The game is for two players, each with 60-card decks (with the addition of a starting Character; see below). The aim is to force the opposite player to run out of cards from their deck first. When cards do "damage" to a player, cards from the deck are placed into the discard pile. Each player begins with a hand of seven cards, and draws a card before each of their turnsThere are eight different types of cards in the Harry Potter Trading Card Game.Lessons are the basic units of the game. Each provides 1 "Power", which is needed to play other cards. The number of Lessons in play determines the player's capabilities to play cards with different costs. There are five different Lesson cards, each of which has a different symbol and colour that is used to identify it on other cards.
Spells are cards that are played directly into the discard pile and have a given effect. They have a printed Power cost; there are Spells for each Lesson type.
Creatures stay on the table when played. All Creatures have a printed Power cost, and require Care of Magical Creatures Lessons to play. They have a Health number that determines how much damage they can take, and a "Damage each turn" number that dictates the amount of damage done to the opposing player each turn. Not all Creatures do damage; some have special abilities.
Characters do not have a printed Power cost or Lesson type and thus do not require Lessons to play, although they do take two Actions. Characters stay on the table and have special abilities that can be used by the player; some also provide Power. Each player must have a starting Character to represent them: the starting Character begins the game on the table and can not be discarded from play. Only Characters with the "Witch" or "Wizard" keyword designation can be used as starting Characters.
Adventures, like Characters, do not require Lessons to play, and take two Actions. They have an Effect on the opposing player; a "To Solve" condition that must be accomplished for the opposing player to remove the Adventure; and a Reward, which the opposing player receives when they have solved the Adventure. Each player can have only one Adventure in play at a time.
Items stay on the table when played. They have a printed Power cost and can be of any Lesson type. Some have effects that can be used, while others provide extra Power.
Matches were introduced in the Quidditch Cup expansion. They all have a printed Power cost of one, requiring Quidditch Power. They have a condition "To Win", and a "Prize" for the first player to fulfil that condition. Only one Match is allowed in play at one time.
Locations were introduced in the Diagon Alley expansion. They have a printed Power cost and can be of any Lesson type. Locations have the same effect on both players. There can be only one Location in play at any one time; playing a Location removes any previous Locations from play.
Lesson types
There are five Lesson types in the game, each applying to different cards. There is no limit on the Lesson cards in a player's deck: a player may have as many different types as they prefer.
Care of Magical Creatures (brown) is mostly used for Creature cards, although there are also a small number of Spells, Items and Locations requiring this Lesson.
Charms (blue) can be used for Spells, Items and Locations. Charms specialises in low but versatile damage and some other effects, such as locating cards from a player's deck.
Potions (green) can be used for Spells, Items and Locations. Potions cards are often very powerful and require comparatively low Power costs, although they usually require a sacrifice of a certain number of Lessons.
Quidditch (yellow) can be used for Spells, Items, Locations and Matches. This Lesson type was introduced in the Quidditch Cup expansion, and specialises in cards that have two effects at once.
Transfiguration (red) can be used for Spells, Items and Locations. These cards specialise in the removal of Creatures, Lessons and other cards from play. Some cards have keywords in addition to their card type. These keywords allow other cards to refer to a specific type of card. The "Wizard" or "Witch" designation on Character cards is an example of a keyword, as is the "Healing" designation on some other cards. Other common keywords include designations representing each of the four Hogwarts houses: Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, and Slytherin.
Some cards (including all Characters) have the keyword "Unique", which indicates that only one of them can be in play at a time (for either player).[9] The only exception is if both players have the same starting Character.
The first set of cards, now commonly called the base set, was introduced in August 2001. Since the 116-card base set was first released, four expansion sets have been introduced to vary play and expand card availability. The first three expansions, which each consist of 80 cards plus 30 Foil or Hologram Portrait Premium rares, include Quidditch Cup (November 2001), Diagon Alley (March 2002), and Adventures at Hogwarts (June 2002). Notable differences in these expansions include the addition of the Quidditch lesson type and Match cards introduced in the Quidditch Cup expansion, location cards introduced in the Diagon Alley expansion, and a larger pool of adventure cards in the Adventures at Hogwarts expansion. The fourth and final expansion released was Chamber of Secrets, which has 140 cards plus 55 Foil or Hologram Portrait Premium rares (October 2002). This last expansion features cards based on the Chamber of Secrets book, where all previous cards were based on the Philosopher's Stone book.From its conception in 2001, through 2003, the Harry Potter Trading Card Game was popular among many people and age ranges and several gaming leagues were formed. After releasing the last expansion set in 2003, Wizards of the Coast decided not to continue making HPTCG cards, though no explanation was given to the public for this decision.
Card value
Each card has its own specific value, the most valuable being 'rare' and the least being 'common'. The value of a card is shown by a symbol at the bottom right of the card, followed by the expansion set symbol and set number. A circle means that the card is common, and therefore not very valuable; a diamond means the card is uncommon, so the card has a bit of value; and a star means the card is rare, and is more valuable.
There are also cards of more value than 'rare' cards: foils and holofoils. 'Foil premium' cards are those which are partially 'shiny', having thunderbolts and stars as theme for the 'additional covering'. These are normally rare cards, but common and uncommon foils do exist. 'Holo-portraits premium', (colloquially "holofoil") are the most rare and the most valuable of all types of cards. These cards are only available for 'character' cards, which have the portrait of the character on them (origin of name). They are similar to foils, except that the picture of the character has a holographic quality which gives it a certain impression of 'popping out'.
Given the variety of card values, single cards have a price range of $.05 to $15.00.
Card availability
The cards from this game are sold in three ways: booster packs, starter decks, and theme decks. Booster packs were released for every set. Each pack contains eleven cards, which includes one rare card, two uncommon cards, six common cards, and two Lessons. If a premium card was included in a base set booster pack, it replaced the rare card. In the expansions, a premium card replaced one of the common cards.
Starter decks were made with the Base set, Diagon Alley set, and the Chamber of Secrets set. Each included two introductory decks of 40 cards, a playmat, additional instructions and two premium cards. Theme decks, a special kind of starter pack, were released to the public with the Chamber of Secrets set. These decks are the Percy Weasley Potions deck and the Twin Trouble deck. Included in each was a full 60-card deck, playable right out of the box. The packaging for two additional theme decks (Hannah Abbott's Spellcaster and Dean Thomas' Restrike) was made for a toy fair in 2001, but the products were never produced.
Playing online
Since Wizards of the Coast is no longer producing cards, there has been a decrease in the number of players for this game. For those who can not find others to play with in person, a program called LackeyCCG allows players to meet and play online. An alternative to LackeyCCG is to use Apprentice with a patch made by Pojo.com.
Lawsuit
In 2002, Wizards of the Coast filed a lawsuit against former vice president of operations Charles Federline, alleging that he cost the company more than $93,000 by undermining the bidding process for the print work for the cards.
The fictional universe of J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter series of fantasy novels comprises two separate and distinct societies: the wizarding world and the Muggle world. The Muggle world is the series' name for the world inhabited by the non-magical majority, with the wizarding world existing coextensively with it but hidden from the awareness of the non-magical "Muggles". The plot of the series is set in contemporary Great Britain, but in a veiled and separate shadow society in which magic is real, and those who can use it live in self enforced seclusion, hiding their talents from the real world. The term "wizarding world" refers to the global wizard community that lives hidden in parallel with the Muggle world; the different terms refer to different communities within the same area rather than separate planets or worlds.The society of the wizarding world is centred on two facts. The first and most obvious one is the presence and use of magic. Presented as an inborn capability to do otherwise impossible things, magic is honed through study and training into a skill. It permeates every facet of the wizarding world, as both a near-universal tool and imbued in objects, such as wands, vital amplifying/focusing devices for spells. As such, wands are used as both tools and weapons. Because of this, wizards feel naked and defenceless without a wand, although very skilled wizards and witches do not need wands to cast certain spells. Spells can have almost any effect, from finding lost objects to turning on lights, from healing to murder.Secondly, it is not considered possible for the Muggle world to coexist peacefully with the wizarding one. As such, a great deal of effort is expended in keeping the Muggles unaware of, and ignorant about, magic. Magical Laws have been enacted over the centuries, designed to keep the existence of the Magical World hidden from Muggles. Enchantment of Muggle artefacts is forbidden; underage students are restricted from using magic outside school; and any deliberate revelation of magical ability to the Muggle community is punishable, although allowances are made for the use of magic in the presence of a Muggle: if the wizard or witch is acting in self-defence or in defence of another. These laws are enforced by the Ministry of Magic, while a special arm of it, the Obliviators, has the job of making certain that Muggles who have seen magic in action will be left with no incriminating memories. Exceptions to the secrecy include wizards' Muggle relatives and the highest political leaders, such as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
Some aspects of the wizarding world are depicted as being less-than-modern in comparison to the non-wizarding world, sometimes even very old-fashioned or quaint. The technological development of the wizarding world is substantially behind that of its Muggle counterpart -- owls, for example, are a more cumbersome and slower way to send messages than simple phone calls. If one has instant access to magical power, the development of modern technology and science in the wizarding world becomes unnecessary. However, a large number of technologically complex devices do exist, and most of these devices exist in the Muggle world. From a certain perspective, it can be seen that Magic and electricity are the equivalents of each other in their respective worlds, but electronic equipment sometimes 'goes haywire' around Hogwarts, and Muggle devices used by wizards (such as cameras and radios) are able to be powered by ambient magic. Such examples are rare, however; wizards rarely make use of Muggle technology, nor do they have much interest in doing so, even when such technology might make their lives much easier. Pure-blood Wizards are baffled by how Muggle technology works and most have no interest in understanding it. There are, however, wizards who find it fascinating. Arthur Weasley is very interested in Muggle technology; his dearest dream is "to find out how an aeroplane stays up". "Muggle Studies" classes are also offered at Hogwarts for those students with an interest. On several occasions, Harry Potter is depicted as having to explain the workings of commonplace Muggle technology, such as introducing the telephone to Mr. Weasley in Chamber of Secrets; at the beginning of Prisoner of Azkaban, Ron Weasley is depicted making his first telephone call. The wizarding world has also not embraced modern Muggle modes of information transfer: instead of pens, paper, pencils, and computers, Hogwarts students are depicted in the novels and films using ink-dipped quills and parchment to take notes and do their homework.
By the time the books take place, however (1991-1998), some level of Muggle pop culture has penetrated the wizarding world. Rock music, posters, and tabloids, are commonplace. Rebellious young wizards have learned to embrace Muggle culture whole-heartedly; young Sirius Black's room was filled with pictures of Muggle pinup girls, motorcycles and rock bands. Wizards and witches who are Muggle-born, or are Half-bloods (of mixed Muggle and Magical parentage respectively) find it easier to integrate into Muggle society and take on Muggle trends as they are predisposed to Muggle ways growing up. Half-blood Gryffindor student Dean Thomas has frequent references to the adorning of his part of the dormitory with posters of football (or soccer) club West Ham. It is also stated in The Philosopher's Stone that Albus Dumbledore is an aficionado of the Muggle sport of ten pin bowling.
