Hello. My name is Mike “ThUNDachU” Harden. This article is on how when every set of Pokemon is released, none of the cards will ever be the same in value and in powers and attacks.

Base Set 1: A lot of Broken cards and decks first premiered in this set. Many decks such as Haymaker and Raindance. Everyone was going gaga over Charizard Blastoise and Venusaur buying booster packs by the dozens and trying to get those 3 cards. People began using Hitmonchan and Electabuzz in Haymaker. This is where the whole Pokemon CCG craze began.

Jungle: A lot of new cards that people had been needing such as Clefairy’s evolution Clefable came in the Jungle set. Another card for Haymaker also came into action in this set. Scyther! The number one card in Jungle. Many stall decks also got a new edition in this set also. Mr.Mime came into viewing in a couple stall decks with Alakazam from Base Set 1. This set combined with Base Set 1 were the top trading card game on the market.

Fossil: This next set also along with Base Set and Jungle made decks even more powerful. Another version of Magmar came into the scene and came into the Haymaker deck. When the fossil set was released very few people were using Raindance anymore. Also in Fossil came Aerodactyl and Muk witch were put into many decks as well due to their Pokemon Powers. Aerodactyl stopped evolving(no more Raindance /Charizard) and Muk stopped Pokemon Powers(Muk w/ aerodactyl not a good thing). In the Japanese fossil also gave people the chance to get the Mew card. Many people were angry at WoTC when they heard that Mew would not be in Fossil in English.

Team Rocket: In this set many people were happy and many people were mad. People were happy because it had “Dark” versions of your favorite pokemon such as Dark Charizard and Dark Blastoise. Many people were made because the low HP on many pokemon. In Base Set 1Charizard had 120HP and in Team Rocket Drak Charizard only had 80 HP. When Team Rocket came out many Pokemon CCG players stopped playing Pokemon and went into Magic: The Gathering due to people saying “The Game Is Rigged”. To promote more buyers WoTC also included a super secret card in this set! Dark Raichu.

Base2: In this set WoTC combined Base Set 1 and Jungle together. This set you cannot get in Japanese. This set is the HARDEST set ever to get a holographic in. This is because all of the non-holo cards in Jungle and Base 1. Whenever you get a holo it is usually a Clefairy. Begining in Base2 WoTC began using another brand of Holographic Foil on their holo cards. In Base2 Base Set 1 and Jungle were Retired or Out Of print.

Gym Heroes: This was the most wanted set in Pokemon CCG. Tons of people lined up for the Pokemon Trading Card Game League for the Gym Heroes Pre-Release tournament. I got 11^th place in this tournament at my league. Even parents came to this tournament!!! This was the biggest set release of all time

Gym Challenge: About 2 months after Gym Heroes was released, Gym Challenge was released. This set was even better than Gym Heroes because it contained Blaine and Giovanni cards. It also included the most broken Gym Leaders card of all time Blaine’s Arcanine! With the release of this set was a few misprints. And with the release of both Gym sets the pictures of some cards were changed. Look at Misty’s Tears for example.

Neo Genesis: Finally GS pokemon come into the TCG craze! This is what brought Pokemon back from the dump! This is the set everyone was waiting for! Blastoise from Base set 1 move over because Feraligatr is here!!!!! With Modified for the WCSTS/ECSTS formats this was the most broken card in the whole tournament! Almost 60% of all people had Feraligatr! This also premiered Pokemon Tools and Baby Pokemon!!!! And the most broken card IN THE WHOLE SETS OF POKEMON! Sneasel. This card is so broken that it was banned from the ECSTS/WCSTS. Now, that’s what I call a powerful card! This set iis sooo 1337.

CrossTrainer: This set was supposed to release July 2001 however Wizards put this set on hold. This set would contain 1 card for each of the 251 pokemon (including Mew). This set would have also included Vending Cards!!!! WoTC put this set on hold and decided to work on releasing Neo Discovery and Southern Islands instead. This set is not scheduled for any release in the future.

Southern Islands: The only way to get this set was to buy a gift box and Wizards really screwed up with this gift box! If you got the gift box you got the 18 Southern Islands cards. These cards were really meant for collectors not for playing the game. With the cards you got 6 postcards and 3 Neo boosters. In each of the Neo boosters you got 11 cards(duh!) but here’s the funny part! In each booster there is no rare. I reported this to WoTC and they said they did this because you already got Reverse Holo’s in the set. How stupid...

Neo Discovery: In this set the 2 new forms of Eevee showed up and Unowns showed up! This set was the most worst set of Neo I have ever seen. They even skipped a card! Dark Raichu because it was in Team Rocket did not get to be in Neo Discovery! Neo Discovery sux!

Neo Revelations: In this set it is a good Neo set. Not as good as Genesis but way better than Discovery. In this set 2 cool cards appeared. Shining Gyarados and Shining Magikarp. These 2 cards only have 1 star (unlike the Japanese ones) and aren’t worth that much really. Also in this set are 6 other great cards. If you thought the Neo Genesis Lugia sucked (which it did) than try the Neo Revelations Lugia. In this set the 3 legendary dawgs(or cats) came into the scene. And 2 Ho-Oh Fire and Colorless came into viewing. Neo 3 is the 2^nd best neo set.This is also the only set wihout Theme Decks.

Neo Destiny: Neo 4 in the USA is to be called Neo Destiny. The rumor saying that the shiny cards will not be in the set. I highly doubt this but it is a possibility. However, with Wizards of the coast you can never tell.

VS: This set is a long way from being released in the USA. Lets not even talk about it.

E: These are cards that have a bar code that you can scan into the Pokemon E Reader and play against your friends with. The Pokemon Card E-Reader is ONLY available in Japan and so are the cards. WoTC has no plans to release this card set and Nintendo has no plans to release the E- Reader in America.

Web- This is a follow up on the VS Pokemon Card set. There is no scheduled release for this set at this time in the USA

Promos: This is a HUGE set in Japan. Over 10000 promos have been released in Japan at many places and events and promotions. The USA also already has over 30 promo cards. This set has no ending. It may keep on going!

Well, this wraps up my article. Thank you for reading it.

·         ThUNDachU