Wizards of the Coast
Wizards of the Coast, or "WOTC" for short, is the producer of hobby gaming systems, including Magic: the Gathering, Dungeons and Dragons, and the Star Wars TCG. In 1998, Wizards of the Coast was asked to translate and distribute Pokémon trading cards in America. Their first set was Base Set (1998), which included many of the original 150 Pokémon, such as Charizard, Blastoise, and Venusaur. In mid-2003, their license to run the Pokémon TCG was cancelled by Nintendo, which decided that it would run the card game. At first, many people were shocked, but in the end, many realized that the switch to Nintendo was for the best. Wizards had been abusing the Pokémon TCG, and it was at an extremely low point. WOTC then took Nintendo to court where they accused them of stealing insider secrets, but at a later time, both parties decicided to settle their differences outside of court.
Under WOTC, the following sets were released:
- Base Set
- Jungle
- Fossil
- Base Set 2
- Team Rocket
- Gym Heroes
- Gym Challenge
- Neo Genesis
- Neo Discovery
- Neo Revelation
- Neo Destiny
- Legendary Collection
- Expedition
- Aquapolis
- Skyridge
- Southern Islands (promo set)
A set to follow Skyridge, titled "Jamboree," was in the works of being released by WOTC, but never had the oppurtunity to be due to the cancellation of Wizards' license. Other consequences of the cancellation of the WOTC license was that there was only one print run of Skyridge, causing the price of the set to sky rocket.
