Pokemon rules
December 26, 2020 6:21 AM Subscribe
My 7 year old and I have some very specific questions about the rules of the pokemon card game, please help! Maybe you, or a friendly 6-10 year old you know, can provide answers?
7 year old got a beginner set (2 decks) for Christmas and we have been trying to play by the rule booklet. We have the following questions:
1) When it's my turn and I can play an energy card, can I only add it to the active, fighting pokemon? Or any pokemon in the game?
2) Can I add as many energy cards to an individual pokemon as I want (one per turn, of course), or only the maximum number it needs to perform attacks?
3) If my pokemon is killed, it goes to the discard stack together with all its energy cards and damage points; can I replace it immediately and when do I add an energy card? Do I have to draw a card first? What's the order of moves?
4) what do I do if the first 15 cards in my deck contain no basic pokemon??
5) If I swap out an active pokemon, does the first one recuperate (lose its damage points) while it's resting?
6) There are a lot of things I can do during my move, can I really (as an internet fan source suggests) do them in any order I want?
Thank you for your help!
7 year old got a beginner set (2 decks) for Christmas and we have been trying to play by the rule booklet. We have the following questions:
1) When it's my turn and I can play an energy card, can I only add it to the active, fighting pokemon? Or any pokemon in the game?
2) Can I add as many energy cards to an individual pokemon as I want (one per turn, of course), or only the maximum number it needs to perform attacks?
3) If my pokemon is killed, it goes to the discard stack together with all its energy cards and damage points; can I replace it immediately and when do I add an energy card? Do I have to draw a card first? What's the order of moves?
4) what do I do if the first 15 cards in my deck contain no basic pokemon??
5) If I swap out an active pokemon, does the first one recuperate (lose its damage points) while it's resting?
6) There are a lot of things I can do during my move, can I really (as an internet fan source suggests) do them in any order I want?
Thank you for your help!
Response by poster: Yaaaay! You are the best, thank you!
posted by Omnomnom at 6:42 AM on December 26, 2020 [2 favorites]
posted by Omnomnom at 6:42 AM on December 26, 2020 [2 favorites]
Ha, I could have written this! My seven-year-old also got a two-deck set for Christmas and I am pretty sure we played it wrong when we tried. This is really helpful!
posted by synecdoche at 7:02 AM on December 26, 2020 [3 favorites]
posted by synecdoche at 7:02 AM on December 26, 2020 [3 favorites]
For what it's worth, the computer game version of the Pokemon TCG is worth getting to help you learn/practice the game:
- it's free (and you get a few virtual decks to play with)
- it has a decent tutorial
- you can play against the computer
- every real-life booster and deck you buy has a code that unlocks a booster or the same deck in the game
- if you log into the game every day, every 5th day you get a free virtual booster pack.
You can play against real people online if you want, but we rarely do that. My kid likes creating custom decks and playing them against the computer.
posted by EndsOfInvention at 12:45 PM on December 26, 2020 [1 favorite]
- it's free (and you get a few virtual decks to play with)
- it has a decent tutorial
- you can play against the computer
- every real-life booster and deck you buy has a code that unlocks a booster or the same deck in the game
- if you log into the game every day, every 5th day you get a free virtual booster pack.
You can play against real people online if you want, but we rarely do that. My kid likes creating custom decks and playing them against the computer.
posted by EndsOfInvention at 12:45 PM on December 26, 2020 [1 favorite]
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Any of your Pokemon that are out on the board - the active (fighting) one or one on your bench. You can't add it to one in your hand.
2) Can I add as many energy cards to an individual pokemon as I want (one per turn, of course), or only the maximum number it needs to perform attacks?
There is no limit to how many energy you can attach to one Pokemon (usually there's no point in adding more than necessary for its attacks but some Pokemon have bonuses for extra energy, and some Pokemon attacks discard attached energy so it's useful to have more than needed).
3) If my pokemon is killed, it goes to the discard stack together with all its energy cards and damage points; can I replace it immediately and when do I add an energy card? Do I have to draw a card first? What's the order of moves?
When a Pokemon is knocked out (not killed! D:) you are required to immediately replace it with one from your bench. This happens before you have your go as normal (where you can then add an energy etc).
4) what do I do if the first 15 cards in my deck contain no basic pokemon??
Take a Mulligan - shuffle your hand back into your deck, and draw a new hand. You opponent has the option to draw an extra card when this happens. If you still don't have Basic Pokemon, do the process again until you do.
5) If I swap out an active pokemon, does the first one recuperate (lose its damage points) while it's resting?
No, damage counters don't change when a Pokemon retreats unless some outside effect causes them to be removed.
6) There are a lot of things I can do during my move, can I really (as an internet fan source suggests) do them in any order I want?
Yes, except using the active Pokemon's attack or other action must be the final thing you do.
posted by EndsOfInvention at 6:29 AM on December 26, 2020 [3 favorites]