If you have not played the tabletop game of Pokemon since Red and Blue first landed on the Game Boy, now is the perfect time to give it a go. The game is easy to learn for newbies but still provides plenty of depth to keep players coming back for more.
To start a game, shuffle the deck and draw seven cards. This is known as a mulligan. Once you have a basic Pokemon card in your hand, you can begin the battle. Each turn, the player plays a Pokemon card from their hand against an opponent’s Pokemon. The first player to knock out six of their opponent’s Pokemon wins the game. Each Pokemon has damage counters and energy cards attached to it, as well as special conditions such as being Burned, Poisoned or Asleep. These conditions must be dealt with in between turns and can affect the Pokemon’s ability to attack or take damage.
The most important information on a Pokemon card is the Pokemon’s name and hit points, or HP. This is written in the largest bold text with the other components of the card listed in descending order. This makes it easy to scan a card and quickly find the information you need.
Next comes the Pokemon’s move set and associated attack damage. This is written in a smaller bold text but it is still clearly visible as you read down the card. A note of caution is to remember that Pokemon cards can be used for multiple purposes, such as attacking, capturing or battling with other Pokemon. This is why many players use two different decks for play.
Other important information on a Pokemon card includes its weakness, resistance and retreat cost. Weakness is what type of damage a Pokemon is susceptible to, resistance is how much damage is taken in one turn and retreat cost is how much energy is needed to bring the card back into the active deck.
Lastly, the top right of the card displays the Pokemon’s evolution level. This is a good way to determine which Pokemon it can evolve into as it advances in its evolution path. For example, Piplup is a “basic” Pokémon and Prinplup is a “stage 1” Pokemon while Empoleon is a “stage 2” Pokémon.
There are four types of cards in a Pokemon TCG deck: Pokemon, trainer, item and stadium cards. Pokemon cards depict creatures that fight for the player, evolution cards show a Pokemon’s progress through its stage in its evolution chain, item cards provide additional resources to carry out your strategy and stadium cards act as temporary locations for your Pokemon during the course of a game. Pokemon cards