's Oddish card, Oddish (SVP Promo 102), appeared in this episode before it existed in the real-life TCG. It is the only card shown in this episode to have that trait.
    • A different Oddish card that existed prior to the episode appears when Ava first opens the shoebox. However, she does not use this Oddish card at any point during the series.
  • The number on the Pokémon TCG club's door, TM10, is a reference to the move Hidden Power, the move most commonly contained in said TM. This, in turn, could be seen as a reference to Ava realizing her hidden potential for the TCG.

In other languages


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