Well, you and your opponent will each need your own deck of 60 cards, a coin
to flip, and some counters to mark damage to your Pokemon.
How to win
In Pokemon, you can win three different ways. First, at the start of the game you set aside 6 of your
cards as prizes. Every time one of your opponent's Pokemon is Knocked Out, you take one of your
Prizes and put it into your hand. When you've taken all 6 of your prizes, you win the game! Second,
you also win if your opponent has no Pokemon left to fight against your Pokemon. And finally, you
win if your opponent's deck is out of cards at the start of his or her turn.
You might have several Pokemon on the table at one time, but only one of them (called your "Active
Pokemon") will be fighting for you at a time. The rest will be sitting on yout Bench, waiting for their
turn to fight. Every turn, you'll have a chance to attack with your Active Pokemon, which will either
do dammage to your opponent's Active Pokemon (called the "Defending Pokemon" during your
attack) or do something to it, like making it asleep, confused, Paralyzed, or Poisoned. If your attack
does enough dammage to knock out the Defending Pokemon, you get to take one of your 6 Prizes.
When you take your sith Prize (when you've Knocked Out six of your opponent's Pokemon), you
win!
What are the Different Kinds of Cards
Basic Pokemon are your most important cards. They fight for you turn after turn against your
opponent's Pokemon.
Evolution cards are played on top of your Basic Pokemon (or sometimes on top of other Evolution
cards). They make your Pokemon bigger and more powerful.
Energy cards are attched to your Pokemon to give them the energy they need to do their attacks.
Trainer cards are one-shot cards that do something once and are then discarded.
Starting the game
1) Shuffle your deck and draw a starting hand of 7 cards. Put the rest of your deck face down in
front of you.
2) If you don't have any basic Pokemon cards in your hand (it'll say "Basic Pokemon" in the upper
left-hand corner), show your hand to your opponent, shuffle it into your deck, and draw 7 new
cards. Your opponent may then draw up to 2 extra cards. If you still don't have any Basic Pokemon
in your new hand, you can repeat this process, but your opponent gets to draw up to 2 extra cards
each time!
3) You and your opponent each choose a Basic Pokemon card from your hands and put them face
down. These will be your Active Pokemon.
4) Each may, if he or she wishes, choose up to 5 Basic Pokemon from his or her hand and put them
face-down on his or her Bench (this is where Pokemon wait when they are not Active).
5) Put the top 6 cards of your deck face-down in front of you. These are your Prizes, which you
take as your opponent's Pokemon are Knocked Out. You can't look at a Prize card until you take it.
6) Flip a coin to see who goes first.
7) Flip over all the Active and Benched Pokemon that have been put on the table
Let's Play!
As you play, you and your oppnent take turns. During your opponent's turn, you don't do anything
except replace your Active Pokemon if it gets Knocked Out (see below). During your turn, go
through the steps below.
What Can You Do Durring Your Turn?
1) Draw a Card
2) Do any of the following in any order and as often as you like.
3) Attack with your active Pokemon
4) Your turn is over now
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1) Draw a card. You always begin your turn by drawing a card. (If your deck is empty at the
beginning of your turn, the game is over, and your opponent wins).
2) Do any of the following in any order and as often as you like:
Put a Basic Pokemon on the Bench
Choose a Basic Pokemon from you hand and put it on your bench. You can have no more than 5
Pokemon on your Bench at any time, so you can put a new Basic Pokemon there only if your bench
has 4 or fewer Pokemon on it.
Evolve a Pokemon in play
If you have a card in your hand that says "Evolves from so-and-so" and so-and-so is the name of a
Pokemon you already have in play, you may play that card in your hand on top of the Pokemon
so-and-so. This is called "evolving" a Pokemon.
Example: Juliane has a card called Ninetails that says "Evolves from Vulpix," and she has a Vulpix
card in play. She may play the Ninetails card on top of the Vulpix card.
When a Pokemon evolves, it keeps any Energy cards, and Evolution cards, and any damage
counters it might already have. All other things sbout the Pokemon go away - Sleep, Confusion,
Paralysis, Poison, or anything else that might be the result of an attack some Pokemon made earlier.
All of these things go away.
Attach an Energy card to a Pokemon
Take an Energy card from your hand and attach it to one of your Pokemon in play (put it under the
Pokemon card)
Play a Trainer Card
To play a Trainer card, do what it says, then put it in the discard pole.
Retreat your Active Pokemon
You may switch your Active Pokemon with one of the Pokemon on your Bench. To do this, you
must discard Energy cards equal to the Active Pokemon's retreat cost that's written in the lower
right-hand corner. (You'll read more about costs in the "Attack with Your Active Pokemon"
section). If you can't do that, then you can't retreat. Pokemon with no retreat cost don't need to
discard any Energy when they retreat - they can retreat 'for free'.
A Pokemon that is Asleep or Parylized can't retreat. A Confused Pokemon can TRY to retreat, but
it might not succeed. (Why this might happen will be explained later on in the rules).
When your Active Pokemon goes to your Bench (whether it retreated or got there some other way),
it keeps any Energy cards, any Evolution cards, and any dammage counters it may already have. All
other things about the Pokemon go away - Sleep,Confusion,Paralysis, Poison or anything else that
might be the result of an earlier attack. All of these things go away. Retreating does not cost your
attack.
Use a Pokemon Power
Some Pokemon have a special "Pokemon Power" written on the card. Many of these Powers can
be used before you attack. Each Pokemon Power is different though, so you should read carefully
how each Pokemon Power works.
3) Attack with your Active Pokemon
If you wish, you may have your Active Pokemon attack your opponent's Active Pokemon (also
called the 'Defending Pokemon'). This is the last thing you can do durring your turn - you can't do
anything else afterward. You can only attack one time durring your turn, and your Pokemon can only
use one of its attacks each turn. To attack, just tell your opponent which one of your Pokemon's
attacks you're using. You can only use an attack if you have at least the required ammount of Energy
attached to your Active Pokemon.
Any type of Energy - forest, fire, water, lightning, psychic, fighting, or colorless - can count toward
colorless Energy requirements (the little star). But only Energy of the appropriate type counts toward
Energy requirements of that type. So if an attack has an Energy requirement of Fire, you must have a
fire energy to make the attack work. But if an attack has a colorless Energy requirement, you just
need any one energy - it doesn't matter which kind!
When you attack read the attack you're using and do what it says. For each 10 damage a Pokemon
takes, put one damage counter on it. If a Pokemon ever has total damage at least equal to its Hit
Points (for example, 4 or more damage counters on a Pokemon with 40HP), it's immedialately
Knocked Out.
Some Pokemon have a Weakness or Resistance to Pokemon of other types. (For example,
Charmander has a Weakness to Water Pokemon.)
A Defending Pokemon takes double damage from a Pokemon that it has a Weakness to, and it
subtracts damage from a Pokemon that it has a resistance to.
What happens when your Pokemon is Knocked Out
Whenever a Pokemon is Knocked Out, put its Basic Pokemon card and all cards attached to it
(Evolution cards, Energy cards, etc.) in the discard pile of whoever played them. The opposing
player takes one of his or her Prizes and puts it into his or her hand. A player who loses his or her
Active Pokemon must immediately replace it with a Pokemon from his or her Bench. (If a player
can't do this because his or her bench is empty, that player loses.) If both Active Pokemon are
Knocked Out at the same time, the player whose turn it is replaces his or her Pokemon last.
4)Your Turn is Over Now.
Sometimes there are things to do after your turn is over but before your opponents turn begins. After
you've done those things, your opponent's turn begins.
What Happens After Each Players Turn?
After each player's turn, if either player's Active Pokemon is Poisoned, it'll take damage, and if it's
Asleep or Paralyzed it might recover. Then the next players turn begins.
How do Sleep, Confusion, Paralysis, and Poison Work?
Some attacks cause the Defending Pokemon to be Asleep, Confused, Paralyzed, or Poisoned.
These things don't happen to a Benched Pokemon, only to an Active Pokemon - in fact, if a
Pokemon goes to the Bench, these things are removed from it. And evolving a Pokemon also means
it's no longer Asleep, Confused, Paralyzed, or Poisoned.
Asleep
If a Pokemon is Asleep, it can't attack or retreat. Turn the Pokemon Sideways to show it is Asleep.
After each player's turn, flip a coin. On a heads, the Pokemon wakes up (turn the card back right
side up), but on a tails it's still Asleep, and you'll have to wait until after the next turn to try and wake
it up again.
Confused
If a Pokemon is Confused, you have to flip a coin whenever you try to attack with it or whenever
you try to make it retreat. Turn a Confused Pokemon with its head pointed toward you to show it's
confused.
When you try to make a confused Pokemon retreat, you must first pay the retreat cost by discarding
Energy cards. Then flip a coin. On heads, you can retreat the Pokemon as normal. On tails, the
retreat fails, and that Pokemon can't try to retreat again that turn.
When you attack with a Confused Pokemon, you flip a coin. On heads, the attack works normally,
but on tails your Pokemon attacks itself with an attack that does 20 damage. (If your pokemon has a
weakness or a resistance to its own type, or if there is some other effect that would alter the attack,
apply these things as usual.)
Paralyzed
If a Pokemon is Paralyzed, it can't attack or retreat. Turn the Pokemon sideways to show it is
Paralyzed. If an Active Pokemon is Paralyzed it recovers after its player's next turn. Turn the card
right-side up again.
Poisoned
If a Pokemon is Poisoned, place a "poison marker" on it to show that is is poisoned.
As long as it's still Poisoned, the Pokemon takes 10 damage after each player's turn, ignoring
Weakness and Resistance. If an attack would poison a Pokemon that is already Poisoned, it does't
get doubly poisoned; instead the new Poison condition replaces the old one.
Can Your Pokemon Be Asleep and Confused at the Same Time?
If a Pokemon is Asleep, Confused, or Paralyzed, and a new attack is made against it that causes it
to become Asleep, Confused, or Paralyzed, the old condition is erased and only the new one counts.
But these three conditions are the only attack effects that erase eachother. For example, a Pokemon
can be Confused and Poisoned at the same time.
