How to Play Pokémon Cards

You play Pokémon cards with a 60-card deck each, six Prize cards set aside face down, and one Active Pokémon in front of you backed by up to five more on your Bench. On each turn you draw a card, build up your Pokémon with Energy and Trainer cards, then attack once, and the first player to take all six Prize cards by Knocking Out the other side's Pokémon wins. The rules below follow the official Pokémon Trading Card Game rulebook and describe the physical card game.

What you need to play

Two players, each with a deck of exactly 60 cards. A deck may hold no more than four cards with the same name, except basic Energy, and must contain at least one Basic Pokémon. You also need a coin to flip, damage counters (one counter stands for 10 damage), and markers for Poisoned and Burned that look different from your damage counters.

The rulebook suggests learning with a preconstructed 60-card deck, and the decks we would start with are at the end of this guide. Pokémon TCG Pocket is a separate thing, a free-to-start app from Creatures Inc. and DeNA played with digital cards on iOS and Android devices, and this page does not cover it.

Understand the card and play area

There are three kinds of card. Pokémon cards show their stage (Basic, Stage 1 or Stage 2) and what they evolve from in the upper-left corner, plus HP, attacks with an Energy cost and damage, and Weakness and Resistance in the lower-left corner. Energy cards power attacks. The rulebook lists 11 Energy types, and any type of Energy can pay for the Colorless symbol in an attack cost. Trainer cards are Items, Supporters, Stadiums and Pokémon Tools, with the subtype printed in the upper-left corner and its rule at the bottom.

Both players lay out the same six zones.

Set up a game

Flip a coin, and the winner decides who goes first. Each player shuffles and draws seven cards. Put one Basic Pokémon from your hand face down as your Active Pokémon, then up to five more Basic Pokémon face down on your Bench. Put the top six cards of your deck to one side, face down, as your Prize cards. Both players then turn their Pokémon face up.

If your seven cards contain no Basic Pokémon, you take a mulligan. Show your hand, shuffle it back into your deck and draw seven again, repeating until a Basic Pokémon appears. Your opponent may then draw one card for each extra mulligan you took (if you both took some, only the difference counts).

One side after setup, using Chikorita from the rulebook's examples, looks like this.

What happens during a turn

Every turn has three parts. You draw a card (if your deck is empty, you lose). You then take any of the actions in the table below, in any order. Finally you attack with your Active Pokémon, which ends your turn.

Here is the second player's first turn, worked through from the position above.

Between every pair of turns comes Pokémon Checkup, where any Special Conditions are resolved in a fixed order: Poisoned, Burned, Asleep, then Paralyzed. After that, any Pokémon with no HP left is Knocked Out.

Attacking, weakness and special conditions

An attack has three checks. First, check that your Active Pokémon has the Energy the attack costs. The rulebook's example is Nuzleaf, whose Pound needs one Energy and does 30 damage, while Low Kick needs two and does 50. Second, check the defender's Weakness and Resistance. Third, place one damage counter for every 10 damage.

The rulebook's worked example is Chikorita's Razor Leaf, which does 20 damage. Sandshrew has Weakness ×2 to Chikorita's type, so the hit becomes 40 and Sandshrew takes four damage counters. Resistance reduces damage by the amount printed beside it. Neither Weakness nor Resistance applies to Benched Pokémon.

Some attacks also leave the defender with one of five Special Conditions. They only affect the Active Pokémon, and all of them end when that Pokémon moves to the Bench or evolves.

Knock Outs, Prize cards and winning

A Pokémon is Knocked Out when the damage on it is at least equal to its HP. Its owner puts it and every card attached to it in the discard pile, the opponent takes Prize cards into their hand, and the owner moves a new Active Pokémon up from the Bench. How many Prize cards depends on the card.

There are three ways to win. You take your last Prize card. Your opponent has no Pokémon left to move into the Active Spot. Or your opponent has no card to draw at the start of their turn.

A winning state of play: you have taken four Prize cards and have two left. Your opponent's Active Pokémon is a Mega Evolution Pokémon ex with enough damage on it that your next attack will Knock it Out. That Knock Out pays three Prize cards, you only have two to take, and taking your last one wins the game.

Common first-game questions

Can you evolve a Pokémon on the first turn

No. Neither player can evolve a Pokémon on their own first turn unless a card says so. No Pokémon can evolve on the turn it came into play, and a Pokémon that has just evolved cannot evolve again that turn.

Can the player going first attack

No. The starting player skips the attack on the first turn of the game and cannot play a Supporter on that turn.

How does retreating work

Once per turn, discard one Energy from your Active Pokémon for each symbol in its Retreat Cost (none means free), then swap it with a Benched Pokémon. An Asleep or Paralyzed Pokémon cannot retreat, and you can still attack that turn with the new Active Pokémon.

What is the difference between ex, GX and V

They come from different eras, and the rulebook describes each as a stronger kind of Pokémon that gives up extra Prize cards when Knocked Out (see the table above). Pokémon ex and the older Pokémon-EX are not the same thing. Mega Evolution Pokémon ex have no special play rules, though Mega Lucario ex, for example, evolves directly from Riolu.

What is an ACE SPEC card

A card so strong that a deck can hold only one ACE SPEC in total, not one of each. Which cards are legal in organised play changes over time, and the formats and rotation guide explains regulation marks.

Choose a starter product and your next step

For two people learning together, we would start with the pair of 30th Celebration Battle Decks, one led by Espeon ex and one by Umbreon ex. Each holds 60 foil cards, a deck box, a playmat and a coin, and Pokémon describes each deck as including everything you need to play right away.

The Mega Lucario ex League Battle Deck is the step up. It holds a ready-to-play 60-card deck, six damage-counter dice, a coin-flip die, two coin condition markers, a deck box, a strategy sheet and a code card for Pokémon TCG Live. Pokémon's own page aims it at players who already know the rules. Its lead card gives up three Prize cards when Knocked Out, so it suits a second deck once you have a few games behind you.

We will stock beginner decks among our sealed Pokémon products when we open. The full rulebook is free on Pokémon's TCG website and covers the edge cases this page leaves out.

Once you have played a few games and want to change cards, read how to build a Pokémon deck, which starts from the rulebook's own suggestion of 12 to 15 Energy and around 20 to 25 Trainer cards.