Joshua

Joshua is a supporting character in Pokémon: Path to the Peak. He serves as the leader of the Pokémon Club at the new school Ava attends. Joshua has a catchphrase, "Challenge Accepted," which he says whenever he meets someone new.

Joshua
JoshuaJoshua's Jolteon “ Challenge Accepted! „ ~ Joshua's Catchphrase
Origin
Origin	Pokémon: Path to the Peak
Creator	Benjamin Taiko Studios (Director Shaofu Zhang)
First Appearance	Pokémon: Path to the Peak Episode 1 The Club 🌱
Actor	AJ Beckles
Characteristics
Species	Human
Gender	Male
Pronouns	He/Him
Sexuality	Heterosexual
Age	13 (English Version), 12 (Japanese Version)
Birthday	Unknown
Height	Unknown
Weight	Unknown
Ethnicity	African American
Status	Alive
Alignment	Neutral Good
Archetype	Everyman
Occupation	N/A
Time Period	Modern Time
Language	English
Combat Style	Card Battler
Homeworld	Earth
Relationships
Affiliations	Ava, Celestine, Pokémon Club
Enemies	Celestine (Formerly), Edgar Troy (Formerly), Team Falinks (Formerly)

Background

This dropdown contains the synopsis of Joshua’s story. Read at your own risk as you may be spoiled otherwise!

The Club Joshua noticed how much Ava was struggling to fit in at her new school, so he quietly left a Pokémon Club invitation on her lunch tray. When they met, he introduced her to the fundamentals of the Pokémon Trading Card Game. Since Ava was still new to the game, Joshua won their first match with little effort. They faced each other again the following day, and this time Ava came out on top. After she went on to defeat every member of the club, Joshua welcomed her into the group. During the celebration, Ava was introduced to Celestine, and Joshua explained who she was along with details about the upcoming Regional Championships. Regionals Joshua goes to Ava to get her ready for the Regionals, at first Ava isn't sure and thinks of dropping out but then Joshua instigates that she must be intimidated by Celestine which makes her want to do it. Internationals Joshua records their trip to the Internationals, traveling with Ava and helping her out with her nervousness. When Ava loses all of her cards, Joshua and Celestine work together to help rebuild her deck. At the end of the episode, Ava loses, leaving her speechless and all she can say is she's sorry. Worlds Joshua tries to call Ava but she keeps ignoring all calls until having a talk with her mother. She meets up with Joshua and Celestine at school apologizing for ghosting them and inviting them to the Worlds Championship to make it up to them. When at the Worlds tournament Edgar tries to antagonize Ava but Joshua rushes to defend her.

Appearance

General Description: A young boy with a dark brown complexion and a stout build. He has thick, curly black hair styled in a high-top afro. His eyes are dark brown, and he has thick eyebrows and a wide smile.

Clothing/Outfit: A green zip-up hoodie with yellow trim along the zipper and a white lining inside the hood. The sleeves feature yellow sections near the elbows. A dark gray or black shirt underneath. Gray sweatpants with elastic cuffs. Yellow high-top sneakers with black and white accents.

Accessories: A white design resembling a Poké Ball is on the left sleeve of his hoodie. A small red pouch or device is attached to his left hip.

Personality

• Eccentric: Joshua loves saying his signature phrase "Challenge Accepted!" and is a lover of all things Pokémon. When explaining how to play Pokémon the Trading Card game he gets very hyper and explains it very fast.

• Supportive: Joshua is a supportive friend, being the one to push Ava to enter regionals and help her out during Internationals. When Ava lost her cards, Joshua and Celestine were willing to trade for cards Ava wants.

Relationships

Ava

Joshua was the first real friend Ava made in her new school, inviting her to the Pokémon Club after seeing her struggling to make friends.

He shows her how to play Pokémon The Trading Card Game. He beats her initially, which angers her.

When she comes back for a rematch she wins and Joshua cheers her on.

Joshua comes to get her for regionals telling her that she is the most talented member of their club, noting that he is her coach.

When he notices she wants to not duel Celestine, he instigates making her want to do it.

Celestine

Once Celestine tells Ava she's had a blast and shakes her hand for a good game, Joshua grabs her and Ava for a group hug.

General Information

Name: Joshua

Origin: Pokémon: Path to the Peak

Overall Series: Pokémon

First Appearance: Pokémon: Path to the Peak Episode 1 The Club 🌱

Latest Appearance:

Company: Pokémon Company

Creator: Taiko Studios (Director Shaofu Zhang)

Actor: AJ Beckles

Gender: Male

Sexuality: Heterosexual

Pronouns: He/Him

Handedness: Right-Handed

Age

• In English Version: Likely the same age as Ava who is 13
• In Japanese Version: Likely the same age as Ava who is 12

Birthday: Unknown

Time Period: Modern Time

Timeline: Pokémon: Path to the Peak Timeline

Homeworld: Earth

Residence: Unnamed City

Story Role: Supporting Protagonist

Legacy: Global Legacy (Known due to being friends with Ava, who had her regionals final match uploaded on social media with it getting a lot of feedback, having her be known worldwide, getting so popular that people run her custom decks)

Influence: Event Influence

Language: English

Ethnicity: African American

Religion: Unknown

Classification: Student, Member of the Pokémon Club

Species: Human

State of Being: Regular

Physiology: Humanoid Physiology

In-Universe Creator: Unknown

Occupation: N/A

Combat Style: Card Battler

Affiliations: Ava, Celestine, Pokémon Club

Enemies: Celestine (Formerly), Edgar Troy (Formerly), Team Falinks (Formerly)

Height: Unknown

Weight: Unknown

Status: Alive

Alignment: Neutral Good

Potential

• Type(s) of Potential: Fixed Potential
• Level of Potential: Fixed
• Description: Hasn't had any real statements to showcase anything beyond the standard potential.
• Limitations: Standard limitations.

Archetype: Everyman

Codex Statistics

Grade: C

Tier: 10-B

Cardinality: Finite

Dimensionality: 3-D

Power Source: Imaginary Bond

Attack Potency: Average Human level

Durability: Average Human level

Striking Strength: Average Human Class

Lifting Strength: Average Human Class

Travel Speed: Average Human Speed

Attack Speed: Average Human Speed

Reaction Speed: Average Human Reactions

Stamina: Average

Range: Standard Melee

Intelligence: Average Intelligence

Knowledge: Expert level (Joshua is an expert at Pokémon card battles)

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Powers and Techniques

• Human Achievements (Joshua is an expert at Pokémon card battles)

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Equipment

Overall TeamPer Episode

Quantity	Card	Type	Rarity
3×	Eevee		—
2×	Jolteon ex		—
1×	Pikachu		—
1×	Dratini δ		—
1×	Dragonite δ		—
1×	Beldum δ		—
1×	Holon's Castform		—
1×	Absol		—
2×	Super Scoop Up	T	—
1×	Copycat	Su	—
1×	Galar Mine	St	—
3×	Basic Lightning Energy	E	—
42×	Unknown		—

Episode 1Episode 2Episode 3Episode 4

First BattleRematch

Quantity	Card	Type	Rarity
1×	Lickitung
1×	Dedenne
1×	Trevenant
1×	Phantump
1×	Mismagius
1×	Duskull
1×	Dusknoir
1×	Tsareena
1×	Tropius
1×	Tangela
1×	Spoink
1×	Scyther ex (foil)
1×	Grotle
1×	Gloom
1×	Darkrai-EX
1×	Absol
1×	Water Energy	E	—
1×	Psychic Energy	E	—
1×	Metal Energy	E	—
1×	Grass Energy (Generations 75)	E	—
1×	Fighting Energy	E	—
1×	Lightning Energy	E	—
1×	Darkness Energy	E	—

Quantity	Card	Type	Rarity
1×	Eevee
1×	Jolteon ex
1×	Dragonite δ
1×	Super Scoop Up	T
1×	Lightning Energy	E	—
1×	Pikachu
1×	Dratini δ
1×	Beldum δ

Quantity	Card	Type	Rarity
1×	Falinks ex*		—
1×	Mismagius ex*		—
1×	Darkrai ex*		—
1×	Bidoof

Quantity	Card	Type	Rarity
4×	Pikachu
4×	Jolteon ex
1×	Charizard
1×	Meganium ex
1×	Dialga LV.X
1×	Butterfree
1×	Dusknoir
1×	Chaos Gym	St
1×	Lightning Energy	E	—

Quantity	Card	Type	Rarity
1×	Jolteon ex

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Notable Techniques

Lightning Deck

Joshua uses a Lightning-based deck focusing on Jolteon ex. The deck's strategy uses Super Scoop Up to return Jolteon ex to the hand, allowing Joshua to evolve multiple Eevee in a single turn for repeated use of Jolteon ex's Evolutionary Thunder Poké-Power. Dragonite δ is used to accelerate Energy cards using its Delta Charge Poké-Power.

Joshua refers to this deck as his "old deck", and as such, most cards within it are from the EX Series.

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Other

Standard Tactics: Joshua utilizes strategies based around the meta of Pokémon Trading Card battles.

Weaknesses: Nothing notable.

Explanations

The Secret to Battling

It's explained by Ava's dad that the secret to a Pokémon battle is imagining in one's head that the battle is real and actually happening along with their Pokémon being besides them. The imagination makes one grow a strong bond with their Pokémon being able to picture the battles in their mind, see the stadium and do better. Seeing it as a battlefield allows the card dueler to perform more into the zone forging a bond with the Pokémon even though they aren't actually there. This also allows them to see the multiple possibilities in a battle to use to counter the opponent.

Imagining can also allow someone to calm down when having a panic attack or nervous breakdown.

Trivia

• Joshua's has an "old deck", which mostly consists of cards from the EX Delta Species expansion released in 2005, with his newest card coming from the EX Holon Phantoms expansion released in 2006. If reprints are taken into account, his newest card would instead be Lightning Energy from the Brilliant Stars expansion released in 2022.

• Of the four cards that Joshua cites as being "meta," two are played during this episode, while the remaining two are played during the following episode.

• In Joshua's first match against Ava, he describes his combo as follows: "Evolutionary Thunder, Evolve on bench, Delta Charge, Scoop Up heads, Evolve final Eevee, 3 Poké-POWER knockouts, attach, swing for game."
  • Evolutionary Thunder: Jolteon ex (EX Delta Species 109) has the Poké-POWER "Evolutionary Thunder." When this Jolteon is played to evolve an Eevee, a damage counter representing 10 damage is added to each of the opponent's Pokémon, both the active one and any on the bench. Joshua evolves an Eevee and activates this ability to deal splash damage to all of Ava's Pokémon.
  • Evolve on bench: Joshua evolves one of the Eevee on his bench into Jolteon, dealing splash damage a second time.
  • Delta Charge: Dragonite δ (EX Delta Species 3) has the ability "Delta Charge," which allows the user to attach 1 Lightning Energy to any benched Pokémon, bypassing the usual limit of one Energy card per turn. Joshua uses this to place 1 Lightning Energy on a Jolteon.
  • Scoop Up heads: When Super Scoop Up (Celestial Storm 146) is played, the user may return one Pokémon and all cards attached to it to their hand, provided they flip a coin and it lands on heads. Joshua uses this to scoop up a Jolteon along with its attached Eevee.
  • Evolve final Eevee: Joshua plays the Eevee he just picked up and evolves it into Jolteon again, dealing the splash damage of Evolutionary Thunder a third time.
  • 3 Poké-POWER knockouts: As a result of the splash damage from Evolutionary Thunder, Ava's two benched Pokémon have taken enough damage to be knocked out without ever entering combat.
  • Attach: Joshua selects the Jolteon that has 1 Lightning Energy on it as his active Pokémon and attaches 1 Lightning Energy to it, giving it 2 Lightning Energy total.
  • Swing for game: Joshua has the active Jolteon attack using "Second Bite." This attack normally deals 20 damage but deals an additional 10 damage for every damage counter on the defending Pokémon. Ava's Scyther, with a maximum of 80 HP, currently has 3 damage counters on it, leaving it at 50 HP. Second Bite would therefore deal 20 plus 3 times 10, totaling 50 damage, knocking out the Scyther.
  • Win: Since Ava's benched Pokémon have already been knocked out and her active Pokémon has been knocked out, she has no remaining Pokémon on the field. Joshua wins.
  • With the intent of knocking out the active Scyther, the math behind this strategy works out.
  • Issue: However, the math does not quite add up for knocking out the benched Pokémon. Upon Ava's defeat, one of her benched Pokémon, another Scyther, has 80 damage dealt to it, and the unidentified second benched Pokémon has 60 damage dealt to it, yet Joshua only dealt 30 splash damage.

Profiles

📁 Official Character Profiles

Pokémon: Path to the Peak Original Series English/Japanese Website Joshua Ava’s friend Joshua knows everything about the Pokémon TCG and is happy to share his knowledge with Ava. Joshua is a kind, loyal, and supportive friend, and his partner Pokémon is Jolteon. ジョシュア ポケカに詳しく、情に厚い頼れるポケカクラブの部長。エイバをポケカ、そして大会へと導いていく。 Pokémon: Path to the Peak Original Series — Pokémon Trading Card Game Official Website

Battle Records

1 - 2 - 0

VictoriesLossesInconclusive

• Ava - Fight
  • Conditions: It was a Pokémon Trading Card Battle.
  • Location: Pokémon Club in School

• Ava - Fight
  • Conditions: Match was a rematch. It was a Pokémon Trading Card Battle.
  • Location: Pokémon Club in School

• Team Falinks Member - Fight
  • Conditions: It was a Pokémon Trading Card Battle in Internationals.
  • Location: Internationals

None.

Versus Threads

VictoriesLossesInconclusive

None.

None.

None.