Pokémon Trading Card Game - Game Play Basics

The Game

You and your opponent take turns playing cards from your hands. Some of these cards will be Basic Pokémon cards, Evolution cards that can grow them into bigger and stronger Pokémon, or Energy cards that help Pokémon fight. You can also play Trainer cards-these will do lots of different things to help you win.

You might have several Pokémon on the table at once, but only one of them (called your "Active Pokémon") will be fighting for you at a time. The rest will be sitting on your Bench in case you need them to fight. Every turn, you’ll have a chance to attack with your Active Pokémon, which will either do damage to your opponent’s Active Pokémon (called the "Defending Pokémon" during your attack) or do something else to it, like making it Asleep, Confused, Paralyzed, or Poisoned. If your attack does enough damage to Knock Out the Defending Pokémon, you get to take 1 of your 6 Prizes. When you take your 6th Prize (when 6 of your opponent’s Pokémon have been Knocked Out), you win!

How to Win

In Pokémon, 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 Pokémon is Knocked Out, you take 1 of your Prizes and put it into your hand. When you’ve taken all 6 of your Prizes, you win the game! (You’ll win most of your games this way.) Second, you also win if your opponent doesn’t have an Active Pokémon (or a Benched Pokémon to replace it with) at the end of any turn. And finally, you win if your opponent’s deck is out of cards at the start of his or her turn.