Wizards Best of Game Promos Explained
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By: Oliver Copeland
- Published:
- Last Updated: July 31, 2024
The Pokémon TCG League – Year 4 (BattleZone)
From 1999 to late 2002, Wizard of The Coast ran the Pokémon League events in North America. Players would attend their local card shop or Toys ‘R Us and take part in trading battling, and receiving promotional cards.
It wasn’t unusual for attendees to walk away with one or more Black Star Promo Pokémon cards. As this was one of the main draws of the events.
But moving into the fourth year of the Pokémon League, Wizards started BattleZone. This was still like a regular Pokémon League event, but more flexible.
Store owners could now run events as much as they wanted, and have them be more casual if they’d like.
It is at these BattleZone events where the Wizards Best of Game promo cards could be obtained.
There Are 9 Cards In The Set
The entire set is made up of 9 cards:
- Eleztabuzz
- Hitmonchan
- Professor Elm
- Rocket’s Scizor
- Rocket’s Sneasel
- Dark Ivysaur
- Dark Venusaur
- Rocket’s Mewtwo
- Rocket’s Hitmonchan
8 of the 9 cards were available during different seasons of BattleZone events. But Professor Elm was only available at Gencon 2003, a gaming convention.
The idea behind this set was to reprint older cards that performed exceptionally well in the TCG, thus making them legal for play once again. For example, Electabuzz was released as a Best of Game promo, so players were able to play their Base Set Electabuzz at League events.
However, Rocket’s Scizor, Rocket’s Sneasel, Dark Ivysaur, and Dark Venusaur were not previously printed in English, only in Japanese. These cards are non-holo.
Most of the Best of Game promos have three versions:
- Winner stamped
- Non-Winnder stamped
- Jumbo
The winner versions were handed out as prizes to the top finishers at BattleZone events. The non-winner version was handed out to players 2 months later. So the best players would enjoy 2 months with exclusive copies of a new card.
The exceptions here are Professor Elm, which only has a non-winner version, and both Rocket’s Mewtwo and Rocket’s Hitmoncha, which only exist with winner stamps, due to the programs early closure.
The Jumbo cards were harder to obtain since only one came in each BattleZone kit sold to the store owner. Each Best of Game promo has a jumbo version with the exception of Professor Elm.
The BattleZone Kits
There were only 8 seasons of BattleZone, therefore only 8 BattleZone kits exist. If you want to see each kit opened, check out OldSkoolPokemon’s video on YouTube.
Each kit contains:
- Documentation (how to set up BattleZone)
- A Poster
- Pamphlets
- 8 Copies of the winner promo
- 16 copies of the non-winner promo
- 1 Jumbo card of the winner promo
Let’s take a look at each season individually.
November-December 2002 (Season 1)
This first season is the only season that spans two months and is often referred to as the ‘Holiday’ season.
The kit contains:
- 8 copies of Winner Electabuzz
- 16 copies of Black Star Promo 39, Midreavus
Furthermore, the Holiday kit did not come with a jumbo card. However, a jumbo Electabuzz does exist. It was awarded at the Super BattleZone events held in May 2003.
January 2003 (Season 3)
The January kit in OldSkoolPokémon’s YouTube video contained a Pikachu World Collection from the 2000 Summer Olympics. This was a surprise to Nick as well as everyone watching, as there was no documentation anywhere that suggested this was included.
My theory, which I ran by OldSkoolPokémon, is that Wizards was overstocked with extra copies of the product and was simply giving them away as extra incentives for the BattleZone events.
The kit contains:
- 8 copies of Winner Rocket’s Sneasel
- 16 copies of a reverse holo Rainbow Energy
- 1 Jumbo Winner Rocket’s Sneasel
This was the last kit to include a promo that wasn’t a Best of Game promo.
February 2003 (Season 3)
The February kit is when things start to fall in line and the kits become more predictable. No more surprises here! But this is where we get our first non-winner promo, which is Electabuzz.
The non-winner Electabuzz is identical to the winner version but without the stamp.
The kit contains:
- 8 copies of Winner Hitmonchan
- 16 copies of non-winner Electabuzz
- 1 Jumbo Winner Hitmonchan
March 2003 (Season 4)
In this kit we get multiple Rocket’s Pokémon, including Rocket’s Scizor. Both are not reprints from earlier expansions, but rather Japanese exclusives brought over to English.
As a fun fact, you’ll notice that Rocket’s Scizor doe snot evolve from Scyther.
The kit contains:
- 8 copies of Winner Rocket’s Scizor
- 16 copies of non-winner Rocket’s Sneasel
- 1 Jumbo Winner Rocket’s Scizor
April 2003 (Season 5)
March picks up after April, which is a little bit dry due to no reverse holo promos, but Hitmonchan now saves the day. We also get Dark Ivysaur, previously only available in the Pokemon Card Trainer Magazine, in Japan only.
The kit contains:
- 8 copies of Winner Dark Ivysaur
- 16 copies of non-winner Hitmonchan
- 1 Jumbo Winner Dark Ivysaur
May 2003 (Season 6)
In the April kit we got Dark Venusaur, previously only available in the Pokemon Card Trainer Magazine, along with the previously mentioned Dark Ivysaur.
The kit contains:
- 8 copies of Winner Dark Venusaur
- 16 copies of non-winner Rocket’s Scizor
- 1 Jumbo Winner Dark Venusaur
June 2003 (Season 7)
The June BattleZone kit may be the most sought-after due to Rocket’s Mewtwo being the most valuable Best of Gamr promo card.
As you already know, the program was closed before a non-winner version of Rocket’s Mewtwo could be made, making this the only version.
The kit contains:
- 8 copies of Winner Rocket’s Mewtwo
- 16 copies of non-winner Dark Ivysaur
- 1 Jumbo Winner Rocket’s Mewtwo
July 2003 (Season 8)
This is the final BattleZone kit to be released. Again, this resulted in no non-winner copies of Rocket’s Hitmonchan either, making the card even more valuable.
Furthermore, no documentation was included to explain that the program was being closed.
The kit contains:
- 8 copies of Winner Rocket’s Hitmonchan
- 16 copies of non-winner Dark Venusaur
- 1 Jumbo Winner Rocket’s Hitmonchan
Closing Announcement
Final Thoughts
So that is the story of the Wizards/BattleZone Best of Game promo cards!
Huge thanks to OldSkoolPokémon who even appeared as a guest on my podcast, specifically to discuss the BattleZone kits he opened on camera.
Hi, I'm Oliver. I've been collecting Pokémon cards for 25+ years. I hope you enjoyed your read and learned something. Learn more about me on the About page.
2 thoughts on “The Wizards Bet Of Game Promos Explained”
So wait, is that rocket’s zapdos legit?
No, unfortunately not! It’s just a mock up I made based on some information I found in the old Wizards chat logs. It sounds like they were wanting to make Rocket’s Zapdos a Best of Game promo, but The Pokémon Company said no.