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!
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.
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.
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. |
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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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
RETURN HOME |
Put a
Basic Pokemon on the Bench
