Pokemon Rules of Trading Cards

Opening hand

• Players start with a shuffled 60-card deck. Your first seven cards drawn constitute your hand. Any basic Pokemon in your hand can become your active Pokemon, played against your opponent&'s Pokemon in the first turn, face down. Any remainder basic Pokemon are benched for use if the active Pokemon retreats or is knocked out. If there is no Pokemon, you must reveal your hand and then replace and reshuffle your deck until you get at least one basic Pokemon.

Losing

• Six cards from the top of each deck should also be drawn and placed face down. These are the prize cards and one will be added to a player&'s hand if he knocks out his opponent&'s Pokemon. A coin toss decides player order. Players lose once all their active and bench Pokemon have been knocked out, they have lost all their prizes or they have no more cards to draw upon.

Basic Pokemon

• Damage counters are added to Pokemon cards that receive damage. Basic Pokemon that take damage equal to or greater than their hit point total are knocked out. You are allowed a maximum of four Pokemon of the same name. Weaknesses and resistances to certain elements are factored in when considering damage. There is a retreat cost for retreating basic Pokemon to the bench.

Energy cards

• The eight energies are Grass, Fire, Water, Lightning, Psychic, Fighting, Darkness and Metal. A white symbol with a six pointed star (colorless energy) indicates that any card can be used. Energies are attached by putting the card underneath the Pokemon and only one energy card can be attached per turn, unless a special card rule negates this. Energies may be attached to bench Pokemon instead of the active Pokemon.

Attacking

• A Pokemon&'s last action before a turn ends is an attack, if possible. Most Pokemon require specific energy cards to attack, the amount shown on the left of the attack&'s name. Some attacks involve coin flips or multiplication of attached energies to calculate damage caused, while others cause status effects. After the players have each had a turn, one card is drawn from the deck and the whole process of adding elements, bench Pokemon and attacking occurs again.

Evolved Pokemon

• By playing a staged Pokemon card, your basic Pokemon can turn into "tougher" evolutions. The evolved Pokemon (the stage one and stage two), have greater hit points and/or more powerful attacks, but may also require more energy cards or different elements in order to attack than their earlier forms. Evolved Pokemon cannot use pre-evolution attacks unless that attack is displayed on the evolved Pokemon&'s card. Pokemon evolve from basic to stage one, and then to stage two. Evolved Pokemon cards are placed over basic Pokemon cards, or stage two over stage one Pokemon cards. Damage is passed onto the evolved Pokemon and weaknesses can increase. Evolving Pokemon does not use up a turn and the Pokemon retains energy cards previously attached to it, allowing it to attack immediately.

Additional Cards

• Three other types of cards are trainer cards, support cards and stadium cards. Multiple trainer cards can be played in a single turn. If the trainer card has an immediate effect, it must be discarded afterwards. You can only play one support card a turn and that card stays in play until the turn is over. Stadium cards stay in play until another stadium card is played. These cards change game-play.
  It is considered unfair to play these cards on a first turn.

Special Conditions

• Some Pokemon attacks create special conditions:
  -Confused: Card is placed upside down and a coin is tossed; heads means the Pokemon attacks as normal while tails means the confused Pokemon receives three damage counters.
  -Asleep: The card is placed on the side so the Pokemon faces your left, and the Pokemon is inactive. A coin is tossed at the end of each turn; heads will wake the Pokemon.
  -Paralyzed: The card is placed on its side so the Pokemon faces your right. The Pokemon is inactive for one turn.
  -Poisoned: Pokemon receives a poison counter. A damage counter is then added.
  -Burned: Pokemon receives a burn counter. A coin is tossed at the end of the turn: Tails results in two damage counters added. Pokemon lose their special conditions when evolved or retreated.

  Some Pokemon also have poke-powers like baby evolution. Others have poke-bodies, which are in continuous use.

Variations

• Numerous extra cards and rules are available for the Pokemon trading card game that change the basic rules of play. For example, the Neo genesis packs introduce The Baby Rule, which, according to LegendaryPokemon.net, means that if your active Pokemon is a baby Pokemon, your opponent must flip a coin when attacking. If the coin shows tails, then the baby Pokemon takes no damage.