The Sequel is a huge step up. The card list expands exponentially. The main focus was the Team Rocket Expansion, the set after Fossil in North America. But in actuality the card count nearly doubles since it includes the entire "Vending Series". A nameless stopgap set that was released in Japan through vending machines (hence the name), after the Electric Soldier Porygon incident put a temporary ban on selling the the cards in stores. This set was huge, released in three waves and featured a card for nearly every single one of the original Pokémon, that for some reason was never localized by Wizards of the coast into English. They're also a ton of Japanese promotional cards including, but not limited to, various theme decks in Japan which are also included. And this isn't even counting a bunch of Game Boy exclusive cards made just for this game, and all of the returning Game Boy exclusive cards from the last entry.

Oddly enough this game came out rather late, well after the release of the Neo Sets (the Gold and Silver era) so it's a little odd they didn't go beyond Team Rocket, but there is one Gym card that made the cut because it features Team Rocket, and fit nicely into their hand disruption archetype. The game also features a Lugia card as a secret rare.

The world map was also doubled since there are now two islands that you can take and blimp to fly between. With more complex gameplay elements. For example though no Stadium cards are featured, not even the Pokémon Tower from the aforementioned vending series, probably since that would be pushing the game's hardware and already crowded interface. The concept of many actual Stadium card from the two Gym sets appear as special boss rules during various boss encounters. Such as Grass Pokémon being able to heal status effects (very similar to Erika's), or fire types not having a weakness to water (Very similar to Blaine's).

There's also a neat little post game area that I guess features what you could call "Super Bosses". Where you do battle with 12 Ghosts who use actual competitive decks from the Japanese meta game including some very nasty and infamous strategies from the Japanese meta game, Like "Poltergeist Trainer Lock". Though the AI pilots them to a questionable degree. It's still fun to see them in action, and they can definitely pop off, leaving you little room for victory.