I Choose You!
The Pokémon cards trading game is a card game based on some of the most beloved video games in the world. The Pokémon TCG brings your favorite Pokémon out of your screen onto the kitchen table, where you can battle with your friends, fellow trainers and show off your prized collection!
The Pokémon Company's Origins
The world of Pokémon began in 1996 when Game Freak and Nintendo released the Game Boy video games Pocket Monsters: Red and Green. These games, where players could catch, battle, and train Pokémon, were hugely popular! Since then, the Pokémon company has expanded to include manga, anime, live-action films, and, of course, the Pokémon cards trading game. No other company can top the Pokémon company when creating an immersive universe based entirely around creatures from video games!
All is fair in love, war, and Pokémon battles.
If you love the classic Pokémon games, then there's no better time to start playing the Pokémon TGC! The only way the Pokémon video games differ from the Pokémon cards trading game is in their medium. The Pokémon trading card game has all your favorite elements from video games and anime: shinies, evolution, and of course, awesome, turn-based battles.
Setting up the Pokémon TCG
Each player starts with a deck of 60 cards containing three card types: energy cards, trainer cards, and Pokémon cards. You can't have more than four of the same cards in your deck, not including energy cards. To best your opponent, it's important to build a good deck, so look at some of our great decks and booster packs to boost your game and get new cards!
At the beginning of the game, one player flips a coin to see who takes the first turn. Then they shuffle their decks, and both players draw a starting hand of seven cards. Each player checks to see if they have any basic Pokémon in their hands. If they do, they each choose one basic Pokémon as their active Pokémon and place it face down.
If not, the player reveals their hand to their opponent, adds their cards back into the deck, re-shuffles, and re-draws, until they get a basic Pokémon. Every time a player draws a new starting hand, their opponent gets an extra card, so make sure you build your deck with enough Pokémon!
The players then choose up to five other basic Pokémon from their starting hand as their benched Pokémon, placing them face down behind the active Pokémon.
After the initial setup, each player draws the top six cards of their decks, which they set aside as their six prize cards. Every time a player knocks out one of their opponent's Pokémon, they get to take one of these cards.
Playing the Pokémon Card Game
At the start of the game, both players flip their face-down cards face-up. The player who won the coin toss starts. The active player draws a card, then they can do any of the following actions in any order:
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Put basic Pokémon from their hand onto the bench
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Evolve a Pokémon, attach an energy card to one of their Pokémon, retreat their active Pokémon, use one of their Pokémon's abilities, put damage counters on their opponent's active Pokémon
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Play as many trainer cards as they want, but only one of their Supporter cards and one of their Stadium cards per turn.
The player can then attack their opponent's active Pokémon with their own. If their opponent's Pokémon was knocked out, their opponent must discard the Pokémon and all of its attached cards.
This repeats until either all of one player's in-play Pokémon are knocked out, one player draws all their prize cards, or one player has no cards to draw at the start of their turn.
Now you're all set to play the Pokémon Trading Cards Game, so go out there and catch 'em all!
