Retrospective: Team Rocket

Prepare for trouble and make it double, because today’s retrospective article will be examining the first set inspired by the nefarious Team Rocket gang, the aptly named “Team Rocket” expansion. Released in April, 2000, the third expansion to the Pokemon TCG borrowed some elements from its predecessors, such as inflating its set size by including holo and non-holo variants of almost all of its rare cards (ugh), but it also introduced a number of concepts into the TCG that would be repeated in subsequent expansions for years to come. The Team Rocket expansion is probably best known for its introduction of “Dark Pokemon,” powerful Pokemon trained by evil trainers with dark abilities, perhaps better thought of as the TCG’s goth phase. 

It’s not a phase mom!

But I think the more meaningful contribution to the TCG was the introduction of secret rare cards, a topic I’ve covered at length in my review of rarity in the Pokemon TCG. Dark Raichu, numbered 83/82 in the booster set, was an English exclusive card and the very first secret rare Pokemon card to be released in either the English or Japanese versions of the game. The debut of Secret Rare cards was not taken lightly by either the Western or Eastern spheres of the Pokemon empire, and it is rumored that Wizards of the Coast had to wait six months for official approval to include the card in the expansion. Dark Raichu would eventually be released in Japan as a Secret Rare card in the “Crossing the Ruins” expansion, Japan’s version of Neo Discovery.

Dark Raichu

                The Team Rocket expansion set another important rarity precedent in the Japanese TCG, it was the first set to include a Super Rare card. The card in question, “Here Comes Team Rocket” was a holographic trainer card with a white star rarity symbol instead of the usual black. Some observers on Pokegym, Pokebeach and other forums have reported pull rates for this card at approximately 1:60 packs. As the first super rare card in the Japanese TCG, this card’s importance is perhaps best evidenced by the number of reprints it’s had over the years, including being reprinted as a super rare in Rocket Gang Returns (Japan’s version of ex Team Rocket Returns), as a “secret rare” in the Evolutions expansion, and as a very rare, full-art promotional card as part of the Team Rocket Special Case released last February in Japan. Here Comes Team Rocket’s importance is sometimes lost on Western collectors since it was printed as both a standard rare and holographic card in the Team Rocket expansion, but was of equal rarity with the other rare and holographic cards included in the set.

Here Comes Team Rocket! note the white star symbol in the bottom left corner of the card

One of the more hilarious bits of trivia from this set is the small edit made to Grimer before his English TCG release. Note the placement of the pupils between the two versions, what a slime ball! Another interesting difference between the two versions is that the Japanese Grimer poisons opponents with his Poison Gas attack whereas the English version puts opponents to sleep. .

Peeping Tom  Grimer. Note the pupils

                 Team Rocket featured a number of collectible error cards, the most notable being a rare misprint of Dark Dragonite in which the version that is supposed to be holographic (card number 5/82) is non-holographic. This error can be found in both the first edition and unlimited prints of the set. 

What are your thoughts on the Team Rocket expansion? Let me know in the comments below.

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 at https://www.instagram.com/thecardpletionist/