Wizards of the Coast

Wizards of the Coast LLC
Wizards of the Coast logo, as of 2022
Founded	1990
Headquarters	Renton, Washington
Type	Subsidiary
Owner(s)	Hasbro
Industry	Card games, role-playing games, video games
Website Worldwide: wizards.com Pokémon TCG: wizards.com (archived)

Previous Wizards of the Coast logo

Wizards of the Coast LLC, formally Wizards of the Coast, Inc. (often referred to as WotC or Wizards), is the producer of hobby gaming systems owned by Hasbro, including Magic: The Gathering and Dungeons and Dragons. From 1998 until 2003, Wizards of the Coast was responsible for manufacturing, distributing, and marketing Pokémon trading cards created by Creatures, Inc. Beginning with EX Ruby and Sapphire, sets were instead distributed by Nintendo of America.

In 2020, it was discovered that the first card to be test printed for the English sets was Blastoise with a unique test print identifier of 009/165R. Five variants of this card were printed (one with a black border similar to Magic the Gathering cards, then four with the yellow border and different card layout ideas) before the finalized design that would be seen in Base Set.

Contents

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• (Return to top)
• Expansion sets released by Wizards of the Coast
• Pokémon TCG books released by Wizards of the Coast
• Wizards Pokémon TCG Chat
• License dispute
• References

Contents

Expansion sets released by Wizards of the Coast

Original Series

• Base Set
• Jungle
• Fossil
• Base Set 2
• Team Rocket
• Gym Heroes
• Gym Challenge

Neo Series

• Neo Genesis
• Neo Discovery
• Neo Revelation
• Neo Destiny
• Southern Islands (promo set)

Legendary Collection Series

• Legendary Collection

e-Card Series

• Expedition Base Set
• Aquapolis
• Skyridge
• Best of Game Cards (promo set)

Black Star Promos

• Wizards Black Star Promos

A set to follow Skyridge, titled "Jamboree," was in the works of being released by WOTC, but never had the opportunity to be printed, due to the end of Wizards' contract. Another consequence of the revocation of WOTC's license was that there was only one print run of Skyridge, causing the price of the set to skyrocket.^{[citation needed]}

Pokémon TCG books released by Wizards of the Coast

Wizards of the Coast released multiple strategy guides for the TCG. These include:

• Pokémon Made Simple! - an introductory guide to the TCG
• Team Rocket Strategy Guide - a guide to the Team Rocket expansion
• Gym Heroes Strategy Guide - a guide to the Gym Heroes expansion

Wizards Pokémon TCG Chat

This section is incomplete. Please feel free to edit this section to add missing information and complete it.

Beginning on January 20, 2000, Wizards of the Coast held weekly chats about the TCG. In these chats, non-Wizards operators had to follow protocol when asking questions, which were typically about release dates, promotions, and rulings. The final chat was held on July 10, 2003, after Wizards had already lost the license to distribute the card game.

Chat	Date	Notes of discussion
1	January 20, 2000	Base Set 2 is to be released in late February. Team Rocket should release in March. Base Set and Jungle will be in print until Base Set 2 is released, at which point they will be retired. The gym sets (Gym Heroes and Gym Challenge) are on schedule for release some time late this year (2000), but this is too far away to give any specifics. There are no deals worked out with Nintendo yet to release the Neo era cards.
2	January 27, 2000	Base Set 2 is still set for late February. Team Rocket is now slated for release in mid April. The gym sets (Gym Heroes and Gym Challenge) are still on schedule for release before the end of the year after Team Rocket.
3	February 3, 2000	The reason for having both Rares and Rare Holos is because people wanted the ability to have rare cards that they could feel comfortable using, without worrying about damaging their expensive foil cards. Team Rocket and Base Set 2 are still on schedule: in addition, Team Rocket will have 1st edition cards while Base Set 2 will not.
4	February 10, 2000	The gym sets and Neo cards still have the same status as before. Wizards Promo 7 will be released with the Pokémon: The First Movie Soundtrack. There are no plans to release exclusively English cards.
5	February 17, 2000	Wizards Promo 6 is Arcanine. Base Set 2 will be the same as Base Set and Jungle, and will cause Base Set to be discontinued. Rocket and Gym sets to be out within the year-no work has been done to any Neo sets. Gym sets will be divided into two expansions.

License dispute

Wizards of the Coasts' license to translate and distribute the Pokémon Trading Card Game was revoked on September 30, 2003. The day after, Wizards of the Coast sued Nintendo of America, Pokémon USA, The Pokémon Company, and two of their own former executives hired by Pokémon USA, Rene Flores and Richard Arons. Wizards' lawsuit alleged patent infringement, breach of contract, and misappropriation of trade secrets, as well as other claims; Wizards claimed that Pokémon USA had hired at least nine of their former employees, who had provided confidential information to produce EX Ruby and Sapphire in violation of their non-disclosure agreements. The parties settled outside of court in December 2003.

In response to losing the license for distributing Pokémon cards, Wizards' vice president, Vince Calouri, began what former employee Patrick Swift dubbed "scorched earth mode." Another former Wizards employee, Peter Whitley, claimed that Calouri threatened to flood the market with cards if the license was retracted, thus devaluing the product. After the license was indeed lost, Wizards decided to vent the entire supply of a private stocked warehouse in an attempt to make good on their threat. Swift additionally claimed that Wizards' Organized Play Program had "given up on trying." This led to events such as "Fan Appreciation Tournaments," in which the entry fee was the price of two packs, but winners were guaranteed a prize of 16 packs. The Best of Game print of Hitmonchan with 60 HP instead of 70 HP is also believed to have been released as an error card intentionally.

References

Companies The Pokémon Company The Pokémon Company International (The Pokémon Company International Ireland • The Pokémon Company International Mexico • Millennium Print Group) • Pokémon Korea • Pokémon Center Co., Ltd. • Pokémon Singapore • Pokémon Shanghai • Pokémon Taiwan • Genius Sonority • The Pokémon Works • Pokémon with You Foundation Animation & movies 4Kids Entertainment • Bang Zoom! Studios • Deluxe • DuArt Media Services • Framestore • Iyuno • Miramax • Moving Picture Company • OLM, Inc. • TAJ Productions • Toho • Universal Pictures Home Entertainment • The Walt Disney Company • Warner Bros. Books & strategy guides Golden Books • Media Factory • Prima Games • Scholastic • Simon & Schuster (Pikachu Press) • Studio BentStuff Collectible cards Artbox • ConceptLab • D.A.G Inc. • Edibas Collections • Excell Brands • KASSEN • Meiji • N-DESIGN Inc. • Studio Bora Inc. • Topps • Toyste Beach • whomor Inc. • Wizards of the Coast Manga Chuang Yi • Outland forlag • Panini Comics • Shogakukan (Shogakukan Asia) • VIZ Media Merchandise & retail Blokees • Funko • GameStop • Good Smile Company • Hasbro • Jakks Pacific • Jazwares • Jollibee • JR Kikaku • Keeppley • Kotobukiya • Play by Play • Re-Ment • RK9 Labs • Takara Tomy • The Hershey Company • Toy Factory • Uniqlo • Zanzoon Video games Bandai Namco • Creatures, Inc. (Ambrella) • DeNA • Denyusha • Game Freak • HAL Laboratory, Inc. • HEROZ • Hudson Soft • ILCA • Jupiter Corporation • Koei Tecmo • Nintendo (Mario Club • Nintendo of America • Nintendo System Development) • ORBITALLINK Inc. • PLANETA • Scopely (Scopely Explore) • Sega • SELECT BUTTON inc. • Spike Chunsoft

This article is part of Project Mass Media, a Bulbapedia project that aims to write comprehensive articles on official Pokémon publishing, broadcasting, communications, and other media.