Expedition Base Set Set Guide

Overview

Expedition Base Set came out on September 15, 2002, with 165 cards: 136 Pokémon, 21 Trainers and 8 Energy. It is the first set of the e-Card series and the largest set up to then.

It brought in the Supporter, a Trainer you can play only one of each turn, with six of them, Professor Oak's Research and Bill's Maintenance among them. Its Pokémon have Poké-Powers where earlier sets had Pokémon Powers. The catalog prices its cards as Normal or Holofoil copies and Reverse Holofoil, with no 1st Edition.

Cards and rarities

Expedition Base Set has 165 cards. Every card shows its number over the printed total along the bottom, as in "4/165". The cards print a set symbol, not a set code; the code here is the short one the catalog and TurnZero HQ file the set under.

The printed total is 165 and nothing is numbered above it. The 32 Rare Holo Pokémon are numbered 1 to 32. The six cards without a rarity are basic Energy. 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

Four of its holos:

Charizard

Expedition Base Set #6

Burning Energy turns all basic Energy on all your Pokémon into Fire Energy for the turn; Scorching Whirlwind does 120 and may discard Energy.

Dragonite

Expedition Base Set #9

Tailwind, from the Bench, drops your Active Pokémon's Retreat Cost to 0; Dragon Tail does 40 for each heads on two flips.

Gengar

Expedition Base Set #13

Chaos Move moves a damage counter between any two Pokémon once your opponent has 3 or fewer Prizes left.

Mew

Expedition Base Set #19

Super Psywave puts a damage counter on a Pokémon for each Energy attached to it.

Trainers worth knowing

Three of the first Supporters. You can play one each turn, and it stays beside your Active Pokémon until the turn ends:

Professor Oak's Research

Expedition Base Set #149

Shuffle your hand into your deck, then draw 5 cards.

Bill's Maintenance

Expedition Base Set #137

Shuffle a card from your hand into your deck, then draw 3.

Pokémon Nurse

Expedition Base Set #145

Remove all damage counters from one of your Pokémon, then discard its Energy.

The chase card: Dragonite

Dragonite

Expedition Base Set #9

Rarity Rare Holo

Card number 9/165

Market price, October 22, 2026 $949.79

Illustrator Kagemaru Himeno

Expedition's chase card is the Dragonite holo, 9/165, illustrated by Kagemaru Himeno, at $949.79 on October 22, 2026. Its Reverse Holofoil copy was $699.85.

Charizard ($875.00) and Gengar ($700.00) follow. Several of these are round figures; with this few copies trading, check each card's page before relying on one.

The set prints Dragonite twice, as the holo and a non-holo Rare.

Every Dragonite in Expedition 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

Six holofoil Pokémon, priced as holofoil copies rather than Reverse Holofoil.

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 Expedition Base Set, bought as singles, cost $8,343.66 on October 22, 2026. That is the least expensive of the three sets in the e-Card series.

The three most valuable cards, Dragonite, Gengar and Mewtwo, come to $1,779.38, or 21% of the total. Without them the set costs $6,564.28. Of the 165 cards, 16 were under $2.00, together $19.92; the other 149 add up to $8,323.74.

Each card is counted at its cheapest priced variant, usually a Normal copy rather than a Reverse Holofoil, or a stamped promo 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

Expedition Base Set is not legal in Standard or Expanded as a set: Expanded starts with the Black & White series in 2011. The catalog marks 13 of its 165 cards as legal anyway, nine of them in Standard too.

They are the six basic Energy, which are always legal; Energy Search, Potion and Switch, legal in both formats; and Bill's Maintenance, Copycat, Full Heal and Super Scoop Up, 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