Summary

The Harry Potter Trading Card Game was a card game by Wizards of the Coast, based on the Harry Potter books (primarily the first, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone). Play as characters from the Harry Potter universe and utilize spells and creatures to defeat your opponent by decking them.

The game was distributed in starter decks, preconstructed decks, and 11-card booster packs.

Like the Star Trek and Star Wars card games, this game has a player group which sporadically releases new virtual card sets, with the last set releasing in August 2026 (as of this writing). As always, we don't consider virtual sets for purposes of card game lifetime, so this game is defunct.

Card Types

• Character - Cards representing people. Each has a keywords and an ability. Each player must start the game with a Witch or Wizard character.
• Spells - Cards representing spells you can cast. Each has a cost and effect, and belongs to one of the five lesson types (Care of Magical Creatures, Charms, Potions, Quidditch, and Transfiguration).
• Creature - Cards representing magical creatures. Each has a cost and HP, and may have an effect and/or an amount of recurring damage. All are Care of Magical Creatures lesson typed.
• Item - Cards representing items that characters can use. Each has a cost and effect, and belongs to one of the five lesson types.
• Adventure - Cards representing "goals" for a player. Each affects the opponent with a downside, has a condition for them to solve, and provides a reward when solved.
• Location - Cards representing places, introduced in the Diagon Alley expansion. Each has a cost and an effect that affects both players. Each belongs to one of the five lesson types.
• Match - Cards representing Quidditch matches. Each has a cost, condition to win, and prize that the first player to win the match receives. All are Quidditch lesson typed.
• Lesson - Cards belonging to one of the five lesson types, which are used to pay costs to play other cards.

Sets and Decks

The game saw a total of five sets released: Base Set, Quidditch Cup, Diagon Alley, Adventures at Hogwarts, and Chamber of Secrets. The first four sets were based on the first book, while the last set was based on the second book.

Three sets (Base Set, Diagon Alley, and Chamber of Secrets) had two-player starter decks available. Chamber of Secrets also had one-player preconstructed "theme" decks.

All sets include foil cards (of all rarities) and holo-portrait cards (rarer than rare, but all are character cards).

Deck Composition and Contents

Starter Decks

Two-Player starter decks were available for three sets. Each had a 40-card deck for Hermione and a 40-card deck for Draco (in addition to the character cards themselves), and included two foil cards (Hermione and Draco characters for Base Set, River Troll with Hermione and Norbert with Draco for Diagon Alley, and Chimera with Hermione and Manticore with Draco for Chamber of Secrets). A selection of cards from each deck could be combined to form a full deck. (A full deck is 60 cards, plus a starting character that is not part of the deck.)

Starter deck contents were fixed, each set's starter always included the same 82 cards. The decks themselves are a mix of common and uncommon cards, together with the two foil cards (which may be starter-only rarity? I'm not completely sure).

Each starter included a sheet of 12 damage tokens, a playmat with basic rules on it, and an advanced rulebook.

Theme Decks

Two preconstructed theme decks (Percy Weasley Potions and Twin Trouble) were released with the Chamber of Secrets set. They included 60 cards, plus a character. Each deck has one foil card in it (which, like the starter decks other than the Base Set one, is not the character). (A full deck is 60 cards, plus a starting character that is not part of the deck.)

Preconstructed deck contents were fixed, and the boxes indicated which deck you would get. The decks themselves are a mix of common and uncommon cards, plus a rare starting character, together with the foil card (which may be starter-only rarity? I'm not completely sure).

* The included playmat has basic gameplay rules on it. The box also includes a card list sheet that covers multiple sets (and with deckbuilding tips on it) and a survey sheet.

Deck Rarity Analysis

It's unclear to me whether the cards marked rare and holo-portrait rare are available in booster packs. If they aren't, these starter decks are great.

If they are, this is pretty standard for starter decks (and would be consistent with what Wizards did with Pokemon theme decks, including a holofoil card that could also be found in boosters). Not the worst, and the decks are marked with which deck they are. This is fine.

Alan's Thoughts On The Game

Will be updated once I've played the game.

Resources

• Harry Potter Trading Card Game Revival (includes rules, info, and a full card listing)
• Starter Deck Card List (AlanvDotOrg Randomjunk)