All of China’s Exclusive “Pokemon GO” Cards Revealed!

The full set list has been revealed for China’s next compilation set, CS5 Brave Stars, which will release on June 18th.

China’s set features 14 cards from 2022’s Pokemon GO with new artwork that hasn’t released anywhere else in the world. This is one of the few times a country outside of Japan is getting new cards or artwork. (Some recent examples include England’s Futsal promos or the anachronism promos for Celebrations, like Dark Sylveon V.)

China’s set also features other Pokemon GO cards with their original artwork, including Mewtwo V/VSTAR, Conkeldurr V, Melmetal V/VMAX, and Slaking V. These cards did not originally have a Niantic copyright.

As I posted before, there’s no official explanation for why the cards are using new artwork. It could be due to a licensing issue. Pokemon GO is banned in China. Since the original Pokemon GO cards shared a copyright with Niantic, Creatures may have needed to commission new artwork under their normal licensing arrangements to dodge ties to Niantic.

Brave Stars contains cards from a few 2022 sets, including Pokemon GO, Star Birth, Incandescent Arcana, and more. But not every card was included. China spreads the Japanese cards across several releases and sometimes cards are cut. Thus, it’s unclear how many Pokemon GO cards will ultimately release in China.

China has been releasing “compilation” sets that combine several different Japanese sets. The TCG officially launched in China in October 2022 and they’ve been releasing their sets at a rapid pace to catch up with the rest of the world. Currently, they’re up to the late Sword & Shield era.

A few Chinese-exclusive cards have released in the past, such as full art versions of Venusaur V and Blastoise V.