Pokémon TCG Pocket has inserted new art to the Ho-Oh EX and Lagia EX cards introduced in the recent Wisdom of Sea and Sky expansion. This comes after the original art was removed following allegations of plagiarism.
The original art drew the ire of the Pokémon TCG Pocket players after an artist compared the in-game Ho-Oh EX card with their own fan art. In response, The Pokémon TCG Pocket team released a statement stating there was an error made when providing reference materials, and that the art would be replaced with placeholders.
These placeholders were plain gray backgrounds with the text: “new art coming soon” slapped on them. Funnily enough, these hastily introduced placeholders gained an ironic following from a subset of the community, resulting in a lovely gallery of humorous images.
In the days following, the Pokémon TCG Pocket team asked fans to stop criticising the artist responsible for the original in-game art, stating: “The illustration errors were caused by the production teams of The Pokémon Company and Creatures Inc, who provided incorrect materials as official documents to the illustrator, and we intend to take full responsibility for it.”
Now, just after a week since the issue was raised, the art has been replaced and all is well. Here’s hoping internal changes to the art creation process have been implemented so this kind of slip up doesn’t happen again!