The McDonald’s Original Minimum★Pack (more commonly known as the McDonald’s Pokémon-e Minimum Pack) booster packs were released exclusively in Japanese McDonald’s restaurants for a limited time in 2002, from January 26 to February 24.
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They were released alongside the McDonalds E Series 2002 promos during the same time period. Those promos also came in a sealed booster pack, but only contained 1 card from the Japanese “P” promo set. They were given for free with each purchase of a Happy Meal.
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When purchasing a meal, customers could also purchase a McDonald’s Original Minimum★Pack for 180 yen. There was no purchase limit on the number of packs a customer could purchase, they just had to purchase at least 1 meal.
Each McDonald’s Original Minimum★Pack included six cards:
- A Cosmos holofoil Pokemon
- A Cosmos holofoil energy card of the same type as the foil Pokemon
- A second non-holo Pokemon card of a different type than the holofoil
- A third non-holo Pokemon card of a different type than the previous two
- A non-holo energy of the second Pokemon’s type
- A non-holo energy of the third Pokemon’s type
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Each booster pack had a fixed configuration. With 6 possible foil Pokemon, that meant that there are 6 kinds of boosters.
The front of each booster also contained a damage counter card, with die-cut damage counters. This card sits directly on top of the holofoil Pokemon card, meaning that scratches from the cardboard perforation are possible.
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Pack opening video
Chikorita Pack
Charmander Pack
Squirtle Pack
Pikachu Pack
Slowpoke Pack
Larvitar Pack
“Minimum” Rules
The fixed contents of the packs was meant to enable players to play a game with what was called “minimum” rules. Players only needed 1 McDonald’s Original Minimum★Pack each to play. The rules were as follows:
- There are no deck, discard pile, or prize cards
- Players start the game with all 6 cards from their pack in their hand
- The first player to knock out all of the opponent’s Pokemon wins.
- Players start the game as normal, putting one Pokemon into the active slot and the others on their bench.
- Players can attach 1 energy card per turn to a Pokemon as usual
- When an energy card would be discarded (either by knocking out Pokemon or retreating), return that energy card to a player’s hand instead.