How to play Pokémon TCG Pocket?

Type of cards

There are 2 types of cards in Pokemon TCG Pocket : Pokémon cards and Trainer cards

Pokémon : they’re the main pieces of a game. They can attack, they can evolve, they can use abilities to give an edge in the game

Trainer : these cards are essential for accelerating your game plan, finding more resources, rescuing your Pokémon, disrupting your opponent…

They’re spread in 2 different classes :

Items : these are the main utility of a deck with generally contained power levels. Once used, they’re discarded.
Supporters : these are trainers with powerful effects, giving a big head start to the player. They’re in fact so powerful that only one Supporter card can be played per turn, and not on the very first turn of the game

You cannot play more than two cards with the same name, even if their artwork is different. Keep in mind that Pokémon ex have a different name from their regular counterpart, which means you can play a deck containing 2 Pikachu and 2 Pikachu ex.

Pokémon and Trainer are the only type of cards you add to your deck when you build it, but Energies are also part of the game even if they’re not cards:

Energy : Energies are the main resources of the game. They’re required to pay the cost of most Pokémon attacks and to pay retreat costs. They’re managed separately in the Energy Zone rather than being in your deck.

There’s 8 types of Basic Energy: Grass G, Fire R, Water W, Lightning L, Psychic P, Fighting F, Darkness D, Metal M. Unlike all other type of cards, you can play any number of Basic Energy in your deck. Special Energies are energy cards with additional effects, although it’s unclear if we’ll ever see them in Pokémon TCG Pocket.

Field of play

The field is composed of :

A deck, made of 20 cards. You can only play up to x cards of the same name.

An Active spot. Your Active Pokémon sits there. The Active Pokémon is the only Pokémon that can attack.
A bench made of 3 spots. Each spot can contain a Pokémon
An Energy zone. They contain the Energies that players can manually attach to one of their Pokémon or pull from thanks to card effects.
A Discard pile. Discarded cards go to the discard pile. It happens for instance when you use items and supporters, when you discard cards, when your Pokémon gets knocked out…

Energy Zone

The Energy Zone is one of the biggest innovations in Pokémon TCG Pocket. Instead of having Energies into your deck, with the risk of not being able to power up your Pokémon for attacks if you don’t draw any, Energies are managed in a dedicated zone separate from the deck, guaranteeing you can equip an Energy each turn.

The Energy Zone acts as an endless pool of Energy containing the specific types your deck requires, though limited to two types. Additionally, a circle-shaped stand with an inner circle, located at the bottom right of the screen, lets you access Energy from this zone. At the start of the game, one Energy appears on top of this stand, while a smaller one appears in the inner circle. Once per turn, you can manually attach the larger Energy from the stand to one of your Pokémon. If you don’t, it gets discarded at the end of your turn.

Then, at the beginning of each player’s turn, if there is no Energy on top of the stand, the smaller Energy in the inner circle is promoted to the top, and a new Energy from the Zone appears in the inner circle. The smaller Energy indicates the type of Energy you will have access to in the next turn. If your deck uses multiple types of Energy, the Energy distribution alternates randomly between the types your deck needs.

Note that during the very first turn of the game, the starting player does not receive a larger Energy on their Energy Zone, meaning they cannot manually attach an Energy to their Pokémon until their second turn.

In Pokémon TCG Pocket, Energies are not cards. When they’re discarded for an effect or when a Pokémon with attached Energies is knocked out, they disappear.

The game begins

The game starts with this opening sequence:

Players draw a hand of 5 cards.
Each player places a Basic Pokémon in the Active spot, face-down. Once both players confirm, they turn them face-up, and the game begins. Currently, in Pokémon TCG Pocket, you always start with at least 1 Basic Pokémon in hand.
Each player starts with 0 point out of 3.
The match starts with a 5 minute timer.

Turn structure

A turn is ordered this way :

The turn player draws a card (mandatory)
If the top spot of the Energy Zone is empty, the Energy from the inner circle is promoted to the top, while a new Energy from the Zone takes its place in the inner circle, becoming the Energy available for the next turn. The player who starts the game does not have access to an Energy in the top spot during their first turn.
The turn player may perform any of these actions :

Actions not limited to once per turn:

Put a Basic Pokémon on the bench (in the limit of 3 Pokémon)
Evolve one their Pokémon to the next stage (Basic > Stage 1 > Stage 2). Newly placed Pokémon cannot evolve on the same turn, and each Pokémon can only evolve once per turn.
Playing an Item card

Actions limited to once per turn:

Take the big Energy from the Energy zone and attach it to one of their Pokémon on the field.
Retreat their Active Pokémon by paying the Retreat Cost. This is only possible if there’s a Benched Pokémon to promote to the Active spot. The player must pay an amount of Energy equal to the number of Energies specified in the “Retreat cost” box and discard them. This aims to protect a Pokémon from an imminent KO or to promote a more fitting Pokémon tothe Active spot
Play a Supporter card
Use a Pokémon ability : most abilities are limited to once per turn per Pokémon and can provide various advantages

The turn player attacks with their Active Pokémon

The Active Pokémon can attack if it has enough Energy to fit the cost of the atack. Damage is dealt in multiples of ten, using damage counters. If the damage equals or exceeds the opponent’s Pokémon’s HP, it is Knocked Out.

A player cannot attack with their Pokémon on the very first turn of the game.

The turn ends immediately after resolving the attack and its effects

Win conditions

Getting all Points. At any point of the game, if an ability or an attack causes one or multiple opponent’s Pokémon to get KOd (knocked out), the player gets 1 Point. Some rule can upgrade the number of Point you get, such as Pokémon ex that are worth 2 Prize Points when KOd
The opponent’s inability to promote a Pokémon to the Active spot. After an Active Pokémon is knocked out, if their controller doesn’t have another Pokémon ready on their bench that they can promote to the Active spot, they lose. When done very early, this situation is familiarly called a “bonk”

Pokemon ex

Pokemon ex are stronger versions of Basic and Evolved Pokemon, with more powerful attacks and abilities than Pokemon of the same stage would normally have. Evolved Pokemon ex evolve from regular Pokemon versions, and they cannot evolve into another Pokemon (for instance, you can’t make Pikachu ex evolve into regular Raichu). Their power come with the ex rule : when knocked out, the opponent get 2 points instead of 1.

Charizard ex

Pikachu ex

Mewtwo ex

Special statuses

In Pokémon TCG Pocket, just like in the video games, Pokémon can be affected by special conditions that impact their ability to attack, retreat, or use abilities. These conditions are caused by attack effects, abilities, or Trainer cards. The main status effects include:

Asleep: A sleeping Pokémon cannot attack or retreat. At the end of their turn, the player flips a coin. If it’s heads, the Pokémon is cured.
Paralyzed: A Paralyzed Pokémon cannot attack or retreat until the end of the player’s next turn.
Poisoned: This condition deals 10 damage to the Pokémon at the end of each turn.

Only the Active Pokémon can be affected by these statuses. If a Pokémon with a status condition is moved to the Bench, either by retreating or through a card effect, it is automatically cured of all status conditions. When a Pokémon evolves, it is also cured of its status conditions, though its lifebar remain unchanged.

Colorless Energy

In attacks and retreat costs, you might notice the Colorless C energy symbol. It’s a generic symbol that can be paid with any kind of Energy.

For instance, Charizard ex’s attack Crimson Storm’s cost: you can pay this attack with RRRR as well as RRLP . Only the 2 R are required to be of a certain type.

Pokemon Type and Weakness

There are 10 types of Pokemon in the TCG : Grass G, Fire R, Water W, Lightning L, Psychic P, Fighting F, Darkness D, Metal M, Dragon N and Colorless C.

TCG types regroup multiple types in the video game : Grass regroups Grass and Bug, Water regroups Water and Ice, Psychic regroups Psychic, Ghost and Fairy, Fighting regroups Fighting, Ground and Rock, Darkness regroups Dark and Poison and Normal regroups Normal and Flying. For instance, Gengar (a Ghost-Poison type) is usually printed as a Psychic-type or Darkness-type in the TCG.

These types matter for specific support cards and for the calculation of weaknesses. A Pokémon can have a weakness printed on the bottom left corner with the symbol of the type it’s weak to and the amount of extra damage it takes when a Pokémon of this type attacks. In TCG Pocket, a damaging move that hits on the Defending Pokémon’s Weakness deals 20 more damage. If the attack isn’t damaging to begin with (like Vulpix’s Tail whip), no weakness is applied done.

Basic construction of a deck

Old-timers might remember the days when the common saying was that a deck should be roughly made up of one-third Pokémon, one-third Trainer cards, and one-third Energies. Not only is this obsolete in the TCG, but it also can’t be applied to TCG Pocket where energies are managed with an Energy Zone.

Let’s start from scratch:

The first part of deck building is to choose which Pokémon to build around, which cards can help develop its power, and complete the deck with supportive cards and various ways to interact with your opponent. You can start from pre-existing archetypes or build your own deck around your favorite Pokémon.
Not only do you need at least one Basic Pokémon in your deck, but you also want to place at least another Pokémon on your bench on your first turn if you go first. Failure to do so might expose you to the unlikely but possible risk of getting “bonked,” which means having your Active Pokémon knocked out without being able to promote one of your Benched Pokémon to replace it. You also want Basic Pokémon on your bench as quickly as possible to evolve them swiftly and bring more power to your game.
You have to pick and play support cards. Some essential cards, called “staples,” are reliably good cards to help you advance your game plan. Cards that bring Pokémon from your deck to your bench such as Pokéball are universally good and should be played in most decks. Cards that enable retreating your Active Pokémon are also convenient, allowing you to avoid an imminent Knock Out while promoting a more powerful Pokémon against your opponent’s Active Pokémon. Some cards have more specific effects that naturally fit certain playstyles better. Most of these staples are Trainer cards of the Item and Supporter class, but some Pokémon also have supporting abilities that make them a must in a good share of decks.

Improve consistency. To put your plan into motion, you need to have the best resources possible at any moment. What you want to avoid is “bricking”, which means having a hand full of cards that don’t work together or can’t advance your plan. As a rule of thumb, a good card in your deck should probably be played as a 2-of to make sure you see it as soon and as often as possible during the game

In the case of a deck featuring evolved Pokémon (Stage 1 and Stage 2), it becomes even more important to maximize the number of Basic Pokémon to improve the odds of having an evolved Pokémon as soon as possible.

Archetypes

A deck’s identity is often defined by the name of the Pokémon it’s built around; this is called an archetype. This Pokémon represents the core power of your deck. Multiple variants of the same archetype can exist, with the support cards determining whether it’s meant to be aggressive or more control-oriented.

Archetypes generally have a set of cards that remain consistent across different iterations, forming the core of the deck. From this core, players create their own deck by making specific choices they feel are better suited to their competition, their playstyle, etc. Whether you’re working from an established archetype or creating one of your own, you’re building a unique deck.