Pokémon TCG
Welcome to the Pokémon Trading Card Game section. Here you will find info on the newly released card game - pricing, decks, how to play, and more.
Decks
With this card game, you can buy theme decks. The starter set is all you need to play, but theme decks make your team more powerful. Here we will list the contents of each theme deck.
Starter Deck ------------ The starter deck contains everything you need to get playing. It contains 61 cards, and you can start playing with a friend with just one starter deck. Contents: Deck 1 ------ 14 Fighting energy 3 Diglett 4 Machop 2 Machoke 2 Rattata 1 Dratini 2 Potion 1 Energy removal 1 Pokédex Deck 2 ------ 14 Fire energy 4 Ponyta 4 Charmander 2 Charmeleon 1 Growlithe 1 Bill 1 Gust of Wind 2 Switch 1 Energy Removal Extra Card: Machamp (HoloFoil) Additionally, another Charmeleon card was issued in Volume 119 of Nintendo Power. Theme Decks ----------- Zap! ---- This deck contains Psychic and Electric Pokémon. It also contains Ghost, but Ghost is considered Psychic in the TCG. Contents: 16 Psychic Energy 12 Electric Energy 3 Abra 1 Kadabra 3 Gastly 2 Haunter 2 Jynx 2 Drowzee 1 Mewtwo 3 Magnemite 4 Pikachu 2 Bill 2 Gust of Wind 2 Switch 1 Super Potion 1 Potion 1 Defender 1 Professor Oak 1 Computer Search Overgrowth ---------- This theme deck contains Grass and Water Pokémon. Contents: 16 Grass Energy 12 Water Energy 4 Weedle 2 Kakuna 1 Beedrill 4 Bulbasaur 2 Ivysaur 4 Staryu 3 Starmie 2 Magikarp 1 Gyarados 2 Super Potion 2 Switch 2 Gust of Wind 2 Bill 1 Potion Brushfire --------- This deck is composed of Fire and Grass Pokémon. This wouldprobably be the last deck I would get, because it contains lots of Charmanders and Charmeleons and most of the Pokémon are pretty much useless. Contents: 18 Fire Energy 10 Grass Energy 4 Charmander 2 Chanmeleon 2 Growlithe 1 Arcanine 2 Vulpix 1 Ninetales 4 Nidoran Male 4 Weedle 2 Tangela 1 PlusPower 3 Potion 1 Gust of Wind 1 Switch 1 Energy Removal 2 Energy Retrieval 1 Lass Blackout -------- This deck contains Water and Fighting Pokémon. From the looks of the Trainer cards it contains, this deck will help you eliminate your opponent's Energy cards. The bad part about this deck is that it has lots of Machops and Machokes, which you get in the Starter deck also. Contents: 16 Fighting Energy 12 Water Energy 3 Staryu 4 Squirtle 2 Wartortle 4 Machop 3 Sandshrew 3 Onix 1 Hitmonchan 2 Farfetch'd 4 Energy Removal 1 Super Energy Removal 1 Gust of Wind 1 PlusPower 1 Professor Oak
Pricing Info
Starter decks...........$8.00
Theme decks............Don't know, but probably $8.00
Booster Packs...........$3.00, I think
I don't know about this, currently all I have is one starter deck. I'm getting more soon, but until then I won't know the prices.
Checklist
This is where I'll list all the cards in the entire set. Since over half the Pokémon from the GB game weren't included in the card game, this is where you'll find out if the Pokémon you want can be found, and if so, the chances of you finding it.
Rare - These cards are hard to find in a Booster pack.
Uncommon - You might find these cards occasionally. They aren't rare, but they aren't common. Kind of a middle-of-the-line between Rare and Common.
Common - You will have no trouble finding these Pokémon. It'll probably start getting annoying when you keep finding the same Pokémon in your booster packs...
Deck - These cards can be found in a theme deck, but in a booster pack they may be rare or common.
Holo - These cards are printed with a special holographic foil.
Checklist:
1 Alakazam - Rare - Holo 2 Blastoise - Rare - Holo 3 Chansey - Rare - Holo 4 Charizard - Rare - Holo 5 Clefairy - Rare - Holo 6 Gyarados - Rare - Holo - Deck (Overgrowth) 7 Hitmonchan - Rare - Holo - Deck (Blackout) 8 Machamp - Rare - Holo - Deck (Starter) 9 Magneton - Rare - Holo 10 Mewtwo - Rare - Holo - Deck (Zap!) 11 Nidoking - Rare - Holo 12 Ninetales - Rare - Holo - Deck (Brushfire) 13 Poliwrath - Rare - Holo 14 Raichu - Rare - Holo 15 Venusaur - Rare - Holo 16 Zapdos - Rare - Holo 17 Beedrill - Rare - Deck (Overgrowth) 18 Dragonair - Rare 19 Dugtrio - Rare 20 Electabuzz - Rare 21 Electrode - Rare 22 Pidgeotto - Rare 23 Arcanine - Uncommon - Deck (Brushfire) 24 Charmeleon - Uncommon - Deck (Starter, Brushfire) 25 Dewgong - Uncommon 26 Dratini - Uncommon - Deck (Starter) 27 Farfetch'd - Uncommon - Deck (Blackout) 28 Growlithe - Uncommon - Deck (Starter, Brushfire) 29 Haunter - Uncommon - Deck (Zap!) 30 Ivysaur - Uncommon - Deck (Overgrowth) 31 Jynx - Uncommon - Deck (Zap!) 32 Kadabra - Uncommon - Deck (Zap!) 33 Kakuna - Uncommon 34 Machoke - Uncommon - Deck (Starter, Blackout) 35 Magikarp - Uncommon - Deck (Overgrowth) 36 Magmar - Uncommon 37 Nidorino - Uncommon 38 Poliwhirl - Uncommon 39 Porygon - Uncommon 40 Raticate - Uncommon 41 Seel - Uncommon 42 Wartortle - Uncommon - Deck (Blackout) 43 Abra - Common - Deck (Zap!) 44 Bulbasaur - Common - Deck (Overgrowth) 45 Caterpie - Common 46 Charmander - Common - Deck (Starter, Brushfire) 47 Diglett - Common - Deck (Starter) 48 Doduo - Common 49 Drowzee - Common - Deck (Zap!) 50 Gastly - Common - Deck (Zap!) 51 Koffing - Common 52 Machop - Common - Deck (Starter, Blackout) 53 Magnemite - Common - Deck (Zap!) 54 Metapod - Common 55 Nidoran M - Common - Deck (Brushfire) 56 Onix - Common - Deck (Blackout) 57 Pidgey - Common 58 Pikachu - Common - Deck (Zap!) 59 Poliwag - Common 60 Ponyta - Common - Deck (Starter) 61 Rattata - Common - Deck (Starter) 62 Sandshrew - Common - Deck (Blackout) 63 Squirtle - Common - Deck (Blackout) 64 Starmie - Common - Deck (Overgrowth) 65 Staryu - Common - Deck (Overgrowth, Blackout) 66 Tangela - Common - Deck (Brushfire) 67 Voltorb - Common 68 Vulpix - Common - Deck (Brushfire) 69 Weedle - Common - Deck (Brushfire) 70 Poké Doll - Rare 71 CompSearch - Rare - Deck (Zap!) 72 Dev. Spray - Rare 73 ImpProfOak - Rare 74 Itemfinder - Rare 75 Lass - Rare - Deck (Brushfire) 76 Breeder - Rare 77 PokéTrader - Rare 78 Scoop Up - Rare 79 S.E Remove - Rare - Deck (Blackout) 80 Defender - Uncommon - Deck (Zap!) 81 E Retrieve - Uncommon - Deck (Brushfire) 82 Full Heal - Uncommon 83 Maintenence- Uncommon 84 PlusPower - Uncommon - Deck (Brushfire, Blackout) 85 PokéCenter - Uncommon 86 Poké Flute - Uncommon 87 Pokédex - Uncommon - Deck (Starter) 88 Prof. Oak - Uncommon 89 Revive - Uncommon 90 S. Potion - Uncommon - Deck (Zap!, Overgrowth) 91 Bill - Common - Deck (Starter, Zap!, Overgrowth) 92 E Removal - Common - Deck (Starter, B'fire, Blackout) 93 Gst of Wnd - Common - Deck (All) 94 Potion - Common - Deck (Starter, Zap!, Overgrowth) 95 Switch - Common - Deck (All but Blackout) 96 2x Clrless - Rare 97 Ftg Energy 98 Fir Energy 99 Grs Energy 100 Elc Energy 101 Psy Energy 102 Wtr Energy
How to Play
This is where you will learn how to play the Pokémon TCG.
Setup
Each player must have a deck of exactly 60 cards. This is a mix of Energy, Trainer, and Pokémon cards.
Most decks should have somewhere around 25-30 Energy cards, the types depending on which types of Pokémon you use. My suggestion would be to only use two or three different types of Pokémon to prevent drawing the wrong kind of energy.
Trainer cards are important, especially the healing ones, like Potion, Full Heal, and Revive. Bill cards are also good, because you can draw two cards with each one. Be sure to include a few of those. PlusPowers and Defenders are important, as are Super Energy Retrievals. And don't forget Switches.
And of course, the most important cards are the Pokémon cards. Make absolutely sure that you include Evolution cards too, because you pretty much can't win with just Basic Pokémon. Be sure that most of the Pokémon you use have at least one or two evolutions, but there are Pokémon like Magmar that are powerful even without Evolutions. Just choose wisey, and take advantage of the fact that you can customize your deck to your own preferences.
Starting the Game
1. Shuffle the deck and draw a starting hand of 7 cards. Put the rest of the deck face down in front of you.
2. If you don't have any Basic Pokémon (says "Basic Pokémon" in upper left corner), show your hand to the opponent and shuffle the hand back into the deck. Then you draw 7 new cards , and your opponent gets to draw 2 extra cards. If you still don't have any Basics, repeat the process, but each time you do it, your opponent gets to draw 2 extra cards.
3. You and your opponent erach choose a Basic Pokémon from your hands and lay it face-down. These are the Actiive Pokémon that do the attacking.
4. Take the top 3* cards of your deck and place them face-down in front of you. These are your Prize Cards. You get them when you Knock Out one of your opponent's Pokémon. Don;t look at them until you take them.
* This is the default. You can change this number depending on how long a game you want.
5. Flip a coin to determine who goes first.
6. Flip over the Active Pokémon. The winner of the coin toss attacks first.
What you can do during your turn
1. Draw a card. This is how you begin your turn every time.
2. Do any of the following in any order as often as you want:
3. Use your Pokémon's Pokémon Power, if it has one. Pokémon Powers differ from Attacks, so you can still Attack if you use a Pokémon Power.
4. Attack with your Active Pokémon (optional, but it doesn't make any sense not to). Your turn is now over.
How to Attack
Even if your Pokémon has two attacks, it can only use one per turn. To use an attack, the Pokémon must have at least the amount of Energy shown to the left of the attack name. For example, it it shows two Water icons and a white icon (colorless), you must have at least two Water Energy cards attached to it, and then any kind of Energy (Colorless means you can play any type of Energy card for it). So you could have two Water Energies and a Fire Energy if you want, but you must have the Water Energies. Remember that the cards stay attached to the Pokémon after you use the attack, unless it's an attack that requires you to discard an Energy card attached to that Pokémon.
For each 10 damage that your Pokémon's attack does, place one damage counter (clear colored things that come in the Starter deck) on the opponent's Active Pokémon. If a Pokémon ever has damage equal to or greater than its HP, it's Knocked Out, and it and everything attached to it (Energy, Evolution cards) are placed in the Discard pile. The player who knocked out the opponent's Pokémon can now take a Prize Card. The player who lost the Pokémon must immediately replace it with a Pokémon from the Bench.
How to Win
To win you must win back all your Prize Cards. You can also win if the opponent is out of Bench Pokémon, or if their deck is out of cards at the start of their turn. If you both win at the same time, you play a shorter version called Sudden Death. In this game, rules are the same, except there is only one Prize Card for each player. If Sudden Death results in a tie, keep playing it until one person wins and the other one doesn't.
