Back in the olden days of the 20th Century when the Japanese Monster Phenomenon “Pokémon” first invaded North America, the Pokémon TCG was simply one of the different ways for this new pocket monster craze to attack parent’s wallets. And what better way to return to those halcyon days than to make custom fake cards in the style of the original 1st Edition “Shadowless” Base Set!

As you may have noticed, the Pokémon TCG has gone though dozens of different card designs. But the very first North American release back in January 1999 were these “Shadowless” style cards:

So wait, why were they shadowless to begin with? I have a pet theory, but basically… back when Wizards was working on designing this release, I feel like there might have been a last minute issue with getting the original background designs from Japan—such as they had certain card elements baked in which didn’t give Wizards any flexability to design cards—and so instead of waiting for updated card graphics to be sent from Japan (afterall, this was in the early years of the internet when speeds weren’t so hot), Wizards graphic designers simply used what they had and copied-and-pasted the clean card elements over the baked in elements… it’s a bit messy, but honestly NO ONE noticed it for over two decades, so clearly it did the job it needed to do. Especially since no kid knew what an acutal Pokey-man card “should” look like!

Anyways, because of this unique design relative to later cards and the fact that even later printings of original Base Set were in line with the way Jungle and Fossil cards looked like, this “Shadowless” style was only rarely ever seen, and certainly never released as blanks… until now!

Ready to download them? Here’s some handy links!

What’s the difference between these versions?

  • Standard Pack — simply has all the individual blanks as PNG files, plus a few little design extras (raw energy icons, other symbols, etc)
  • Expert Pack — two Photoshop PSD files, complete with all the symbols and text layers placed where they should be, as well as the card blanks as individual layers to choose. Super handy if you want to make sure everything is where it’s supposed to be!

BTW, here’s a few notes about this release that I’d like to share:

  • This release includes:
    • all 7 original types from the Gen 1-era ( :TG :TR :TW :TL :TP :TF :TC )
    • 4 custom types that never existed back then but were released later ( :TD :TM :TN :TY )
      • I replicated the original style of the Shadowless blanks (including the copied-and-pasted bits) so they at least look authentic.
      • Honestly tho, I had to include these, if only because it would’ve been SO BORING with just the original seven types!
    • one Trainer blank
      • the Expert Pack’s Trainer PSD file includes extra layers for other Trainer types, like Supporters, Stadiums, PokéTools, etc
  • For each type I only made Basic, Stage 1 and Stage 2 Pokémon cards.
    • If requested, I could make Baby, Mega, ex/EX/Ex/eX, V, etc Pokémon types as well… but I felt adding those card types to be overkill

If you want help with these blanks (or any others for that matter), head on over to the #fake-card-mania channel on the PA! Discord and ask any questions you’d like concerning design, fonts, etc., and we’d be happy to help. Heck, if you want to be part of the design discussion for the next set of blanks I work on, that’s the place to do it. So come on over, we’d love to have you. :D