Trading Card Game Rulebook

This section answers some questions that do not come up very often – but if they do, you will be glad to have the answers!

Anything written on a Basic Pokémon or Evolution card under the picture where attacks are found (except for a Poké-Power or Poké-Body) is considered an attack even if it does not do anything to your opponent’s Pokémon. So, for example, Seedot’s Bide and Glameow’s Charm attacks would be prevented by an effect like Hippopotas’s Sand Attack.

The exact steps to go through when attacking are listed here. For most attacks, it will not 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) If the Defending Pokémon is a Baby Pokémon, flip a coin to see if your turn ends without an attack. (If your turn ends without an attack, do not do any of the other steps. You are done now.)

b) Announce which attack your Active Pokémon is using. Make sure your Pokémon has enough Energy attached to it to use this attack.

c) If necessary, make any choices the attack requires you to make. (For example, Sneasel’s Feint Attack reads, "Choose 1 of your opponent’s Pokémon." So, you choose now.)

d) If necessary, do anything the attack requires you to do in order to use it. (For example, Dark Marowak’s Hard Bone attack reads, "Discard a Basic Pokémon or Evolution card from your hand or this attack does nothing.")

e) If necessary, apply any effects that might alter or cancel the attack. (For example, if your Pokémon was hit last turn by Hippopotas’s Sand Attack, Sand Attack reads that if you tried to attack with that Pokémon during your next turn, you should flip a coin. If tails, that attack does nothing)

f) If your Active Pokémon is Confused, check now to see if the attack fails.

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

Usually the amount of damage an attack does will not 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 do not 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 ? next to it, it is the amount of damage the attack text tells you to do.

b) Figure out damage effects on the Attacking Pokémon (for example, the Darkness Energy effect, or the Solid Rage Pokémon Tool). Then, if the base damage is 0 (or if the attack does not do any damage at all), just stop figuring the damage. You are done now. Otherwise, keep going.

c) Increase the damage by the amount next to the Defending Pokémon’s Weakness, if it has Weakness to the Attacking Pokémon’s type.

d) Reduce the damage by the amount next to the Defending Pokémon’s Resistance, if it has Resistance to the Attacking Pokémon’s type.

e) Figure out damage effects of Trainer cards and Energy cards on the Defending Pokémon (like Metal Energy or Buffer Piece).

f) Apply any relevant effects resulting from the Defending Pokémon’s last attack (for example, Bonsly’s Fake Tears) or relevant Poké-Powers and Poké-Bodies.

g) For each 10 damage the attack ends up doing, put 1 damage counter on the Defending Pokémon. (If at this point the damage done turns out to be less than 0,
do not do anything.)

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

 

Usually, it does not matter in what order you do things after each player’s turn, but if things get complicated, follow these steps in order.

a) Put damage counters on any Poisoned Pokémon.

b) Flip a coin to see if Pokémon with Burn markers get damage counters put on them.

c) Flip a coin to see if Asleep Pokémon recover, and have eligible Paralyzed Pokémon recover.

If a Pokémon has a Pokémon Tool card attached to it and that card does something between turns, that card can be used at any time between turns that the person who played the Pokémon wants.

If your Pokémon and your opponent’s Pokémon are Knocked Out at the same time between turns or during an attack, the player who is about to take a turn replaces his or her Pokémon first (and chooses his or her Prize card first as well).

Sometimes a Pokémon refers to itself by name. For example, Marill’s Splashing Turn says "Switch Marill with 1 of your Benched Pokémon." Read the name as "this Pokémon" if the attack somehow gets used by another Pokémon.

Whenever you evolve a Pokémon, the Evolution card has to read it "Evolves from" the name of the Pokémon it goes on top of. Certain Pokémon (such as Rocket’s Meowth) or Pokémon-ex (like Scyther ex) do not evolve into normal versions. A Pokémon card would have to state "Evolves from Rocket’s Meowth" to allow for that evolution.

Paying Retreat Costs can get confusing with Double Energy cards. Here is the way it works: Discard Energy cards one at a time until you have paid the Retreat Cost (or maybe more). Once you have paid the cost, you cannot discard any more cards.

For example, suppose your Pokémon has a Retreat Cost of  and it has 2  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 cannot discard all 3 cards, though.

If a card tells you to do something to a certain number of the top cards of your deck, and you have fewer cards than that left in your deck, do whatever you are supposed to do to the cards that you have left and continue play as normal. For example, if a card tells you to draw 7 cards or to look at the top 5 cards of your deck, and you have only 3 cards left in your deck, you draw the top 3 or look at the top 3. Remember, you lose if you cannot draw a card at the beginning of your turn, not if you cannot draw one because a card told you to.

Sometimes neither you nor your opponent get any Basic Pokémon cards 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 an extra card. Repeat this process until at least one of the players has a Basic Pokémon card in his or her hand of 7 cards. If the other player still does not have a Basic Pokémon card in his or her hand, that player can shuffle and draw 7 new cards, but the player who already has a Basic Pokémon card can draw an extra card as usual. Continue this process until each player has a Basic Pokémon card in his or her hand of 7 cards.

You win if you take your last Prize card or if your opponent has no Benched Pokémon to replace his or her Active Pokémon if it gets Knocked Out or otherwise removed from play. But it might happen that both players "win" in one of these ways at the same time. If this happens, play Sudden Death. However, if you win in both ways and your opponent wins in only one way, you win!

If Sudden Death occurs, play a new game, but have each player use only 1 Prize card instead of the usual 6. Except for the number of Prize cards, treat the Sudden Death game like a whole new game: 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.

Check out  Rules of the Game in the How to Play section of the TCG site to learn the basics of the Trading Card Game. You may want to watch the demo, too!