The Tabletop Mandela Effect: Misremembering Magic and Pokémon

As the person who has evaluated many different collections that have come into a Friendly Local Game Store (FLGS) even before The POP! Shop, I have handled thousands of comics and trading cards every single week. From pristine vintage binders to shoeboxes full of childhood memories, I get to see the physical history of our favorite games up close. Because I spent so much time analyzing card art and reading set names, I still seem to stumble into one of the strangest psychological phenomena in pop culture: the Mandela Effect.

If you are unfamiliar with the term, the Mandela Effect occurs when a large mass of people confidently share a false memory about an event, a logo, or a piece of media. In the tabletop gaming community, our collective nostalgia frequently plays tricks on our brains. Today, I want to talk about two massive misconceptions you and I both see online or at The POP! Shop's tables.

If you are coming in to buy/sell/trade a collection, or participate in one of our events, ask around to see just what your friends remember!

There Is No "t" in Magic

Let's start with the grandfather of all trading card games. If you ask a veteran planeswalker to write out the name of the game, perhaps nine times out of ten they will write "Magic: the Gathering" with a lowercase "t". In fact, the most common abbreviation used online by the community is "MtG" (or dare I offer: M:tG). Grammatically, this makes perfect sense. In standard English title casing, articles like "the" are supposed to remain lowercase: The Lord of the Rings, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, etc.

However, our brains have completely rewritten the official branding. Since Richard Garfield launched the game in 1993, the official trademark and logo have always been capitalized as Magic: The Gathering. If you flip over any card in your deck and look at the classic card back, the bright blue logo clearly displays a massive, capital "T".

Despite staring at the back of these cards for decades, that capital "T" continues to elude our collective memory. I still catch myself typing "MtG" out of pure habit. It is a fascinating quirk of the community, and it is a fun piece of trivia I like to share to see if I am the only one with this old habit.

If it doesn't turn you into a pile of dust like you've been Thanos snapped, do a little research yourself. Whether in modern Reddit boards, mainstream news organizations, or your favorite pricing and tabletop magazine back from the mid-90s:

• InQuest
• Scrye
• The Duelist
• ...I don't feel so good Mr. Stark...

Here's a fun extra. Jesper Myrfors himself has used the "t" in MTG (and recently too)!

The Phantom Ink on Pikachu's Tail

The Mandela Effect hits the Pokémon community even harder. When older players bring in their childhood binders hoping to sell or trade vintage Pokémon cards, it's always fun to look at the original Base Set Pikachu (that delightful little chubby one). QUICK! Without looking at a picture, how do you remember Pikachu's tail? If you picture a yellow lightning bolt with a black tip, you are suffering from a shared false memory, a PokéMandela Effect if you will.

Pikachu has never had a black tip on its tail in the games, the anime, or the trading card game. The base of the tail is brown, and the rest of the tail is completely yellow. Shocked Pikachu face, indeed. Know who does have a black tail? Pichu (whose tail is completely black)! Or maybe it's the black marks from Pikachu's ears that are hallucinated onto its tail? What do you think?

Perhaps the art designers for Pokémon leaned into this with the development of Mimikyu?

There's no offense on my part when faces twist with doubt upon hearing these facts. Like Mr. Myrfors, I was still using "t" in Magic: The Gathering until recently. Want a bonus anecdotal fact? Many trainers also distinctly remember the rock snake Pokémon being spelled "Onyx" like the real-world gemstone. In reality, it has always been spelled Onix.

Exchange Cards and Share Your Stories

These shared misconceptions are exactly why I love physical tabletop spaces so much. The POP! Shop is a place to connect, debate the trivia of our favorite games, and physically hold the history of the hobby. Digital algorithms and online storefronts cannot replicate the feeling of flipping through a binder with a friend and realizing you both misremembered the exact same piece of artwork.

Whether you want to hunt down a specific vintage single or you are looking to clear out some space in your closet, I invite you to bring your collections down to the store. The POP! Shop is always looking to buy, sell, and trade trading cards, comic books, and sealed products to keep our shelves fully stocked for the community. Let's look at your cards together, debunk (or invoke) some myths, and make sure your collection gets into the hands of someone who will appreciate it.

If you are ready to trade or want to see what's coming out next for your favorite games, check our site regulary. I look forward to seeing what treasures you bring to the table!