The Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket's latest expansion, Space Time Smackdown, released on January 30, has stirred significant controversy among fans, particularly due to the artwork on the Weavile ex card. This set, themed around Pokémon Diamond and Pearl, brings in familiar faces like Weavile, Mamoswine, Dialga, Palkia, and Giratina, totaling 207 cards. Despite being smaller than the previous Genetic Apex set with its 286 cards, Space Time Smackdown boasts a higher percentage of rare cards, with 52 alternate art, Star, and Crown rarity cards.
The focal point of fan discontent is the full art 2 Star Weavile ex card, which portrays a group of Weavile in the treetops, poised to attack an unsuspecting Swinub below. This depiction has sparked a wave of emotional responses across social media, with Reddit users expressing shock and heartbreak. A post titled "NO ! SWINUB LOOK UP !! LOOK UP !!" garnered nearly 10,000 upvotes, showcasing the community's strong reaction to the card's brutal imagery.
Comments on the post ranged from pleas for the Swinub's safety to reflections on the often overlooked violent nature of Pokémon ecology. "Always got to be one card per set that shows Pokémon in the process of straight up killing each other," one user remarked, while another lamented, "Leave the lil guy alone."
Amidst the outcry, some fans have found solace in the full art card for Mamoswine, Swinub's final evolution. This card depicts Mamoswine looking up, seemingly aware of the Weavile threat and protecting a group of Swinub. Optimistic fans have interpreted this as a hopeful resolution to the earlier depicted scenario, with comments like, "Hey, Mamoswine protected his baby. Don't worry. He most definitely saw those Weaviles," and "The Mamoswine alt card already looks above. He saw them. He saw..."
Creatures Inc., the developers behind the game, have yet to address the controversy surrounding the Weavile ex card's artwork. Their focus has remained on promoting the Space Time Smackdown expansion, and they did not respond to IGN's request for comment. The only acknowledgment of the trading update, which arrived the day before the expansion, was a "Trade Feature Celebration Gift" that included 500 Trade Tokens and 120 Trade Hourglasses—enough tokens to trade a single ex Pokémon. However, the developer has otherwise remained silent on the fans' complaints about the controversial card.
