Pokémon is cracking down on scalpers in Japan

Oct 18, 2026

Hey friends,

Sunday, and the biggest card story is not a new card. It is Pokémon and Yahoo! Japan trying to make it harder to flip Pokémon cards at scale. Plus an Arena qualifier ending tomorrow morning, and a Lorcana keyword that forces your characters out the door.

The lead: Pokémon and Yahoo! Japan take on scalping

LINE Yahoo! and Pokémon's newest step in Japan is a set of listing bans on Yahoo! Flea Market and Yahoo! Auctions.

Three kinds of listings are now prohibited there:

• Pokémon cards in carton quantities
• Empty Pokémon card boxes and empty packs
• Mass listings of the same product for a set period after release

That third rule starts with Pokémon Card Game 30th CELEBRATION. Pokémon will also share information about products and distribution that could lead to trouble or inappropriate transactions in the secondary market.

Why those three? Carton listings are wholesale-scale selling, empty boxes and packs can be reused to mislead buyers, and mass listings right after release are where launch-day flipping shows up fastest. It will not stop resale, but it raises the cost of doing it at volume.

Two limits: this is Japan only, and Screen Rant (October 18) notes there is no such ban on eBay or TCGplayer. And neither announcement gives a firm day count for "a certain period after release." Still, Pokémon is now working directly with a resale platform on what can be listed at all — not just asking retailers to limit purchases.

Also in Pokémon today:

• Santa Cruz Pokémon TCG skateboard decks are out now (Pokémon, October 17), at Pokémon Center, the Santa Cruz online store, and local skate shops. The blind-bag run has 30 designs based on TCG cards, plus three glitter gold variants each showing a collage of 10 cards — Base Set Charizard (illus. Mitsuhiro Arita) is among the named examples. Each deck includes a design booklet and a collectible sticker.
• A new TCG Pocket Wonder Pick event is live until October 28, per Serebii's October 18 update. It features Charmander and Drampa promo cards, plus missions for Skyla-themed cosmetics.
• Today is Day 2 of the Pokémon Nice Regional Championships. Serebii lists finals-day streams today for TCG, GO, and Pokémon Champions, with the TCG stream starting at 3:00 AM PT.

MTG: Arena's Limited Championship qualifier ends Monday morning

If you draft on MTG Arena, this weekend is the one that matters. The third Arena Limited Championship Qualifier runs October 16–18 in best-of-one Reality Fracture Draft, and it spills into Monday morning before closing.

How Mythscribe breaks it down:

• Draft 1 costs 25,000 gold or 5,000 gems per entry, and ends at seven wins or two losses.
• Seven wins earns a Draft 2 invitation token plus 5,500 gems.
• Draft 2 ends at six wins or two losses. Five wins earns $1,000 and a championship invitation. Six wins raises the cash prize to $2,000.

The clock matters. Draft 1 signups end at 5:00 AM PT on Monday, October 19, with no new matches after 8:00 AM PT. Draft 2 signups close at 8:00 AM PT, new matches stop at 11:00 AM PT. Finish today if you are close — and check the official rules and eligibility first.

Lorcana: Adventurous means you must quest

Hyperia City prerelease weekend is underway, and the set's release notes add a keyword worth learning before you sit down: Adventurous.

Ravensburger defines it plainly: "This character can't challenge and must quest each turn if able." It is the mirror image of Reckless, which forces characters to challenge. An Adventurous character cannot sit back, cannot pick a fight, and has to go get lore if it can.

Five older cards are being updated to use the new keyword, because they were already worded this way:

• Cobra Bubbles – Dedicated Official
• This Growing Pressure
• Ariel – Curious Traveler
• Woody – Town Sheriff
• Gaston – Frightful Bully

Gargoyles also bring back Stone by Day — "If you have 3 or more cards in your hand, this character can't ready." Trick from the notes: play a card first to drop to two in hand, and a ready effect can then ready the Gargoyle.

Looking ahead, the next North America Lorcana Challenge is October 31–November 1, 2026 ('26–'27 Season of Villainy), with serialized golden Hades – Dark Usurper cards among the prizes.

Gaming roundup

• A US bill wants to protect game ownership. Rep. Ritchie Torres announced the Power To The Players Act on October 15 (not yet introduced). It would have the FTC protect the ability to own and play bought games, and require an offline mode before servers shut down. Torres: "A game that can be taken away the moment a company pulls the plug is not a purchase. It is a rental disguised as a sale."
• Ghostwire: Tokyo joined GOG's preservation program. This version drops the Bethesda.NET login, its bonus unlocks automatically on first launch, and GOG says it validated stability on Windows 10 and 11.
• Star Wars Zero Company got harder, if you want it. Update 1.2 adds modifiers including Instant Death (a defeated Operator dies for good) and a 20% death risk per defeat, rising to 40% then 80%.
• Wardogs Season 2 launched October 15 with four weapons, four vehicles (including the T-72B3 tank), and rain and thunder that affect play. Bulkhead says it has passed three million sales.
• A demo was pulled over AI copycat fears. Alliance Arts cancelled the October 19 public demo of Drunken Goddess Reflux for closed, lottery-picked sessions, fearing AI-made imitations could appear first.

That's it for today. If you finish that Arena qualifier run, hit reply and tell me how it ended.

See you tomorrow,

Tim

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