Pokemon the Trading Card Game has been around quiet awhile, and unlike other TCG (Trading Card Games) very little has changed over the years. This makes Pokemon fun to play for every generation and very successful finically. Today, I’m here to teach you how to play this game of Pocket Monsters. It may seem complicated at first, but when you get it down you’ll be able to play in your sleep.

Step one, of course, is building a Deck.

Overview of the Deck

• 60 Cards
• Pokemon Cards
• Basic Pokemon
• Baby Pokemon
• Evolutionary Pokemon
• Delta Species
• LV. X
• Gym Leaders
• Dual-Type
• Trainer Cards
• Energy Cards
• Basic Energy
• Special Energy

Each deck has sixty (60) cards. Each deck must contain Pokemon cards, Energy cards, and may have Trainer Cards. These cards will be explained right down there. Feel free to scroll past the explanation of them if you already know what they do.

Pokemon:

They come in many different kinds, types, and species. Let’s look at the differences between cards.

Basic Pokemon: These are Pokemon that do not evolve or the first stage of evolution. Keep in mind, some Pokemon now have earlier stage evolutions. A Pikachu printed in 1999 won’t need a Pichu to be played. Basic Pokemon can be played from the Bench or your hand in Active mode which I’ll explain later on. These Pokemon are vital to victory!

Baby Pokemon: These are relatively new Pokemon that come before ‘Basic’ Pokemon and other Pokemon who can evolve to Stage 1. This allows you to play Pichu and still be able to evolve it to a, say, 1999 Pichcu. Baby Pokemon often have special powers known as Poke-Power which will be explained later. While their Hit Points seem weak, they sometimes have awesome attacks.

Evolved Pokemon: You can tell these Pokemon apart by the icon on the left corner of the card. It has what Pokemon it evolved from and what stage the card it. They cannot be played directly on the field. You must have the Basic Pokemon on the field before evolving.

Delta Species: Delta Pokemon are Pokemon with types that they wouldn’t normally have. An Oddish is usually Grass Type. An Oddish as a Delta Species could be Fighting, even Fire!

LV. X: These cards play lot like Evolved Pokemon. You place them on existing Pokemon. It given them higher Hit Points, better attacks, and let’s you keep its Poke-Power and Poke-Bodies from its pervious ‘form’. It’s like evolving a Pokemon that can’t evolve!

Gym Leader: These are fun cards. They’re Pokemon who belong to Gym Leaders. With the combination of different Trainer cards, they can make the game really interesting!

Dual-Type: These are Pokemon who have two types printed on the card. Dual-Types can also be Pokemon who have a Poke-Body that allows it to change the type it is or be more than one type it is.

Trainer:

Trainer cards are very useful! They can allow you to draw an extra card, replace energy, put on opponent to a disadvantage, and even allow you to withdraw and swap your Pokemon! While it’s entirely possible to have a Pokedeck (The combination of the work Pokemon a Deck) without them, I highly recommend putting a few useful ones in. There are a few sub-types of Trainer cards, let me list them for you.

Pokémon Tools: They’re like Pokeitems (cobination of Pokemon and Items) from the video game. A Pokemon can cary one of these cards around, but no more than one. It may stay until the Pokemon is Knocked Out, or if certain conditions are met.

Stadium cards: These cards are like Gyms in the Video games. These cards can stay on the field until another Stadium is played or another card forces you to remove it from the field. These cards effect the whole field, so if its giving you an advantage, your opponent gets the same one, so becareful!

Supporter Cards: Remember Bill from the very first set of Pokemon cards? Now’er days, these are called Supporters. You can only play one per turn.

Energy:

These are very important cards. Even more important then high powered Pokemon, because without, these you can’t attack, so stack them up. These are several kinds of energies that Pokemon may use. Just so you know, we’ll run them down here.

Green with a leaf symbol: This is Grass Energy. It’s used by Pokemon like Bulbasaur. Unlike the video game, there are no poison or bug types so many bugs and poison pokemon are Grass Energy. Of course, Grass Pokemon are Grass Energy. Some Delta speices of non-grass Pokemon are grass as well.

Brownish with a fist symbol: This is Fighting Energy. It’s used by Pokemon like Machomp. Unlike the video game, there are no rock or ground types, so many if not all of these Pokemon are this type. Some Delta species are this as well.

Purple with an eye symbol: This is Psychic Energy. It’s used by Pokemon like Abra. Unlike the video game, there are no Ghost or Poison types. The Poison Pokemon who aren’t grass end up being Psychic for some reason, maybe because they’re purple too. And all Ghost Pokemon, unless they have a subtype of Dark, end up being Psychic as well. As above, Delta Species are Psychic.

Blue with a drop: This is the Water Energy. It’s used for Pokemon like Magicarp. Since there are no Dragon Energy in the card game, many Dragons are this type. Same thing with Ice Pokemon. This Energy is also manipulated by the Delta Species.

Yellow with a thunder bolt: This is Electric Energy. Sometimes called Thunder, or Lightening, they’re all the same things so don’t let that fool you. It’s used by Electric Pokemon (Whole and subtype) only. Pretty straight forward. Delta Species can come in this type.

Red with a flame: This is the Fire Energy. It’s used by Pokemon like Charmander. It’s used only by Pokemon who are fire type (or have a fire subtype like Inferable). Many Delta species are available as fire.

Black with what could be an eye looking up or something like that: This is Darkness Energy. Otherwise known as Black, or Dark energy. It’s one of the newer energies and is used for the newer Dark species of Pokemon. Some ghosts like Sableye get this energy as well because of their dark subtype. Delta species, bla bla…

Greyish with an upside down triangle with three brackets around the tips: This is the other newest basic energy called Metal Energy, also known as Steel Energy. Steel Pokemon, both whole and partial, get this type all to themselves.

And last but not least…

White with a six prong star: This energy is Colourless Energy. This is one of the most important energies in the game. In play, Pokemon with this energy by it’s attack can use any kind of energy. It is also the energy for normal type, flying , and some dragon type pokemon.

Remember, many Pokemon from the game have more than one type, so it is possible to find your favorite Pokemon in more than one type.

There are special energies as well, that could improve your game. Because I’m nice, I’ll let you in on the secret. You can only have four special energies in your deck. Here are some:

Call Energy: It allows you to use it as a colourless energy and then let’s use look for two basic Pokemon in your deck. What more could you want?

Double Rainbow Energy: They can give you two types of energy, any two types. The catch is, it has to be an evolve Pokemon. It’s like an energy bomb for big kids.

Scramble Energy: If you have more than one prize card (Get to those later) left than your opponent, this card lets you have any type of energy but only three at a time, but only if your Pokemon is evolve. So think Double Rainbow Energy plus one.

Now that you have a deck built, go find someone to play with or make another deck to practice against. Because we’re about to move on to game play.

Overview of the Gameplay

• Shuffle
• Prize Cards
• Draw
• Active Pokemon
• Benched Pokemon
• The Turn
• Active Pokemon
• Energy
• Trainer
• Evolve
• Poke-Bodies and Poke-Powers
• Battle
• Damage counters
• Hit Points
• Weakness and resistance
• Retreat
• Conditions
• Loss and Victory

First, let’s start this game out with a friendly game shuffle. After your deck is nice and shuffled, take six cards from the top of the deck and lay them out on the side, preferable to the right. And lay ‘em all out, just lay ‘em all out. Face down, of course. These are your rewards for Knocking out an opponent’s Pokemon. If you collect them all, you win the game! (Remember, if you Knock Out an EX-Pokemon you can claim two prizes)

Draw your hand. Seven cards will do it. You have to have at least one Basic Pokemon in your hand. If you don’t, show your hand to your opponent and then shuffle it into your deck and draw seven again. As a concelation prize for your sucky drawing, your opponent can draw two cards.

Place down some Basic Pokemon on your bench, as the name implies, these Pokemon will join the battle later. And then place down a Basic Pokemon face down in the middle of your card playing area. This will be the Pokemon you start with. This Pokemon is called Active.

Flip a coin to see who goes first. Each of you flip your face down cards over.

It’s your turn. Draw a card. You must draw a card each time your turn comes around. If you can’t draw a card on your turn, you lose, so use your cards wisely. On your turn, you may attach Energy cards, evolve your Pokemon, use Poke-bodies, and Poke-Powers all before attacking! How neat is that?

When Pokemon do battle, they get these things called damage counters. It can be anything, be it corn, those shiny stones that come in starter kids, or pennies. Damage counters are a great way of keeping track of damage done to your Pokemon.

Pokemon have Hit Points, or HP. In the older cards it’s in red, in the newer ones it’s in black. But either way, it’s on the right next to its type. Keep on eye on this. The damage counters pile up quicky, and when your Pokemon runs out of HP, it gets Knocked Out, so watch out.

And what is Knocked Out, you ask? It’s when your Pokemon run out of HP. It then becomes Fainted, and you must discard it. Some cards let you revive them, but don’t rely on them.

Okay, moving along. At the bottom of a Pokemon card is Weakness, Resistance, and Retreat Cost.

We’ll talk about Weakness first. Most Pokemon have a Weakness. In the older cards, it’s whatever the Energy Type is doubled, in the Newer cards it gives a number like plus ten or something like that. For example, a Rhydon from 1998 will take 60 from Turtwig’s Razor Leaf instead of 30, whereas Turwig would only take 30 from Slugma’s Flare instead of 20. This can make or break a battle so keep an eye on this!

Resistance is much like the new Weakness. The Energy is under the label Resistance, and next to that is a number that you’d subtract from the Pokemon attack. For example, a Rhyhorn has an Electric Resistance of 30. Pikachu has a Fighting Weakness of ten. Pikachu’s Volt Tackle does 50 normally, but because of its Resistance it only does 20. It takes 10 damage to itself. Now the Pikachu is at 50. Rhyhorn’s Horn Attack does 30, plus Pikachu’s Weakness of 10, making his attack 40. Pikachu now has only 10 HP left.

And finally, the Retreat Cost. Believe it or not, but it’ll cost you Energy if you want your Pokemon to high tail it outta there. If you can pay that cost, the Pokemon will go to the Bench and one Bench Pokemon will become your Active Pokemon. It’s great to have a power-house like a Wailord on the field, but if something goes horrible wrong it’ll cost you four Energys to run away

Sometimes during a battle, a Pokemon may become Confused, Paralyzed, Poisoned, or Asleep. This’ll affect your Pokemon’s ability to use Poke-Bodies and Poke-Powers, not to mention attacks and retreating. Here are the rulings for this.

Asleep- When your Pokemon falls Asleep, it can’t attack, retreat, use it special powers, or items. Turn it sideways. After each player’s turn, flip a coin. The one you used earlier will do. On heads, its up an’ att’em for your Pokemon. Turn it right side up. If its tails, its still asleep.

Confused- When your Pokemon is confused you have to flip a coin when ever it attacks or whenever you try and run away (Retreat). Turn the card so the top faces you. If you try to retreat, you still have to pay, even though if its tails you can’t run. The same goes for attacking. With heads, you’re good to go, when its tails, it does 20 damage to itself! (If your Pokemon has a weakness or a resistance to its own type, or if there is some other affect that would alter the attack, apply these things as usual.)

Paralyzed- It can't attack or retreat when its like this. Turn the Pokemon sideways. If an Active Pokemon is Paralyzed it recovers after its player's next turn. Turn the card right-side up again.

Poisoned- When a Pokemon gets Poisoned, place a "poison marker" on it to show that is poisoned. This is like a Damage Counter, only make sure its different so you don’t get confused. As long as it's still Poisoned, the Pokemon takes 10 damage to its HP after each player's turn, ignoring Weakness and Resistance. If an attack would poison a Pokemon that is already Poisoned, it doesn't get doubly poisoned; instead the new Poison condition replaces the old one.

Pokemon can have more then one condition. If it is asleep, Confused, or Paralyzed, and a new attack is made against it that causes it to become Asleep, Confused, or Paralyzed, the old condition is erased and only the new one counts. But these three conditions are the only attack effects that erase each other. For example, a Pokemon can be Confused and Poisoned at the same time. (<- Stole this part ‘cause I’m lazy)

Victory (And Lossing) can be achived when one of three things happen. One is retreiving all of the prize cards, another one is the loss of all ones playable Pokemon, and the third is being decked a term which here means having no more cards to draw at the start of the turn.

Now you know how the game is played, let’s get collectable. There are first editions, promonitional, holographic, uncommon, and rare. You can tell what they are by just looking at the card. In the lower corner of the cards to the right there is either a circle, a diamond, and a star. Circle is common, a diamond is uncommon, and a star is rare. Holographic cards have a shininess to them. Promonitional cards come from things like Burger King and Movies. And of course first edition are cards that are first printed in their park set. Four sets are released every year so…

Go out and collect, trade, and play them all!