The Wots Rule Book

Welcome to the world of Pok�mon, a special place where people just like you train to become the number-one Pok�mon Master in the world!
But what is a Pok�mon, you ask? "Pok�mon are incredible creatures that share the world with humans," says Professor Oak, the leading authority on these monsters. "There are currently 150 documented species of Pok�mon."
And your incredible task is to capture, train, and fight with all of them! It's not easy, but once you get the hang of it, you'll know exactly which Pok�mon to choose for a battle. On your way to the top, you'll perfect your skills by using your Pok�mon to fight against other Pok�mon trainers.
Each Pok�mon has its own special fighting abilities. Though they come in many shapes and sizes, even the smallest Pok�mon can launch a fierce attack. Some Pok�mon grow, or evolve, into even more powerful creatures. But don't worry-even your toughest Pok�mon will be loyal to you!
Carry your Pok�mon with you, and you're ready for anything! You've got the power in your hands, so use it!
If you play the Pok�mon Game Boy� game or watch the animated Pok�mon show, you already know the basic ideas and goals of the trading card game!

In the Pok�mon trading card game, one of your goals is to collect each of the cards, similar to your goal of collecting each of the Pok�mon in the Game Boy game. But not all Pok�mon cards are as easy to catch as others. The Energy cards are the most basic and most common kind of cards. Your Pok�mon cards, Evolution cards, and Trainer cards come in four different varieties: common cards are marked in the bottom right-hand corner with a . Uncommon cards are marked with a , and rare cards are marked with a . In addition, some rare cards are printed using holographic foil. These "holo" cards are the hardest to catch and collect. In addition, a limited quantity of each set of Pok�mon cards is printed with the symbol, which shows that those cards are first-edition cards from that set. The same cards may be reprinted in the future but never with the symbol, ensuring that your first-edition cards will maintain their value!

In Pok�mon, 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 Pok�mon 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 Pok�mon (or a Benched Pok�mon 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.

You and your opponent take turns playing cards from your hands. Some of these cards will be Basic Pok�mon cards, Evolution cards that can grow them into bigger and stronger Pok�mon, or Energy cards that help Pok�mon fight. You can also play Trainer cards-these will do lots of different things to help you win.
You might have several Pok�mon on the table at once, but only one of them (called your "Active Pok�mon") 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 Pok�mon, which will either do damage to your opponent's Active Pok�mon (called the "Defending Pok�mon" 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 Pok�mon, you get to take 1 of your 6 Prizes. When you take your 6th Prize (when 6 of your opponent's Pok�mon have been Knocked Out), you win!

Basic Pok�mon are your most important cards. They fight for you turn after turn against your opponent's Pok�mon.

Evolution cards are played on top of your Basic Pok�mon (or sometimes on top of other Evolution cards). They make your Pok�mon bigger and more powerful.

Energy cards are attached to your Pok�mon to give them the Energy they need to use their attacks.

Trainer cards are one-shot cards that do something once and are then discarded.

�Shuffle your deck and draw a starting hand of 7 cards. Put the rest of your deck face-down in front of you.

What If I Don't Have a Basic Pok�mon Card in My Hand?Then show your hand to your opponent, shuffle it back into your deck, and draw 7 new cards. Your opponent can then choose to draw up to 2 extra cards. If you still don't have any Basic Pok�mon in your new hand, you repeat this process, but your opponent gets to draw up to 2 extra cards each time!

�You and your opponent each choose a Basic Pok�mon card (it'll say "Basic Pok�mon" in the upper left-hand corner) from your hands and put them face-down. These will be your starting Active Pok�mon.

�Each player may, if he or she wishes, choose up to 5 Basic Pok�mon from his or her hand and put them face-down on his or her Bench (this is where Pok�mon wait when they're not the Active Pok�mon).

�Put the top 6 cards of your deck face-down in front of you. These are your Prizes, which you take when your opponent's Pok�mon are Knocked Out. You can't look at a Prize card until you take it.

�Flip a coin to decide who goes first. You can use your special Pok�mon coin, if you have one.

�Flip over all the Active and Benched Pok�mon that have been put on the table.

Be sure to leave room for your discard pile. All of your cards that get discarded during the game, no matter how they get discarded, will go there.

During the game, you'll be putting more and more cards on the table. All the cards on the table that are in the Active Pok�mon area or on the Bench are referred to as being "in play." Your deck, your Prizes, and the cards in your discard pile are not considered to be "in play."

Pok�mon cards, Evolution cards, and Energy cards will be on the table-"in play"-after you play them from your hand. You can keep using those cards in play turn after turn. Trainer cards, though, are used once and then discarded.

1. DRAW a card
2. DO ANY of the following in any order and as often as you like:
          o Put a Basic Pok�mon on the Bench o Evolve a Pok�mon in play
          o Attach an Energy card to a Pok�mon (only once per turn)
          o Play a Trainer card o Retreat your Active Pok�mon o Use a Pok�mon Power
3. ATTACK with your Active Pok�mon
4. Your turn is OVER now

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 Pok�mon on the Bench

Choose a Basic Pok�mon from your hand and put it face-up on your Bench. You can have no more than 5 Pok�mon on your Bench at any time, so you can only put a new Basic Pok�mon there only if your Bench has 4 or fewer Pok�mon on it.

Evolve a Pok�mon 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 Pok�mon you already have in play, you may play that card in your hand on top of the Pok�mon so-and-so. This is called "evolving" a Pok�mon.

When a Pok�mon evolves, it keeps all cards attached to it (Energy cards, Evolution cards, etc.) and any damage it might already have, but the old attacks and Pok�mon Powers of the Pok�mon it evolved from go away. All other things about the Pok�mon go away-Sleep, Confusion, Paralysis, Poison, or anything else that might be the result of an attack some Pok�mon made earlier.

Play a Trainer card

When you want to play a Trainer card, do what it says, then put it in the discard pile.

Retreat your Active Pok�mon

You may switch your Active Pok�mon with one of the Pok�mon on your Bench. To do this, you must discard Energy attached to the Active Pok�mon equal to the Retreat Cost that's written in the lower right-hand corner. (You'll read more about costs in the "Attack with Your Active Pok�mon" section.) If you can't do that, then you can't retreat. Pok�mon with no Retreat Cost don't need to get rid of any Energy when they retreat-they can retreat "for free."

A Pok�mon that is Asleep or Paralyzed can't retreat. A Confused Pok�mon can try to retreat, but it might not succeed. (Why this might happen will be explained later on in the rules.)

When your Active Pok�mon goes to your Bench (whether it retreated or got there some other way), it keeps any Energy cards, any Evolution cards, and any damage counters it might already have. All other things about the Pok�mon go away-Sleep, Confusion, Paralysis, Poison, or anything else that might be the result of an attack some Pok�mon made earlier. All of these things go away.

If you retreat, you can still attack that turn with the new Active Pok�mon.

Use a Pok�mon Power

Some Pok�mon have a special "Pok�mon Power" that they can use when they're in play. (Remember, Benched Pok�mon are "in play," too.) Many of these Powers can be used before you attack. Each Pok�mon Power is different, though, so you should read carefully to see how each Power works.

3) ATTACK with your Active Pok�mon

If you wish, you may have your Active Pok�mon attack your opponent's Active Pok�mon (also called the "Defending Pok�mon"). This is the last thing you can do during your turn-you can't do anything else afterward. You can only attack one time during your turn, and your Pok�mon can only use one of its attacks each turn. To attack, just tell your opponent which one of your Pok�mon's attacks you're using. You can only use an attack if you have at least the required amount of Energy attached to your Active Pok�mon.

Damage

When you attack, read the attack you're using and do what it says. For each 10 damage a Pok�mon takes, put one damage counter on it. If a Pok�mon ever has total damage at least equal to its Hit Points (for example, 4 or more damage counters on a Pok�mon with 40 HP), it's immediately Knocked Out.

Weakness and Resistance

Some Pok�mon have a Weakness or Resistance to Pok�mon of certain other types. (For example, Charmander has a Weakness to Pok�mon.) A Defending Pok�mon takes double damage from a Pok�mon that it has a Weakness to, and it takes 30 less damage from a Pok�mon that it has Resistance to.

Usually the attack won't depend on the order you do this in, but if it does, then this is how you'll figure it out! First, you pay any costs (discarding Energy cards, for example) before seeing what the attack does. Then damage comes before any other effects. Also, Weakness is applied before other things that might change the amount of damage.

What happens when your Pok�mon is Knocked Out?

Whenever one of your Pok�mon is Knocked Out, put its Basic Pok�mon card and all cards attached to it (Evolution cards, Energy cards, etc.) in your discard pile. Your opponent then chooses one of his or her Prizes (even if you Knocked Out your Pok�mon yourself!) and puts it into his or her hand. After that, you must replace your Active Pok�mon with a Pok�mon from your Bench. (If you can't do this because your Bench is empty, you lose.) If your Active Pok�mon and your opponent's Active Pok�mon are Knocked Out at the same time, the player whose turn it is replaces his or her Pok�mon last. The player whose turn it is chooses his or her Prize last as well.

4) Your turn is OVER now

Sometimes there are things to do after your turn is over but before your opponent's turn begins. After you've done those things, your opponent's turn begins.

Some attacks cause the Defending Pok�mon to be Asleep, Confused, Paralyzed, or Poisoned. These things don't happen to a Benched Pok�mon, only to an Active Pok�mon-in fact, if a Pok�mon goes to the Bench, these things are removed from it. And evolving a Pok�mon also means it's no longer Asleep, Confused, Paralyzed, or Poisoned.

Asleep

If a Pok�mon is Asleep, it can't attack or retreat. As soon as a Pok�mon is Asleep, turn it sideways to show that it's Asleep. After each player's turn, flip a coin. On a heads, the Pok�mon 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 to wake it up again.

Confused

If a Pok�mon 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 Pok�mon with its head pointed toward you to show it's Confused.

When you try to make a Confused Pok�mon retreat, you first have to pay the Retreat Cost by discarding Energy cards. Then flip a coin. On heads, you retreat the Pok�mon as normal. On tails, the retreat fails, and that Pok�mon can't try to retreat again that turn.

When you attack with a Confused Pok�mon, you flip a coin. On heads, the attack works normally, but on tails your Pok�mon attacks itself with an attack that does 20 damage. (If your Pok�mon has a Weakness or Resistance to its own type, or if there's some other effect that would alter the attack, apply these things as usual.)

Poisoned

If a Pok�mon is Poisoned, place a "poison marker" on it to show that it's Poisoned.

As long as it's still Poisoned, the Pok�mon takes 10 damage after each player's turn, ignoring Weakness and Resistance. If an attack would Poison a Pok�mon that's already Poisoned, it doesn't get doubly Poisoned; instead, the new Poison condition replaces the old one..

If a Pok�mon 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 each other. For example, a Pok�mon can be confused and Poisoned at the same time.

One of the things that makes Pok�mon different from other card games is that it's a trading card game. This means that there are lots of different cards that you can collect and trade with your friends. Also, you aren't limited to just playing the decks you buy-you can use all the different cards you have to create totally new decks! A lot of the fun of a trading card game comes from making different decks that use different strategies.

Your deck has to have exactly 60 cards, and you can't have more than 4 of any one card other than basic Energy cards in your deck (the basic Energy cards are , , , , , and ). A card counts as the same as another card if it has the same name-it doesn't matter whether the cards have different art or come from different sets.

To make a new deck, first notice that all the cards other than the Trainers have different Energy types on them. Your deck should probably include one or two of the basic Energy types, and you can choose to add some Colorless ( ) Pok�mon if you like. If you just choose one Energy type, you will always have the right kind of Energy for your Pok�mon, but not as much variety. If you have several Energy types, you'll have more Pok�mon to choose from, but you'll run the risk of sometimes not drawing the right type of Energy for your Pok�mon. And be sure your deck has enough Energy cards (most decks need 25 to 30).

Once you've chosen your Energy types, pick Pok�mon and Trainer cards that work well together. Do you want to build up big Pok�mon to crush your opponent? Then put in a lot of Evolution cards and some Trainers like Pok�dex that help you find those Evolution cards. Do you want to do a lot of damage to your opponent's Pok�mon very quickly? Then pick Pok�mon that don't need to be evolved and cards like PlusPower that do extra damage.

After you've made your deck, play it as often as you can against as many other decks as you can. See what works and what doesn't, and then make changes. If you keep working at it, you'll have a deck that will show everyone you're the greatest Pok�mon Master of all time!

The exact steps to go through when attacking are listed here. For most attacks, it won't matter what order you do things in, but if you have to work your way through a really complicated attack, follow these steps in order and you should be fine.

a. Announce which attack your Active Pok�mon is using. Make sure your Pok�mon has enough Energy cards attached to it to use the attack.

b. If necessary, make any choices the attack requires you to make. (For example, Poliwhirl's Amnesia attack says "Choose 1 of the Defending Pok�mon's attacks." So you choose now.)

c. If necessary, do anything the attack requires you to do in order to use it. (For example, discard Energy cards, as in Charmander's Ember attack, which makes you discard one Energy card in order to use it.)

d. If necessary, apply any effects that might alter or cancel the attack. (For example, if your Pok�mon was hit last turn by Sandshrew's Sand-attack, that attack said that if you tried to attack with that Pok�mon during your next turn, you should flip a coin. If tails, your Pok�mon's attack does nothing.)

e. If your Active Pok�mon is Confused, check now to see if the attack fails.

f. Do whatever the attack says. Do any damage first, then do any other effects, and finally, Knock Out any Pok�mon that have damage greater than or equal to their Hit Points.

Usually the amount of damage an attack does won't depend on the order in which you do things. But if you have to figure out an attack in which a lot of different things might change the damage, follow these steps in order (skip any steps that don't apply to that attack).

a. Start with the base damage. This is the number written to the right of the attack, or, if that number 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 Pok�mon has that will affect the base damage dealt (for example, Scyther's Swords Dance). Then if the base damage is 0 (or if the attack doesn't do any damage at all), just stop figuring the damage. You're done now. Otherwise, keep going.

c. Double the damage if the Defending Pok�mon has a Weakness to the attacking Pok�mon's type.

d. Subtract 30 damage if the Defending Pok�mon has Resistance to the attacking Pok�mon's type.

e. Figure out effects of Trainer cards attached to the attacking Pok�mon.

f. Figure out effects of Trainer cards attached to the Defending Pok�mon.

g. Apply any relevant effects resulting from the Defending Pok�mon's last attack (for example, Onix's Harden) or any relevant Pok�mon Powers.

h. For each 10 damage the attack ends up doing, put one damage counter on the Defending Pok�mon. (If at this point the damage done turns out to be less than 0, don't do anything.)

i. Now that damage has been done, if the attack does anything other than damage, do all of that.

Paying Retreat Costs can get confusing with Double Energy cards. Here's the way it works: Discard Energy cards one at a time until you've paid the Retreat Cost (or maybe more). Once you've paid the cost, you can't discard any more cards. For example, suppose your Pok�mon has a Retreat Cost of and it has two Energy cards and a Energy card attached. You can pay the Retreat Cost in several ways-by discarding , by discarding 2 , or by discarding first and then . You can't discard all 3 cards, though.

Sometimes a card will tell you to draw more cards than you have in your deck or to search for cards that you don't have in your deck. If this happens, do as much as you can (draw as many cards as you have left or get those cards that are in your deck) and continue play as normal. Remember, you lose if you can't draw a card at the beginning of your turn, not if you can't draw one because a card told you to.

Sometimes neither you nor your opponent will get any Basic Pok�mon in your first hands of 7 cards. If this happens, both players shuffle and draw 7 new cards. In this case, neither player gets to draw the extra 2 cards. Repeat this process until at least one of the players has a Basic Pok�mon card in his or her hand of 7 cards. If the other player still doesn't have a Basic Pok�mon card in his or her hand, that player can shuffle and draw 7 new cards, but the player who already has a Basic Pok�mon can draw up to 2 extra cards as usual. Continue this process until both players have a Basic Pok�mon in their first hand of 7 cards.

If Sudden Death occurs, play a new game of Pok�mon, but have each player use only 1 Prize instead of the usual 6. Except for the number of Prizes, treat the Sudden Death game like a whole new game of Pok�mon: Set everything up again, including flipping a coin to see who goes first. The winner of this game is the overall winner. It may happen that the Sudden Death game also ends in Sudden Death; if that happens, just keep playing Sudden Death games until somebody wins.