Pokémon Trading Card Game
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- This article is about the card game. For the video game, see Pokémon Trading Card Game (video game).
| Pokémon Trading Card Game | |
|---|---|
 A typical Pokémon card. This card, from EX Unseen Forces, features Ho-Oh. |
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| Publisher | Wizards of the Coast (October 1996 - July 2003) Pokemon USA, Inc./Nintendo (July 2003 - Present) |
| Players | Two and up |
| Age range | 10 and up |
| Setup time | < 3 minutes |
| Playing time | ~ Varies1 |
| Random chance | Some |
| Skills required | Card playing Arithmetic Basic Reading Ability |
| 1 Games may take much longer or shorter depending on a deck's play style and the number of players. 2Strategy and complexity of play depends greatly on the specific deck's play style and level of competition. | |
The Pokemon Trading Card Game is a collectible card game based on the Pokémon video game series, first introduced in Japan in October 1996, then North America in December 1998. It was initially published by Wizards of the Coast, the company that produces Magic: the Gathering. Although Wizards of the Coast lost the licence to publish the game in July 2003, sets continue to be published under the jurisdiction of Nintendo and Pokémon USA, Inc. (PUI).
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[edit] Game concepts
The game is centered on the concept of the Pokémon battle. All Pokémon cards have attacks and Hit Points (HP); by doing damage to the opponent's Pokémon equal to their Hit Points, the player can knock them out and send them to the discard pile.
[edit] Victory conditions
There are three different ways to win a game:
- The first type of victory condition is to retrieve all six "prize cards," which are set aside from the top of the deck at the beginning of each game. Each time a player knocks out an opponent's Pokémon, he or she takes a prize card and puts it into his or her hand. Pokémon-ex cards, introduced in EX: Ruby and Sapphire, are more powerful than their non-ex counterparts, but allow a player who knocks them out to take two prizes instead of one.
- Second, a player loses if his or her active Pokémon (the one currently conducting battle) is knocked out and he or she has no other Pokémon in play.
- Finally, because a player must draw a card from the top of the deck at the beginning of his/her turn, he/she loses if there are no cards remaining in the deck at the beginning of his/her turn. This rule rarely comes into effect in tournament play.
[edit] Card types
There are three types of cards in the Pokémon Trading Card Game: Pokémon cards, Energy cards, and Trainer cards. All are important to victory. A player's 60-card deck may only contain four cards with the same name, with the exception of basic energy cards.
Pokémon Cards are the basis of all decks. Without them a player can't even play the game, since both players begin the game by placing a basic Pokémon in the active position on the field of play. All Pokémon cards depict a Pokémon from the video games, and each player may have up to six Pokémon in play at a time, one active and up to five on the bench (in reserve). Most Pokémon feature attacks that reduce the HP of the opponent's active Pokémon, or occasionally, their benched Pokémon (a few can not do damage at all). These attacks require Energy, which comes in the form of Energy cards.
Energy Cards are cards attached to a Pokémon to enable it to attack. There are two types of energy cards, basic energy cards and special energy cards, and eight different basic energy types: Fighting, Fire, Grass, Lightning, Psychic, Water, Dark, and Metal. Only the first six energy types have corresponding basic energy cards; although Dark and Metal energy are considered basic energy types, they can only be provided through special energy cards. The difference between special and basic energy cards is that basic energy cards only provide one energy of the specified type, while special energy cards have additional benefits (described in additional text on the card; basic energy cards lack this text).
Most attacks require a certain type and amount of energy, depending on the type of attack and the Pokémon using it. If an attack requires a certain type of basic energy, then that type of energy must be attached to the Pokémon, whereas if the attack has a colorless energy requirement, that requirement can be met by any energy card. Because of this, colorless energy requirements are seen as a great advantage on any card. Colorless energy is not considered a basic energy type.
Trainer Cards are support cards that allow players to do something to enhance the game. Some can remove damage counters from Pokémon, remove energy from the opposing Pokémon, or revive Pokémon that have been knocked out. There are many other types of Trainer cards.
Of particular value are "draw" cards and "search" cards. In the normal course of play, players can only draw one card per turn from the deck. However, cards like Professor Oak's Research, Steven's Advice and Copycat let a player draw several new cards in a turn, while search cards like Dual Ball, Lanette's Net Search and Celio's Network let players search through their decks for a particular card or cards. Championship calibre players know that in order to win games consistently, their decks must contain good draw power and search power. Beginning level players often do not realize the value of Trainer cards, but experienced tournament level players pay particular attention to the Trainer engine in their battle decks.
There are also some cards that are two of the types in one card. A few (that originated in the Base Set) are played as both Trainer cards and Pokémon cards, and more recent cards can be played as Pokémon or Energy cards. So far, no cards are both Energy and Trainers.
[edit] Pokémon types
A simplified type system was used for the trading card game. Instead of 17 types of Pokémon, only nine exist. Seven were in the Base Set, and Darkness and Metal types appeared when Pokémon Gold and Silver introduced the Dark and Steel types. The types usually follow this pattern:
| TCG type | Color | Video game type(s) |
|---|---|---|
| Colorless | Gray/White | Normal, Flying, Dragon |
| Darkness | Black | Dark |
| Fighting | Brown | Fighting, Rock, Ground |
| Fire | Red | Fire |
| Grass | Green | Grass, Bug, Poison |
| Lightning | Yellow | Electric |
| Metal | Silver | Steel |
| Psychic | Purple | Psychic, Ghost |
| Water | Blue | Water, Ice |
Most Pokémon have only one type. However, EX:Team Aqua vs. Team Magma introduced Dual-type Pokémon, which have two different types. Most of these Dual-type cards are either Dark and another type, or Metal and another type.
Weakness and resistance are determined by the type of the attacking Pokémon (unlike the video game, where they are determined by the type of the attack used). Pokémon that are weak to another type take twice the base damage in an attack, while resistance decreases attack damage by 30 points. Some recent Pokémon have two weaknesses, and some have two resistances.
If a Pokémon has two types, both of those types are calculated as far as weakness and resistance are concerned. For example, if a Pokémon has weakness to two types, and a Pokémon that is both of those types attacks, that attack will do 4 times its normal damage.
[edit] Deck types
A Full Deck is the standard deck used in Premier Events all over the world. A Full Deck contains exactly 60 cards. Almost all events run by Pokémon Organized Play use the Full Deck, from Leagues to the World Championships. The exceptions are listed below:
Limited Decks are seen almost exclusively in pre-release tournaments. Players are given six booster packs and an unlimited amount of basic energy; from those cards, they make a deck that contains exactly 40 cards. Limited decks use four prizes per game, instead of six.
The "Half Deck" is a new trend of playing Pokémon cards in Japan and Hong Kong that is not as well-known in the West. A Half Deck has 30 cards, and each player lays out 3 prizes at the beginning of the game. The Half deck is used mostly because of limited space in Japan and Hong Kong, giving all players a chance to play if there are many players in a very tight space.
[edit] Sets
With the release of EX Power Keepers on February 14, 2007, there are currently 31 different Pokemon TCG sets released in English. These sets have a vast range of sizes, from Fossil (the smallest at 61 cards), to Aquapolis and Skyridge (both the largest, with a total of 182 normal cards, 182 reverse-foil cards and four box toppers - 368 cards each in total ). Only nine of these sets (EX Deoxys and all subsequent sets) are legal in the current modified format, which all major tournaments are played under. A rarely played format is Unlimited, where all cards ever released in English are legal (except oversized cards such as large box topper cards).
Early in the game, sets were released in seemingly random intervals, but ever since Nintendo took over the production of the sets, there has been a constant stream of 4 sets per year, released at 2.5 to 3.5 month intervals.
The current 31 released card sets are: Base Set, Jungle, Fossil, Base Set 2, Team Rocket, Gym Heroes, Gym Challenge, Neo Genesis, Neo Discovery, Southern Islands, Neo Revelation, Neo Destiny, Legendary Collection, Expedition, Aquapolis, Skyridge, EX Ruby and Sapphire, EX Sandstorm, EX Dragon, EX Team Magma vs Team Aqua, EX Hidden Legends, EX FireRed & LeafGreen, EX Team Rocket Returns, EX Deoxys, EX Emerald, EX Unseen Forces, EX Delta Species, EX Legend Maker, EX Holon Phantoms, EX Crystal Guardians, EX Dragon Frontiers, and EX Power Keepers.
Every few sets, new types of cards are introduced to the Pokémon Trading Card Game. Several of these include: Dark Pokémon (Team Rocket); Owners' Pokémon and Stadium cards (Gym Heroes); Darkness-type and Metal-type Pokémon, the second generation, and the new Pokémon Tool card (Neo Genesis); Shining Pokémon (Neo Revelation); Light Pokémon (Neo Destiny); Supporter cards and Technical Machines (Expedition); Crystal-type Pokémon (Aquapolis); Pokémon-ex (EX Ruby & Sapphire); Dual-type Pokémon (EX Team Magma vs Team Aqua); Pokémon-* (EX Team Rocket Returns); and most recently, the new Delta Species Pokémon and Holon's Pokémon in EX Delta Species.
These changes, along with yearly format rotations, make for a constantly evolving game.
[edit] Future Sets
There are currently two sets yet to be released outside of Japan. The next set is TCG: Diamond & Pearl, which will be released on May 28, 2007. It is the first set to include many new game mechanics such as Pokémon Lv.X and attacks requiring no Energy. Basic Darkness and Metal Energy cards also debut, along with fourth-generation Pokémon. The set after that is titled The Mystery of the Lakes in Japan, and includes Pokémon such as Rampardos, Bastiodon, Uxie, Mesprit and Azelf. It also includes the Pokémon Level 'X' Electivire, Magmortar and Lucario.
[edit] Pokémon Organized Play Program
In addition to the collectible aspect of the card game, Pokémon USA Inc. (PUI) has also created Pokémon Organized Play (POP), which is in charge of the organization of an official League program, where players can battle others in local environments and earn player points, 2-card booster packets from a promotional set, badges, stickers and other materials. These are run by League Leaders/League Owners.
A League Leader can/may assist in organizing the league, while a League Owner is the one officially in charge of the league, reporting to POP any results and/or problems every seven weeks. The leagues run in yearly cycles, based on a certain aspect of one of the Pokémon Game Boy games; the current cycle is based upon the Kanto league area.
Prereleases are organized just before each set is released. Usually, they are run on the two weekends before a set is released in stores. Prereleases are the source of the 40-card Limited Deck. Prereleases used to be considered competitive events by PUI, but due to repeated claims of cheating (ie. bringing cards from a previous event to get an advantage), and arguments against the amount of luck inherent in the event, PUI made the decision that it was better to make the events less competitive (by removing prizes for winners, etc).
[edit] Tournament play
POP also runs a tournament program, in which individuals age 18 or over may become Tournament Organizers (TOs), who can sanction and run tournaments. Players in a tournament are split into three age categories: Junior (born in 1996 or later), Senior (born in 1992-1995), and Master (born in 1991 or earlier). These tournaments play a number of rounds, where players will play a standard game against each other and wins and losses will be recorded. In most tournaments, there are a number of Swiss-style rounds where players are paired up against others of similar win/loss ratios, usually from their own age group (this does not always occur in smaller events, though). Afterwards, there will either be a cut of the top record-holders (usually the top 25% of an event) where players will play best 2 out of 3 matches, and the loser gets eliminated (standard tournament bracket style), with an eventual winner.
POP runs a season for these tournaments, which allows players to earn larger prizes and play in a more competitive environment in comparison to League. These range from City and State Championships, all the way up to the Pokémon World Championships, the single invite-only event of the year. Players can earn invites to the World Championships by winning or ranking high at National Championships, having a good Premier Rating (based off the Elo rating system, which allows players to win or lose points at any City Championship or higher-level event), or by qualifying in the Last Chance Qualifier. The World Championships is a 2 day tournament, with one eventual winner in each age group, the winner of the Master age group is generally noticed as the best player in the World for that season.
Some of these methods are only used in the USA, as PUI and POP are based in the USA, but they are represented by local distributors who provide the Organized Play program to their own country.
[edit] Major tournaments under Wizards of the Coast
- Tropical Mega Battle
- On August 26 - 27, 2000, forty-two Pokémon trainers from around the world united at the Hilton Hawaiian Village in Honolulu for the Tropical Mega Battle, an international communication event for the Pokémon Trading Card Game sponsored by Creatures Inc., Media Factory and Wizards of the Coast Inc. In an effort to transcend language and communication barriers through entertaining game-play, the Tropical Mega Battle brought together children aged 14 and under from the United States, Japan, France, Italy, Canada, Spain, Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, for two action-packed days in scenic Honolulu, Hawaii. Children participating in the Tropical Mega Battle received invitations through Qualifier tournaments, DCI rankings, and other events in their respective countries.
- Events throughout the weekend included competitions facilitated by translators for groups of children representing two different languages in each group; a group photo and an opening ceremony featuring remarks from Hawaiian government officials; and a harbor cruise awards ceremony for the winners of the World Communication Match. Jason Klaczynski, 14-year-old Orland Park, Ill., resident, was honored as the Master Trainer of the Tropical Mega Battle after winning the final round of the World Communication Match against fellow Pokémon trainer Toshiya Tanabe of Sapporo, Japan.
- The Super Trainer Showdowns were large Pokémon TCG tournaments held in the United States by Wizards of the Coast. These tournaments were frequently bi-annual and were open to the public. Each tournament consisted of three age groups; 10 and under, 11 to 14 years old, and 15 years old and over. Each Super Trainer Showdown was preceded by a series of Qualifier Tournaments held in cities around the United States and abroad in which players in the 11-to-14 and 10-and-under age groups could win trips for themselves and a parent or guardian to the Super Trainer Showdown event. To date, there have been four Super Trainer Showdowns: one in Long Beach, CA, one in San Diego, CA, and two in Seacaucus, NJ.
[edit] Competitive play outside of the United States
Although PUI tries to keep Organized Play as equal as possible all over the Earth, there are some notable differences in how POP is run outside of the USA.
[edit] Pokémon Card Laboratory (PCL)
The Pokémon Card Laboratory (PCL), located in Japan, is the ultimate authority on any matter relating to the Pokémon Trading Card Game. It can declare rulings on any in-game circumstance, issue errata, change card text after publishing, and change the basic game rules, although the latter three rarely occur. PCL is also the company that designs new cards and runs Organized Play in Japan. In short, PCL designs the game itself.
Some recent events suggest that PCL also has the ability to override PUI on any Organized Play related changes anywhere in the world. Without specific knowledge, however, this is a somewhat speculative statement.
[edit] Pokémon cards in Hong Kong
Due to massive imports of Japanese cards, many local players play the Japanese version of the game instead of the English one. The tournaments in Hong Kong run on different mechanics than other countries. They are operated by two different groups, the official POP distributor OTCHK and the unofficial HKPMA.
The OTC is a new distributor of the Pokémon Trading Card Game in Hong Kong that started up in June 2005, and runs POP tournaments using the American rulings. However, it has the same policy as the previous distributor (Trandy's Creation) of banning Japanese cards (which supposedly can be used in regular tournaments with appropriate reference), causing huge discontent amongst the local players. Up until 1st Dec 2005, the company had held only 1 tournament with only 16 participants.
In contrast, the HKPMA (Hong Kong Pokémon Alliance) is an experienced group that has been running 2 to 4 tournaments every year since 2000. Initially those tournaments followed American rulings, shifting to Japanese rulings after the introduction of Japanese Pokémon Card Players Rule Ver 1.0 in Summer 2003. The HKPMA later on established a new branch organization, HKPCL (Hong Kong Pokémon Card Laboratory), to manage tournament matters, including the organization of tournaments, ruling support, staffing and documentation. To prevent the confusion between the 2 different rulings, HKPCL makes ruling clarifications on a regular basis, and sometimes writes articles in the PokeGym Forum[1] to raise people's awareness.
[edit] Pokémon in the UK
Pokémon TCG Retail distribution in the UK is currently run by Esdevium Games Ltd, and Organised Play by its partner The Place for Games. The UK has one of the largest player bases outside the US and Japan. Its players have performed admirably over the past few years at the World Championships, including a 4th Place for Fares Sekkoum in the 10- division (2006), a Top 16 place for Jake Arnold in the 10- division (2005) a 7th Place for Sami Sekkoum in the 15+ (2005), a Top 16 finish for Yacine Sekkoum in the 15+ (2006) and a 10th place finish for Faisel Kahn in the 15+ (2005).
Usually held in June, the UK Pokémon TCG National Championships have been in Woburn Safari Park for the past 2 years. In 2006 around 70 players were invited to play in each age group. The prizes have included Nintendo DS consoles, televisions and invites/trips to represent the UK in the World Championships.
Smaller City Championships, and for the first time in 2006 UK Pokémon Regional Championships, are held between November and April. These were held in Hull, London, Bournemouth, Manchester and Glasgow.
The game is most popular in the southeast of England, but leagues can be found all over the country - including Glasgow, York, Manchester, Norwich, Harlow, London, Bournemouth, Exeter, Crawley, Rainham (kent) and many more.
[edit] Banned cards
Although PUI currently refuses to ban cards regardless of how over-used they become, a number of cards were banned under Wizards of the Coast (WotC).
- The first card that WotC banned was Sneasel from the set Neo Genesis. Sneasel was banned before it ever became legal for play outside of Japan because of the enormous effect it was having on organized play. Decks with Sneasel were winning almost every major tournament, making all other decks uncompetitive. Sneasel's ability to abuse the new Darkness Energy cards (which increase the power of all Dark-type attacks by 10), no weakness, a free retreat cost, quickly powered-up attacks, and the ability to do enormous damage made it an outstanding card. In short, Sneasel was faster and more powerful than any other card in the game at the time.
- Coincidentally enough, the only other banned card printed in a normal set was also from Neo Genesis.
- Slowking from Neo Genesis had a Pokémon Power that allowed its user to flip a coin whenever the opponent played a Trainer card, and if that coin was heads, the Trainer card would return to the user's deck without affecting the game. In the Japanese version of the game, this Power could only be used while Slowking was active. When the card was translated to English, however, the card was translated incorrectly. The English version of the card not only allowed its owner to use the Power while Slowking was benched, but the power was cumulative, meaning players could flip a coin for each Slowking they had in play every time their opponent played a Trainer card, and if even one was heads, that card would have no effect.
- While the Japanese version of the card was barely playable (Slowking is not a good attacker, and is easily KO'ed when active), the English version was overpowered because a player could place Slowking(s) on the bench, prevent the opponent from playing any Trainer cards, and play a stronger Pokémon as an attacker.
- Slowking dominated the 2002 World Championship (the only world Championship not run by PUI), and as a result, WotC announced that the card was no longer legal for any format as of Jan 1, 2003. This was a very controversial move, because the card was banned outright, instead of errata being issued to correct the mis-translation (as is often done in other trading card games, such as Magic: The Gathering).
- _'s Pikachu
- _________'s Pikachu (commonly known as 'Birthday Pikachu'), was Promo Card number 24 printed by WotC. The effect of its attack, Birthday Surprise, says, "...if it is your birthday, flip a coin. If heads, this attack does 30 damage plus 50 more damage...". WotC banned this card quickly after its release, because there was no logical way to check that it was actually someone's birthday whenever they attacked with the card. Disproving liars who wanted to do a lot of damage for a few energy turned out to require much more effort than it was worth. The Japanese version of the card has red text in the margin stating its illegality. It is one of the few Japanese cards with this message that was produced in English, most likely because of its immense popularity with collectors.
Currently, PUI organized play has no banned cards (the bans that WotC placed were removed when PUI took over the game). Their only limitation is that cards must have the normal English or Japanese card back to be playable. Because of this, the only significant unplayable cards under PUI are the cards printed in the promotional World Championship Decks. These cards are supposed to be printed as a promotional item, and not meant to help people collect large numbers of rare and valuable cards that were played in these decks; because of this, none of the cards printed in the decks are allowed in any competitive events.
[edit] Video game releases
On December 18, 1998, Nintendo released a Game Boy Color game called Pokémon Trading Card Game. It was a game based on the original Pokémon games, but with trading cards instead of actual "monsters". This title was released in North America on March 31, 2000 and in Europe on December 8, 2000. It included the cards from the base set as well as its first two expansions (Jungle and Fossil), along with a few cards that are exclusive to the game.
A second Game Boy game, called Pokémon Card GB2, was released in Japan on March 28, 2001. It introduced a trading card parallel to Team Rocket, called Great Team Rocket, and also added cards from the Team Rocket expansion. This game was not released outside of Japan.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
[edit] Official Pokémon TCG sites
- Pokémon Organized Play Website is the official US source of the Pokémon Organized Play program, where one can acquire information on local leagues and tournaments and find local distributors.
- Pokémon TCG Website is the official website for the Pokémon TCG.
[edit] Unofficial Pokémon TCG sites
- PokéBeach Includes high-quality scans from all sets old to new, has the latest news on the Pokémon TCG, a large forum and Pokemon TCG chat room, as well as many other resources.
- PokéGym PokéGym Pokémon TCG Information, scans, trading community and a massive and extremely popular forum for discussion of the Pokémon TCG. Home of the Pokemon TCG Compendium, the only source for all official card rulings from Pokemon Organized Play.
- Pojo.com is a Pokémon resource for the Trading Card Game and Video Games, with a forum. Also home of the popular Card of the Day.
- Pokepedia. Comprehensive, searchable Pokémon TCG database. Has a decklist builder, trader base, event mapper, and more.
[edit] Wiki sites
- WikiKnowledege guide (Previously hosted by Wikibooks)
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