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

Previous Wizards of the Coast logo

Wizards of the Coast LLC, formally Wizards of the Coast, Inc. (often referred to as WotC), 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 the 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.

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 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.

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.

"Scorched Earth Mode"

In response to losing the license for printing Pokémon cards in 2003, Wizards of the Coast's at the time VP, Vince Calouri, launched "Scorched Earth Mode". In this, Calouri openly threatened Nintendo, telling them that, if they retracted the license, Wizards would flood the market, causing a plummet in product value, and devaluing the product for Nintendo. 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. Additionally, former members of Wizards' playtest staff alleged that, under Scorched Earth Mode, Organized Play had "given up on trying". This led to many bizarre events occurring, such as officially run Wizards' "FAT" (Fan Appreciation Tournaments) where entry was the price of two packs, but the winners were guaranteed sixteen packs as prize. Other times, it meant releasing cards with errors on purpose to suit the desires of Wizards' balancing team, such as the Best of Game Hitmonchan.

External links

• MATOBA DESIGN video highlighting Scorched Earth Mode
• Official website
  • Wizards of the Coast's Pokémon page (archived)
• Wizards of the Coast on Wikpedia
• MATOBA DESIGN interview with former Wizards of the Coasts about the Jamboree TCG set
• Wizards' Closing Announcement
• Wizards's Misc. FAQ, via Wayback Machine
• Bank of chat logs from Wizards' "Fireside chats," compiled by Chrisbo
• WizPoG Forum User first learns of "Scorched Earth Mode."

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.