The Abra, Kadabra, and Alakazam line have been part of the Pokémon franchise since the beginning, but there are limits to how often they can appear, and Kadabra hasn’t been part of the Pokémon Trading Card Game in almost twenty years.

The English name of the Kadabra line is based on words associated with magic, but the Japanese names were associated with famous mystics. Abra is named Casey, after famous psychic Edgar Cayce, while Alakazam is named Foodin, which is a reference to either Jean-Eugène Robert-Houdin or Harry Houdini. Kadabra is named Yungerer, which is a reference to famous illusionist/psychic Uri Geller, who is famous for a trick where he pretended to bend spoons with his mind.

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The creators of Pokémon Red & Green likely never anticipated that Pokémon would become the biggest media franchise of all time. If they had, then they might have had second thoughts about basing one of their Pokémon on a living person with a history of litigation. The Japanese name of Kadabra, coupled with its use of spoons, meant that Geller could claim that the Pokémon was based on him without his permission.

The Pokémon franchise is no stranger to controversy, with many individuals accusing the franchise of racism and depicting violence towards animals. Uri Geller was serious enough with his allegations that he took legal action. According to the BBC, Geller sued Nintendo in the year 2000 in regards to the card game. Geller sought money for damages and wanted Nintendo to cease publishing cards using Pokémon that were based on him.

In 2008, PokéBeach interviewed Pokémon anime director/storyboard artist Masamitsu Hidaka and asked him about the lawsuit. Hidaka confirmed that the case was still ongoing at the time and it was the reason that Kadabra could not appear on any cards. The fans had guessed that the legal issues were preventing Kadabra from appearing in the Pokémon Trading Card Game, as the last time Kadabra has appeared on a card was the Skyridge expansion from 2003. To date, there have only ever been seven different versions of Kadabra in the history of the Pokémon Trading Card Game. 

The restrictions on Kadabra have also influenced Abra, which has also only received a couple of cards in the Pokémon Trading Card Game, as there is little reason to include the character if it can’t evolve. The exception to this is the version of Abra from the Mysterious Treasures set, which has a power that lets it evolve into Alakazam without needing a Kadabra. Alakazam has fared better, as there are card types that let players skip the evolution rules. This means that there are versions of Alakazam that are classed as Basic Pokémon (such as Alakazam EX) and they can be played straight to the field.

It seems unlikely that Kadabra will return to the Pokémon Trading Card Game anytime soon. It’s also unlikely that Kadabra Pokémon cards will be reprinted. The lawsuit has likely been resolved by now, but it’s not worth it for The Pokémon Company to risk future legal action when there are hundreds of other Pokémon that can appear in its place.

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Sources: BBC, PokéBeach

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About The Author


Scott Baird
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Scott has been writing for Screen Rant since 2016 and regularly contributes to The Gamer. He has previously written articles and video scripts for websites like Cracked, Dorkly, Topless Robot, and TopTenz.
A graduate of Edge Hill University in the UK, Scott started out as a film student before moving into journalism. It turned out that wasting a childhood playing video games, reading comic books, and watching movies could be used for finding employment, regardless of what any career advisor might tell you. Scott specializes in gaming and has loved the medium since the early ‘90s when his first console was a ZX Spectrum that used to take 40 minutes to load a game from a tape cassette player to a black and white TV set. Scott now writes game reviews for Screen Rant and The Gamer, as well as news reports, opinion pieces, and game guides. He can be contacted on LinkedIn.

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