TCG Beginner's Rules

Trading Card Game

You might have several Pokemon on the table at one time, but only one of them (called your "Active Pokemon") will be fighting for you at a time. The rest will be sitting on your Bench, waiting for their turn to fight. Every turn, you'll have a chance to attack with your Active Pokemon, which will either do damage to your opponent's Active Pokemon (called the "Defending Pokemon" during your attack) or do something to it, like making it asleep, confused, Paralyzed, or Poisoned. If your attack does enough damage to knock out the Defending Pokemon, you get to take one of your 6 Prizes. When you take your sixth Prize (when you've Knocked Out six of your opponent's Pokemon), you win!

What Do You Need To Play?
Well, you and your opponent will each need your own deck of 60 cards, a coin to flip, and some counters to mark damage to your Pokémon.

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 Pokemon is Knocked Out, you take one of your Prizes and put it into your hand. When you've taken all 6 of your prizes, you win the game! Second, you also win if your opponent has no Pokemon left to fight against your Pokemon. And finally, you win if your opponent's deck is out of cards at the start of his or her turn.

What are the different kinds of cards?
Basic Pokemon are your most important cards. They fight for you turn after turn against your opponent's Pokemon.
Evolution cards are played on top of your Basic Pokemon (or sometimes on top of other Evolution cards). They make your Pokemon bigger and more powerful.
Energy cards are attached to your Pokemon to give them the energy they need to do their attacks.
Trainer cards are one-shot cards that do something once and are then discarded.

Starting the Games
1) Shuffle your deck and draw a starting hand of 7 cards. Put the rest of your deck face down in front of you.
2) If you don't have any basic Pokemon cards in your hand (it'll say "Basic Pokemon" in the upper left-hand corner), show your hand to your opponent, shuffle it into your deck, and draw 7 new cards. Your opponent may then draw up to 2 extra cards. If you still don't have any Basic Pokemon in your new hand, you can repeat this process, but your opponent gets to draw up to 2 extra cards each time!
3) You and your opponent each choose a Basic Pokemon card from your hands and put them face down. These will be your Active Pokemon.
4) Each may, if he or she wishes, choose up to 5 Basic Pokemon from his or her hand and put them face-down on his or her Bench (this is where Pokemon wait when they are not Active).
5) Put the top 6 cards of your deck face-down in front of you. These are your Prizes, which you take as your opponent's Pokemon are Knocked Out. You can't look at a Prize card until you take it.
6) Flip a coin to see who goes first.
7) Flip over all the Active and Benched Pokemon that have been put on the table.

Let's Play!
As you play, you and your opponent take turns. During your opponent's turn, you don't do anything except replace your Active Pokemon if it gets Knocked Out (see below). During your turn, go through the steps below.

What Can You Do During Your Turn?

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 Pokemon on the Bench
Choose a Basic Pokemon from you hand and put it on your bench. You can have no more than 5 Pokemon on your Bench at any time, so you can put a new Basic Pokemon there only if your bench has 4 or fewer Pokemon on it.
Evolve a Pokemon 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 Pokemon you already have in play, you may play that card in your hand on top of the Pokemon so-and-so. This is called "evolving" a Pokemon.
Example: Juliane has a card called Ninetails that says "Evolves from Vulpix," and she has a Vulpix card in play. She may play the Ninetails card on top of the Vulpix card.
When a Pokemon evolves, it keeps any Energy cards, and Evolution cards, and any damage counters it might already have. All other things about the Pokemon go away - Sleep, Confusion, Paralysis, Poison, or anything else that might be the result of an attack some Pokemon made earlier. All of these things go away.
Attach an Energy card to a Pokemon
Take an Energy card from your hand and attach it to one of your Pokemon in play (put it under the Pokemon card)
Play a Trainer Card
To play a Trainer card, do what it says, then put it in the discard pole.
Retreat your Active Pokemon
You may switch your Active Pokemon with one of the Pokemon on your Bench. To do this, you must discard Energy cards equal to the Active Pokemon's retreat cost that's written in the lower right-hand corner. (You'll read more about costs in the "Attack with Your Active Pokemon" section). If you can't do that, then you can't retreat. Pokemon with no retreat cost don't need to discard any Energy when they retreat - they can retreat 'for free'.
A Pokemon that is Asleep or Paralyzed can't retreat. A Confused Pokemon can TRY to retreat, but it might not succeed. (Why this might happen will be explained later on in the rules).
When your Active Pokemon 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 may already have. All other things about the Pokemon go away - Sleep, Confusion, Paralysis, Poison or anything else that might be the result of an earlier attack. All of these things go away. Retreating does not cost your attack.
Use a Pokemon Power
Some Pokemon have a special "Pokemon Power" written on the card. Many of these Powers can be used before you attack. Each Pokemon Power is different though, so you should read carefully how each Pokemon Power works.

3) Attack with your Active Pokemon
If you wish, you may have your Active Pokemon attack your opponent's Active Pokemon (also called the 'Defending Pokemon'). 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 Pokemon can only use one of its attacks each turn. To attack, just tell your opponent which one of your Pokemon'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 Pokemon.
Any type of Energy - forest, fire, water, lightning, psychic, fighting, or colorless - can count toward colorless Energy requirements (the little star). But only Energy of the appropriate type counts toward Energy requirements of that type. So if an attack has an Energy requirement of Fire, you must have a fire energy to make the attack work. But if an attack has a colorless Energy requirement, you just need any one energy - it doesn't matter which kind!
When you attack read the attack you're using and do what it says. For each 10 damage a Pokemon takes, put one damage counter on it. If a Pokemon ever has total damage at least equal to its Hit Points (for example, 4 or more damage counters on a Pokemon with 40 HP), it's immediately Knocked Out.
Some Pokemon have a Weakness or Resistance to Pokemon of other types. (For example, Charmander has a Weakness to Water Pokemon.)
A Defending Pokemon takes double damage from a Pokemon that it has a Weakness to, and it subtracts damage from a Pokemon that it has a resistance to.
What happens when your Pokemon is Knocked Out
Whenever a Pokemon is Knocked Out, put its Basic Pokemon card and all cards attached to it (Evolution cards, Energy cards, etc.) in the discard pile of whoever played them. The opposing player takes one of his or her Prizes and puts it into his or her hand. A player who loses his or her Active Pokemon must immediately replace it with a Pokemon from his or her Bench. (If a player can't do this because his or her bench is empty, that player loses.) If both Active Pokemon are Knocked Out at the same time, the player whose turn it is replaces his or her Pokemon last.

4) Your Turn is Over Now
Sometimes there are things to do after your turn is over but before your opponents turn begins. After you've done those things, your opponent's turn begins.

What Happens After Each Players Turn?
After each player's turn, if either player's Active Pokemon is Poisoned, it'll take damage, and if it's Asleep or Paralyzed it might recover. Then the next players turn begins.

How Does Sleep, Confused, Paralysis, Poisoned Work?
Some attacks cause the Defending Pokemon to be Asleep, Confused, Paralyzed, or Poisoned. These things don't happen to a Benched Pokemon, only to an Active Pokemon - in fact, if a Pokemon goes to the Bench, these things are removed from it. And evolving a Pokemon also means it's no longer Asleep, Confused, Paralyzed, or Poisoned.
Asleep
If a Pokemon is Asleep, it can't attack or retreat. Turn the Pokemon Sideways to show it is Asleep. After each player's turn, flip a coin. On a heads, the Pokemon 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 and wake it up again.
Confused
If a Pokemon 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 Pokemon with its head pointed toward you to show it's confused.
When you try to make a confused Pokemon retreat, you must first pay the retreat cost by discarding Energy cards. Then flip a coin. On heads, you can retreat the Pokemon as normal. On tails, the retreat fails, and that Pokemon can't try to retreat again that turn.
When you attack with a Confused Pokemon, you flip a coin. On heads, the attack works normally, but on tails your Pokemon attacks itself with an attack that does 20 damage. (If your Pokemon has a weakness or a resistance to its own type, or if there is some other effect that would alter the attack, apply these things as usual.)
Paralyzed
If a Pokemon is Paralyzed, it can't attack or retreat. Turn the Pokemon sideways to show it is Paralyzed. If an Active Pokemon is Paralyzed it recovers after its player's next turn. Turn the card right-side up again.
Poisoned

If a Pokemon is Poisoned, place a "poison marker" on it to show that is poisoned.
As long as it's still Poisoned, the Pokemon takes 10 damage after each player's turn, ignoring Weakness and Resistance. If an attack would poison a Pokemon that is already Poisoned, it doesn't get doubly poisoned; instead the new Poison condition replaces the old one.

Can your pokemon Be Asleep and Confused at the Same time?
If a Pokemon 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 Pokemon can be Confused and Poisoned at the same time.