Did you get caught up in the collector craze and are wondering just what all the words on your cards mean? Have you perhaps been to a local VGC event and wondered what all the card game players were doing? Or are you perhaps just looking for another way to enjoy Pokemon? This thread has all the information you need to learn the basics of the Pokemon Trading Card Game!
Index:
Card Types - this post!
Setting Up to Play and Basic Rules
The Basics of Deckbuilding (coming soon!)
Alternate Ways to Play (coming soon!)
The Pokemon TCG has three card types: Pokemon cards, Energy cards, and Trainer cards. Each of these card types has a few different subtypes. Let's go over them in that order. This post will mainly be about cards that are currently legal in the Standard format. Older cards legal in other formats will be mentioned every so often, but will mostly be addressed in a later post.
For such a simple card, there's a lot going on! Fortunately, once you've looked at a few cards, it starts to get easier to recognize these parts of the card at a glance, and it's rare that you need to reference every single one at once. Let's look at a couple more cards, shall we?
Let's go through this card one piece at a time, too. We can skip a few steps that will work the same way as Litwick, but there are some key differences here.
With that out of the way, let's get to the really exciting cards and the headliners of the sets: Pokemon ex!
There's never enough lists, so let's have one more:
Energy cards are vital to playing the Pokemon TCG. Without them, you cannot attack, and if you can't attack, it's going to be pretty difficult to win the game! During your turn, you may attach one Energy card from your hand to one of your Pokemon. Energy cards come in two varieties: Basic Energy and Special Energy cards. Basic Energy provide a single Energy of their type. Dragon and Colorless do not have Basic Energy, as mentioned above, but the other eight types each have one. Basic Energy are the only cards that you are permitted to run any number of in your deck; it would be pretty difficult to use attacks like Mega Zygarde ex's Nullifying Zero if you couldn't! Many Pokemon, such as Team Rocket's Spidops above, have attacks or Abilities that interact with Basic Energy cards in particular. Special Energy cards, meanwhile, are limited to four copies per deck but have extra effects that may be more desirable. They might provide a unique effect to Pokemon of a matching type, or they may provide more than one kind of energy at once, or they may provide more than one energy at a time! Let's take a look at the benefits Special Energy can provide using one of my favorite cards:
Okidogi has an attack and an ability. Its attack, Good Punch, requires two Fighting energy and deals 70 damage. Its ability, Adrena-Power, states that it gets 100 more HP and does 100 more damage if it has a Darkness energy attached. Those are some cool numbers! However, with only Basic Energy, you would need to attach exactly two Fighting and one Darkness Energy to Okidogi. Prism Energy makes this a lot easier: it provides every type of energy at once. With a Basic Fighting Energy and a Prism Energy attached, Okidogi's Ability sees that there is a Darkness Energy attached to fulfill that condition, and also sees that you have two Fighting Energy attached to use the attack.
In TCG Pocket, Energy cards do not exist. Instead, Energy appears in the Energy Zone, generates randomly based on the attack types of the deck, and can be attached once per turn.
Pokemon and Energy cards might seem like the complete package, but many new players will try out the TCG with just these two, and eventually run out of Pokemon or Energy to attack with. These same new players might be surprised to learn that Pokemon and Energy together are often just half of a competitive deck. The rest of the deck is filled with Trainer cards. Trainer cards search for the cards you need, refill your hand when you've played your other cards, turbo charge your Pokemon, mess with your opponents, and so much more. Even the decks filled with the most Pokemon and Energy cards still rely on Trainer cards to set up, keep moving, and finish the game.
Trainer cards are divided into four types: Items, Supporters, Pokemon Tools, and Stadiums.
Trying to list all the things Item cards can do would take too long, but trying to list the things they can't do would be incredibly difficult. I've tried to include a wide range of examples above, but just keep in mind that if your deck is trying to do something, an Item can probably do that. The most common use for Item cards is easily searching through your deck for Pokemon. A deck that can set up quickly is a deck that's more likely to win, so the cards that can get your Pokemon and your Energy are important to have around. You may play any number of Item cards during your turn, and Item cards are (usually) discarded after being played. The main exception is Fossils, which are played from your hand onto your bench as Pokemon.
Supporter cards are discarded when played just like Item cards, but you may only play one Supporter per turn. In exchange, they are typically much stronger than item cards. Supporters often allow you to draw several cards in one go, search for multiple other cards at once, or leverage powerful effects like playing extra Energy or moving your opponent's Pokemon. Because of their once-per-turn limitation, competitive decks usually play fewer Supporter cards than they do Item cards. They will instead use the most powerful Supporters they can get their hands on and try to maximize their impact every turn. Missing a Supporter in the early turns of the game can often be deadly, so many decks play cards like Pokegear 3.0 or Meowth ex to help them find their Supporter cards at the right time.
Pokemon Tools are Trainer cards that are attached to your Pokemon in play, like held items in the video games. You may play any number of Tools during your Pokemon, but each Pokemon can only have one attached at a time. Tools are generally played in lower counts than Items and Supporters, and many decks will simply drop them entirely. When they're good though, they're great. Tools provide a variety of buffs to the Pokemon they're attached to, like increased damage, reduced retreat cost, or protective effects. Some Tools in the past (and future!) even grant the Pokemon they're attached to new attacks.
Stadium cards are Trainer cards that sit in play and provide an effect to both players. You may play one Stadium card per turn, and only one Stadium can be in play at once. Stadiums run the full range of "mildly beneficial or annoying for both players" to "incredibly powerful effect that you build your whole deck around," and many decks will play Stadium cards simply to beat their opponent's Stadium. Some Stadium cards are incredibly one-sided, like Forest of Vitality, while others provide more universal effects that both players can take advantage of, like Prism Tower. When putting a Stadium card in your deck, make sure you're thinking about how to take advantage of its effect, especially if you can do so in a way that your opponent might not.
Index:
Card Types - this post!
Setting Up to Play and Basic Rules
The Basics of Deckbuilding (coming soon!)
Alternate Ways to Play (coming soon!)
Card Types
The Pokemon TCG has three card types: Pokemon cards, Energy cards, and Trainer cards. Each of these card types has a few different subtypes. Let's go over them in that order. This post will mainly be about cards that are currently legal in the Standard format. Older cards legal in other formats will be mentioned every so often, but will mostly be addressed in a later post.
Pokemon
This Litwick is our first example of a Pokemon card! There's a lot of information on this card, so let's go through it step by step:
- This Litwick is a Basic Pokemon. Pokemon cards come in three stages of evolution: Basic, Stage 1, and Stage 2. Of these, only Basic Pokemon can be put directly from your hand into play; Stage 1 Pokemon evolve from Basic Pokemon in play, and Stage 2 Pokemon evolve from Stage 1s.
- Its name is Litwick. (This might seem obvious, but we'll see some less obvious examples later!) You may include four copies of any card sharing the same name in your deck, except for Basic Energy.
- Litwick has 70 HP. In the Pokemon TCG, HP and damage are always divisible by 10. One damage counter is equivalent to 10 damage. If the damage on a Pokemon equals its max HP, that Pokemon is Knocked Out and removed from play, and the opponent takes a prize card. More on prize cards later! (In TCG Pocket, the opponent is awarded one point.)
- Litwick is a Psychic type. The TCG currently has ten types of Pokemon:
- (G) Grass, including Bug
- (R) Fire
- (W) Water, including Ice
- (L) Lightning, the TCG name for Electric
- (P) Psychic, including Ghost and Fairy
- (F) Fighting, including Ground and Rock
- (D) Darkness, including Dark and Poison
- (M) Metal, the TCG name for Steel
- (N) Dragon
- (C) Colorless, including Normal and Flying
- Litwick has a single attack. On the left you can see the attack cost: Litwick's attack requires a single Psychic Energy. (We'll get to Energy cards later.) Litwick's attack name is Will-O-Wisp. On the right, you can see the attack deals 20 damage when used. This attack has no extra costs or effects, but if it did, they would be listed one line below the cost, name, and damage. Note that not all attacks deal damage, and that not all attacks cost energy.
- Litwick has a Weakness to Darkness. Attacks used by a Darkness Pokemon will deal double damage. Likewise, Litwick has a Resistance to Fighting, and will take 30 less damage from attacks used by Fighting Pokemon. Not every Pokemon has a Weakness and/or a Resistance. (Pokemon in TCG Pocket do not have Resistance.)
- Litwick has a Retreat Cost of one Energy. A Colorless symbol on a card anywhere besides its type indicates a cost that can be fulfilled by any type of Energy. When Litwick Retreats from the Active Spot - more words that we'll get to later - it must discard one attached Energy card of any type.
- Litwick has a J regulation mark. This isn't relevant to gameplay, but to deckbuilding. The Standard format currently allows cards with H, I, and J regulation marks. In the same line, you will see the set name abbreviation (PBL, for Pitch Black) and the rarity symbol (common), but these are also not relevant to gameplay.
For such a simple card, there's a lot going on! Fortunately, once you've looked at a few cards, it starts to get easier to recognize these parts of the card at a glance, and it's rare that you need to reference every single one at once. Let's look at a couple more cards, shall we?
- This card is named Team Rocket's Spidops. Yes, that's the full name! This card is distinct from a card just named Spidops. You may run four copies of Spidops and four copies of Team Rocket's Spidops in your deck if you wish.
- This card is a Stage 1 Pokemon. You can see below its name that it evolves from Team Rocket's Tarountula. It cannot evolve from a regular old Taroutula! Pokemon can evolve only if they began the turn in play, and it is not the player's first turn of the game.
- This card has an Ability. Some Pokemon, like this one, have an Ability in addition to or instead of an attack. Abilities generally fall into one of two categories: those that you actively use, and abilities with passive effects. Team Rocket's Spidops's ability is the former: you may use it once per turn. Some abilities will specify that you may only use one of that named ability per turn, such as Mega Kangaskhan ex's Run Errand ability. Some passive abilities will specify that they do not stack, such as Meganium's Wild Growth ability.
- This card's attack is just a little more complicated than Litwick's. It requires two Energy to use. One must be a Grass Energy, and the other can be an Energy of any type, as mentioned above for Retreat Costs. Rather than a fixed number, Rocket Rush deals 30 damage for each Team Rocket's Pokemon you have in play. Team Rocket's Spidops counts itself, so it will do a minimum of 30 damage, but hopefully you have a few more Team Rocket's Pokemon in play when you attack!
With that out of the way, let's get to the really exciting cards and the headliners of the sets: Pokemon ex!
- This card's name is Dragapult ex. Pokemon ex have more HP and deal more damage than regular Pokemon, but they give up more prize cards when Knocked Out. You can see this in the Rule Box in the bottom right of the card. Most Pokemon ex give up two prize cards, but Mega Evolution Pokemon ex give up three. Some past examples of Rule Box cards include Pokemon V, Radiant Pokemon, and Prism Star cards.
- Dragapult ex is a Stage 2 Pokemon. It evolves from Drakloak. You knew that part, but if a hypothetical Drakloak ex existed, Dragapult ex could not evolve from that card. For a real example, Floragato cannot evolve from Sprigatito ex, and must evolve from a regular Sprigatito.
- Dragapult ex is a Tera Pokemon. Tera Pokemon cannot be damaged by attacks while on the Bench. While it's not common, some Pokemon have extra text in this spot. Tera, Ancient, and Future are all such labels in the current standard format, and cards can reference these labels. Some past ones include Single Strike and Ultra Beast. Some such labels can appear on Trainer cards as well.
- Let's talk about Dragapult ex's second attack for a moment. Dragon Pokemon do not have their own dedicated Energy type in the Pokemon TCG, and typically use two different types of Energy to attack. Phantom Dive deals 200 damage to your opponent's Active Pokemon, and puts six damage counters wherever you want on their Benched Pokemon. We're still a little early, but keep this in mind: dealing damage and placing damage counters are two separate things!
Energy
Energy cards are vital to playing the Pokemon TCG. Without them, you cannot attack, and if you can't attack, it's going to be pretty difficult to win the game! During your turn, you may attach one Energy card from your hand to one of your Pokemon. Energy cards come in two varieties: Basic Energy and Special Energy cards. Basic Energy provide a single Energy of their type. Dragon and Colorless do not have Basic Energy, as mentioned above, but the other eight types each have one. Basic Energy are the only cards that you are permitted to run any number of in your deck; it would be pretty difficult to use attacks like Mega Zygarde ex's Nullifying Zero if you couldn't! Many Pokemon, such as Team Rocket's Spidops above, have attacks or Abilities that interact with Basic Energy cards in particular. Special Energy cards, meanwhile, are limited to four copies per deck but have extra effects that may be more desirable. They might provide a unique effect to Pokemon of a matching type, or they may provide more than one kind of energy at once, or they may provide more than one energy at a time! Let's take a look at the benefits Special Energy can provide using one of my favorite cards:
In TCG Pocket, Energy cards do not exist. Instead, Energy appears in the Energy Zone, generates randomly based on the attack types of the deck, and can be attached once per turn.
Trainers
Pokemon and Energy cards might seem like the complete package, but many new players will try out the TCG with just these two, and eventually run out of Pokemon or Energy to attack with. These same new players might be surprised to learn that Pokemon and Energy together are often just half of a competitive deck. The rest of the deck is filled with Trainer cards. Trainer cards search for the cards you need, refill your hand when you've played your other cards, turbo charge your Pokemon, mess with your opponents, and so much more. Even the decks filled with the most Pokemon and Energy cards still rely on Trainer cards to set up, keep moving, and finish the game.
Trainer cards are divided into four types: Items, Supporters, Pokemon Tools, and Stadiums.
Trying to list all the things Item cards can do would take too long, but trying to list the things they can't do would be incredibly difficult. I've tried to include a wide range of examples above, but just keep in mind that if your deck is trying to do something, an Item can probably do that. The most common use for Item cards is easily searching through your deck for Pokemon. A deck that can set up quickly is a deck that's more likely to win, so the cards that can get your Pokemon and your Energy are important to have around. You may play any number of Item cards during your turn, and Item cards are (usually) discarded after being played. The main exception is Fossils, which are played from your hand onto your bench as Pokemon.
Supporter cards are discarded when played just like Item cards, but you may only play one Supporter per turn. In exchange, they are typically much stronger than item cards. Supporters often allow you to draw several cards in one go, search for multiple other cards at once, or leverage powerful effects like playing extra Energy or moving your opponent's Pokemon. Because of their once-per-turn limitation, competitive decks usually play fewer Supporter cards than they do Item cards. They will instead use the most powerful Supporters they can get their hands on and try to maximize their impact every turn. Missing a Supporter in the early turns of the game can often be deadly, so many decks play cards like Pokegear 3.0 or Meowth ex to help them find their Supporter cards at the right time.
Pokemon Tools are Trainer cards that are attached to your Pokemon in play, like held items in the video games. You may play any number of Tools during your Pokemon, but each Pokemon can only have one attached at a time. Tools are generally played in lower counts than Items and Supporters, and many decks will simply drop them entirely. When they're good though, they're great. Tools provide a variety of buffs to the Pokemon they're attached to, like increased damage, reduced retreat cost, or protective effects. Some Tools in the past (and future!) even grant the Pokemon they're attached to new attacks.
Stadium cards are Trainer cards that sit in play and provide an effect to both players. You may play one Stadium card per turn, and only one Stadium can be in play at once. Stadiums run the full range of "mildly beneficial or annoying for both players" to "incredibly powerful effect that you build your whole deck around," and many decks will play Stadium cards simply to beat their opponent's Stadium. Some Stadium cards are incredibly one-sided, like Forest of Vitality, while others provide more universal effects that both players can take advantage of, like Prism Tower. When putting a Stadium card in your deck, make sure you're thinking about how to take advantage of its effect, especially if you can do so in a way that your opponent might not.
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