Team Rocket has been the Pokémon series' villain since the first games, a crime syndicate run by Giovanni and, in the anime, represented by Jessie, James, and Meowth. In the card game, its Pokémon got their own mechanic: Dark Pokémon, meaner and harder-hitting versions of familiar Pokémon, printed with a darker frame. They appeared in Japan in 1997, reached English in 2000, and came back in Neo Destiny in 2002 and again in 2004. This is the story of the three Team Rocket sets, and of two cards from them, a Japanese Dark Dragonair and an EX-era Dark Tyranitar.
Rocket Gang, Japan, 1997
The Japanese Rocket Gang expansion came out on November 21, 1997, the fourth Japanese set, published by Media Factory. It had 65 cards, sold in 10-card packs priced at ¥291 before tax. Like other early Japanese sets, its cards have no collector numbers. Rarity is marked with a symbol, a circle for common, a diamond for uncommon, and a star for rare, and checklists sort the cards by Pokédex number instead. That is why collectors and PSA refer to Dark Dragonair as No. 148, its number in the Pokédex.
Japan also had no 1st Edition stamp in those years. The stamp arrived there in 2001, so 1997 Japanese cards carry no edition marking, and condition matters most to their value.
Ungraded · Japanese Rocket Gang, 1997
Kagemaru Himeno's Dark Dragonair from the original 1997 Japanese printing, an uncommon. Ungraded, sold as pictured.
$10.00 View card
Team Rocket, English, 2000
Wizards of the Coast released the English Team Rocket set on April 24, 2000, with 82 cards plus a secret 83rd, Dark Raichu. That was the first secret card in the English game, and Wizards created it for the English release, with art by Mitsuhiro Arita. Adding the extra card held the set back by about three months. Team Rocket was printed in 1st Edition and Unlimited, in 11-card packs with a holo in roughly one pack in three and 36 packs to a box. The set also had the first holo Trainer and Energy cards, and two theme decks, Devastation and Trouble.
Dark Raichu 83/82, the first secret card in the English game.
Dark Pokémon were the point of the set. Their artwork windows and text boxes are printed in brown and black, and they tend to hit harder with lower HP, which fits the card game's explanation that they were raised badly by Team Rocket. The best-known are the holo Dark Blastoise 3/82 and Dark Charizard 4/82, and the Here Comes Team Rocket! Trainer holo.
Dark Blastoise 3/82, Dark Charizard 4/82, and the Here Comes Team Rocket! Trainer holo, 15/82.
Dark Dragonair appears in the English set as 33/82, an uncommon painted by Kagemaru Himeno, and it evolves into the holo Dark Dragonite 5/82. It has 60 HP, a Pokémon Power called Evolutionary Light that lets you search your deck for an Evolution card, and an attack called Tail Strike. The card was reprinted in Legendary Collection in 2002, and the Japanese Rocket Gang version is the original printing of the same artwork.
EX Team Rocket Returns, 2004
By 2004 Wizards no longer published the card game, and Pokémon sets came out under Nintendo and Pokémon USA. EX Team Rocket Returns, released in November 2004 and based on the Japanese Rocket Gang Strikes Back, brought the villains back. It has 111 cards, including two secret cards, a Charmeleon and a new Here Comes Team Rocket!
The set revived Dark Pokémon as dual Darkness types and added Rocket's Pokémon, including 11 Rocket's Pokémon-ex with spiked artwork borders, among them Rocket's Mewtwo ex, Rocket's Scizor ex, and Rocket's Snorlax ex. It also introduced the Gold Star rarity with the three Hoenn starters, Torchic, Treecko, and Mudkip. Packs held nine cards, including one foil and one rare, with 36 packs to a box, and the wrappers featured Gyarados, Mewtwo, Scyther, and Tyranitar. The two theme decks were named for Jessie and James.
The three Gold Star cards in EX Team Rocket Returns: Torchic 108/109, Treecko 109/109, and Mudkip 107/109.
Dark Tyranitar, 19/109
Dark Tyranitar 19/109, illustrated by Nakaoka, is a Darkness-type Stage 2 with 120 HP that evolves from Dark Pupitar. Its attacks are Grind, Spinning Tail, which hits every one of your opponent's Pokémon, and Bite Off, which does 50 more damage to a Pokémon-ex. In Japan, the same card was a holo rare, 070/084. The English set has a second Dark Tyranitar at 20/109, with different art by Kyoko Koizumi, and a holo of that one came in the Jessie theme deck. The 19/109 also exists as a reverse holo, so it is worth checking which version a listing is before buying.
Ungraded · EX Team Rocket Returns, 2004
Nakaoka's Dark Tyranitar, the regular non-holo rare from Team Rocket Returns. Ungraded, sold as pictured.
$95.00 View card
The world around the three sets
In 1997 the Pokémon anime premiered in Japan on April 1, and Rocket Gang arrived that November. In the United States, the English Team Rocket set landed in April 2000, a few weeks after Pokémon Stadium and three months before Pokémon the Movie 2000.
The 2004 release came in a different world. Pokémon Colosseum had come out for the GameCube in March with its own dark twist, Shadow Pokémon corrupted by a group called Cipher. Yu-Gi-Oh! The Movie opened fourth at the box office in August. Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen, remakes of the games where Team Rocket first appeared, came out on September 7, and Pokémon: Advanced Challenge started on Kids' WB that month.
Collecting Dark Pokémon today
Team Rocket is having another moment. Japan's The Glory of Team Rocket came out in April 2025 and fed into the English Destined Rivals set that May, which returned to Team Rocket's Pokémon, as we cover in our guide to Gym Heroes. Older Rocket sets are scarce sealed. As of September 2026, PriceCharting tracked a sealed EX Team Rocket Returns booster pack at about $1,970, and the few sealed boxes sold since 2024 have mostly gone for between $26,200 and $82,500. Japanese Rocket Gang cards remain a less expensive way into vintage Dark Pokémon, and they carry the original printing of the art. The Dark Pokémon mechanic also returned in Neo Destiny in 2002.
Keep reading
- Vintage Pokémon cards, era by era: a collector's guide
- Gym Heroes (2000): when the cards belonged to the Gym Leaders
- The Neo era: Genesis, Discovery, Revelation, and Destiny
- Pokémon Fossil (1999): Aerodactyl and the fall of the first movie
Browse the graded and ungraded Pokémon cards we carry in Artifacts.
Frequently asked questions
What are Dark Pokémon in the Pokémon TCG? Pokémon raised by Team Rocket, printed with a brown and black frame. They first appeared in the 1997 Japanese Rocket Gang set and the 2000 English Team Rocket set, returned in Neo Destiny, and came back again in EX Team Rocket Returns in 2004.
What is the difference between Japanese Rocket Gang and English Team Rocket? Rocket Gang is the original Japanese set from November 1997, with 65 cards and no collector numbers. Team Rocket is the English version from April 2000, with 82 cards plus a secret Dark Raichu that Wizards created for the English release.
Why don't vintage Japanese Pokémon cards have set numbers? Early Japanese sets marked rarity with symbols and printed no collector numbers, so collectors identify the cards by Pokédex number, like No. 148 for Dragonair.
Are Japanese Rocket Gang cards 1st Edition? No. Japan had no 1st Edition stamp until 2001, so the 1997 Rocket Gang cards have no edition marking.
Is Dark Tyranitar 19/109 a holo? The regular card is a non-holo rare, and a reverse holo version also exists. A separate Dark Tyranitar, 20/109, came as a holo in the Jessie theme deck.
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Stories behind the things we carry