How to play the Pokemon Card Game

What Will You Need to Play? Well, you and your opponent each need your own deck of 60 cards, a coin to flip, and some counters to record damage to your Pokémon. You can use pennies or dimes or whatever else you want if you run out of counters.

What is the Pokémon Game Play Like? Well, You and your opponent are Pokémon trainers, battling to see who is the greatest Pokémon trainer of all time! You and your deck of cards (those are your Pokémon and the abilities you have as trainer) will fight against your opponent and his or her deck.

You will have one of your Pokémon, called your "Active Pokémon," fighting for you. You can have other Pokémon waiting behind the Active Pokémon on your "Bench." If your Active Pokémon loses the fight by getting Knocked Out, then you will pick one of those Pokémon on your Bench to be your new Active Pokémon.

Object of the Game

You will win the game if any one or more of these events occur:

You win if you collect all of your Prize cards. When you begin the game, each player sets aside six Prize cards. Each time you Knock Out one of your opponents Pokémon, you take one of your own Prizes (not your opponents!) and put it into your hand. You win when you take your final Prize card. You win if your opponents deck is out of cards at the beginning of their turn. You win if your opponent has no Pokémon on the Bench to replace his or her Active Pokémon, and his or her Active Pokémon gets Knocked Out. That means there is no one for your Pokémon to fight against, so you win the battle!

Starting the Game

Flip a coin to decide who will go first. You can use your special Pokémon coin, if you have one. Shuffle your deck and draw a starting hand of seven cards. Put the rest of your deck face down in front of you. You and your opponent each choose a Basic Pokémon card from your hands and put them face down. These will be your starting Active Pokémon. Each player may, if he or she wishes, choose up to five Basic Pokémon cards from his or her hand and put them face down on his or her Bench (this is where Pokémon wait to enter the battle when they are not Active Pokémon). After each player has put down his or her Basic Pokémon cards, put the top six cards of your deck face down in front of you. These are your Prizes, which you take when your opponents Pokémon are Knocked Out. You can not look at a Prize card until you take it. Then show your hand to your opponent, shuffle it back into your deck, and draw seven new cards. Your opponent can then choose to draw an extra card. If you still do not have any Basic Pokémon cards in your new hand, you repeat this process, but your opponent can draw an extra card each time! Flip over all of the Active and Benched Pokémon that have been put on the table.

Energy Symbol Key

G - Grass

L - Lightning

C - Colorless

Fr - Fire

P - Psychic

D - Darkness

W - Water

Ft - Fighting

M - Metal

Playing the Game:

Playing the Pokémon-e Trading Card Game is very easy! Here is how it is done:

DRAW a card. You begin your turn by drawing a card. (If your deck is empty at the beginning of your turn so you can not draw a card, the game is over, and your opponent wins.)

When you start a new game, the player who goes first skips drawing his or her first card.

Now DO ANY of these you want in whatever order you wish:

PUT Basic Pokémon cards on the Bench (as many as you want). Choose a Basic Pokémon card from your hand and put it face up on your Bench. You can have no more than five Pokémon on your Bench at any time, so you can put a new Basic Pokémon card there only when your Bench has four or fewer Pokémon on it. If your Active Pokémon gets Knocked Out (or leaves play for any reason), you have to replace it with a Pokémon from your Bench right away (or you lose the game).

EVOLVE Pokémon (as many as you want). If you have a card in your hand that says "Evolves from so-and-so" and so-and-so is the name of a Pokémon you already have in play, you may play that card in your hand on top of the Pokémon so-and-so. This is called "evolving" your Pokémon.

Example: Peter has a card called Grovyle that says "Evolves from Treecko," and he has a Treecko card in play. He may play the Grovyle card on top of the Treecko card.

You may evolve a Basic Pokémon to a Stage 1 Pokémon, or a Stage 1 Pokémon to a Stage 2 Pokémon. When a Pokémon evolves, it keeps all cards attached to it (Energy cards, Evolution cards, etc.) and any damage it might already have, but the old attacks and Poké-Powers and Poké-Bodies of the Pokémon it evolved from go away. All other things about the Pokémon go away, such as Special Conditions or anything else that might be the result of an attack some Pokémon made earlier against it.

Note: You can not evolve a Pokémon that you just played or evolved on that turn. Also, neither player can evolve a Pokémon on the first turn. And finally, yes, you can evolve a Pokémon on your Bench - that counts as "in play"!

ATTACH 1 Energy to one of your Pokémon (only once per turn). Take an Energy card from your hand and attach it to one of your Pokémon in play, either your Active Pokémon or one of your Benched ones, but NOT both (put it under the Pokémon card).

Unlike most of the other things you can do during your turn, you may do this only once during your turn. Also, remember that you can attach an Energy card to a Pokémon on your Bench. After all, that is "in play," too!

PLAY Trainer cards (as many as you want). When you want to play a Trainer card, do what it says, then put it in the discard pile. You may play only one Supporter card and only one Stadium card per turn.

RETREAT your Active Pokémon (only once per turn). If your Active Pokémon has lots of damage counters on it, you might want to retreat it and bring in one of the Pokémon on your Bench to fight instead. But on most turns, you probably will not retreat.

To retreat your Active Pokémon, you must discard one Energy from it for each listed for its Retreat Cost. If there are not any for its Retreat Cost, it retreats for free. (You will read more about costs in the "ATTACK!" section.) Then you can switch it with a Pokémon from your Bench. Keep damage counters, Evolution cards, and Energy cards (other than the ones you had to discard) with the two Pokémon when they switch.

A Pokémon that is Asleep or Paralyzed can not retreat.

When your Active Pokémon goes to your Bench (whether it retreated or got there some other way), some things about it do go away - Special Conditions (Asleep, Burned, Confused, Paralyzed, and Poisoned) and anything else other than damage that might be the result of an attack some Pokémon made earlier. For more about Special Conditions, check out the Expert Rules section.

If you retreat, you can still attack that turn with the new Active Pokémon.

USE Poké-Powers (as many as you want) Some Pokémon have special "Poké-Powers" that they can use when they are in play. (Remember, Benched Pokémon are "in play," too, so they can use Poké-Powers, if they have any.) Many of these Powers can be used before you attack. Each Poké-Power is different, though, so you should read carefully to see how each power works.

A Poké-Power is not the same as a Pokémons attack, so if you use a Poké-Power or Poké-Body, you can still attack!

ATTACK!

When you attack, you place damage counters on your opponents Active Pokémon (also called the "Defending Pokémon"). This is the last thing you can do during your turn. You are only allowed to attack once during your turn (if your Pokémon has two attacks, it can use only one of them each turn). Say the name of the attack you are using, and then follow the rest of the steps below!

CHECK to make sure you have enough Energy attached to your Active Pokémon to attack.

You can use an attack only if you have at least the required amount of Energy attached to your Active Pokémon.

Any kind of Energy - G, Fr, W, L, P, Ft, C, D or M - can count toward Colorless Energy requirements (C). But for the other eight kinds of Energy, only Energy of the appropriate kind counts toward Energy requirements of that kind. For example, you can use an attack with LLC next to it only if that Pokémon has at least 3 Energy attached to it, at least two of which are L Energy.

You have to have the required amount of Energy attached to a Pokémon to use its attack, but you don not have to discard those cards to attack. The cards stay attached to your Pokémon unless the attack says otherwise!

CHECK Weakness and Resistance of your opponents Pokémon. Some Pokémon have Weakness or Resistance to Pokémon of certain other types. (For example, Torchic has Weakness to W Pokémon.) Look to see if the Defending Pokémon has Weakness or Resistance to the Attacking Pokémons type. The Defending Pokémon takes double damage from a Pokémon that it has Weakness to, and it takes 30 less damage from a Pokémon that it has Resistance to. When Benched Pokémon receive damage, do not apply Weakness or Resistance.

PLACE damage counters on your opponents Pokémon. When you attack, place a damage counter on your opponents Active Pokémon for each 10 damage your Pokémons attack does (written to the right of the attack name). If an attack says to do something else, be sure to do that, too!

Usually the attack does not depend on the order you do this in, but if it does, then this is how you figure it out! First, pay any costs (discarding Energy cards, for example). Second, apply any effects on the Attacking Pokémon. Next, apply Weakness and Resistance for the Defending Pokémon. Finally, apply any other effects on the Defending Pokémon.

CHECK to see if your Pokémon Knocked Out your opponents Pokémon. If a Pokémon ever has total damage at least equal to its Hit Points (for example, five or more damage counters on a Pokémon with 50 HP), it is immediately Knocked Out.

TAKE a Prize (if you Knocked Out your opponents Pokémon). Whenever you Knock Out your opponents Pokémon, your opponent puts its Basic Pokémon card and all cards attached to it (Evolution cards, Energy cards, and so on) in his or her discard pile. You then choose one of your Prizes (you do this even if your opponent Knocked Out his or her own Pokémon, or if it is Knocked Out between turns!) and put it into your hand. After that, your opponent must replace his or her Active Pokémon with a Pokémon from his or her Bench. (If your opponent can not do this because his or her Bench is empty, you win!) If your Active Pokémon and your opponents Active Pokémon are Knocked Out at the same time, the player whose turn it is replaces his or her Pokémon last. The player whose turn it is chooses his or her Prize last as well.

Your turn is OVER now.

Sometimes there are things to do after your turn is over but before your opponents turn begins. After you do those things, your opponents turn begins.

What Happens after Each Players Turn?

After each players turn, if either players Active Pokémon is Poisoned, it takes damage, if it is Burned, it might take damage, and if it is Asleep or Paralyzed, it might recover. Then the next players turn begins.

Why Are There So Many Different Cards? One of the things that makes the Pokémon game different from other card games is that it is a trading card game. This means that there are lots of different cards that you can collect and trade with your friends. Also, you are not limited to just playing the preconstructed decks you buy - you can use all of the different cards you have to create totally new decks! A lot of the fun of a trading card game comes from making different decks that use different strategies.