Team Rocket Returns Set Guide

Overview

Team Rocket Returns came out on November 1, 2004, with 111 cards: 97 Pokémon, 12 Trainers and 2 special Energy. Its 11 Pokémon-ex all belong to Team Rocket, from Rocket's Mewtwo ex to Rocket's Zapdos ex, and 30 of its other Pokémon are Dark Pokémon.

It printed the first Pokémon Star cards, also called Gold Stars: Mudkip ★, Torchic ★ and Treecko ★, numbered above the printed total of 109 with a secret Charmeleon and Here Comes Team Rocket!. Only one Pokémon Star is allowed in a deck.

Cards and rarities

Team Rocket Returns has 111 cards. Every card shows its number over the printed total along the bottom, as in "4/109". 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 109. The three Pokémon Star cards are 107 to 109, inside it, and the two secret rares above it are Charmeleon and Here Comes Team Rocket!. 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

A Gold Star and two of Rocket's Pokémon-ex:

Torchic ★

Team Rocket Returns #108

One Pokémon Star per deck. Spring Back does 70 and Confuses when your opponent has 1 Prize card left.

Rocket's Mewtwo ex

Team Rocket Returns #99

Darkness Switch swaps all its damage counters with the Defending Pokémon's; Psyburn does 70.

Rocket's Zapdos ex

Team Rocket Returns #106

Darkness Guard reduces damage by 10 while it has Darkness Energy; Raging Thunder does 60 and 30 to one of your Pokémon.

Trainers worth knowing

A Supporter and Team Rocket's Energy:

Rocket's Admin.

Team Rocket Returns #86

Each player shuffles their hand into their deck and draws up to as many cards as they have Prizes left.

R Energy

Team Rocket Returns #95

For Dark or Rocket's Pokémon only. Provides 2 Darkness Energy and adds 10 damage to its attacks.

The chase card: Torchic ★

Torchic ★

Team Rocket Returns #108

Rarity Rare Holo Star

Card number 108/109

Market price, October 17, 2026 $6,500.00

Illustrator Masakazu Fukuda

Team Rocket Returns' chase card is Torchic ★, 108/109, illustrated by Masakazu Fukuda, listed at $6,500.00 as last read on October 17, 2026.

Treecko ★ ($4,500.00) and Mudkip ★ ($2,500.00) follow, both also last priced in mid-October. These are round figures on cards that seldom sell ungraded, so treat them as markers. The most valuable Pokémon-ex is Rocket's Mewtwo ex, at $1,499.99 on October 22, 2026.

Torchic ★ is printed once in the 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

The three Gold Stars, then Team Rocket's Pokémon-ex. The prices for Torchic ★ (October 17), Treecko ★ (October 17) and Mudkip ★ (October 18) are the last the catalog read before October 22, 2026.

These are each card's headline TCGplayer market price on October 22, 2026, except where a row gives an earlier day because the catalog had no newer price. 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 Team Rocket Returns, bought as singles, cost $21,337.38 on October 22, 2026. That is the second most expensive of the sixteen sets in the EX series.

The three most valuable cards, Torchic ★, Treecko ★ and Mudkip ★, come to $13,500.00, or 63% of the total. Without them the set costs $7,837.38. Of the 111 cards, 17 were under $2.00, together $18.89; the other 94 add up to $21,318.49.

Four cards' prices are older than October 22, 2026, because the catalog had no newer one: Rocket's Snorlax ex (104), $400.00 on October 10, Mudkip ★ (107), $2,500.00 on October 18, Torchic ★ (108), $6,500.00 on October 17 and Treecko ★ (109), $4,500.00 on October 17. They are counted at that price.

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

Team Rocket Returns is not legal in Standard or Expanded as a set: Expanded starts with the Black & White series in 2011. The catalog marks two of its 111 cards as legal anyway, in Expanded only.

They are Copycat and Here Comes Team Rocket!.

Each 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