The Pokemon Trading Card Game

Hi, i'm Articuno!
I belong to the webmaster around here, Ninetailes1!
The Pokemon TCG from Wizards of the Coast is a cool pokemon game where people collect and trade cards with different pokemon on them. The pokemon have different attacks & so on. On this page I will show you all about the TCG.
If you already know how to play, go here to see some tCG pictures and the latest TCG news!

Table of contents
Rules of the game
Basics you need to know before you start
What you need to play
The different types of cards
Starting the Game
Diagram of a pokemon card
Let's Play!

Rules of the Game
Basics you need to know before you start
There are 4 different types of cards: Energys, Trainers, Basic Pokemon, & Evolution cards. Pokemon cards are marked with different rairity symbols. Energy are the most common type of cards. Basic Pokemon, Evoluton, & Trainer cards are all marked with symbols to show how rare they are- a circle means common, a diamond means uncommon, and a star means rare. Some rare basic pokemon/evolution cards in addition to a star have a holographic foil picture instead of a regular one. These cards are the hardest to find. in addition to all of this, some cards are marked with an Edition 1 symbol, meaning that the card was one of the first cards printed. If your card has an Edition 1 symbol on it, it has extra value!

Ninetailes, a holographic card
What you need to play
You and your opponet both need a deck of 60 cards. Also you need a coin to flip and some damage counters.
The different types of cards
This is the description of the cards.
Basic Pokemon-These are the most inportant cards. These cards are the ones that you fight with.
Energy Cards- These cards are attached to a pokemon to give it energy to do it's attacks.
Evolution cards- These cards are put on top of basic pokemon to make them bigger & stronger.
Trainer cards- cards that do something once and are then discarded.

Seel, a basic pokemon Arcanine, an evolution card
Starting the Game
1. shuffle your deck and draw 7 cards. Put the rest of your deck face downin front of you.
2.You and your opponent both choose a basic pokemon to be your active pokemon and lay it down in front of you.
3. now you and your opponent choose up to 5 basic pokemon for your bench.
4. put the top 6 cards face down in front of you. These cards are your prizes. you take these cards when you knock out an opponent's Pokemon.
5.flip a coin to decide who goes first.
6. Flip over all benched & Active pokemon and start playing!
here is what your play area should like(on your side)

Diagram of a pokemon card

Let's Play!
As you play,you & your opponent take turns. You don't do anything during your opponents turn except watch. during your turn, though, you follow these steps.
1. Draw a card.
2. do any of the following in any order as often as you like.
Put a basic pokemon on the bench
Evolve a pokemon in play
Attach an energy card to a pokemon (only once per turn)
Play a trainer card
Retreat your active pokemon
Use a pokemon power
3. Attack with your active pokemon
4. Your turn is over now.

1. Draw a card. You always draw a card before you do anything else.
2. do any of the following in any order as often as you like.
Put a basic pokemon on the bench. Choose a basic pokemon from your hand and put it face down on the bench. Remember, you cannot have more than five pokemon on the bench at a time.
Evolve a pokemon in play. If you have a card in your hand that says "evolves from whoever" and you have a "whoever" on your bench then you may put that card on top of "whoever". This is calles evolving. An evolved pokemon has the new attacks written on the new card. It does not have the old attacks.
EXAMPLE: Articuno has a card calles Machoke in it's hand that says "evolves from Machop" on it, and he has a Machop card in play.. Articuno may place the Machoke card on top of the Machop card, making Machop evolve into Machoke. Machoke now cannot use machop's attacks, only Machoke's attacks.
when a pokemon evolves, it keeps all energy cards & damage counters on it. It is, hoever, no longer asleep, confused, paralized, or poisoned.(more about that later.^_^ ). You cannot evolve a pokemon that you just played. You can evolve a pokemon on your bench.

Hey! Click on me to go to the next page!
Click here to go to the official pokemon TCG site.