Legendary Collection (TCG)

Legendary Collection is the name given to a reprint set of cards for the Pokémon Trading Card Game released only in North America.

Set size: 110

Sequence: 12th set in North America. As with Base Set 2, this set wasn't released in Japan.

Release date: May 24th, 2002 in North America.

Miscellaneous:

• This set was not released in Japan.
• Legendary Collection was basically a "Base Set 3"; a sequal to Base Set 2. This was something of a tough move for Wizards of the Coast to pull off, considering that wasn't well received by the Pokémon TCG community in general. Many believe that the unpopularity of Base Set 2 was the reason why Legendary Collection wasn't called "Base Set 3". Ironically, however, Legendary Collection ended up becoming one of Wizards' more successful Pokémon TCG sets.
• Like Base Set 2, Legendary Collection was a combination of cards from previous sets, specifically Base Set, Jungle, Fossil, and Team Rocket. One Black Star Promo even made its way into this set (Nintendo Power Promo Mewtwo).
• Expedition was originally supposed to be released in May 2002, but it was pushed back to September by Nintendo because it wanted Expedition's released tied with the release of its e-Reader device. Some believed that Legendary Collection was conceived in order to fill the gap between Neo Destiny and Expedition.
• To appeal to players, Legendary Collections was the first Pokémon set that was actually built for tournaments. The pack set up has Pokémon of the same type in it, a very useful setup for Sealed Draft tournaments. The set was also built with the Modified tournament format in mind, so old cards that would help modern Modified decks made the cut while considerably broken cards from the past (like Hitmonchan and Professor Oak) were kept out.
• To appeal to collectors, Legendary Collections was the first set to include of two new Pokémon TCG trends for the Pokémon TCG: reverse holos and box toppers. Wizards took a hint from Magic and made a reverse-holo card for every single card in the set. Box Toppers, jumbo sized cards of a number of cards from the set (4 of them in this case), were also inserted in every box.
• At Worlds 2002 in Seattle, Professors who volunteered their time to run tournaments were supposed to be given a free box of Legendary Collection for their help. However, because Legendary Collection was very popular, it was sold out before Worlds 2002, to which Professors were instead given boxes of Neo Destiny.

Theme Decks: Turmoil and Lava.