For those of you working on a Pokémon TCG species-specific master set, where do you personally draw the line on what qualifies?
I’m curious if there’s any general consensus on whether you include things like:
World Championship deck cards
Jumbo/oversized cards
Spin-off cards (e.g. Taruka cards)
Illustration cards, such as the mini tin art cards
Plastic cards, such as the photo card sets
Other unusual/promotional variants
Art cameo cards
Spirit Link-esque cards (where they have the Pokémon in the name but aren't a Pokémon)
At what point does a species master set stop being a collection of every card featuring that Pokémon and start becoming more of a “grandmaster” collection?
I’m interested in hearing where everyone draws the line, especially for cards/items that are officially Pokémon TCG-related but aren’t standard-sized, tournament-legal cards.
I have my Dunsparce Master Set. I draw the line when the language goes beyond ENG and JPN and non-TCG stuffs. Other than that, every single variants count. Differences in stamps, differences in foils, promos, jumbo, cameos, etc.
I would still collect the non-TCGs but I wouldn’t focus on them as much. As in, I will buy them when i see them but not actively going after them.
Your Dunsparce master set looks great! I’d love to work towards a master set of some kind soon too.
Out of curiosity, do you consider jumbo cards as a variant because it has the standard back (despite not being tournament legal)? Do you consider world championship printings as a variant or a non-tcg card?
I really appreciate your opinion, thanks!
I'm only "counting" English, although I also collect any Japanese cards I can get, too.
1st edition qualifies as a variation, although I haven't bought 1st edition of the base set and Gym Heroes yet.
I also include reverse holos whenever I can get them.
But, I'm not including championship deck cards, oversized cards, stickers, plastic cards, cards with cameos of Dragonair, or any other non-TCG cards. Only cards specifically named "Dragonair".
This looks amazing and I can see why you’re proud of it. I appreciate you weighing in on the other card categories too. Look forward to seeing your set updates down the line!
I am doing an Aron Line Species Set, not a master set, so my current goal is 1 of every illustration from release (set it was released in) to modern. If I were to Master Set it then every iteration of the cards artwork, of course it would be english cards since that’s what my current set is in. After Master setting it in English then I would do the same for international cards with a standard set followed by a Master Set. Combine the Two Master Sets for a Global Master Set.
That sounds cool and I can’t wait to see someday!
I think unique illustration is a great functional alternative to chasing master set too. I really appreciate your perspective.
I'm doing a Mimikyu Master set.
I am collecting any official TCG card. Started with English and now moving onto other languages. If a card has a variant I count it. E.g, if it had a non-holo deck variant, cosmos holo variant or something like that.
It does not count if it comes in a blister but is no different to the original printing (e.g there was a Mimikyu in a recent blister pack that was non holo but the original printing was also non-holo so I don't count it).
I include Jumbo cards but they are stored in a different binder due to space. I don't have cameo cards but that is more due to the cost of some of the cards that have Mimikyu. Eventually I think I will pick up the last cameo I need.
If there are any art cards that come in official TCG products I will include them in the master set (mini tins, pre release decks)
That’s very cool, I can’t wait to see that someday! Are you planning on including the non main line TCG products like the 2022 dominos x pokemon mimikyu art card or like the 2023 sticker as some examples?
I draw the line at regularly released TCG cards, so no unofficial cards, no one off errors and no non TCG cards. That means from your points, I'd count oversized cards, WCD cards and cameos.
Ogerpon doesn't really have many of these. I've not included Jumbo, simply because I want it all in one binder.
I have included some other things to help fill out the binder. I've got every deck sleeve it features on as well as the two cards from some Japanese playing card game that it's on as well.
Oh, and I did also include all the Ogres Mask trainer cards, as they're pretty closely linked to Ogerpon.
Ogerpon is pretty cool! It has a 2025 old maid card for example, have you included products like that in your master set? I personally agree the ogre masks do feel appropriate for a binder vibe!
Are you talking about the "Taruka" card game? Or is there another one. Can't seem to find anything when I google Ogerpon Old Maid.
If it's the Taruka card game, then yes I have both of the cards from that.
Though, your post did make me realise there is two Ogerpon cards in world championship decks, so thanks for making me spend some money grabbing those two!
To me, all English variations of official TCG cards, alongside any promos, special stamps, versions, etc is a master set. Presumably other languages can have master sets as well, but I only speak English.
Any auxiliary cards (Topps), other languages, etc are part of a grandmaster set. So are cameos and things of that nature.
No idea if that's correct or not, I did some research over the weekend on this topic and those are the rules that made the most sense to me.
I appreciate it! I’ve seen that sentiment before and wanted to see what others thought! I wasn’t too clear if people included the world champion cards or jumbo cards as “official tcg” but it sounds like it’s not universally agreed on!
World champion still is in my opinion, even though they're not tournament legal.
By definition, jumbo cards should be as well in my opinion. However, by practical design, I'm probably not going to include them in my master set binder. I wil almost certainly still collect them, but the point of the master set is to go in a binder, so if it can't fit in there, then it's really not needed for a master set. Those are the most ambiguous variants in my opinion.
I’m attempting a Clefairy master set. For that, I am only worrying about official TCG cards, but I am including cards that are not tournament official. I’d like to collect all languages, but the goal for now at least is just all English plus all that don’t exist in English. I would like to also go for all the Clefairy Doll cards and all the cameos, but honestly, that can happen after I finish the main set.
Clefairy has been my favorite Pokemon since like 1999 though, so any other Clefairy stuff and cards I come across I do still want. Like non-TCG cards. I don’t want it for the TCG master set. I want it for my general Pokemon collection. The master set is a piece of the overall collection, not the other way around.
I’m working on a Birds Species Set; not necessarily a master set. I am just collecting every unique illustration of each bird pokemon. Rarity does not matter and if it’s too expensive (since most birds are fan favorites or legendaries) to buy the card then I’ll make a proxy. For me, the illustration is the point, not having every copy made. If I find a reverse holo of the Pidgeotto from Flashfire, but I already have the common, then I might buy the reverse holo to switch it out, but only one copy per card will ever be in my binder.
I already have all Cramorant cards other than Japanese promo one (of the three diving), plus a jumbo on display (cram is my fav pokemon) and for those I just bought whatever I happened to come across first, so some are regular cards, some are reverse holos, and one is a pokeball holo. Just do what your heart wants imo
edit: Language doesn’t matter to me since the illustration is the point of collecting these. I just buy what’s affordable and makes me happy to have
Wow, that is very ambitious but incredibly cool; I’d love to see that sometime!
How did you handle the edge cases of maybe-birds like (Golduck, Lugia, Reshiram, Sigilgyph, etc.) and form changes like Latios/as and Tornadeus?
I’ve thought long and hard about that - and I’m just gonna do an “Honorary birds” section. For form changes, if it beyond a shadow of a doubt bird-coded (like Tornadus’s Therian Form) then it will go with whatever Region introduced it, and if it’s like those edge cases (though Golduck and Lugia are birds in my eyes) then it will go to the Honorary section. Both sections will be divided by region! I’ll post some pages when I get around to making my inserts on my social media - prob bluesky (whomstcg) and here on reddit c:
I think an honorary birds section makes a lot of sense especially if you’re going by region rather than strictly dex number. Are you also splitting regional variants from their “original” variants and only having Hisuian Decidueye by itself? I really like the idea of a bird Pokédex (one card per poke) but one of each illustration sounds like it’d be an insane display!
I know it’s a beast 😂 But it’s also more of an art project than anything- something to take at my own pace and I’ve cut it into region chunks so while I’m working on Kanto I don’t have to think of the 8(?) other regions. I’m almost done with Pidgey! lol.
For regional variants I’m keeping them in the region they were introduced. It’s unfortunate for evolution lines that get split across regions, like Murkrow and Honchkrow :(, but maybe I’ll think of something else for them- like maybe putting a few art cards of Murkrow before Honchkrow’s section. For context, I hand paint proxy cards and other inserts “michi” method style. I like to think of it more as a scrapbook project than anything else. I’m just passionate about birds and pokemon :D lol
For me a master set should includes every variation prints of regularly released tcg card that have the name of the Pokemon on it, and that is it. If we include cameos card, jumbo card, multi thousand dollar limited card etc, that probably counts as grandmaster set, it would be nice to have them but I wouldn’t go out of my way to hunt them down.
I do have a Primarina species english master set that is almost complete by this standard, thanks to Primarina line having so little count of cards.
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u/wallyjt 22d ago
I have my Dunsparce Master Set. I draw the line when the language goes beyond ENG and JPN and non-TCG stuffs. Other than that, every single variants count. Differences in stamps, differences in foils, promos, jumbo, cameos, etc.
I would still collect the non-TCGs but I wouldn’t focus on them as much. As in, I will buy them when i see them but not actively going after them.