How does the Pokémon Trading Card Game actually work?
The abbreviation for Pokémon Trading Card Game is Pokémon TCG, this literally stands for the game you can play with the Pokémon cards. We are going to explain to you in this blog how this works. When you start looking it up online you come across rather strange guides and pieces of text that don’t really help you. Hence, for beginners, we incorporate it into a fairly simple explanation. So that everyone can understand and start playing the game. Whether you’re young or old, Pokémon is for everyone! We’re going to start with the most important thing, which is how many cards you need to start playing.
How many cards do you need to play the game?
Each player may have 60 Pokémon cards in his or her deck. These consist of a variety of Pokémons, trainers and energies. Stuffing your whole deck with just Pokémon isn’t going to work. You need the energies for attacks and the trainers are very useful for certain benefits or in certain situations. So choose your cards wisely. You have ready made decks lying around in our shop see battle decks. It contains exactly 60 cards with the right balance of trainers, pokemons and energies so you can start playing right away!
How does the game begin?
You begin by flipping a coin to decide who gets to start. After it is known who gets to start you both shuffle your cards. You may now remove seven cards from your deck and keep them in your hand. Place the top six cards closed on the table. As soon as you defeat an opponent’s Pokémon, you may take one of the closed cards from the table. Did you grab all 6 of them from the table? Congratulations, then you won the match! You may use one Pokémon as an “active” Pokémon on the playing field and five on the bench. Sometimes it happens that someone doesn’t have a single Pokémon card in their hand out of the seven you just grabbed. Then you may show your cards to your opponent and take seven cards again. Because you do need Pokémons to fight. The downside to this? Every time someone has to take seven cards from their deck because they have no Pokémons? The opponent may take an additional card, so he now has eight. You may only attack with one Pokémon, otherwise it would be very easy. On the map you can see how much energy you need to perform a certain attack. When your Pokémon is defeated, that is, has lost all of its HP, you must exchange it for another. When all your Pokémons are defeated, you lose and also when all your cards from your deck are depleted. This is because you may take a new card from your deck pile each turn. But when this one is thus used up because the game lasts so long you lose. So pay attention to this when you are almost out of cards, you will have to think of something quickly in order to still win.
Besides attacking, what else can you do in your turns?
- Trainer cards deployment.
Adding an energy card to a Pokémon.(Note you may only add one per turn, some attacks require many more energies)
Getting your Pokémon to evolve.
Withdrawing your active Pokémon, the cost for which is shown on the card.
Using the skill of your Pokémon, these are listed on the card.
Special effects that can apply to Pokémons
Some cards have special effects that they can inflict on another or inflict when attacked. We will list all of these with their implications listed. There are five special effects to consider.
Gif
The Pokémon that is poisoned loses 10HP each turn.
Confused
When a confused Pokémon attacks, you must flip a coin.
Head = you may attack.
Coin = you may not attack and your Pokémon loses 30HP.
Burn
Your Pokémon loses 20HP each turn.
Paralyzed
Your Pokémon can neither attack nor retreat.
Asleep
Your Pokémon can neither attack nor retreat.
These were the five special effects that can take place while playing. So keep this in mind, as some of the effects are quite severe.
End
So now you know the basics to start playing Pokémon TCG, we wish you a lot of success and fun during your games. At first it will take some getting used to, but once you get the hang of it it will be a lot more fun.
