Introduce for Pokemon Trading Card Game
Pokemon is a beloved franchise with a strong presence in almost every segment of the entertainment and gaming industries, including Pokemon card games.
It is not surprising that the Pokemon TCG has grown exponentially year after year, to the point that you have decided to join in on the fun!
The Pokemon TCG is almost two decades old, the fan base shows no signs of getting bored with it, and the Pokemon company will never stop churning out these cards.
As of 2022, you have many options when playing the Pokemon TCG; you can choose any Pokemon you want and play the way you want.
All this sounds exciting, but you just can’t jump into playing the game right away, the game’s mechanics might be a little complex for beginners, and frankly, the rules will overwhelm you if you have no idea how to play the game.
So we decided to jot down this blog post which will guide you on how to play pokemon cards offline in 2022.
How many Pokemon are there?
Over the years, GameFreak has added hundreds of Pokemon to the original 151 Pokemon released in the 1990s. As of now, there are over 900 Pokemon in the Pokemon Universe!
905 Pokemon, to be precise, this number will surely hit 1000 in 2022 as the new scarlet, and Violet Games are about to release!
Each generation adds new Pokemon to the Pokeverse, and these Pokemon are then used in every other Pokemon franchise, and that includes the TCG.
Top 5 Pokemon in the Pokemon trading card game!
When building a Pokemon team, you must remember the stats of Pokemon, their weaknesses, their types, and many more aspects that will allow you to have the best possible team.
In 2022 we have many options to choose from, so boiling down the list to only the five best Pokemon was challenging but possible.
So here are the five most popular Pokemon to have on your team, which will aid you in battle!
5. Sylveon
Sylveon has been a consistent player in the TCG; ever since it arrived in the card format, it has been getting decent abilities and attacks, which make it a great Pokemon to have in your deck.
4. Gengar
Gengar is a literal beast; it gets showered with love from the card creators as we get some fantastic Gengar cards every year.
3. Charizard
Do I even have to state why Charizard is a popular pick amongst the TCG players? Charizard cards are powerful almost every time, plus he is a super popular Pokemon.
2. Rayquaza
The space dragon finds itself in the second position. Ryaquaza cards are often the strongest in every set they come in the fact they sometimes make it so strong that the TCG has to ban players from using it.
1. Mewtwo
Mewtwo is yet another Pokemon with a bad reputation in the TCG or getting banned because of its overpowered abilities and attacks. But there exist many legal Mewtwo cards that will make your deck invincible.
How to play Pokemon cards in 2022?
Playing the TCG is as easy as it gets if you understand the rules, so in this detailed section of the blog post, we’ll go over what are the various regulations involved, how the cards function, and the battle mechanics world; each aspect is covered one by one to give you mental clarity.
But before we jump into the battle rules, we need some Pokemon cards to play with. You can’t just pick up a random set of cards and start playing; there are some rules you need to follow even when creating a Deck.
But if you’re lazy, you can simply buy a pre-built deck; this is a product that Pokemon releases, but if you want to get into this game, creating your deck is recommended. It’s one of the most fun aspects of Pokemon TCG.
Build a deck
Building a deck might be tedious at first, but following the breakdown below, you’d be able to build a deck in no time.
- A Standard Pokemon deck used in competitive and casual matches is 60 cards.
- Having more than four cards with the same name in the deck is forbidden.
Choose a Type
What type of trainer do you strive to be? A water, grass or fire type? The choice is yours; choose a type your deck will have, or go crazy and have a duel-type deck.
However, for beginners, we recommend using a single-type deck as you’d be able to get the correct energy card each time you shuffle your deck.
You can choose the type of your deck based on your favorite Pokemon, so if you want Charizard to be your main attacking Pokemon, the one who will lead you to victory, simply have only Fire-type energy cards in your deck. The total amount of type cards you can have in a deck is 18, so choose wisely.
Choose trainers
Next up, choose the right trainer cards. Trainer cards are the cards that have supporter and items written on them, so supporter and item cards.
These cards don’t damage the opponent but can be helpful; I’d even go as far as to say, if you don’t choose your trainer cards correctly, you’ll lose.
Trainer cards are unique; each card has some ability or function you can use in battle. The choice up to you are what type of trainer cards you want in your deck.
And just like before, no more than four cards of the same name. And the total trainer cards in your deck should be 20.
Choose the Pokemon!
Now we’re in the fun part of the blog post, choosing the Pokemon for your team!
By selecting the 18 energy cards and the 20 trainer cards, we’re up to 38 cards in total; the rest of the cards will be filled with whatever Pokemon you want to have on your team; each Pokemon card can be different if you want to, but advise not to do so.
You have to choose Pokemon of the same type as your deck; this is important; you can’t have the deck centered around a Blastoise card and only have fire energy cards.
Now just like the trainer cards, this section in up to you, what Pokemon should be included, and what should not, but if you’re a beginner, stick to 2-3 evolution lines.
So to have a Chazriard, you also want to have its pre-evolution forms, and 3 of each, so that you shuffle back to them quickly. The final evolution, i.e., the Chazaird, should only appear twice in the deck; we don’t want our Charizard to occur before we get a pre-evolved form.
Also, keep No-Evo Pokemon in the deck; these are the Pokemon who don’t evolve, like Sudowoodo.
Synergy
When building your deck, don’t just throw in random cards and expect an excellent deck to come out at the end.
This isn’t how it works; always try to include cards that will complement each other; this is one of the most critical aspects of the game; if your cards don’t complement each other in battles, be ready to face a lot of losses.
The easiest way to go about this is by looking at decks that pro players have built, seeing how they do things, and incorporating the techniques in your deck.
Take a Pokemon, and make the deck around it, so use trainers that will enhance your Pokemon’s ability to inflict damage and support Pokemon. Their abilities give your man Pokemon a boost.
Play the Pokemon game
Once your deck is ready, you can start playing the card game.
The first step is simple, toss a coin to see who goes first. Next up, both the players will shuffle their decks and draw 7 cards from their deck hand to keep the deck down.
Next, remove six cards from the top of the deck, and keep them in the prize cards slot. You win the game when you acquire all these six prize cards back in your deck.
Once you have drawn the prize card, look in your hand for basic Pokemon. From the 7 cards you drew, choose a basic Pokemon to keep in the active Pokemon spot.
If you don’t have a basic Pokemon in those 7 cards, you can show the opponent that you don’t have any basic cards and place the 7 cards in the deck. Shuffle, and draw 7 cards once more.
This is called a Mulligan; every time you do a Mulligan, your opponents get to draw a bonus card from the deck.
Once you have placed a Basic Pokemon in your active spot, we can start battling. If you have more than one basic in your hand, you can keep them in the benched Pokemon slot.
Remember, you can’t place stage 1 or 2 cards; you can only place a basic card.
The player who went first can’t attack his first turn. He can do other things, such as place supporter cards. Each turn you can only play 1 supporter card. But any number of items can be played per turn.
You attack the opponent by attaching the specific energy to your Pokemon; fire-type energy will be required for fire-type attacks. The card will indicate which energy will be required.
Once you have enough energy, you will attack the Pokemon. Once you attack the Pokemon, place a damage counter on the attacked Pokemon.
For example, if your Charmeleon attacked your opponent with a tackle attack that does 20 damage, place a 20 damage counter on the enemy. Your turn ends once you attack.
You can evolve your Pokemon if you have the next evolution stage in your hand. You can attach energies to benched Pokemon as well.
And that’s it; you keep going turn by turn, repeating the above-given steps till the Pokemon faints. This is when the Pokemon will go into the discard pile.
Your opponent draws a prize card along with the energies attached to it. Once your opponent draws all the prize cards, they win.
Where to buy Pokemon cards?
Pokemon cards are a hot commodity in 2022, and they sell out almost instantly once they drop. Live in a western country, particularly the USA or UK, you should have no problem getting your hands on these cards as they are available for sale in local retail stores like Walmart.
Booster packs, booster boxes, elite trainer boxes, and many more Pokemon TCG products get released every 2-3 months, ad they’re almost instantly sold out, so make sure to be ready with your money to snatch one of those booster boxes when they arrive.
Apart from the retail stores, many local websites also pop up that sell these cards; they are a simple google search away!
Make your own Pokemon card game!
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