Event Bulbagarden's 12 Days of Trivia 2022

[Archaic]

Bulbagarden's challenging 12 Days of Trivia contest returns for another year! On Monday December 12th, we'll be posting a set of 12 trivia question for you here in this thread, and you'll have roughly 12 days to find the answers to all of them. As always, the trivia questions will be drawn from all corners part of the Pokémon franchise. Some questions will be easy, others devilish, but you'll be able to find the answers to all of them on Bulbapedia if you search hard enough.

As with our last few 12 Days of Trivia contests, all the questions and answers for this year's trivia will be following some theme. If you're getting stuck on any one question, you might find a hint in the answers you've already come up with to other questions.

We'll be accepting responses to all 12 trivia questions right up until 11:55pm Saturday December 24th (US Pacific Standard Time), so you'll have plenty of time to get your answers in. Take as much time as you need within that deadline to think about your answers.

When you submit your answers, you'll also receive a special code that you can input on the Bulbagarden Holiday Raffle to receive an additional 12 entries in that contest!

Prizes
For the 12 Days this year, our grand prize winner will receive A Nintendo Switch (OLED Edition) and a Nintendo Switch Pokémon title of their choice.
The grand prize will go to a person selected randomly from those entries who answer all trivia questions correctly. Should we not get any perfect scores, the winner will be selected at random from among those entries with the highest number of correct responses.

In addition to the grand prize winner, an additional 5 winners will receive a Nintendo Switch Pokémon title of their choice. Of these:

• 3 prizes will go to people selected randomly from those entries who answer all trivia questions correctly. Should we not get any perfect scores, the winners will be selected at random from those entries with the highest number of correct responses.
• The remaining 2 prizes will go to the first 2 people to answer all trivia questions correctly. Should we not get enough perfect scores, or in the event that the grand prize winner is one of the 2 fastest, winners for these prizes will be selected at random from those entries with the highest number of correct responses.

If you have any questions about the contest, please post them in this thread, or in the #bulbamas2022 channel on our Discord server.

Good luck everyone! Once they've been posted on December 12th, you'll be able to find your questions in the third post of this thread. You'll be able to find the entry form for the contest in a link on this post shortly after those questions have gone live.

​

 

[Archaic]

==FAQ==
* I have a question...
Read this FAQ and the FAQ in the main Holiday Contests thread first before you ask me anything. It's probably already been answered. If it hasn't been, then go ahead and ask it. Please note that I will NOT respond to questions via Bulbagarden Forums private message. Questions about this contest must be asked in this thread, or in the #bulbamas2022 channel on our Bulbagarden Discord.

* I can't find the answer! Are they really all on Bulbapedia?
All of the answers are there, we've checked.

* Will I need to include links to where I found the answer?
Yes. This will be specified in the form. This assists us in identifying if we've made any mistakes, or if someone has added incorrect information to Bulbapedia which might have confused entrants.

* For (insert question here), do you mean (something) as opposed to (what the question says)?
Please re-read the question. Does it say (what you just said)? If it doesn't say that, then why would you think it meant that?

* Will you clarify a question for me?
As a rule of thumb, no. "Clarifying" a question after it has gone up could result in a situation where we are effectively changing the questions after people might have already submitted answers.

* I think one of the questions could be answered in several different ways, is that a problem?
No. If there's multiple possible answers for a question, that's probably intentional. And even if you've found an an additional possible answer that we didn't consider, all this would mean is that an additional possible answer would get added to the list of accepted answers at the end.

* So if there's multiple possible answers, do I need to put them all down?
No. You should just put down the answer that you think is the best answer. If you put down multiple answers, you run the risk of the judges taking that as you trying to game the system and invalidating your response.

* The answer on Bulbapedia is wrong! The actual answer is (BLAH), and I have proof!
That's not a question, it's a statement! But seriously, in the event that an error on Bulbapedia is leading people astray, we will accept both the actual correct answer, and the answer as it currently stands on Bulbapedia for the purposes of figuring out your score. We do this to avoid disadvantaging people who have already entered before a mistake is uncovered.

* I think someone's cheating! The info on Bulbapedia changed!
Theoretically, it is possible for someone to change information on Bulbapedia to try and give themselves an advantage. But we'll be watching the pages with the answers closely to prevent issues. In the event the change corrects an error on Bulbapedia, then both the old info (as it stood on December 12th when these questions were posted) and the new info will be valid for answers. In the event the change introduces an error, we'll revert the error and make a note of it when going through answers, to make sure those taken in by it aren't disadvantaged. The person who made the change introducing that error would also find themselves disqualified from the competition.

* Will you be revealing the correct answers after the competition?
Yes, we will. Though we likely won't be revealing the answers until after prizes have been awarded and prize winners have confirmed their details.

 

[Archaic]

Question 1:
In the Pokémon Anime, Ash normally only changes his hat at the start of a new season. Name a mid-season episode in which there was a change to Ash’s hat, and identify the specific change.

Question 2:
Apart from Rainbow Rocket in Alola, and various events in Pasio, the members of the various villainous teams are not typically seen outside of their home regions. Name a member of Team Magma who makes a cameo in Sinnoh.

Question 3:
From time to time, there have been retcons to various aspects and features of Pokémon species. Name a Pokémon species where something first presented as an unusual feature of a specific individual Pokémon was later presented as a common characteristic of the species.

Question 4:
The majority of characters in the Pokémon franchise have received their first introduction in the Pokémon video games, before later appearing in other Pokémon media. Name a human character who made their first appearance in the Pokémon anime, who later also appeared in the Pokémon Adventures manga.

Question 5:
Apart from a limited number of exceptions such as when Pokémon use a Z-Move, or when they expand their movepool during battle such as through Evolution, Dynamax, or by using something like Sketch or Transform, Pokémon should not be able to use more than 4 different moves in a single battle. Name an occasion when a Pokémon, without making use of these typical exceptions, was able to use more than 4 moves in a single battle.

Question 6:
It’s quite common for Pokémon TCG cards to receive updated artwork when they’re reprinted in new sets. There have also occasionally been cards given different art when the card was localized for the English language release. Name a Pokémon TCG card which received updated artwork for later printings in Japan, without being reprinted in another set.

Question 7:
With the addition of new types, some existing Pokémon have had their types changed between games. Not counting changes which occur temporarily during battle such as with changes due to Mega Evolution or Terastallization, name a Pokémon whose type changed between main series games where their new type wasn’t a newly introduced type.

Question 8:
Starting with the Nintendo Switch, Pokémon titles now commonly include auto-saves. But this kind of feature actually predates the Nintendo Switch. What was the first Pokémon video-game to feature functionality to let players resume a game without having expressly saved?

Question 9:
Name a Pokémon that has forms that it can use in its original generation, but which cannot use those forms in that generation in the region the Pokémon was introduced in.

Question 10:
Localization changes haven’t always made a lot of sense in Pokémon. For instance, rice balls were infamously changed to jelly doughnuts in an early episode of the Pokémon Anime. Outside of the anime, name another occasion on which a Japanese food was mysteriously changed to a western food in an English language release.

Question 11:
Though it’s not uncommon for the team members of trainers to change between an original game and a remake, it’s unusual for this to happen between different localizations of the same game. Name one trainer where the composition of Pokémon species on their team has changed between localizations.

Question 12:
The card design and layout for Pokemon Trading Card game cards has changed repeatedly over the life of the game. Name an evolved Pokémon introduced after Generation I which received a card printed in the same design used in the original base set.

 

[ioiur]

so, which is the question?
there is a winner in the gleam app and a winner in here in the forum?

 

[Archaic]

so, which is the question?
there is a winner in the gleam app and a winner in here in the forum?

The Gleam giveaway is a separate contest to this one, yes.

As per the posts above, the trivia questions for this contest will go up on December 12th.

 

[ioiur]

who is paying for the shipping and customs clearance?
from where the prize will be shipped?

ah, and the reply to the questions must be written in english?

 

[Archaic]

If there's any shipping and customs clearance, it should be paid for at our end when we make the order. Where possible, we purchase and ship prizes from a store local to the winner (typically the local branch of Amazon, though there's some other retailers we've used from time to time).

Your responses must be written in English, yes.

 

[Archaic]

The trivia questions for 2022 are now live! Good luck everyone!

 

[Archaic]

Please be aware that, based on the earliest entries we've received, I've updated some information in the FAQ.

TLDR: Please DO NOT put down multiple responses for any individual question, even where you think you've identified multiple valid answers. Only submit a single answer per question.

 

[Deoxysxx]

Now that the trivia is over am I allowed to ask how the average person is expected to go about finding the correct answer for every question using Bulbapedia?

 

[Archaic]

When we put up the full set of answers, we'll provide info for each question on how you could have found the answer. You might be surprised just how many of the answers could've been found with keyword searches pulling from the questions themselves.

If any contestants would like to share how they found the answers they submitted, please feel free!

 

[Boblers]

Since submissions are closed now, I'm glad to share my methods as discussed in the Discord (tbh I've been dying to share lol)

These were the answers I put, and my methods:

1. Spoiler

   DP003 (Hoenn outfit changed to Sinnoh outfit)
2. Spoiler

   Maxie (portrait in Hisui, which is technically Sinnoh).
3. Spoiler

   Ditto (Duplica's Ditto)
4. Spoiler

   Alexa (appeared in anime in JP before global release of XY).
5. Spoiler

   Drake's Dragonite
6. Spoiler

   Ancient Mew (had reprints to change typo, runes, foiling. Never re-released as part of a set, only ever alone)
7. Spoiler

   Rotom (specifically its alternate forms, in gens after 4)
8. Spoiler

   TCG Game boy
9. Spoiler

   Hoopa (XY cannot use Unbound but ORAS can).
10. Spoiler

    Hey You Pikachu (changed rice ball to cupcake).
11. Spoiler

    Pokefan Alex on Kanto Route 13 (guy whose pokemon all had "king" in the name)
12. Spoiler

    Slowking

My methods:

1. This one was pretty tough. First I looked at the article on Ash's Hat, but didn't see anything of note. Then I tried the list of clothing in the anime, where apparently Ash has gone through several single-episode costumes - probably too many, so I didn't think those were the goal. The question specifically mentions Ash changing outfit at the start of a new season, so I thought "was there a time when he did that on an episode that wasn't the first episode of a season?" So I kept looking at the anime article, and found exactly one instance where he did that. 12 Days Trivia generally asks about unique or unusual happenings, so this felt unique enough to me.
2. Ok, we know the person is in Team Magma, so I went to Team Magma's article. I see there's a navbox of members, excellent. I check each for a mention of Sinnoh, and found one (sorta, I think Hisui counts?). I learned after the fact that there was a second, more-direct answer.
3. This one I just kinda remembered offhand since it's a bit of a meme lol
4. The Adventures manga tends to stay close to the mainline games, so if a character met this description, I assume they are a mainline game character that appeared in a special anime preview or something. I remembered there was a girl with a camera in the anime that did that... looked her up, and the episode she was in predated XY's release in Japan, and she was also in Adventures. Sounded solid to me!
5. Initially I thought the move Struggle would count, but I wasn't satisfied with that answer. I figured, if something breaking the game limit of 4 moves were to happen, where would it be? Aha, the anime! They're breaking the game rules all the time. I started searching things like "more than 4 moves" and stumbled upon the answer. I also did a search on youtube, since anime-breaking-game-rules is a common discussion topic.
6. For this, I figured it would be a card that was either censored, or popular enough to be distributed multiple times. I searched "art update", "art changed", etc and came across the one in my answer. It has a lengthy description on how it's been revised through its iterations. I learned after the fact that there's a second answer that's more direct.
7. We can deduce from the question that Pokemon who were changed to Fairy-type don't count. But, changing type seems common enough that there's probably a category or summary page about it. So I searched up Gardevoir (which became a Fairy in gen 6), looked in the categories, and found a category of Pokemon whose types changed. I then checked each one-by-one until I found my answer.
8. This one, I actually had gotten a notification about the page being updated some weeks prior to the Trivia starting. To double check, I searched up the Save article, and compared the dates of the games listed to make sure my answer was the earliest-released game.
9. The phrasing's weird, but basically we want a Pokemon with multiple forms, in a generation that had multiple regions across different games. The Pokemon we're looking for also must have been introduced in the same generation as its alternate forms. So I looked up the forms article and tried several of the Pokemon there, looking at the sprites section on their article - if they could not use a form in some game, then that form's sprite for that game would have to be blank.
10. This went surprisingly fast. I searched "rice ball" on a whim, and the page had an example that wasn't from the anime.
11. A lot changes when games are localized, so I figured there was a whole article about the topic of localization differences. Turns out there was! I ctrl+f searched and found a trainer meeting the question's description.
12. Admittedly I didn't know what the gen 1 style even was, but from glancing through some cards, I figured it was the square-shaped evolution box in the corner (as opposed to later circular designs). If a non-gen I pokemon got this treatment, I would assume that A) it was in a classic-styled TCG expansion, B) it was released at the tail end of gen I's cards, or C) it's an evolution of a gen I pokemon. So I looked up the list of TCG expansions, and checked the last gen I set and first gen II set - hmm, nothing. What about promos? Aha, found one with the square evolution box. Just to double-check, I went to the Pokemon's page, which said it was the only gen II pokemon to get this treatment (Although, it claimed that only one card did this, when in fact two cards did!)

The two cards for 12:

• Card 1:
  Spoiler

  Southern Islands Slowking (JP version): Slowking (Southern Islands 14) - Bulbapedia, the community-driven Pokémon encyclopedia
• Card 2:
  Spoiler

  Hama-Chan's Slowking: Hama-chan's Slowking (CoroCoro promo) - Bulbapedia, the community-driven Pokémon encyclopedia

 

[Optimatum]

1. Spoiler

   I started from Ash's hat and found DP003 pretty quickly, but in case that wasn't the intended answer, I used Special:WhatLinksHere to check all the episode pages that link to Ash's hat.
2. Spoiler

   Butler has a cameo on Route 229. The efficient method would be Team Magma page -> check each team member -> Butler's page mentions this, but I missed that and went the long route of searching every Sinnoh location page. In hindsight a better approach would have been Special:WhatLinksHere to see which pages linked to each Team Magma member.
3. Spoiler

   Keyword searches let me to Ditto.
4. Spoiler

   Todd Snap. I went down List of Pokémon Adventures characters, skipping characters I remembered from the main games. First time around I mistakenly skipped Todd but caught him on a second pass.
5. Spoiler

   Defrost move forcing glitch in Generation 1. I wasn't sure whether the anime's looser mechanics would count and this question seemed like a good fit for a glitches answer. The Generation I battle glitches page had what I needed.
6. Spoiler

   Koga's Ninja Trick. I checked each set page for keywords like "change" and "different".
7. Spoiler

   The type-changed category was enough, same as Boblers.
8. Spoiler

   The Save page mentions several spinoff games with autosaving, of which the GBC TCG was earliest.
9. Spoiler

   Deoxys I already knew. Hoopa Unbound and Mega Diancie also fit, both introduced in ORAS.
10. Spoiler

    Quite a few food healing items have localization changes. I went with the Lava Cookie (a rice cracker in Japanese) but the RageCandybar and Old Gateau might count too.
11. Spoiler

    Localization changes article brought me to Pokefan Alex in GSC.
12. Spoiler

    I found Hama-chan's Slowking by checking the early expansion card lists for Gen II evolved pokemon.

 

[PokePal15]

I'm not sure if I can remember the exact way I searched for each question, but I'll do my best:

1.

Spoiler

I used BW121 as my answer as there is a change to Ash's hat in that episode indicated as an error. I searched for "Ash's hat" and "change" to find it. While this answer is an animation error, the question does ask to find the episode in which there was a change to the hat, not necessarily that Ash changes his hat. So I think it can be considered correct (though this was one question I had difficulty finding).

2.

Spoiler

Butler. Just searched for Team Magma and then looked at their list of Admins. Searched those pages and found him.

3.

Spoiler

Duplica's Ditto. I first thought it was Team Rocket's Meowth with standing up, but searching Meowth pages, realized it wasn't a unique trait. I then searched for various Pokemon that I thought could work (like Brock's Happiny's strength or Misty's Psyduck's headache/inability to swim). Eventually, I remembered Duplica's Ditto and went that route. I had also had it in mind since I had searched that episode for question 1: knowing that Ash had dressed up as Team Rocket in that episode I thought maybe his hat had changed too.

4.

Spoiler

Todd Snap. This was just instinct. I thought I remembered him debuting in the anime before Pokemon Snap, so I took a chance on searching his page specifically.

5.

Spoiler

Struggle. Based on my initial interpretation of the question, this was my instict answer. Then I reconsidered because I thought it might be too easy. So I was gonna go with Copycat or Metronome, but I was debating about wheter or not those could be considered in the vein of "typical exceptions" included in the question. So I went back to Struggle.

6.

Spoiler

Koga's Ninja Trick. Funnily enough, I stumbled upon this answer while looking for the answer to question 12. I believe I was searching for something along the lines of "TCG card", "change", "reprint".

7.

Spoiler

Rotom (specifically its forms). I started at the Type page and then went through each type, looking specifically at the Pokemon listed for each type and eliminating any that changed to Dark, Steel, or Fairy. Found Rotom when I got to the Ghost-type page and went from there.

8.

Spoiler

Pokemon Trading Card Game. I believe I specifically searched for "save" and found that page.

9.

Spoiler

Hoopa. Hoopa Unbound can only be accessed in ORAS due to the introduction of the Prison Bottle, which doesn't exist in Kalos in X/Y. For this one, I looked up the page with different Pokemon forms and used my interpretation of the question to find it. I thought of Deoxys, but eliminated that as an answer because one of its forms was introduced in Pokemon Emerald and the question specified that the form cannot be used in the region in which that Pokemon was introduced.

10.

Spoiler

The rice ball/onigiri was changed to a cupcake in "Hey You, Pikachu!" This was a fun one. I looked for localization changes, which originally led me to think of the Leek item, which was changed from Scallion in the Japanese version. It is techincally a food, so I was going to go with it. Then I looked at the question again and decided to use the example of rice balls in the question as a search term. That led to the answer.

11.

Spoiler

Pokefan Alex. Pretty easy searching for localizaton changes, then searching for Trainers. Cross-referencing those various pages all led to the same answer.

12.

Spoiler

Slowking in the Southern Islands expansion. I'm not entirely sure how I got here, but I am sure it was more brute force searching than anything. I specifically noted the fact that the question asks for "an evolved Pokemon introduced after Generation 1". I concluded it meant an evolution of a Gen 1 Pokemon so I focused my search there, looking at the TCG pages of these Pokemon until I came across this answer.

While I'm not sure all of my answers are correct, I do know a few of them for certain are right. And the few I was a bit hesitant on (1, 5, 9), while they might not be the intended answers, I think could be considered acceptable answers

 

[GelpyK]

I'll share mine too!

1.

Spoiler

DP003, change to a new outfit included the Poke Ball symbol on his hat going from green to blue

I started from List of clothing (anime), then found the only mid-series episode where Ash permanently changed his outfit.

2.

Spoiler

Butler

I looked through every member of Team Magma that had their own article, and after overlooking it a couple of times, I found someone who shows up as a trainer in DPPt/BDSP.

3.

Spoiler

Ditto

I remember hearing about this fact before, but I forgot which pokemon it was. I knew it had to be a significant pokemon from the earlier gens, so I looked over every pokemon owned by Ash, Brock, and Misty up to Gen 3, as well as by May. Eventually, I just combed through every Gen 1 pokemon and their significant individuals until I found the right one.

4.

Spoiler

Todd Snap

I knew this off the top of my head lol

5.

Spoiler

Mirror Move

I mean, technically this one's correct, right?

6.

Spoiler

Champion's League (Champion's League promo)

Found it on the Reprinted cards page. Honestly, I don't think this one's correct but it's a card that only came out in Japan and got a complete redesign at one point so... yeah.

7.

Spoiler

Rotom

Knew this one too, but forgot which pokemon it was and went through the page Category: Pokemon that have had their type changed to find the answer.

8.

Spoiler

Pokemon Trading Card Game (GBA)

Went to the Save article and Ctrl+F'd the word "autosave" and "automatic."

9.

Spoiler

Diancie

Figured out this one out in my head.

10.

Spoiler

Lava Cookie

Started at Category: Food, then went to Local Specialties and found the answer.

11.

Spoiler

Pokefan Alex

I just keyword searched "localization" until I found it LMAO

12.

Spoiler

Crobat

Just picked the first "Gen 2 pokemon that evolves from a Gen 1 pokemon" that I could think of.

 

[Sgv_Sth]

Q1.

Spoiler: In the Pokémon Anime, Ash normally only changes his hat at the start of a new season. Name a mid-season episode in which there was a change to Ash’s hat, and identify the specific change.

Primeape Goes Bananas; Ash's hat gets increasingly dirtier as the episode progresses. Ugh, this question was a pain. My interpretation of the wording of the question excluded all of the times Ash changed outfits at the start of a season. I doubt this is right, but time will tell. I will note that I have noticed most of the answers others have given only list the number code while I did the title. Not sure if that matters or if both are accepted. I will say that it is interesting that this is the only question that requires two answers for it.

Q2.

Spoiler: Apart from Rainbow Rocket in Alola, and various events in Pasio, the members of the various villainous teams are not typically seen outside of their home regions. Name a member of Team Magma who makes a cameo in Sinnoh.

Butler. This answer was found by using the template at the bottom of the Team Magma article that shows the notable members. Though, I had to use it twice as I only checked Maxie and the Admin's articles initially. I didn't consider that there might be a second answer in Pokémon Legends until much later on.

Q3.

Spoiler: From time to time, there have been retcons to various aspects and features of Pokémon species. Name a Pokémon species where something first presented as an unusual feature of a specific individual Pokémon was later presented as a common characteristic of the species.

Initially I considered Eevee for this question due to the Let's Go games, but I eventually remembered Ditto's appearance in the Sinnoh Game Corner. That let me to Duplica's Ditto. (Unfourtantly, I just realized that when re-entering my answers after the form timed out, I answered the question as 'Duplica's Ditto' instead of 'Ditto'. Yay...)

Q4.

Spoiler: The majority of characters in the Pokémon franchise have received their first introduction in the Pokémon video games, before later appearing in other Pokémon media. Name a human character who made their first appearance in the Pokémon anime, who later also appeared in the Pokémon Adventures manga.

The List of Cross-Canon References covered this question, though I accidently landed at List of Cross-Generational References first before finding the page I wanted to check. As with a number of questions, the trivia section on an article was helpful with answering this question.

Q5.

Spoiler: Apart from a limited number of exceptions such as when Pokémon use a Z-Move, or when they expand their movepool during battle such as through Evolution, Dynamax, or by using something like Sketch or Transform, Pokémon should not be able to use more than 4 different moves in a single battle. Name an occasion when a Pokémon, without making use of these typical exceptions, was able to use more than 4 moves in a single battle.

Drake's Dragonite. 'But you know that old Archaic was so sly and so slick, who thought up a trick, and who thought it up quick!' Honestly, this is my favorite question of the bunch for being so tricky. The first half of the question makes it look like this will be a Games question, only to omit that in the second half. The trivia in the Moves article talks about Drake's Dragonite while that article makes it even clearer that it was likely the intended answer. Though, I think this one could have multiple answers.

Q6.

Spoiler: It’s quite common for Pokémon TCG cards to receive updated artwork when they’re reprinted in new sets. There have also occasionally been cards given different art when the card was localized for the English language release. Name a Pokémon TCG card which received updated artwork for later printings in Japan, without being reprinted in another set.

Koga's Ninja Trick. This question was a bit tricky initially, but I ended up at the right answer thanks to some prior knowledge. I checked the Pokémon controversy article to remember the name of the card and was a bit confused by the text there unintentionally implying that it was never updated in Japan. Thankfully I still checked the Koga's Ninja Trick article to get the answer.

Q7.

Spoiler: With the addition of new types, some existing Pokémon have had their types changed between games. Not counting changes which occur temporarily during battle such as with changes due to Mega Evolution or Terastallization, name a Pokémon whose type changed between main series games where their new type wasn’t a newly introduced type.

Rotom. I was a bit worried with this question as only its forms changed type, but was reassured looking at the category of the Pokemon that have changed typing. I was tempted to answer ????? to this question. ????? is the glitch Pokemon in the Gen II games that appear in slots 000, 252, 254, and 255. (Slot 253 is the slot for Egg.) Each one has a different type when comparing Crystal to Gold and Silver. Not to mention that the question did not exclude glitch Pokemon. In the end, I went with what I thought the intended answer was. Though, maybe I should have just said Decamark and made the argument that since its various variations have different types that it should count.

Q8.

Spoiler: Starting with the Nintendo Switch, Pokémon titles now commonly include auto-saves. But this kind of feature actually predates the Nintendo Switch. What was the first Pokémon video-game to feature functionality to let players resume a game without having expressly saved?

Pokémon Trading Card Game, is the answer I put down. If it wasn't for Boblers, I would have likely wrote down Pokémon Pinball for my answer as Pinball released first Internationally, but not in Japan. However, while this might be the intended answer, it isn't what I consider to be the correct answer.

Spoiler: What I believe the intended answer should be.

Pokémon Red and Green. There are two spots in the game where it will save for you. The first is after a trade is complete, though you do need to save initially to enter the Trade Room. The second is sometime after you beat your Rival at the Indigo Plateau. When you beat your Rival when they are the Champion, Professor Oak will appear during the ending cutscene to take you into the Hall of Fame room. Your team is recorded in the Hall of Fame along with yourself. You get a Pokédex evaluation and the credits roll. Sometime between beating the Rival and seeing "The End" in the credits, your game will save so that both the record in the Hall of Fame is kept and so that access to Cerulean Cave, also known as the Unknown Dungeon, is permitted. The problem I had was that I needed to also provide a link to the right answer. I didn't feel like I had a link to provide. I had tested this in VC Pokémon Yellow without saving once from the 20th to the 23rd. This ended up taking ~15.5 hours, including breaks from when I left the game running, but that wasn't something that I could submit as proof. The Save article, that I used for my submitted answer, has a Mandated saving section that mentions that the game automatically saves when entering the Hall of Fame, for every Generation other than Generation I. Searching online and the best website I could find was a GameFAQs thread from 13 years ago where three users discussed this. But, it didn't seem like enough proof for the answer. The title of 'The game doesn't save automatically before the credits...' wasn't that helpful as well. And since I couldn't submit a written response like this explaining why Red and Green were what I believe was the correct answer, I when with what I believed was the wrong answer and put down Pokémon Trading Card Game to prevent being penalized.

Q9.

Spoiler: Name a Pokémon that has forms that it can use in its original generation, but which cannot use those forms in that generation in the region the Pokémon was introduced in.

Deoxys. I went though the List of Pokémon with forms to get some ideas and picked Deoxys in the end as the only suitable candidate, though I did hesitate to put this down in my notes until I reread the question and Deoxys' article. I did eventually find out that this question might have more than one answer.

Q10.

Spoiler: Localization changes haven’t always made a lot of sense in Pokémon. For instance, rice balls were infamously changed to jelly doughnuts in an early episode of the Pokémon Anime. Outside of the anime, name another occasion on which a Japanese food was mysteriously changed to a western food in an English language release.

Rage Candy Bar. I already knew that the Rage Candy Bar had been changed in localization, so all I needed was a lit to the section in the Rage Candy Bar article that noted this change. I was a bit concerned about the 'Mysterious' part, but searching the definition and re-reading the 'For (insert question here), do you mean (something) as opposed to (what the question says)' part of the FAQ helped me to relax on this one. There seems to be a lot of possible answers for this one.

Q11.

Spoiler: Though it’s not uncommon for the team members of trainers to change between an original game and a remake, it’s unusual for this to happen between different localizations of the same game. Name one trainer where the composition of Pokémon species on their team has changed between localizations.

Pokéfan Alex. This was a change I already knew about, but I still checked on The Cutting Room Floor to see if there was another answer. I wrote down my answer as Kanto Route 13 in my notes and realized I needed the trainer and not the route after talking to Boblers about the questions.

Q12.

Spoiler: The card design and layout for Pokémon Trading Card game cards has changed repeatedly over the life of the game. Name an evolved Pokémon introduced after Generation I which received a card printed in the same design used in the original base set.

Slowking. This was a question that I disliked until I found the answer. I don't know how many times I tried a search on Bulbapedia to find this answer. It took hours of painful searching and incorrect results to get anywhere. I even correctly figured out that it had to be tied to a Generation I evolutionary line in some way. Search 'card layout' in quotes was what finally led me to the Slowking from Southern Islands. Though, there is a second Slowking card that also would count for this question. Thankfully, the question only ask for the name of the Pokémon instead of asking what it was from.

 

[Salmancer]

This one was a doozy. Sadly, I used my own memory to get to many of my answers, so there aren't many tips for people.

1.

Spoiler: Q1 Answer/ Thought Process

Hoenn Alone, EP 274. Ash changes from the orginal series design to the RS design. But isn't that the final episode of Season 5? Wouldn't that by the spirit of the question be part of the start of a season? Yes, but I argue that if we rule by the old television season definition, Hoenn Alone is an arbitrary episode of Season 6. This answer is the one I'm the least confident in, but a search through Ash's Hat and Anime Clothing didn't turn up anything better. I briefly considered Out of Their Elements (JN098) but dismissed it on the basis that the word "hat" doesn't appear at any point in the article for the episode yet is mentioned in the "Clothing" article. I didn't want to stake my answer on a single line in a massive tome of an article that could be easily overlooked. (This question would have been so much easier if I actually watched the show and could take a screenshot from that episode.)

2.

Spoiler: Q2 Answer/Thought Process

Butler. I started my hunt on the Team Magma page and started going through the relevant category. This one bugs me a little since Butler is specified as a "former member" which should mean that by the parameters of the question he doesn't count. However, Butler's article does specifically say "cameo" and he is also in the category for "Members of Team Magma" so it probably works.

3.

Spoiler: Q3 Answer/Thought Process

Ditto. I knew this one off the top of my head, and went to Ditto's page to get the link for Duplica's Ditto to confirm it.

4.

Spoiler: Q4 Answer/Thought Process

Alexa. Another answer based largely on memory. I knew Alexa appears late in the Black and White era of the show to draw Ash into going to Kalos. All I did was check the date of her debut against X and Y's date to be sure. BW (It is entirely possible that this trivia is only counting US release dates, in which case Alexa debuts on the same day as X and Y and I'm wrong. I could have made sure to find a definitive statement in a Trivia section, but I didn't dedicate enough time to the trivia contest to track down perfect answers.)

5.

Spoiler: Q5 Answer/Thought Process

Drake's Dragonite, during the full battle against Drake in Enter the Dragonite. I remembered it was a Dragonite from previous Wikiwalking™, but instinctively jumped to Lance's Dragonite since that one had the name I recognized. Once that came up blank, it took me some time to recalibrate and look at the species page, leading me to the right answer. Since the question asked for. "an occasion", I also put the relevant episode and light context in my answer.

6.

Spoiler: Q6 Answer/Thought Process

Koga's Ninja Trick. I remembered it was a gym leader card from a Gym set, I just didn't remember which one. So I just started picking names that contained gym leader names that I thought had an issue until I found the one, I'm really sorry that these aren't very interesting lines of thinking. Perhaps I do keep too much space in my head for Pokemon factoids.

7.

Spoiler: Q7 Answer/Thought Process

Rotom's Appliance Forms. This one was a bit of a head scratcher until I remembered Rotom is a Pokemon that exists.

8.

Spoiler: Q8 Answer/Thought Process

Pokemon Trading Card Game (the video game). My intital guess was Mystery Dungeon Red, since I've heard that when you turn off a mystery dungeon game during a dungeon, the game makes a safe assumption that you died in one way or another and penalizes the player accordingly. Which could be argued as the game "saving" the player's lack of progress. I made a check against the "Save" article and found the answer I chose. Well, after checking every other relevant early Pokémon game with a save function's release date.

9.

Spoiler: Q9 Answer/Thought Process

Hoopa. When I saw this question, I knew it had to be based on a difference between a game and the remake game that released in the same generation. My initial answer was Deoxys, but unfortunately Emerald has Deoxys use Speed Forme so that was probably wrong even though Deoxys can't change forms in Gen 3 games. After thinking about the question some more, I eventually landed on Hoopa since I recalled that the Prison Bottle was introduced far too late for it to be in X and Y. If the Prison Bottle isn't in Kalos, then Hoopa can't become Hoopa Unbound. (However, after looking at some of the posts here and on Discord, Diancie is probably a better answer as it was revealed before Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire were announced. You could make the fair arguement that Hoopa was introduced as a Hoenn Pokemon.)

10.

Spoiler: Q10 Answer/Thought Process

Rage Manjū, which was changed into Rage Candy Bar. Sadly, another answer that came entirely out of my long term memory.

11.

Spoiler: Q11 Answer/Thought Process

Pokefan Alex. I remembered that the issue was with a "King" themed team and involved Magikarp. I'm not entirely sure how my first guess on where to go was the "Gold and Silver" page, which spells that out exactly. I think I recalled something about Heartgold and Soulsilver making a change later on, but there's no way for me to be certain exactly how I reached my answer so fast without a time machine.

12.

Spoiler: Q12 Answer/Thought Process

Mega Venusaur. My first thought was XY Evolutions, the throwback set featuring all the Gen 1 classics in a layout based on the original layout. I shook my head at that, thinking Evoultions is too easy. So I thought about the DP era secret cards, since a releative of mine has a old Flying Pikachu and the card saw a reprint as a secret card in a Platinum set. Unfortunately, those secret cards use the DP card layout and therefore don't count. (Oh, and they are all Pokemon from Gen 1 so they would have never counted.) Then I considered XY Promo cards, thinking that cards featuring Pokemon that evolve from Gen 1 Pokémon probably got relevant promos for XY Evolutions. That path proved futile. So I went back to Evolutions, thinking that the Mega Evolved Pokemon from that set count because in the TCG Mega Evolution is just Evolution with an additional rule. In my rules lawyer brain, that means that Mega Venusaur is its own distinct Pokémon from Venusaur in the TCG, and therefore Mega Venusaur is a Gen 6 Pokemon. On the last day of the contest, I did a search through all non-basic Pokémon on PkmnCards just to be safe and didn't find anything. Unfortunately, I didn't think to look at Japanese cards and PkmnCards defaults to English releases, causing me to miss the seemingly intended answer of Slowking. I should have tried harder.

I'd say I had fun going on the trivia hunt/logic-ing out questions/using muscle memory this year.

 

[Archaic]

Questions and answers from this year's 12 Days of Trivia were inspired by one central theme: Change
In connecting to this deceptively simple theme we also tried to effect changes from some of the conventions of the 12 Days of Trivia. For example, for many years now it's been something of a tradition for us to include at least one "glitch question", where the intended answer related to an in-game glitch. While we did end up having questions where certain glitches were accepted as responses, we didn't create one with an intended answer this year. Some people who were expecting it, who may not have caught onto the implications of the theme, could have spent quite a while going back over the questions to try and find the intended glitch they expected.

One other thing people tripped up on was on what I'd call the question prompt. The initial sentence before we actually get to the guts of the question. While we never will outright make trick questions for the 12 Days (that's one tradition we don't intend to change), that doesn't mean we won't occasionally engage in a bit of misdirection here. The initial prompt will never lie to you. It's telling you some fact relating to the question. However, if you read too much into it, it's also possible that this might misdirect you.

In the end, more than any other question, it was Questions 1 and 5 that had the biggest influence on the end result. If we'd accepted more answers for Q1, or not accepted certain answers for Q5, the final list of winners could have been very different. Everything else was surprisngly straightforward.

Question 1:
In the Pokémon Anime, Ash normally only changes his hat at the start of a new season. Name a mid-season episode in which there was a change to Ash’s hat, and identify the specific change.

Spoiler

There were many different answers that we would've accepted here, but essentially we were just looking for any time there was any sort of temporary change in what Ash was wearing on his head, during the middle of a season. This could include things like:

• Ash temporarily wears a different hat
• Something happens to Ash's hat, meaning there has been a temporary change to the hat
• An animation error temporarily changes the appearance of Ash's hat

The one we would've gone with ourselves was when Ash wore a Fedora Hat (and a Tuxedo) for the Wallace Cup, but the List of clothing (anime) page lists several other examples which would've also worked.

This turned out to be one of the most difficult and controversial questions of the whole contest. I only wish our randomizer had set this to Question 12 instead of Question 1, since I suspect it probably ended up discouraging more than a few potential entrants. The phrasing of the question appears to have put people off. We'd intended this question actually as something of a gimmie, with the wording left open enough that people could consider all sorts of different changes, meaning there's numerous possible answers people could have gone with. Indeed, just looking at people who achieved perfect scores, we had 6 different answers given, and only two of the people who won a prize had the same answer!

This question is the perfect example of what I meant above regarding the question prompt misdirecting you if you read too much into it. A lot of people assumed that, because of the prompt, that the answer must relate to Ash changing his signature hat between seasons. But that's not what the question itself actually asked. What you really should've taken from the prompt is that Ash changes his signature hat at the start of a new season, and so keeping that fact in mind, you really should instead be looking at other kinds of things that would constitute "a change to Ash's hat", since his normal changes of his signature hat aren't "mid-season" episodes.

Indeed, the only thing we really wanted to exclude with our wording of this question was when Ash changed his hat between generations. Which unfortunately meant that a lot of people got marked wrong on this question. The most frequently given answer that we didn't accept was when Ash changed from his Hoenn hat to his Sinnoh hat in DP003. This was something the wording of the question had meant to explicitly exclude, however it seems some people thought episode 3 counted as a "mid-season" episode. In Japan, DP was 191 episodes (plus 2 specials not aired in English), and DP003 literally aired in Japan on the same day as the first episode as part of a special preview. Internationally, DP003 was part of Season 10, which was 51 episodes long. So in both cases, from our perspective, DP003 just doesn't satisfy the conditions of being "during the middle of a season".

Ironically, there was actually one region-to-region hat change which did end up counting! Ash changed to his Hoenn hat in EP274. This episode is the very last episode of the 5th season in the home video and digital releases, however several people correctly noted that this was actually the 12th episode (out of 52) of the 6th US TV Broadcast season. An episode airing 3 months in to the season is good enough to be mid-season for us, this one gets through as technically correct.

Question 2:
Apart from Rainbow Rocket in Alola, and various events in Pasio, the members of the various villainous teams are not typically seen outside of their home regions. Name a member of Team Magma who makes a cameo in Sinnoh.

Spoiler

The answer we were looking for was Butler, a Team Magma member who appeared in Pokémon: Jirachi: Wish Maker, and who then made a cameo as an Ace Trainer on Route 229 in Pokémon Diamond, Pearl, Platinum, Brilliant Diamond, and Shining Pearl.

There's not a lot of named members of Team Magma, which makes this question fairly simple if you know where to go. By navigating to any well known member of Team Magma, like Maxie, you can find the Members of Team Magma category at the bottom of their page. From the category page, there's only a small number of pages for you to check. If you read through those pages in order, Butler is the 3rd you'll come to, and their page details the full circumstances of Butler's cameo, including the fact that the translation team missed that he was intended as a reference and gave him an entirely different name in Western releases.

The main alternative answer that people brought up was a brief shot of Maxie in the Pokémon Adventures manga in PS408. We weren't quite sure if appearing in a flashback really counts as a cameo, but in the end it made no difference, as none of the people who'd put this alternative forward would've been raised to a perfect score had the answer been accepted.

Question 3:
From time to time, there have been retcons to various aspects and features of Pokémon species. Name a Pokémon species where something first presented as an unusual feature of a specific individual Pokémon was later presented as a common characteristic of the species.

Spoiler

There were a bunch of different Pokémon that we'd identified which could satisfy this question, though the one we specifically were thinking of when we wrote it was Ditto. Duplica's Ditto was presented as unusual for not being able to transform its face, however this later became a common characteristic of the species across a number of different Pokémon media.

The two main examples we also accepted for this were:

• Eevee. Female Partner Eevee in Let's Go: Eevee had what was a unique tail pattern at the time. This later became a standard gender difference for Eevee.
• Meowth. Team Rocket's Meowth was presented as being unusual for being able to stand on hind legs like a human, to the point of it being a major part of an episode, however now it's quite common for Meowth to be presented as walking on their hind legs.

Question 4:
The majority of characters in the Pokémon franchise have received their first introduction in the Pokémon video games, before later appearing in other Pokémon media. Name a human character who made their first appearance in the Pokémon anime, who later also appeared in the Pokémon Adventures manga.

Spoiler

The intended answer for this question was Todd Snap, who made his first appearance in the Anime in EP055, before later appearing in the Pokémon Adventures manga in PS303.

A lot of older fans probably just figured this out by remembering that Todd appeared in the Anime before he appeared in his own game, but at least a few people correctly identified the List of cross-canon references as a good resource to find information for this question. We also accepted Alexa, who first appeared in BW134 on July 18, 2013, before later turning up in the X & Y chapter of Adventures, which began serialization in October 2013.

A more obscure example that some people identified (and that we honestly didn't think people would uncover) was Roxie, who debuted in the anime in BW083, which first aired in in Japan on June 14th, 2012. Roxie who didn't appear in Adventures until the Black 2 & White 2 chapter of Adventures, which only began serialisation in Japan in July 2013, well after the anime appearance. There was a separate manga, Pocket Monsters B2 W2 ~ A New Legend ~, which did have a chapter featuring Roxie at or around the same time as her anime debut, but we had specifically mentioned Adventures in the question.

A few people's answers specified character's anime debut as being before their game debut, despite that not being what we were looking for. We only penalized this if people actually gave us a wrong character though.

Question 5:
Apart from a limited number of exceptions such as when Pokémon use a Z-Move, or when they expand their movepool during battle such as through Evolution, Dynamax, or by using something like Sketch or Transform, Pokémon should not be able to use more than 4 different moves in a single battle. Name an occasion when a Pokémon, without making use of these typical exceptions, was able to use more than 4 moves in a single battle.

Spoiler

The intended answer here was Drake's Dragonite, who used ten different moves in battle in EP112 of the Pokémon anime, but this wasn't the only answer we were aware of. Several other anime examples, such as Ash's Snorlax using 6 moves in AG149, were also accepted. As were several game examples that we didn't think of off the top of our heads that we really should have. These were cases where a Pokémon natively had access to more than 4 moves, such as with the Veevee Volley attack that can be used by your Partner Eevee in Let's Go: Eevee. This also included Max Raid and Tera Raid bosses which natively have extra moves they get to use, such as the recent Charizard Tera Raid event where Charizard had 8 moves they could use against players. They're not expanding their movepool through battle, they have those moves through the entire battle, so they count. We'll come back to that point in a moment.

Some people thought even deeper, and realised that technically speaking, every Pokémon has access to at least 5 moves natively, because they have Struggle. We'll come back to this one in a moment too.

This question was another case where the preliminary info perhaps unintentionally misdirected people. The preliminary info is fully focused on the games, and so many people only hunted for solutions from the games, despite that the actual question never stated the answer had to be from the games. Perhaps as a result, this was also the question that most people approached assuming it had to be the traditional glitch question, despite that the anime answers were actually much easier. The glitch answer that a lot of people came up with was the Charge move replacement glitch, though someone also came up with Defrost move forcing. Defrost move forcing was at least an easy accepted answer (using an additional move without actually expanding the Pokémon's movepool), but the others...

Struggle and the Charge Move Replacement Glitch gave us roughly the same problem. We'd intended the wording of the question to eliminate a lot of options, specifically:

• when they use a Z-move
• when they expand their movepool during battle

So the question was, do these constitute "expanding their movepool during battle". The way the question was worded, the examples we gave for expanding their movepool during battle, namely "Evolution, Dynamax, or by using something like Sketch or Transform", were intended as simply that, examples. So another reading of this question would be "or when they expand their movepool during battle (including but not limited to through Evolution, Dynamax, or by using something like Sketch or Transform).

In the case of Struggle, we decided that it was something the Pokémon knows natively, not an expansion to their movepool. It's simply that there's a usage condition on the move, namely that the Pokémon has to be out of PP for their other moves. So the question is correct in stating that Pokémon should not be able to use more than 4 different moves in a single battle, but it is an exception to that. It perhaps should've been listed as a typical exception, but we didn't, and since it's not an expansion of the movepool, it counts.

The Charge Move Replacement glitch gave us a bit more grief. On the one hand, it could be seen as an expansion of the movepool through level up. On the other hand, we did not explicitly state level-up as a way to expand the movepool, and it's such a common and typical exception that by leaving it out, it could be argued that people might've thought it was intentional. i.e. That we were intending to say "or when they expand their movepool during battle [through one of the specific means that we mentioned here]". Our final decision was that, given that level-up should be such a common example of gaining an additional move and we didn't explicitly exclude it, by excluding it we'd have unintentionally made this into a trick question. As a result, we decided to accept this answer.

Question 6:
It’s quite common for Pokémon TCG cards to receive updated artwork when they’re reprinted in new sets. There have also occasionally been cards given different art when the card was localized for the English language release. Name a Pokémon TCG card which received updated artwork for later printings in Japan, without being reprinted in another set.

Spoiler

The intended answer for this question was Koga's Ninja Trick, which appeared in the Japanese expansion Challenge from the Darkness, later getting released in English in the Gym Challenge expansion. As noted on Bulbapedia...

This card was subject to controversy due to the fact that it featured an omote manji, which is a mirrored-image version of the swastika used by the Nazis, on the card. The manji, which has a connection with Buddhism, hearkens back to centuries before the Nazi regime began. The artwork was changed to remove the manji for the English and international releases, and was also corrected in later print runs of the Japanese release itself.

This one should've been a bit of a gimmie for a lot of older fans, since it's pretty notorious. For everyone else, if you applied a bit of logic and thought about why a card might have had its artwork changed, this became a lot easier. The trickiest part here for many people may have been if, after reading the question prompt, people had mentally ruled out cards given different art when the card was localized for the English language release and then failed to check them, meaning they would've totally missed the intended answer.

We did have two other cards which we also accepted. These cards were all promo cards that received reprints, sometimes several years later. But so long as the reprints were within the same set (as defined by Bulbapedia) of promo cards, they counted.

• Champion's League (Champion's League promo)
• _____'s Pikachu (BW-P Promo)

Question 7:
With the addition of new types, some existing Pokémon have had their types changed between games. Not counting changes which occur temporarily during battle such as with changes due to Mega Evolution or Terastallization, name a Pokémon whose type changed between main series games where their new type wasn’t a newly introduced type.

Spoiler

The intended answer here was Rotom. In the original Generation IV games, all of its forms were dual Electric/Ghost type. From Generation V onwards, Rotom's second type changes thematically based on their form.

This was a pretty straightforward question that almost nobody got wrong. Those who did get it wrong typically hadn't read the full question, and offered a Pokémon who gained Steel or Dark type in Generation II, or Fairy type in Generation VI.

Question 8:
Starting with the Nintendo Switch, Pokémon titles now commonly include auto-saves. But this kind of feature actually predates the Nintendo Switch. What was the first Pokémon video-game to feature functionality to let players resume a game without having expressly saved?

Spoiler

The intended answer here was the Pokémon Trading Card Game for the Gameboy, which does a behind the scenes autosave during matches, so that if the power unexpectedly goes off for whatever reason, players can resume about where they left off.

Those who've been watching my streams on the Bulbagarden Twitch during December may have spotted an instance where this actually came up on stream, after my Retrofreak console crashed and we had to reboot our game. For any of you, hopefully this was a gimmie.

Honestly, this question was easier than we thought it'd be, since I totally forgot we had a Save article when we wrote this, and that page rather tives the game away. Ironically though, we did have some people put that page down as their citation, who then guessed different games!

Question 9:
Name a Pokémon that has forms that it can use in its original generation, but which cannot use those forms in that generation in the region the Pokémon was introduced in.

Spoiler

The Pokémon we were thinking of when we wrote this question was Deoxys, but Hoopa and Diance were also accepted answers.

This one was fairly straightforward, not much to say here. People who got thrown off typically gave us a Pokémon that gained forms in a later generation, which didn't satisfy the question.

Question 10:
Localization changes haven’t always made a lot of sense in Pokémon. For instance, rice balls were infamously changed to jelly doughnuts in an early episode of the Pokémon Anime. Outside of the anime, name another occasion on which a Japanese food was mysteriously changed to a western food in an English language release.

Spoiler

A huge gimmie here. The main answer everyone went with (and which we would've gone for ouselves) was the North American release of Hey You, Pikachu! changing the rice ball to a cupcake.

We considered being a bit tighter about how we marked this question, but in the end we decided that "mysteriously changed" wasn't specific enough to disqualify anything really. As a result, there's so many examples of this across the various games that it's kind of silly, and we accepted a bunch of other localisation changes, like the Rage Candy Bar, Lava Cookies, and Old Gateau.

Question 11:
Though it’s not uncommon for the team members of trainers to change between an original game and a remake, it’s unusual for this to happen between different localizations of the same game. Name one trainer where the composition of Pokémon species on their team has changed between localizations.

Spoiler

The intended response, which most of you found, was Pokéfan Alex from Route 13. Plenty of you found your way to them from the list of localization changes in the Pokémon games, and that was certainly the easiest way to solve it.

Question 12:
The card design and layout for Pokemon Trading Card game cards has changed repeatedly over the life of the game. Name an evolved Pokémon introduced after Generation I which received a card printed in the same design used in the original base set.

Spoiler

The intended answer here was Slowking, from the Southern Islands set, which the vast majority of people did get. This one ended up being slightly tricky for a few people, in part because there's no image of the Japanese printing of this card on Bulbapedia, the difference is only described in the text.

We also accepted Marill (Wizards Black Star Promo 29), which wasn't an evolved Pokémon when it was introduced, but it is an evolved Pokémon now so we considered it technically correct.

As for other cards people brought up, like Light Toxtricity (SWSH Promo 137), and Hama-chan's Slowking (CoroCoro promo), these commonly were similar in design to the original base set, but didn't actually follow the the same design. Cards that failed to meet the criteria typically either had a round evolution box instead of the square one seen in the original base set, or they were actually using the later card layout from around the Neo era.

 

[Optimatum]

Ahhh heck. I considered every single accepted answer for question 1 before going with DP003. Still, I'm proud of my performance.

Thanks for the great contest as always!