Battle System Explained

Battles in Pokemon Trading Card Game Pocket (PTCG Pocket) feature different rules compared to regular Pokemon TCG where you will make use of cards you have collected to battle against other players or the computer. Read on to learn about Pokemon TCG Pocket's new Battle System and new mechanics!

Pokemon TCG Pocket vs TCG Live Differences

Rules and Gameplay Differences

Pokemon TCG Pocket vs TCG Live: All Differences Explained

Pokemon TCG Pocket Battle System Guide

Actions You Can Take in Your Turn

Draw a Card

You begin your turn by first drawing a card. A notable change from the main Pokemon TCG to Pokemon TCG Pocket is that the player going first does not draw a card.

Who goes first or second will be decided by a coin toss before the start of the battle.

Is it Better to Go First or Second?

Attach an Energy

The Energy Zone will provide you with Basic Energy that your Pokemon needs. The type of the Energy that the Energy Zone provides may vary depending on how many types your deck runs. It is either random or the game checks your Pokemon in play's Attacks' Energy Costs.

Evolve a Current Bench or Active Pokemon

Some Pokemon are able to Evolve. You can evolve a Pokemon on your Bench or the Active spot. Just like the TCG, you cannot evolve a Pokemon that has just come into play, or any Pokemon on your first turn.

Play a Basic Pokemon to the Bench

You can play a Basic Pokemon onto your Bench. You can do this action as many times as you want, as long as you have space on your Bench. You will only have 3 Bench slots in Pokemon TCG Pocket.

Use Pokemon Abilities

Some Pokemon have Abilities that require you to activate manually. You can do this on your turn.

Play Trainer Cards

Trainer Cards can be played on your turn.

You can play one Supporter or Stadium Card per turn, while you can play however many Item Cards as you want. Trainer Cards get discarded into the Discard Pile after use.

Pokemon Tools are Cards that can be attached to Pokemon. Similar to Item Cards, you can play as many as you want during your turn, but you can only attach these to Pokemon who do not already have a Tool equipped to them.

Retreat a Pokemon

You are allowed to Retreat only once per turn.

How Do Retreat Costs Work?

Attack

Attacking is the last action you can do on your turn. You can attack by having Energy attached to your Pokemon and having the necessary Energy for an Attack's cost.

How to Win (Point System)

First Player to Get 3 Points Wins

You win a battle by scoring three points by knocking out three of your opponent's Pokemon. Some Pokemon, such as Pokemon ex allow you to take extra Prize Cards. These Pokemon will get you an extra point in Pokemon TCG Pocket.

Point System Explained

20 Minute Time Limit

Players are given twenty minutes each to play a match. When a player's time runs out, points will be checked to see who wins the match. If both players have the same number of points at the end of the time limit, the Battle ends in a draw.

Time Limit Explained

If You Deck Out You Lose (20 Card Deck)

You lose a match when you have no cards in your deck as you draw your card at the beginning of your turn. Running out of cards during your turn will not force you to lose the game, however you will lose the following turn.

Trainers are more likely to deck out quickly with 20 Card Decks, especially when using staple Supporter Cards like Professor's Research.

Deck Building

Players will make use of 20-card decks instead of Pokemon TCG's standard 60, which will consist only of Pokemon and Trainer Cards. You can edit your decks by going to the Card menu and selecting Decks from the top screen.

The notable exclusion of Energy Cards means that battles in Pokemon TCG Pocket does not need them for games.

Cards with the same name are limited to two per deck instead of the traditional four card limitation of Pokemon TCG.

Deck Building Guide

Choosing the Right Cards

When it comes to picking cards for your deck, you'll need to take a look at three main factors: the card's HP, Energy Cost, and the damage of the attack.

Energy Cost, in particular, is important when building a deck as you'll want to supplement powerful cards with high energy cost with cards that are low-cost and low attack.

Starmie ex, for example, has a relatively high attack damage but will require two full turns to generate the energy it needs to actually deal damage.

Rules

Pokemon TCG Pocket features mostly similar rules to Pokemon TCG but with some differences. As mentioned above, decks are limited to 20 cards with no Energy Cards, and there will be no Prize cards during setup. Additionally, Bench Pokemon are limited to three instead of the standard five. Rules regarding Pokemon Evolution mainly remain unchanged, as you will still be unable to Evolve on your first turn or on the turn that a Pokemon comes into play.

Similar to Pokemon TCG, your turn ends once you choose an Attack or pass the turn.

A notable change is that players will not lose by decking out when drawing a card for turn from an empty deck, and will be able to continue playing even with no cards in the deck.

Battles

Energy Zone

Battles in Pokemon TCG Pocket notably lack Energy Cards, but will feature a new Energy Zone which automatically generates Energy once per turn.

If Energy is not used during the Pokemon Check phase between turns, new Energy will not be generated. When Energy is discarded through an attack, retreat cost, or from an effect of a Trainer Card, that Energy is permanently gone.

Cards that accelerate Energy through the effects of Attacks, Abilities, or Trainer Cards work as normal, but take from the Energy Zone instead of the player's hand.

This new mechanic makes it so Trainers will no longer miss their Energy attachments for the turn if they don't draw into it, allowing for a smoother, more consistent gameplay experience.

Energy Zone Explained

Prize Cards

Battles in Pokemon TCG Pocket will not have Prize Cards like its Pokemon TCG counterpart, but will instead feature a Point System based on the Pokemon that are knocked out. The first player to get to three points wins the game.

No Deck Searching

Deck searching is not available in Pokemon TCG Pocket. Cards that would normally search your deck, such as Buddy-Buddy Poffin or the Stadium Card, Artazon will instead pull a random card that fits the criteria of the search, or will have its effects changed completely.

Status Effect

Status Condition	Effect
Poison	Take 10 damage for every turn
Sleep	Pokemon cannot attack or retreat Every turn, the player must do a coin toss. If it lands on Heads, the pokemon wakes up.
Paralysis	Pokemon cannot attack or retreat Paralysis will be cured after 1 turn

Just like in other Pokemon games, pokemon can become afflicted with status conditions in Pokemon TCG Pocket. Status effects can affect pokemon in different ways: they could lose extra HP, prevent pokemon from attacking, or hinder retreats.

All Status Effects Explained

Weakness

Weakness is a damage modifier that increases the amount of damage that a Pokemon takes from a Pokemon that it is weak to.
How Do Weaknesses Work?

Resistance

Resistances are notably absent from the Pokemon TCG Pocket as evidenced by the cards we have seen. The developers are aiming for quicker and more casual games in this version of the TCG and having no Resistances makes for one less thing to think about!
Are There Resistances?

Solo AI Battles

Players will be able to battle the computer in quick five minute matches in a race to three points.
Solo AI Battles

Pokemon TCG Pocket Vs Traditional TCG Rules

All Pokemon TCG Pocket Rule Differences

Solo AI Battles

Battle Against Bot Opponents

Pokemon TCG Pocket offers solo battles against the computer. You can freely use this feature to test decks without facing another player, aside from getting various rewards for beating these matches or completing tasks.

Solo Battle Guides: All Decks, Battle Tasks and Counters

Auto-Battle

In solo-battles, you can turn on auto-battle to have a computer play on your behalf. You can use this feature to grind rewards from Battle Tasks.

Auto-Battle Guide

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