How to play the Pokémon Trading Card Game
The basic flow of play in the Pokémon TCG is relatively simple to grasp, but it involves a few steps you’ll need to learn before your first battle.
How do you start the Pokémon TCG?
At the beginning of a game, players can flip a coin to see who plays first. Then the decks are shuffled, players draw a hand of seven cards and the top six cards are set aside as prize cards; you add one of these to your hand each time one you defeat an opponent’s Pokémon, and claim victory if you pick up all six before your rival.
Both players can place one basic Pokémon card facedown as their active Pokémon, plus up to five more basic Pokémon on their bench. If you don’t have any basic Pokémon cards in your hand after drawing your initial hand of seven cards, reveal your hand to your opponent and draw seven more hands. You can repeat this as many times as you want until you have at least one basic Pokémon – but your opponent gets to draw one extra card for every time you do.
A player can have a total of six Pokémon in play at once, although only one – the active Pokémon – can perform attacks during each turn. The rest remain in your bench – a row of cards behind the active Pokémon where you hold five other Pokémon who wait to battle it out against your opponent, a bit like your party in the Pokémon video games. Both active Pokémon and benched Pokémon can be evolved and have energy attached to them. If your active Pokémon is defeated, you must replace it with one from your bench; if you have no Pokémon on the field at all, you lose.
How do turns work in the Pokémon TCG?
When each turn begins, the active player draws a card from the top of their deck; if you run out of cards in your deck and can’t draw on your next turn, you lose.
During each turn’s second phase, you can do any and all of the following:
- Play any number of basic Pokémon from your hand to your bench.
- Attach one (and only one) energy card to a Pokémon from your hand. This can be your active Pokémon or a Pokémon on your bench.
- Evolve a Pokémon by playing a Stage 1 or Stage 2 evolution on top of a basic or Stage 1 Pokémon, respectively. A Pokémon can’t evolve the same turn it’s played, and can only evolve once per turn. (Unless an item card like Rare Candy specifies otherwise.)
- Play any number of item cards.
- Play any number of trainer cards. (Except supporter and stadium cards, which only let you play one per turn.)
- Retreat your active Pokémon to your bench by paying the retreat cost on its card in energy from your hand. You must then replace it with a Pokémon from your bench.
- Use any number of abilities on Pokémon cards.
Attacking in the Pokémon TCG
After you’ve done the above, your active Pokémon can attack the opponent. The Pokémon can perform one attack listed on its card as long as the correct amount and type of energy is attached to the card. (The energy isn’t discarded unless specified.)
Damage is assigned to the opponent’s active Pokémon as damage counters – once it receives as much damage as it has hit points, it faints. A defeated Pokémon must be replaced with a Pokémon from the bench (if there are no Pokémon to replace it, the player loses), and the player who knocked it out claims a prize card to add to their hand. If they claim their sixth and final prize card, they win.
Once you’ve attacked and assigned any damage and/or status effects, your turn ends and it’s your opponent’s go. The game repeats like this until one player wins!
