Pokemon B.B.S : Before Base Set

In January 1999, Wizards of the Coast released the first booster set for the Pokemon Trading Card Game, a set we refer to today as “Base Set.” Most Pokemon TCG collectors know that the release of Base Set marked the official launch of the Pokemon TCG, but fewer collectors realize that Base Set’s boosters and starter deck were not the first Pokemon TCG products to be released in the United States. Today we’re turning back the clock to examine three of these primordial Pokemon TCG products.

1. Pokemon Demo Game Booster Pack

By way of background, the Demo Pack was designed to introduce two players to the basic mechanics of the Pokemon TCG. Demo Packs were mailed to game stores in the months leading up to the release of Base Set to help generate interest in the new game. Other copies of the demo pack were given out as part of Pokemon’s Mall Tour in the early days of the TCG. For unfamiliar readers, a “mall,” was a centralized retail center with a large number of different brick-and-mortar stores under one roof. The Mall Tour was a promotional program run by Nintendo and Wizards of the Coast that ran in the first year of the TCG’s release. Wizards would set up shop in various shopping malls across America to teach kids how to play the new Pokemon TCG. These events, especially after the official launch of the TCG, were attended by droves of seething children and their parents. Lucky players that attended were sometimes given Demo Packs to test out the TCG. For more information on these Mall Events, it’s worth taking a quick look at this contemporaneous article from the New York Times. Given the method of their release and their instructional purpose, most collectors speculate that only a small number of sealed Demo Packs still exist. Every Demo Game Booster Pack contains the same fixed 24 cards, as well as a fold-out rules sheet that is used to teach the game to new players. The cards in the booster pack are standard shadowless Base Set cards, so the pack has almost no collectible value once it’s been opened. As a result it’s critical that collectors keep this product sealed.   

2. Trainer Deck A and Trainer Deck B

Wizards of the Coast, relying on their wealth of experience with Magic the Gathering (among other precursor TCGs), was quick to lay the ground work for a Pokemon TCG organized play program before the game’s official launch. The early organized play program, dubbed the “Pokemon League” in those early days, was run by a “Gym Leader,” as store employee who acted as a judge, overseer, and occasional competitor against league participants.  These Gym Leaders needed cards to play the game against their grade school challengers, so Wizards provided Trainer Deck A and Trainer Deck B as the standard weapons to be used against their youthful foes. Unlike other pre-constructed theme decks, the Trainer Decks were not commercially available for purchase and were not tournament legal. To emphasize this point, each Trainer Deck card was printed with a red border and the name of the Trainer Deck on the card’s back.

Trainer Deck A was the first of the products and was designed around Brock, the Pewter City gym leader in the Pokemon video games. Trainer Deck A was the only product to contain a non-holo, unlimited Machamp, which was otherwise only obtainable as a first edition card in the Base Set Starter Deck.

Trainer Deck B was designed around Misty, the Cerulean City gym leader in the video games and included a non-holo version of Base Set Blastoise.  Both Trainer Deck A and Trainer Deck B are difficult to find today, and prospective purchasers can expect to pay hundreds of dollars for each pre-constructed deck.

Thecardpletionist has been collecting Pokemon TCG cards since the game’s English release in 1999. You can read more from the author at http://thecardpletionist.blogspot.com/ and follow him on Instagram.