Base Set is the first English Pokémon Trading Card Game expansion set.
The English Base Set was released in North America on January 9, 1999. It introduced English-speaking collectors to the card game’s original translated roster, artwork, attacks, energy cards, and battle rules.
The set is closely associated with the franchise’s late-1990s international boom. Its cards included iconic Pokémon such as Charizard, Blastoise, Venusaur, and Pikachu, making the set a major part of Pokémon’s collecting culture during the 30th-anniversary era.
A frequent source of confusion is the Japanese release history. Japan’s first Pokémon card set was released earlier, in 1996, under the name Expansion Pack. “Base Set” is the standard English name, while Jungle and Fossil were later English expansions rather than the starting set.