Learning how to play Pokemon TCG is a bit different from mastering the basics of how to battle with Pokemon cards.
While we are talking about the same game here, this post will focus more on the combat aspect of the popular trading card game, specifically things like dealing damage, HPs, and abilities.
For those who never played Pokemon TCG before, we recommend you check out our Pokemon TCG Rules section if you want to read more about the overall mechanics of this game.
Other PokecardHQ articles that are worth reading:
- Pokemon TCG ex Rules
- How to Redeem Code Cards in Pokemon TCG Live
- Pokemon TCG Rotation
- Pokemon TCG Release Dates
How Do Pokemon Cards Fight?
When you’re in a game of Pokemon cards, your main goal is to achieve at least one of the three objectives:
- Knock Out all of your opponent’s Pokemon until they don’t have any Pokemon left in the Active and Bench spots.
- Obtain all of your six Prize Cards. You get one Prize Card every time any of your Pokemon Knocks Out an opposing Pokemon.
- Make your opponent run out of cards to draw.
As you might’ve already noticed, all of these objectives require winning battles involving you and your opponent’s Pokemon cards.
Pokemon TCG is designed to emulate the action-packed Pokemon battles that we can only see in the video games and anime series.
Pokemon cards fight using the moves and abilities that they have. These moves and abilities can affect a Pokemon in various ways, like dealing damage, recovering HP, or inflicting status conditions.
HP (Health Points)
Every Pokemon card’s health is represented by its HP. The higher the HP, the more damage a Pokemon can sustain before it gets Knocked Out.
Moves
A Pokemon card’s moves are usually their main weapons in reducing an opposing Pokemon HP. Pokemon moves often require a specific number of Energy cards before they can take effect.
Abilities
Pokemon abilities, on the other hand, can make some Pokemon cards powerful as they contain game-changing mechanics that can help a player gain an advantage.
An example of a very useful Pokemon ability is this Cramorant’s Lost Provisions ability.
If you have a Cramorant in the Active spot and you already have at least four cards in the Lost Zone, you can use its move Spit Innocently without paying the move’s required number of Energy cards.
Status Conditions
Some Pokemon moves and abilities may trigger a status condition on another Pokemon. These status conditions are Confused, Asleep, Paralyzed, Burned, and Poisoned.
Each status condition brings a specific adverse effect to a Pokemon. We already made an article about how status condition works, so you might want to check it out as well.
Damage Counters
Apart from the usual damage dealt by moves, some Pokemon may also wreak havoc to an opposing Pokemon team by dealing additional damage called damage counters.
You can read our guide regarding damage counter rules if you want to understand its mechanics.
How to Battle With Pokemon Cards
To battle with Pokemon cards, start a game and draw seven cards from your deck.
If you have Basic Pokemon cards in your hand, pick one and put it on the Active spot. You can put the extra Basic Pokemon cards to the Bench spot.
The Active and Bench Spots in Pokemon TCG
A Pokemon card that occupies the Active spot will be the Pokemon that takes the center stage and fights your opponent’s Active Pokemon.
The Pokemon cards on your Bench are your team’s reserves, and in case your Active Pokemon gets Knocked Out or retreated, one of your Bench Pokemon shall take the Active spot.
Only one Pokemon can take the Active spot, while the Bench spot can have a max of five Pokemon.
Once per turn, you can have your Active Pokemon use a move to damage the opposing Active Pokemon, given that you attached enough Energy cards to it.
A Pokemon move’s name has a number next to it, which represents the damage that must be deducted to the receiving Pokemon’s HP.
Weaknesses and Resistance Mechanics
Before calculating the difference between a move’s damage and a Pokemon’s HP, you must first check if the receiving Pokemon has a weakness or resistance to the type of the Pokemon who performed the move.
Let’s use these Joltik and Houndour as examples.
Joltik has a x2 weakness to Fire-type Pokemon, which means that if it receives damage to Houndour’s Gnaw, the damage will be doubled, so Joltik will get 40 damage instead of 20, effectively knocking out the Bug-type Pokemon.
To explain the resistance mechanic, here’s a Duskull and a Croagunk.
Duskull has a -30 resistance to Fighting-type Pokemon, which means any damage made by a Fighting type will be reduced to 30.
So, if Croagunk attacks Duskull with a 10-damage move Light Punch, Duskull will take zero damage.
Another thing that you can also do once per turn is triggering the Pokemon abilities of your Active and Bench Pokemon.
Read the descriptions of your Pokemon’s abilities so you can understand how they work, and how often you can use them per turn.
How a Battle Ends Between Pokemon Cards?
Once a Pokemon card’s HP becomes zero, it gets Knocked Out and the owner of the Pokemon who scores the “kill” takes a Prize Card.
The Knocked Out Pokemon card, on the other hand, shall be added to the discard pile together with the other used Trainer and Energy cards.
The battle between Pokemon cards will occupy the majority of the game until a player completes one of the objectives mentioned above.
Final Thoughts
With your newfound knowledge about how to battle with Pokemon cards, you can now develop your own strategies and ways to build a Pokemon deck that can help you score some knockouts and win games.
Pokemon cards battle with their moves and abilities for the purpose of dealing damage until one of them reaches zero HP.
Calculating damage in Pokemon TCG is just a matter of basic math, but the numbers may change depending on the receiving Pokemon’s weakness and resistance.
Are you a newbie trying to grasp the basics of Pokemon TCG? PokeCardHQ is the best site for players like you!
We have lots of content about learning the game, and you can also keep tabs on the latest meta and set releases.
