Wizards of the Coast

Wizards of the Coast, or "WOTC" for short, 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 translating and distributing Pokémon trading cards created by Media Factory (then by The Pokémon Company). On October 1, 2003, Wizards of the Coast's license to translate and distribute Pokémon Trading Card Game was transferred to The Pokémon Company International by Nintendo. After the license was transferred, Wizards of the Coast sued Nintendo claiming Nintendo stole certain insider secrets. Both parties settled outside of court in December 2003.

The Wizards of the Coast logo

Expansion sets released by Wizards of the Coast

Original Series

Neo Series

Legendary Collection Series

Legendary Collection

e-Card Series

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 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 skyrocket.

Pokémon TCG books released by Wizards of the Coast

Wizards of the Coast released a handful of strategy guides to the TCG during the time they had the distribution rights.

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.

During their time with the card game, Wizards of the Coast held weekly chats about the TCG starting from January 20, 2000. In these chats, non-Wizards operators had to follow protocol when asking questions, which were typically about release dates, promotions, and rulings. The chats lasted until the final months of 2002, which is about the time Wizards lost the license and rights to the card game. Template:TCGChat | 1 | January 20, 2000 | align="left" |

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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External links

Wizards of the Coast
Wizard of the Coast Pokémon page (archived) - via Archive.org

This article is part of Project TCG, a Bulbapedia project that aims to report on every aspect of the Pokémon Trading Card Game.