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How To Play Pokemon Trading Card Game

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Is Pokemon Good For Kids

How To Play The Pokemon Trading Card Game

Jacob was thrilled to battle me on a Sunday afternoon. I had no idea what I was in for, but I figured it was yet another made-up card game with rules that were as fluid as the ocean and always in his favor.

Little did I know that Pokemon TCG is a well-structured 60-card game with an established set of rules and a never-ending list of sub-rules. TCG stands for The Card Game.

All of a sudden, my sweet child spoke in tongue, or so it sounded like, when he rambled about his card having more health than mine. Clearly I didnt have the right energy cards to evolve the whole thing was an hour of my child schooling me and impressing me more than he did when he played the role of a Tree in his school play!

Much to my surprise, I found that the game requires strategy, discipline, memory and math A LOT of math!


Things finally started to make sense to me. Jacob is our little math nerd, so no wonder he fell in love with Pokemon. Here is a game centered around adding and subtracting, strategizing and remembering all the things hes awesome at!

Pokemon is making nerdiness cool!

Then I thought back to my own childhood, when I collected stationary, stickers, pretty pictures and post cards. Remember how much fun it was to collect things when you were a kid? Trading with your friends and working towards getting more of whatever it was you collected.

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.

Additional Rules To Remember

  • Whenever a card’s text overrides the game rules, the card’s words take precedence. For example, although the rules say that a player can only play one energy card per turn, several Pokémon allow additional energy to be played if that card is in play. In those cases, special exceptions are made.
  • You can only set down one energy card per turn but you can put energy on benched Pokémon to prep up for future attacks.
  • Trainers, like potions, can affect benched and non-benched Pokémon.
  • Evolving can begin one turn after the Pokémon was played from the deck and Pokémon can only evolve to the next stage. Both benched and active Pokémon can evolve.
  • Pokémon attacks can only affect the active Pokémon . So the majority of the time, only an active Pokémon can be affected by an attack.
  • When a Pokémon is knocked out, any energy cards attached to it go into the discard pile.
  • When a Pokémon evolves, that evolution clears up any handicaps it might be suffering, but its damage points remain the same.

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Legal Deck Of Pokmon Cards

You can buy a ready-made deck or build your own. If you buy one it will already conform to the rules, but if you do it yourself, you must make sure your deck fulfills the following requirements:

  • Your deck must contain 60 cards exactly no more, no less.
  • You can include as many basic energy cards as you want.
  • With the exception of basic energy cards, you must NOT have more than four of each card or more than four of one Pokémon . This four-card limit also applies to special energy cards and Trainers/Supporters/Stadiums.
  • Foreign cards are fun to trade and collect but you can’t include them in your playing deck.

Personal Tip: To balance out your deck, try to have at least 20 energies and a good set of 15-20 Pokémon, basic and evolved. By the way, if you buy a pre-constructed deck, it should come with a play mat. These help you learn how to set up the game when you are first learning.

The Pokémon Playing Stadium

Pokemon: Why You Should Play The Trading Card Game

Pokemon: Why You Should Play the Trading Card Game

Pokémon TCG is a fun game with a nice community surrounding it, and it’s easy to get involved with…

New hobbies are hard to come by as an adult. Thats why we want to share our newfound passion for the Pokémon Trading Card game, which is commonly referred to as Pokémon TCG. If you havent really thought about Pokémon TCG since the cards were banned from your school playground, you could be in for a real treat if you decide to pick them up again.


For us, it happened by pure happenstance. It was a chat one day about the upcoming Pokémon video games Sword and Shield, and an expressed interest in replaying classic Pokémon games like Red and Blue, which led to a friend recommending that I revisit the Trading Card Game.

It didnt take long for a passion to form, and Pokémon TCGquickly became one of the most looked-forward-to parts of my daily life. Heres why that happened and how you can get involved too

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What Pokemon Games Are On The Switch

The first Pokémon game released on the Switch is actually a fantastic Pokkén Tournament fighting game with a special version for Nintendo Switch called Pokkén Tournament Deluxe. The Deluxe Edition for Nintendo Switch includes five additional playable characters: Darkrai, Scizor, Empoleon, Croagunk and Decidueye.

Before 2019 Retina Display Update

I want to take the time to rate this app before I put in this new update since I never took the time to do so. This app is absolutely positively amazing. You dont need to put money to play you can play with people online you can play the computer you can build your deck when booster packs you can buy decks from earning points you can trade with people online and add your own decks and packs from the real world. Theres not much more you can as for. But what I can ask is that I would like an option to communicate with people while playing them online also able to message people if theyre off-line so that they may receive word from us when they return and lastly fix the mis haps with the data not recognizing me. I would have to force close app to re log as myself and not a new user. And option to customize background and background music could be pretty sweet. Other than that great work Pokémon TCG team great job

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What Pokemon Game Should I Play

  • Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon
  • Pokemon X and Y
  • Pokémon Yellow Version: Pikachu Special Edition
  • Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire
  • Pokemon Black and White
  • Pokémon red and blue
  • Pokémon Emerald
  • First you need to open it to examine the scrambler.
  • Then select the skins or services you want in your Pokémon game.
  • Then click “Randomizer” and “ROM” to save the changes.
  • Now fill in some requirements and you’re done.

How To Earn Pokcoins In Pokmon Tcg Online

How to Play Pokemon the Trading Card Game

PokéCoins are the in-game currency used to buy theme decks, booster packs and cosmetic items in Pokémon TCG Online.

You cant buy them with real money, but there are a few ways to earn them, mostly through battling. Youll get a handful of PokéCoins as a reward for participating in any battle more if you win, based on how much damage you inflict on your opponent.

However, winning battles in the Versus mode takes you up a lucrative ladder of rewards: more wins, better loot. This is a great way to get booster packs, earn PokéCoins and obtain rare cards that rotate and reset every third Monday.

From here, it’s easy to expand your collection and build better decks.

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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!

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.

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How To Play Pokmon Cards: Your Guide To The Pokmon Tcg

Looking to collect, trade, and play with Pokémon cards? Wargamer’s guide to the Pokémon TCG will have you battling in no time

So you want to learn how to play Pokémon cards? Youre far from alone. The Pokémon TCG was not the first collectible card game to be released but, 25 years later, its one of only a handful of 1990s-era TCGs that have survived. The games complexity and card synergies are a little lighter than Magic: The Gathering or Yu-Gi-Oh.

However, there are still enough tactical and strategic elements within the game to keep older audiences engaged. Indeed, fans of the Pokémon franchise, regardless of age, will enjoy the TCGs ability to capture both the spirit and theme of the anime. Pokémon battle, grow in power, gain new abilities and evolve. Beloved characters, locations, and items from the show all appear in card form. Even the idea of capturing Pokémon , is mimicked in the games card-collecting aspect.

With a quarter-centurys worth of expansions behind it, and multiple products available for purchase, it can be devilishly difficult to know where to start. Thats where this guide comes in it aims to start you off on your journey to being the very best Pokémon trainer, like no one ever was.

With no more ado, then, lets get straight into that long grass and meet some wild Pokémon!

How To Set Up The Pokemon Tcg

You

Players shuffle their 60-card deck and draw a hand of seven cards. Each player then places a Basic-level Pokémon , face down. This is their active Pokémon, which can battle and take damage.

After drawing your hand, you draw and put aside six prize cards

If a player does not have a Basic-level Pokémon available, they must reveal their hand to their opponent, shuffle their cards back into their deck, and draw seven new cards. This is called a mulligan. Each time a mulligan is performed, the opposite player may elect to draw an extra card. Players can then place up to five Basic-level Pokémon, face down, onto their bench area. Next, players draw another six cards from the top of their deck and place them face down to the side of the play area. These are your Prize Cards.

Finally, players flip a coin to determine who will go first, and then flip their active and benched Pokémon face up. The first player now begins their turn but, importantly, the first player cannot attack on their first turn, and neither player can evolve a Pokémon on their first turn.

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Pokmon Tcg Online Game Modes

If youre ready to move from battling AI trainers to playing real people, youll need to head to the Versus mode – and make sure you have a legal deck.

TCG players will likely be familiar with the Standard and Expanded formats the former currently allows cards from the Sun & Moon – Ultra Prism series to present, and Expanded allows cards from Black & White onwards. These formats also allow a host of other cards from select expansions and releases , which are the same for Pokémon TCG and TCGO, and can be found on the Pokémon website.

However, Pokémon TCG Online also boasts two other formats that you dont usually see at in-person events: Unlimited and Theme.

Theme is self-explanatory: this fun format only allows the use of theme decks. This is where the likes of Charizard in Relentless Flame, Groudon in Towering Heights or Rillaboom in, well, Rillaboom, rule supreme. The Theme format is in great shape at the moment, and is perfect for getting to know the ropes of online battles.

The Unlimited format allows any cards that have ever been legal, which leads to some broken combinations of cards that never appeared together in Standard or Expanded formats. Expect to face first-turn losses or to be locked down and unable to do anything in your turn thanks to unique pairings in this format.

How To Get Your Pokemon Collection Started:

The first step in getting your childs Pokemon card collection going is to buy a . Your child needs at least these 60 cards to get a game going

The booster packs cost around $5 and contain 10 random cards. The booster packs contain some high powered cards or evolved Pokemon that you can use in a battle.

Pokemon comes out with new series a few times a year, so of course your kid is going to want booster packs from the latest series because well, its Pokemon and its something new.

In order to prevent the cards from covering every square inch of the floor in your kids room, you may want to set him up with a binder and plastic sleeves, also to protect the cards. We use regular 3-ring binders for our Pokemon cards and the plastic sheets you may have used for your childhood collection of baseball cards.

I asked Jacob tonight for the best way to organize cards. He recommends that smaller collections start sorting the cards by energy type, which is the symbol in the upper right-hand corner.

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What Is The Next Pokemon Game

The following Pokémon games are called Sun & Moon and will be released this year. Nintendo today unveiled the following great Pokémon games at a short online event: Sun & Moon. Both versions will be released on Nintendo 3DS during the Christmas season of 2016 and will be the first major games in the series since Pokémon X and Y in 2013.

Learning To Play The Pokmon Tcg

How To Play Pokemon Trading Card Game (TCG) Learn To Play In Less Than 15 minutes!
  • 1Shuffle your deck and draw 7 cards to start the game. You and your opponent should each have your own deck made up of 60 cards. Don’t show anyone your cards after you draw them. Keep them in your hand, and set the rest of the deck facedown in a pile on your righthand side.XResearch source
  • Although you start with 7 cards, there’s no limit to how many cards you can keep in your hand at any time. You draw a new card at the beginning of each turn, and there are additional cards in the deck that let you pick more up.
  • You can also play Pokémon TCG online for free and import any physical cards you own. All physical cards come with codes that you can input online to play with the cards and learn more about them. Visit . This is a great way to practice and learn the rules.
  • Pokémon TCG is traditionally a two-player game, but you can search online for three-player variations.
  • 2Choose a basic, active Pokémon to play with. The top lefthand corner of your Pokémon cards will tell you if your card is basic, stage 1, or stage 2. Look through the 7 cards you drew, and place your active Pokémon in the middle of the playing area before doing anything else with the rest of your cards.XResearch source
  • If you don’t get a basic Pokémon in your first 7 cards, you have to discard your hand back into your deck, shuffle the cards, and draw 7 new ones. If that happens, your opponent gets to draw 1 new card from their deck and add it to their hand.
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