How to Play the Game.
1. You and your opponent need 2 decks of 60 cards, a coin
to flip, and some Dammage Counters.
2. Each player shuffels their decks, draw the starting
hand of 7 cards, and put the rest of the deck in front of you, to the right.
3. You and your opponent each choose a Basic Pokemon,
it should say "Basic Pokemon" on the upper-left corner of a Pokemon Card,
and put them face-down in front of each of you, they're your active Pokemon.
4. If one player does not have a Basic Pokemon in their
hand, that player must put their hand back into the deck, reshuffle, and
draw 7 more cards.
5. Each player may put up to 5 Basic Pokemon in a row
in between him/her, and the active Pokemon, face-down, these are your Benched
Pokemon.
6. Put the top 6 cards from your deck, face-down, to
your left, and spreaded out, they're your prize cards, which you take as
your opponent's Active Pokemon are knocked out. You can not look
at a Prize Card, until you take it.
7. Flip a coin to see who will go 1st.
8. Flip over all benched and active Pokemon on the table.
9. During your turn:
A. Draw a Card.
B. Do any or all of the following in any order, and as
often as you like:
1. Put a Basic Pokemon on the Bench, you may only have up to 5 on
the bench.
2. Evolve the active Pokemon, or a benched one.
3. Attach only 1 Energy card to a Pokemon, Active or Benched.
4. Play a Trainer Card.
5. Reatreat your active Pokemon, only when neccesary, like when
it has less HP, but it's not knocked out.
6. Use a Pokemon Power, written in list of attacks on Pokemon Card,
on some Pokemon.
C. Attack with your active Pokemon.
D. Your turn is now over.
The Card Math.
The Math for # of Damage goes as follows:
A. Start with the Basic Damage, the # to the right of
the attack, if it has an "X, -, +," or "?" sign next to it, it's the amount
of damage the Attack Text tells you to do.
B. Apply any effects the active Pokemon has that will
affect the base damage dealt. If the dammage is 0, or the attack
does not do any dammage, you're done figuring, otherwise, keep going.
C. Double the damage if the Defending Pokemon has a weakness
to the Active Pokemon's type.
D. Subtract damage if the defending Pokemon has Resistance
to the Active Pokemon's Type (the card will tell how much to subtract).
E. Figure out effects of Trainers attached to Active
Pokemon.
F. Apply cards that affects the whole Play Area (like
Sprout Tower, which says, "All damage done by Colorless Pokémon's
attacks is reduced by 30") This happens after you figure out the
effects of Trainer cards attached to the attacking Pokémon, but
before figuring out effects of Trainer cards attached to the Defending
Pokémon.
G. Figure out effects of Trainers on defending Pokemon.
H. Apply any effects of Defense Pokemon's last attack,
ex. Onix's harden, or any related Pokemon Power.
I. For each 10 damage, place 1 Damage Counter, but if
0 damage, don't do anything.
J. Damage is done, if there's anything other than damage,
do all that.
Evolution.
Applies for all sets (including NEO).
Remember that you can have only 4 copies of the same card in your deck, but a card counts as "the same" as another card only if it has the same name. So, you could have 4 Charmeleons, 4 Dark Charmeleons, and/or 4 Blaine's Charmeleons.
Evolution cards say in the upper left-hand corner of what they evolve from, and you have to follow those instructions. So, for example, Blaine's Charizard evolves from Blaine's Charmeleon. That means that you can't play Blaine's Charizard on top of a regular Charmeleon or Dark Charmeleon. And the same goes for regular Charizard and Dark Charizard, you can't play either card on Blaine's Charmeleon.
For the Neo's Baby Pokémon, these
are a special type of Pokémon card. They can evolve into other
Pokémon cards. For example, if Pichu evolves into Pikachu,
that Pikachu is an evolved Pokémon, not a Basic Pokémon.
But you can play a Pichu and a Pikachu side-by-side as Basic Pokémon,
and save another Pikachu for that Pichu.
Energy Types.
Darkness and Metal Pokémon:
They have new Energy cards to go with them (but not basic
Energy cards, and these cards have special powers). The Darkness
Pokémon are not the same as Team Rocket's Dark Pokémon.
If a card refers to "A Pokémon with Dark in its name," it means
a Team Rocket Dark Pokémon.
Special Trainers.
Stadium Cards:
They're a special kind of Trainer card that stays "in
play" after you play them. They affect the game as long as they're
in play. Only one Stadium card can be in play at a time, so if there's
one on the table already and a new one comes into play, discard the old
one.
Pokémon Tools:
These are another special kind of Trainer card that you
can attach to your Pokémon to help you. Each of the Pokémon
Tools says on it how it works. Each Pokémon can have only
one Pokémon Tool attached to it at a time.
Attack Order.
1. Before your Attack announcement, if your opponent's
Active Pokémon is a Baby Pokémon, flip a coin to see if your
attack does nothing. For example, say Charmeleon is your Active Pokémon
and you want to use its Flamethrower attack. If your opponent's Active
Pokémon is a Baby Pokémon, and you get Tails on the Baby
flip, you don't discard Energy cards attabched to Charmeleon to use Flamethrower,
because you won't even get to the step in which you discard Energy.
2. Anounce which attack your Active Pokémon is
using. Make sure that your Pokémon has enough Energy cards
attached to it to use the attack.
3. If necessary, make any choices the attack requires
you to make (for example, Natu's Telekinesis attack says, "Choose 1 of
your opponent's Pokémon." So you choose now).
4. If necessary, do anything the attack requires you
to do in order to use it (for example, discard Energy cards, as in Flaaffy's
Discharge attack, which makes you discard all Lightning Energy cards attached
to Flaaffy in order to use it).
5. If neccessary, apply any effects that might alter
or cancel the attack (For example, if your Pokémon was hit last
turn by LV.35 Quilava's Smokescreen attack, that attack said that if you
tried to attack with that Pokémon during your next turn, you should
flip a coin. If tails, your Pokémon's attack does nothing.
6. If your Active Pokémon is Confused, check now
to see if the attack works, or if that Pokémon does damage to itself
(applying weakness and resistance).
7. Do whatever the attack says. Do any damage first,
then do any other effects, and, finally, Knock Out any Pokémon that
has damage greater than or equal to their Hit Points.
The Order to Do Things that Happen after Each Player's Turn.
1. A. Put damage counters on any Poisoned Pokémon.
B. Flip to see if Asleep Pokémon recover, and have Paralyzed
recover.
C. Flip to see fi Pokémon with "Char Counters" take damage.
D. Put damage counters on any Pokémon with Darkness Energy
attached to them (except for Darkness Pokémon and ones with Dark
in their names.
2. If one of your Pokémon has a Pokémon
Tool attached to it and that Pokémon Tool does something between
turns, you can use the Pokémon Tool at any time you want between
turns.
3. If your Pokémon and your opponent's Pokémon
are Knocked Out at the same time between turns, the player who is about
to take a turn replaces his or her Pokémon first (and chooses his
or her Prize first as well).
Conditions:
Asleep: If a Pokémon is Asleep, it can not attack or retreat. As soon as a Pokémon is Asleep, turn it one quarter counter-clockwise to show that it is Asleep. After each player's turn, flip a coin. On heads, the sleeping Pokémon wakes up (turn the card back right-side up), but on tails, it is still Asleep, and you have to wait until after the next turn to try to wake it up again. You may flip to awaken a Pokémon riight after the turn it becomes Asleep.
Confused: If a Pokémon is Confused, you have to flip a coin whenever you try to attack with that Pokémon or whenever you try to make it retreat. Turn a Confused Pokémon up-side down to show that it is Confused.
When you try to have a Confused Pokémon retreat, you must pay the retreat cost first by discarding Energy cards from that Pokémon. Then flip a coin. On heads, you retreat that Pokémon normally. On tails, the retreat fails, and that Pokémon can not try to retreat again that turn.
When you attack with a confused Pokémon, you flip a coin. On heads, the attack works normally, but on tails, that Pokémon attacks itself for 20 damage (apply weakness and resistance).
Paralyzed: If a Pokémon is Paralyzed, it can not attack or retreat. Turn that Pokémon one quarter turn clockwise to show that it is Paralyzed. If an Active Pokémon is Paralyzed, it recovers after its player's next turn. Turn that card right-side up again.
Char: If a Pokémon becomes "Chared," put a Char counter on that Pokémon. When a Pokémon is Chared, flip a coin in between turns (including right after it gets Chared). On tails, that Pokémon gets 20 damage. A Pokémon stays Chared as long as it is in play; benching it will not remove the effect.
The Unown Rule:
If you decide to have some Unown in your deck; you may only have
up to 4 Pokémon with Unown in their names (The Letters do not count).
Have fun playing the Pokémon Trading Card Game.
Gotta Catch all 251 Pokémon!