When we relaunched the Trainer Card Maker on Pokécharms Day last month we promised plenty of updates for our much more flexible modern style of cards – and good news – the very first of those is now live!

While this is officially a content update, rather than a feature/functionality one, a lot of the work that’s gone into this update has actually been some significant development on our backend so we can push out updates of this size – and even larger – going forwards. We’ve also given the Trainer Card Maker homepage a bit of a sprucing up and you might notice an increase in TCM specific branding appearing too.

Our next TCM update will be a Feature update, which we’ll have more info on in the next couple of weeks. We’ve had a fair amount of questions since the launch last month about future features, so without giving away what you can expect in the first features update, here’s a quick FAQ about what’s planned for the rest of this year:

Will you be adding Shiny Pokémon to the Modern Cards?

Yes. Not every type of Pokémon asset we use in the Modern Cards actually has a shiny form available so don’t expect a huge amount of choice for shiny Pokémon, but an option to show your Pokémon as shiny is definitely on the way.

Will you be adding gender differences to Pokémon?

Yes. We will also be adding an option to show the gender of your Pokémon regardless of whether they have visual differences.

Will you be adding badges to the Modern Cards?

No. Unfortunately, ever since Sun and Moon dropped Gym Badges for Z-Crystals, we’ve not really been able to handle this kind of thing in a “one-size-fits-all” way for either the legacy or modern card styles and we expect Scarlet and Violet to continue making showing game progression a more complex beast than 8 simple images we can place in a row. We might be able to offer something specific for showing game progression separately as a whole new type of ‘Card’ in the future but we’ll wait to see what Scarlet and Violet bring to the table before even thinking of that.

How do I upload my own assets?

You cannot and we will not be offering this option. Ever since the original TCM launched in 2007 we’ve always avoided opening this can of worms and we’ll continue to focus on curated content updates like today’s. We know what the Internet is like and we just want to ensure that as much as possible, the cards people can make with our system are fun and sharable everywhere.

In the near future we will be opening up submissions for custom content for the Trainer Card Maker again on our forums so make sure to keep an eye out there if you have something you really want to see being used on cards in the future.

New Assets

Trainers

We finally have the much-requested addition of the official artwork for characters from Pokémon Legends Arceus, a few new Pokémon Masters trainers and also a fix for a handful of trainers we had to temporarily disable last month due to them not quite working correctly after their initial automated import.

Backgrounds

A new set of backgrounds inspired by Scarlet and Violet are now also available to go with your Scarlet & Violet Protagonist trainer and your Gen IX starter Pokémon.

Pokémon Assets

Also much-requested has been the official artwork for all the new and Hisuian Pokémon in Pokémon Legends Arceus, which is now finally here. As a special bonus Easter-treat we also have the excessively sweet Pokémon Smile style assets for all original Generation 1 Pokémon.

What would you like to see in the future?

If you have a specific character or asset style you’d like to see featured in the Trainer Card Maker, why not head over to our forums or our official Discord server and let us know. All suggestions are very much appreciated and the more we get for the same thing, the more likely we are to prioritise it!

Remember, in the next few weeks we’ll have word on our first Feature Update for the Trainer Card Maker so be sure to keep an eye out on both the site and our Twitter account for news as we continue to make the new TCM even better.

If you want to see some of these new assets in action you can check out some of the cards we’ve made below and then head right on over to https://tcm.pokecharms.com to make your own!