Draft:How to play the Pokémon Trading Card Game

How to play

This section is incomplete. Please feel free to edit this section to add missing information and complete it. Reason: More detail, especially as part of game flow.

Back of an English language card

See the Appendix:Glossary for a definition of most the Pokémon Trading Card Game terms.

Also see the FAQ Video Series on Pokémon.com for a visual introduction to the card game.

The Pokémon Trading Card Game is a two player game for all ages.

Deck Construction

Each player builds a Deck of sixty (60) cards using a combination of various "Pokémon cards" (the main type of cards used to battle), "Trainer cards" (cards with special effects), and "Energy cards" (cards that are required to perform most "Attacks"). New cards and decks are constantly being released, and players may purchase "Booster packs" to integrate these cards into their own decks or purchase pre-made "Theme Decks" that already have all the cards needed to play. During a match, only four of any one card, excluding Basic Energy cards, are allowed in each deck.

Setting Up to Play

To begin a Match, players need a coin or a six-sided die (where the even-numbered sides represent "heads" and the odd-numbered sides represent "tails"). One player calls heads or tails, while the other player flips the coin. The winner of the coin flip then decides which player goes first. The player who goes first is not allowed to attack or play any Supporter cards on that player's first turn. In best-of-three match play, after a game has been completed, the loser of that game decides who goes first in the next game instead of determining it by a coin flip. This decision is made at the same point during setup that the coin flip would take place.

After determining which player goes first, both players must shuffle their own decks and allow their opponent to make a deck cut; alternatively, the opponent may choose to shuffle the other player's deck and allow the deck owner to make a deck cut. Each player then places their deck faces-down in the play area or "field" in a north/south orientation, with the short sides of cards facing each player, and any card sleeve openings facing the opponent. The players then each take seven cards from the top of their respective decks. These cards go into their hand. Players then place at least one Basic Pokémon from their hand face down into play: one to the Active Spot and up to five onto the Bench. Next, each player sets aside six cards from the top of their deck face down as Prize cards. Finally, each player flips over their Active and Benched Pokémon and the game starts.

Mulligan

If a player does not have any Basic Pokémon in their hand while setting up to play, after their opponent sets aside the Prize cards, they must take a mulligan. To take a mulligan, the player must first show their hand to their opponent, then they shuffle the cards back into the deck, and draw seven new ones. This step is repeated until the player has at least one Basic Pokémon in their hand. For each mulligan a player takes, that player’s opponent may draw a card.

If both players had to take mulligans, the player that took fewer mulligans may draw a number of cards up to the difference in the numbers of mulligans. This means if the player took 1 mulligan and the opponent took 3, the player may draw up to 2 cards.

Judge-Enforced Progression

In competitive play, where one player is unable to draw a Basic Pokémon despite completing 8 mulligans, the tournament's Head Judge may initiate an enforced progression to ensure that gameplay can continue. This rare scenario most typically happens when a player has a very low number of Basic Pokémon in their deck.

A Judge-Enforced Progression follows the following process:

1. Shuffle the player’s deck.
2. Reveal cards from the top of the player’s deck until a Basic Pokémon is found.
   • Place that Basic Pokémon aside.
3. Shuffle the player’s deck once more.
4. The player then draws 6 cards from the top of their deck.
   • Add the previously revealed Basic Pokémon to create a hand of 7 cards.
5. Indicate that the game may now proceed as normal.
   • A time extension should be issued for the time taken to complete this process.

Turns

At the start of each player's turn, they must draw a card. Then, they may take any of the following actions in any order they like.

• Play as many Basic Pokémon from their hand onto their Bench as they like
• Evolve as many of their Pokémon as they like
• Attach up to one Energy card from their hand to one of their Pokémon
• Play as many Trainer cards in their hand as they like (but only one Supporter card and one Stadium card per turn)
• Retreat their Active Pokémon up to one time
• Use any Abilities

Attacking will end a player's turn regardless of how many other actions they have taken, but a player may choose to end their turn without attacking.

Evolution

Evolution in the Pokémon Trading Card Game is the process of playing an Evolution Pokémon (also known as an Evolution card). Evolution Pokémon cards, which include but are not limited to Stage 1 Pokémon and Stage 2 Pokémon, have a section which says which Pokémon they evolve from. Normally, Evolution Pokémon cards depict Pokémon that evolve from other Pokémon in the core series. Evolution cards normally cannot enter play without evolving a Pokémon that is already in play.

During each player's turn, that player can play any number of Evolution cards from their hand to evolve their Pokémon. However, Pokémon cannot be evolved on the first turn that each player takes in a game, or on the first turn they come into play. As Evolution counts as entering play, Pokémon also cannot evolve on the same turn they have previously evolved or devolved. Please note that some effects exist which can circumvent these rules.

To evolve a Pokémon, a player puts an Evolution Pokémon on top of a Pokémon that is in play that has the name of the card that the Evolution Pokémon "evolves from". In most cases, the name being checked for is the name of the prior Evolution of the Pokémon depicted on the Evolution card. However, this is not always the case, as many (but not all) cards with modified names are not part of normal evolution chains. Those cards usually (but not always) check for a card with the name of the relevant pre-Evolution with the same modification to the card name. A Pokémon that has evolved is an evolved Pokémon, meaning that it has one or more Pokémon placed underneath it that it evolved from.

When a Pokémon evolves, any damage counters that were on the prior evolved form remain on the evolved Pokémon, and so are any attached cards like Energy and Pokémon Tools. However, it recovers from all Special Conditions, and any other assorted effects are also cleared off the Pokémon.

Attacking

When performing an attack, ensure there are enough Energy cards in play for the move to be executed. Then, tell your opponent what attack you have chosen, how much damage it will inflict, and any additional effects it will have. The opposing player will add damage counters to the appropriate Pokémon card(s), which stay there unless the Pokémon is knocked out, removed from play, or healed.

Knocking Out Pokémon

A Pokémon that has damage counters on it that equal or exceed its HP is Knocked Out. A Knocked Out Pokémon is placed in its owner's Discard Pile, together with all attached cards. At the same time, that player's opponent takes 1 of their own Prize cards s and puts it into their hand.

When a player's Active Pokémon is Knocked Out, that player chooses a new Active Pokémon from the Pokémon currently on their Bench.

Winning a match

Players can win a match through one of three methods:

1. By taking all of their Prize cards. This is the most common resolution for most matches.
2. If their opponent runs out of Pokémon in play, i.e. they have no Active Pokémon or Benched Pokémon.
3. If their opponnet has no cards left to draw in their deck at the beginning of a turn.

Winning or losing can also be achieved directly with the effect of certain cards.

Limited Tournament Formats

This section is incomplete. Please feel free to edit this section to add missing information and complete it. Reason: More detail, especially as part of game flow.

Play! Pokémon allows the use of three Limited fromats for its sanctioned tournaments.. All three of these formats share the same deck construction rules, as follows:

• Decks must contain exactly 40 cards.
• There is no limit to the number of cards with the same name that can be included, provided there is no restriction detailed in the card text itself.
• Matches are played for 4 Prize cards.

Alternative Formats

This section is incomplete. Please feel free to edit this section to add missing information and complete it. Reason: Full information needed on all ways to play from the Alternative Play Handbook

In addition to the standard 60 card format, there is also limited official support for a a variety of alternative play formats. Many fans have also created their own game rules and playing methods and have websites devoted to providing alternative playing methods. These rules and methods are not allowed in Play! Pokémon competitions, though may be seen played in casual play at local leagues, and occasionally used in side-events at major tournaments.

30-card (Half Deck) format

The 30-card or "Half Deck" format was intended to allow for shorter matches. The only differences between this format and the standard 60-card format are that decks consist of a maximum of 30 cards each, and that players were limited to only two of any one card other than Basic Energy cards, instead of the usual four.

This format is primarily supported in Japan and other Asian countries where organized play is managed by The Pokémon Company, and has not received any official support in English language countries since the Sun & Moon Trainer Kit: Lycanroc & Alolan Raichu in 2017.

Advanced Formats

Gym Leader Challenge

Main article: Gym Leader Challenge format (TCG)

The Gym Leader Challenge format, or GLC for short, is a format based on the Expanded format in which all cards with a Rule Box, including Prism Star Trainer and Energy cards, and ACE SPEC cards are banned. Additionally, only one card per name is allowed in a deck, except for Basic Energy cards. It also has its own ban list, separate from the Expanded ban list.