Tricks of the Trade – Pokémon Season 3, Episode 30

Plot episodeJessie gets WobbuffetRunning of the Tauros

Tricks of the Trade is the 30th episode of Pokémon: The Johto Journeys, the third season of the Pokémon anime, and the 146th episode of the English dub overall (Japanese episode 148, Bulbapedia code EP146). It first aired in Japan on 4 May 2000 and in the United States on 24 March 2001. It falls within the season’s Trades & partings stretch (EP146–EP147).

Synopsis · Major Events · Trivia · Dub Changes · All episodes

Synopsis

Ash and friends are passing through the seaside city of Pompona on the way to Goldenrod City when they encounter a young trainer named Benny and his Wobbuffet. Benny announces that he’s on the way to the Pokémon Swap Meet to try and swap his Wobbuffet for something else. Ash and friends decide to accompany Benny to the meet to check it out.

Team Rocket of course are also in Town and have also heard about the swap meet, seeing it as a great opportunity to steal lots of potentially rare and valuable Pokemon. As Ash and friends arrive at the place where the Swap Meet is held they spot a huge herd of Tauros stampeding toward them and a guy tells them it’s a Pompona City tradition that anyone brave enough to touch the horn of a Tauros that’s running at them gets a trophy from the mayor, Ash thinks about it but backs out as the Tauros draw near.

The herd of Tauros stampede their way into a stadiumand an annual one on one Tauros competition ensues. Ash and friends watch on as a competitor and his Tauros win their fifth consecutive victory. Ash runs off in excitement and tells Oak to send him his Tauros right away, but he already has six Pokemon with him so he sends Heracross back to Oak in exchange for Tauros. Ash heads back to the stadium with his Tauros, just as it’s been announced that Fernando and his Tauros have beaten their tenth consecutive challenger.

Ash challenges Fernando and their Tauros go head to head (literally) with takedown attacks. Benny is watching the battle on a screen outside the stadium, and Team Rocket are posing as refreshment vendors while looking for Pokemon to steal. Back in the Stadium after a long deadlock Ash’s Tauros manages to clinch victory with a last minute takedown attack – making Ash the winner of the competition!

Ash and friends leave the stadium to find the Pokemon swap meet in full swing. Benny too has just arrived with a design on trying to trade his Wobbuffet for Tauros but then he notices Ash being mobbed by people who want to trade for his Tauros; Ash of course declines. Ash and friends approach Benny and offer to help him find someone to trade with.

Team Rocket meanwhile are posing as Pokemon swap administrators, unveiling their new Pokemon swap machine which is also supposed to level up the exchanged Pokémon in the process; this of course results in them getting a rather big queue of trainers handing their Pokeballs over, little do they know that Meowth is inside the machine taking the Pokemon and exchanging them for empty Pokéballs. Misty’s Psyduck pops out of it’s Pokéball as she’s walking through the trading area and to her surprise lots of trainers approach her wanting to trade it. Misty runs off, not wanting to trade. Ash and Brock meanwhile have convinced a trainer with a Stantler to trade for Benny’s Wobbuffet and are making their way to the swap machine.

James is walking along with the profit Team Rocket made from selling refreshments to trainers and is about to buy lunch, when a dodgy salesman offers James a Magikarp; convincing him it can be the route to riches he has been looking for… James then realises it’s the guy who ripped him off in Season 1 on the St. Anne and gives chase demanding his money back.

The guy who was meant to trade with Benny changes his mind at the last minute because he wanted a flying Pokemon, he runs off. Just then the crooked salesman and James go running straight through Jessie and knock her into the machine; knocking her Lickitung’s Pokéball into the machine by accident and starting the trade process – trading it with Benny’s Wobbuffet (she doesn’t know this happened).

Meowth runs up to Jessie and James in panic because the word is on the street that their trading machine was fake, the trainers have realised they they were given empty Pokéballs. An angry crowd gathers and demands their Pokemon back; Meowth uses a lassoo gun to tie up the entire crowd before pulling out a vacuum to try and suck up all the trainers remaining Pokéballs. Ash has the smart idea to use the Tauros, and the entire group send out their Tauros to send Team Rocket blasting off; knocking lots of Pokéballs to the ground.

The trainers run over and start picking up the Pokéballs to find their Pokémon but find them empty. Team Rocket have double bluffed them, and had infact already moved the real Pokéballs containing Pokemon. Ash, Misty and Brock run in the direction Team Rocket’s balloon went and quickly find them and the Pokéballs. Ash sends Chikorita out to battle them, Jessie tries to send out Lickitung but to her surprise a Wobbuffet comes out, Jessie thinks back to when she was knocked into the Pokemon swap machine and realises the exchange must have taken place. Wobbuffet is a Pokemon that is unable to attack, but it can counterattack – Chikorita attacks Wobbuffet a few times but is countered each time and eventually defeated. Next Ash sends out Pikachu who manages to shock Wobbuffet and Team Rocket in one shot, sending them blasting off.

As the sun sets Ash and friends arrive back at Pompona and give all of the trainers their Pokemon back. Benny runs up to them with his new Lickitung, who seems to quite like him already. Benny vows to take good care of Lickitung. With the stolen Pokemon safely back with their trainers out heroes will continue their journey to Goldenrod City.

Major Events

• Jessie’s Lickitung traded for Benny’s Wobbuffet (Wobbuffet debut)
• Heracross ↔ Tauros swap with Oak
• Magikarp salesman returns
• Running of the Tauros

Pokémon making their anime debut

• Wobbuffet#0202 · EP146

Captures and evolutions

• Wobbuffet#0202 · Jessie · accidental trade
• Lickitung#0108 · Benny · from Jessie

Trivia

• The English title plays on the idiom, for the Pokémon Swap Meet where Jessie’s Lickitung is traded.
• The screenplay is by Yukiyoshi Ōhashi.
• This is a plot episode: it advances the Johto storyline.
• The Who’s That Pokémon? segment features Wobbuffet in Japan, where it almost always matched the episode, but Wooper in the US, where 4Kids picked the Pokémon at random.

Changes in the English Dub

• Pokémon Karaokémon: “Two Perfect Girls” (Eric Stuart as Brock).

Part of our Pokémon: The Johto Journeys guide. Browse every season of the Pokémon anime.