Errata policy (currently inconsistent)

[MatiasOETamminen]

Some erratad cards feature erratad versions (text and picture), e.g. Electrode EVO, while some feature erratad picture, original text, e.g. Cyrus Prism Star, and then some feature original picture and text, no errata, e.g. Galvantula STS.

Then there are the cases where the card has received a major errata. On those, I for one would like to have the original wording as well.

[ProfessorOaksLab]

Found this source: https://assets.pokemon.com/assets/cms2/pdf/trading-card-game/tcg_errata.pdf however it is missing the original texts, do you know of any source where it is listed for each card?

[MatiasOETamminen]

No, I don't, although I'm fairly convinced that Electrode EVO is the only card in the database that has the erratad version in the picture, so you could most likely scrape the actual printed wording off the pictures (in most cases also in the text field).

[flagrama]

These might be useful The Pokémon Trading Card Game Rulings Compendium Black and White

That page seems like it should have most of the errata, some of which also include original text (Electrode's Buzzap for example). There seems to be another page with some tidbits about much older cards in The original Compendium but it isn't as clean as newer compendium.

As far as I can tell the Black and White compendium includes eratta from the ones in-between as well. However, if there are some differences they are linked on the sidebar of the Pokemon Rulings Compendium site.

[MatiasOETamminen]

I have had some thoughts on this.

• There are three different categories of cards changing across time:

1. Card text changes in wording but not in function (example: VS Seeker) -> no action needed in the database
2. Card text changes in function, receives an erratum (example: Hyper Potion) -> For these cards, I think there should be both the printed text and the actual present-day functional text listed. There is no single all-encompassing list of all the errata, but using the different iterations of the Compendium and the official pokemon.com errata asset, the sum of those should be correct
3. Card text changes in function, doesn't receive an erratum -> In the official Unlimited format, Trainer cards are played according to the latest printing of the card (see https://assets.pokemon.com//assets/cms2/pdf/play-pokemon/rules/play-pokemon-tournament-rules-handbook-03312021-en.pdf section 5.4.2.2) (example: Base Set Bill is a Supporter card), and I had a chat with PokéPop and he would extend the principle to Special Energy cards as well (this principle doesn't affect the Standard/Expanded legality of the card, they're still not allowed). These get messy, because the subcategories can change. I might be the only one caring, but I would like to have both the printed and the "In Unlimited, play as this" text and other attributes, but in practice, would be content with even the text.

• My opinion of the images is that the image should reflect the physical cards in circulation (they've fixed the PTCGO versions for some of the errata'd cards when it clearly was just a mistake in printing).

• Now that we're in v2 and legality is also an attribute of a card and not only of a set, this is becoming more relevant, because the older later-errata'd cards show up as printed but with their actual functional legality, which in turn can cause confusion.

[Pepper0ni]

I'm going over incorrect picture legality ATM.

As these scans are supposed to resemble physical cards (even if most modern card "scans" are sourced from PTCGO in some way) we should try to represent the physical card, with errors, where possible.

In cases where both correct and incorrect prints exist however I believe that showing the correct print is more informative as long as it isn't a world championship card or something like that.

I'll open my own issue for it when I have my art error todo list more organised.