Base Set Set Guide

Overview

Base Set came out in English on January 9, 1999, and set up the game as it is still played: Basic Pokémon that evolve into Stage 1 and Stage 2, Energy to pay for attacks, Trainers, and six Prize cards. Its 102 cards are 69 Pokémon, 26 Trainers and 7 Energy, and nothing in it is numbered above the printed total.

The catalog prices each card in up to three printings. 1st Edition copies carry the 1st Edition stamp; Shadowless copies came next, without the drop shadow along the right side of the art box; Unlimited is the long print run after that. They are the same card id here, so a card's page shows all three prices side by side.

Cards and rarities

Base Set has 102 cards. Every card shows its number over the printed total along the bottom, as in "4/102". Base Set cards carry no set symbol at all, one way to tell them from Base Set 2 and the later reprints, which do. BS is the short code the catalog and TurnZero HQ file the set under.

The 16 Rare Holo cards are Pokémon only, numbered 1 to 16. The six cards without a rarity are the basic Energy, 97 to 102. Set completion in TurnZero HQ counts a set against its printed total and keeps the secret rares apart, so finishing the main set and chasing the cards above it read as two separate goals. How set completion works →

Headline Pokémon

The three Stage 2 starters and the original Mewtwo. A Pokémon Power works without attacking, as often as its text allows:

Charizard

Base #4

Energy Burn turns all its Energy into Fire Energy for the turn; Fire Spin does 100 and discards 2 Energy.

Blastoise

Base #2

Rain Dance attaches any number of Water Energy from your hand to your Water Pokémon each turn; Hydro Pump does 40 plus 10 for each extra Water Energy, up to two.

Venusaur

Base #15

Energy Trans moves Grass Energy between your Pokémon as often as you like; Solarbeam does 60.

Mewtwo

Base #10

Psychic does 10 plus 10 for each Energy on the Defending Pokémon; Barrier discards a Psychic Energy to stop everything done to Mewtwo next turn.

Trainers worth knowing

Base Set's Trainers have no Item or Supporter subtype, and under the rules of the time you could play as many as you liked in a turn.

Professor Oak

Base #88

Discard your hand, then draw 7 cards.

Computer Search

Base #71

Discard 2 other cards from your hand to search your deck for any card.

Gust of Wind

Base #93

Switch one of your opponent's Benched Pokémon with their Active Pokémon.

The chase card: Charizard

Charizard

Base #4

Rarity Rare Holo, Unlimited

Card number 4/102

Market price, October 22, 2026 $954.65

Illustrator Mitsuhiro Arita

Base Set's chase card is Charizard, 4/102, illustrated by Mitsuhiro Arita. An Unlimited copy was $954.65 on October 22, 2026, and a Shadowless one $2,172.24.

The catalog lists the 1st Edition Charizard at $100,000.00, a round figure on a card that rarely trades ungraded, so treat it as a marker rather than a quote. It also prices a Black Dot Error copy at $899.99, which is the copy the set value below counts, being the cheapest.

Blastoise ($228.99) and Venusaur ($167.66) follow it. Every card in the table below costs at least twice as much in 1st Edition as in Unlimited, so check for the 1st Edition stamp before you price a copy.

Every Charizard in Base Set

Only the exact version is worth its price. The number at the bottom of the card and the rarity symbol beside it tell you which one you pulled. Reading the number and rarity symbol →

Chase cards and prices

All six are holofoil Pokémon from numbers 1 to 16, priced as Unlimited copies.

These are each card's headline TCGplayer market price on October 22, 2026. Prices can move a long way, most of all in a set's first months, so treat them as a snapshot. Each card's page shows today's price for every variant and its 90-day chart. How Pokémon card prices work →

What a complete set costs

One copy of every card in Base Set, bought as singles, cost $2,133.39 on October 22, 2026. That is the second most expensive of the six sets in the Base series.

The three most valuable cards, Charizard, Blastoise and Venusaur, come to $1,296.64, or 61% of the total. Without them the set costs $836.75. Of the 100 cards, 46 were under $2.00, together $40.22; the other 54 add up to $2,093.17.

Two cards had no TCGplayer price on file and aren't counted: Machamp and Impostor Professor Oak.

Each card is counted at its cheapest priced variant, usually an Unlimited copy rather than a 1st Edition one, or a stamped or error copy where the catalog prices one lower, at its TCGplayer market price. This is what it costs to buy the set as singles. It is not what opening packs returns, and not what a complete set would sell for, which after fees and the many cards worth cents would be noticeably less.

Playing it

Base Set is not legal in Standard or Expanded as a set: Expanded starts with the Black & White series in 2011. The catalog marks 15 of its 102 cards as legal anyway, nine of them in Standard too.

They are the six basic Energy, which are always legal; Energy Retrieval, Potion and Switch, legal in both formats; and Caterpie, Double Colorless Energy, Maintenance, PlusPower, Pokédex and Weedle, legal in Expanded only.

Each card other than basic Energy shares its name and text with a later, legal printing, which is what makes an older copy playable. Every other card in the set is legal in neither format.

Standard, Expanded and deck building rules →

Frequently Asked Questions