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PokePop’s House of Cards
Primer for the Prodigal Pokémon Player
November 14, 2005

Part 2: Rule Changes and New Mechanics

In Part 1, we reviewed what kinds of organized and Premiere tournaments are available to the returning Pokémon TCG player and what cards and decks they can use in them. Now, let’s move on to review the many rule changes and mechanics that have been introduced to the game since the beginning. Luckily, the major game is the same. This is what attracted players to it originally. But, as most people will admit, there were some unbalanced aspects to the game and Nintendo and Pokémon USA (PUI) have taken steps to bring these into balance. The result is a Metagame environment that has a tremendous amount of variability and flexibility! In the old days, once could expect to play a tournament composed of mostly cookie cutter decks that dominated the field, each in turn. While there are still Tier One decks, there are a lot of them and it’s impossible to predict what type of deck is going to win any given tournament and each set release changes the environment. Note, this article is only reviewing changes. It’s recommended that all players get a copy of a recent rule book so they have a reference for game procedures handy.  

Game Set Up

There have been major changes to the game set up procedures with the set released just this month, EX: Delta Species. The new procedure, as outline by a PUI manager, is:

1. Shake hands.
2. Each player shuffles and draws 7 cards.
3. Each player checks their hand for Basic Pokemon. If a player does not have a Basic Pokemon, he reveals his hand to his opponent, showing that he has no Basic Pokemon. Then, he repeats steps 2 and 3 until he has a Basic Pokemon. The player's opponent may draw an extra card after placing his prizes (step 6). If both players mulligan, neither player draws an extra cards after placing prizes.
4. Each player places 1 Basic Pokemon as their Active Pokemon. Once placed, a player may not change his Active Pokemon.
5. Each player places up to 5 Basic Pokemon on their Bench.
6. Each player sets aside 6 Prize cards from the top of their deck. If either player mulliganned, their opponent may now draw one card for each mulligan.
7. Flip a coin to see who goes first. The winner of the flip goes first.
8. Each player reveals their face-down Pokemon and proceed with the game.

To recap, you now place your Active and your Prizes BEFORE drawing any extra cards. And you only draw one extra card for an opponent’s mulligan. Also, the winner of the coin flip HAS to go first. You no longer get to choose to go second. These changes bring the US game in line with how the Japanese play.

Oh! One last thing. If you have a Fossil Trainer in your starting hand, that counts as a Basic Pokémon and you have to use that as your starting Pokémon if that is the only Basic in your hand. Other than during set up, Fossil Trainers only count as Basic Pokémon while In Play.  

First Turn

There are some game rules that apply only to the first turn. In fact, many of them apply only to the first turn of the player that is going first! The player that is going first has some extra restrictions on what they can do in order to balance out the advantage that the player gets by going first. The player that is going first:

• Does not draw a card on their first turn.
• Cannot play a Supporter on their first turn. Supporters are a subset of Trainers. You can only normally only play one Supporter per turn. Almost all good draw, deck cycling, and search cards in the Modified Format are Supporters.

The player that is going second is not limited by these rules. They do draw a card on their first turn and can use a Supporter.  

Also, is one more first turn limitation on both players, neither can evolve a Pokémon normally on their first turn. This is not a rule change, but it’s worth noting that effects from Trainers, Powers, and Attacks will get around this limitation on evolution. Rare Candy is a very popular Trainer, partly for this reason. 

Things You Can Do Once Per Turn

Attacking has always been something you can only do once per turn, and that hasn’t changed. You can also still only normally place one Energy card per turn. And that includes Special Energy cards. Also, as always, you can normally evolve each Pokémon once per turn (as long as you didn’t just play it). These are some additional things that you can now only do once per turn:

• Retreat. This doesn’t count using things such as Switch. You used to be able to Retreat as much as you wanted, as long as you could pay the energy cost.
• Play a Stadium. Stadiums are a type Trainer that was introduced in the Gym sets. It replaces any existing Stadium and stays in play and places an effect over the entire playing field. You used to be able to play Stadiums with no restrictions, as often as you liked. An additional restriction recently introduced is that you cannot play a Stadium to replace another Stadium card with the same name.
• Play a Supporter. Note that you can play other types of Trainers, as much as you want, each turn.

Special Conditions

Special Conditions used to be known as Status Effects. They are a special class of Effects in the game and include Asleep, Confused, Poisoned, Paralyzed, and (added in Expedition) Burned. If you played “in the old days”, you’re familiar with most of these, but there have been a few changes in how they work. Special Conditions can be removed by Benching, Evolving, Devolving, Trainers such as Double Full Heal, or as described below. Also, Asleep, Confused, and Paralyzed will each replace the other.

• Asleep: After each turn, flip a coin. If heads, your Asleep Pokémon wakes up. Otherwise, it stays Asleep. No changes to how this works.
• Confused: If your Confused Pokémon tries to Attack, you flip a coin. If heads, the Attack works normally. If tails, you place three damage counters on your Confused Pokémon. The old rule used to be to do 20 damage to the Confused Pokémon. Confusion lasts until it is removed by normal means. Otherwise, it doesn’t wear off, even if you flip heads. You are allowed to retreat normally! The old rule used to be that you had to flip heads in order to retreat.
• Poisoned: Between each turn (both after yours and after your opponent’s) you place one damage counter on your Poisoned Pokémon. The old rule was to do 10 damage to this Pokémon.
• Paralyzed: Your Paralyzed Pokémon cannot Retreat, use Poke-Powers, or Attack for one turn. At the end of your turn following when they were Paralyzed, the effect is removed. No changes to how this works.
• Burned: Between each turn (both after yours and after your opponent’s) you flip a coin. If tails, you place two damage counters on your Burned Pokémon. Even if you flip heads, your Pokémon remains Burned.

This wraps up the major changes in the actual game rules. Next up, in part 3, we’ll review what happened to Pokémon Powers (not exactly the same thing as Poké-Powers!) and some important cards like Darkness Energy and Metal energy.  

Thanks and enjoy!

Pop 

Resources:

Online Rule book-Basic (out of date): http://www.pokemon-tcg.com/p_strategy/rulebooks/book_68.jsp

Advanced (You need this! It contains all the updated rules): http://www.pokemon-tcg.com/p_strategy/rulebooks/book_77.jsp