The Start Of The Game
At the beginning of the game shuffle your deck until you are sure there is no order to the cards and set the deck in the designated area shown on step one. Then you will deal yourself a hand of seven cards. Pick up the seven cards and place a basic Pokemon into your active spot face down. If you do not have a basic pokemon in your hand then you take a mulligan, which is when you shuffle your hand back into your deck and draw seven cards. You will take mulligans until you find a basic pokemon. Your opponent will draw a card, after dealing prizes, for each mulligan you took so it is good to play a lot of basic Pokemon. You will next deal your prizes which consists of taking the next top six cards from your deck and setting them face down in the prize card area. . Then you will take any more basic pokemon you have in your hand, if you have any, and put them on your bench face down. You do not have to put down any if you do not want to. When both you and your opponent have gotten this far you both will flip you face down cards up that you just placed down, not your prizes, and start the game.
Starting With Physical Products
The digital route is by no means the only way to get into the Pokémon TCG. The game itself is easy to learn, even without a digital tutorial holding your hand. The Pokémon TCG website offers new players a How to Play series of videos. They are quick, easy to understand and will have you up and running within minutes.
The best way to start your physical Pokémon TCG journey is by purchasing a Battle Deckas of the Sword and Shield expansion, theme decks have been replaced by V Battle Decks. These products are a little more helpful to newer players, as they include V type Pokémon, which are prevalent in modern decks. Battle decks can still be redeemed online.
Battle Decks are a low cost way to start the physical TCG
However, as of writing, they do not seem to be legal in online Theme format sanctioned events. If you are playing with a partner or a youngster, you might also consider getting a vs Battle Pack, which includes two Battle Decks that can be used against each other.
Battle Decks offer new players a relatively low-cost way to try out the game. Each battle deck includes a ready-to-play 60 card deck, rule book, playmat, damage counters, metallic coin , and a deck box to store your cards.
These decks will not win you a tournament, and will struggle against another player who has constructed their own deck.
Spell it out: How to build a Magic: The Gathering deck
So: now you know what you need to start playing the Pokémon TCG lets take a look at the basic rules.
What Are Pokmon Expansion And Booster Packs My Kid Is Asking For Them
An expansion is a new set of cards released within a certain generation or series. Each expansion release includes about 100-200 new cards. There is no way to purchase an entire expansion all at once. Instead, you purchase them in booster packs, which are sets of 10 cards that you can use to add to your current collectionusually these are themed within a specific expansion, meaning that the cards inside can be any of the cards that were released within that expansion set. Current expansions include Sword Shield Rebel Clash and Sword & Shield Darkness Ablaze. A new expansion, Sword & Shield Vivid Voltage is set to come out in November 2020. Older expansion packs that your kid might still be after include ones from previous generations like Sun & Moon, XY, Black & White, Diamond & Pearl or the EX series.
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How Pokmon Go League Battles Work
The game has a Great League, Ultra League, and Master League. You’ll start off at Rank 1 in whichever league you choose and can go as high as rank 10.
Each league, except the Master League, has a capped Pokémon CP: 1500 for Great and 2500 for Ultra.
You’ll want to pick a balanced team when entering league battles.
Why Collect Pokmon Cards
If youre here, you probably dont need reminding, but lets do it anyway:
But if you need further convincing, PokeRev, a big player in community and prolific YouTuber recently opened up a sealed 1st Edition Base Set Booster Box thats valued around $90k! The excitement this box opening generated was off the scale! Credit to him for putting together such entertainment.
**Be sure to watch all the way through pack 20 belongs to Hobby Help, where he pulled a holo for us!**
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Is There A Pokmon Card Game App
As well as the physical Pokémon Trading Card Game, you can play the Pokémon card game digitally using the Pokémon TCG Online app. Pokémon TCG Online is a free-to-play app available for PC and mobile devices on iOS and Android that lets you play the Pokémon Trading Card Game against AI opponents or friends.
The Pokémon card game app comes with four decks for free. You can add Pokémon cards by scanning codes included with booster packs and decks, and trade cards online just as you would in person. You can also unlock free packs by playing games using the app.
A tutorial mode makes the Pokémon card game app a good way to learn how to play the Pokémon TCG, while the app’s deck builder can make figuring out how to build a Pokémon TCG deck with your cards easy.
The Pokémon Company is also working on cross-play ability between mobile and PC users via a new Pokémon Trading Card Game Live client. This will not only add cross-play, but new functions like the card ‘table’ being in portrait mode on phones – which makes battling that much simpler!
Setting Up Your Cards
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Modified Vs Unlimited Tournament Styles
Now to quickly glance over the two different tournament styles :
- Modified is the most common tournament style, run using only the latest sets in a series. These tournaments are much more expensive to keep up with as you must constantly buy new cards to play the game.
- Unlimited is rarer but run with a no-barred limit. In other words, old cards and new cards alike can be played with older Trainers following the newer rules. This is the syle most casual players prefer, as less money is needed to play.
How Do Status Conditions Work In The Pokmon Tcg
As in the Pokémon video games, the Pokémon Trading Card Game has a number of special conditions that can be inflicted on Pokémon, giving their opponent an extra advantage in a battle.
The special conditions are Asleep, Burned, Confused, Paralyzed and Poisoned, and are indicated by turning the Pokémon card counterclockwise , upside-down or clockwise , or putting a special token on it . Multiple special conditions can affect the same Pokémon – in the case of effects indicated by turning the card, the most recent condition is the only one applied.
Asleep
If a Pokémon is asleep, it cant attack or retreat. The card is rotated 90 degrees counerclockwise to show its status condition. At the end of their turn, the player flips a coin – on a head, the Pokémon wakes up and is no longer asleep.
Paralyzed
When a Pokémon is paralyzed, it can’t attack or retreat on the player’s next turn. The card is rotated 90 degrees clockwise to show its status condition. At the end of the player’s next turn, paralyzed is automatically cured.
Burned
The Pokémon card receives a burned token to show its status condition. A burned Pokémon receives two damage counters at the end of each turn. After suffering this damage, the player flips a coin. On a heads, Burned is cured.
Confused
Poisoned
A poisoned Pokémon suffers one damage counter at the end of each turn.
Special conditions can also be cured by evolving a Pokémon or retreating it to the bench, which cures all special conditions.
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Rare And Valuable Cards
Some of the older Pokémon cards have reached true collectible status due to their rarity. If youve been collecting since the 1990s, you might be surprised to find that a few of your cards are now worth astronomical amounts.
Check out this famous video below. Gary goes on Pawn Stars and shows off his insane collection of Charizards!
Which cards rank among the most desirable?
What drives the high prices of these and other super-valuable Pokémon cards? In a word: Rarity. The one factor uniting all of these cards is that they only exist in limited quantities.
Easy Pokemon Card Game: Conclusion
Whether you just discovered Pokèmon card game for the first time or looking for ways to play and practice alone, learning this easy way to play Pokèmon card is perfect place to be.
From video game to Battle Academy, Pokèmon trading card games is continuously becoming popular all around the world.
Youll find the basics for how the card game works to be quite easy, and others are quite eggar for newcomers to join the world of Pokèmon cards.
Start the game by setting up the arena and toss a coin to find out who goes first for a fair game.
Shuffle the deck of 60 cards and each player draws the top 7 cards and check the hand if there is basic Pokèmon. If you dont have any, reshuffle and draw 7 new cards.
Place the basic Pokèmon facing down and put up to 5 Pokèmon on the bench.
Players are allowed to draw seven cards from their respective deck at the start of every game, and the Active Pokémon should be basic Pokèmon at the beginning.
Continue play and once the active Pokèmon are defeated from the battle, replace it from the bench. When there are no more Pokèmon left on the field, you lose.
When playing Pokèmon card game for the first time, we highly recommend reviewing the basic game rules and understand the setup to enter fair battlefield. Learn how to play Pokemon the easy way before you step up to more advanced strategies and winning techniques.
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How To Tally Damage And Health Points
When an active Pokémon attacks, the card may specify an amount of damage to be done to the Pokémon being attacked. Remember, the amount of damage done by attacks is also affected by the weakness or resistance of the Pokémon being attacked.
So you don’t lose track of what’s going on, this damage is tallied up with damage counters. You can use anything to represent damage: coins, rocks, sticks, pieces of candy, whatever. Each piece represents -10 points of damage. After the attack, figure out how much damage was inflicted and place that many damage counters on the damaged Pokémon. When the damage adds up to the amount of HP assigned to that Pokémon, then it is knocked out of the game.
For example, a Pokémon with 120 health points is attacked and suffers -80 points of damage: pile 8 damage counters on the card. In the next round, that an additional -40 points of damage are incurred: add 4 counters. Now that card has twelve damage counters piled on it and 12 counters=120 HP, so it would be knocked out. Dice are sometimes used to indicate damage: if a Pokémon had a die with the 5 side up, it would have -50 points of damage.
Pokmon Cards: What Parents Need To Know
Your kids obsessed with Pokémon cards, but you have no idea what to do with them or where to start. Heres what you need to know.
So your kid has traded in his toy trains and cars for Pokémon cards but you dont know what hes talking about half the time. What is Pokémon? Whats a booster pack? Whats a trainer? And who is this Pikachu fellow hes always mentioning? Your kid will probably always be one step ahead of you in his Pokémon knowledge, but this guide is a good start.
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Single Strike Urshifu Vmax 168/163
This card is the twin of the card I just discussed and honestly one that received a rave review. While I am a fan of this card as well, it is in a totally different spot than the one above this one, so dont place these two on the same level. First off, this card is not playable at all, unlike the one I just discussed, which makes all the difference for an already expensive card such as this one. If it were playable, it would be in the exact same situation as the card above this one, as they would be comparable in pretty much every way, but that is just not the case.
Editors Note: Single Strike actually has seen some success in online events players like AzulGG have continued to improve upon the base list and it seems like it might cement itself in the metagame!
Lastly, this card is sitting at $80 right now, which is substantially lower than the Rapid Strike version, but this also feels like its cap. It is not a playable card, it has release hype and I just dont see it increasing much further than where it is now. On the other side of things, I would not be surprised if this cards price decreased, temporarily or for good.
Sealed Pokmon Booster Boxes
Last up weve got sealed Pokémon booster boxes.
Ultimately, it all comes down to your budget.
If you see the hobby as an investment and want to sink some money into it, prepare to part with mid-four figures for a sealed vintage booster box.
1st Edition varieties can even creep closer to the five figure mark.
What can potentially come out of these boxes though can be pretty incredible.
Were talking mint cards that you havent seen in 20+ years.
Naturally, they make great candidates for grading. And again, if youre looking to hold long-term, you may well find the value of your graded cards exceeds the price you paid in a few short years.
Personally, I think this strategy is best served for more experienced collectors, but who am I to tell you what to do with your money?!
For the ultimate throwback and nostalgia, Im not going to lie, nothing beats cracking open a vintage booster box. Just sayin
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Pokemon Battle Academy Is The Most Accessible Version Of The Trading Card Game Yet
If you’ve ever wanted to learn how to play the Pokemon Trading Card game, this is the best way to do it.
Back in the nineties, most kids used to play the Pokemon Trading Card game… but not many actually played the Pokemon Trading Card Game. If you’re a certain age, you probably know exactly what I mean.
This, in a sense, is why that famed Charizard card was so sought after. In the proper TCG, with the proper rules, it’s a powerful but balanced card. But the proper rules of the trading card game are complicated and relatively slow. Nobody – maybe the hardcore nerds – was messing around with energy cards and such on the playground. That fact made Charizard’s 4 energy, 100 damage Fire Spin move unstoppable. In many cases it was an instant kill thus the card attained legend status.
I never bothered with the proper rules on the playground, but outside school I became quite proficient at the proper rules of the Pokemon TCG. I taught my grandfather, who began collecting cards and building decks, and I even went to a couple of official TCG events where you could battle ‘gym leaders’ for badges. That was the magic of the TCG – bringing a slice of the anime and games into the real world. Now we have Pokemon Go, of course, but the card game is still thriving.
Once you’re comfortable through that tutorial, you can then begin playing with any mix of the included decks, or even mix and match them to create all-new match-ups.