   #copyright

Pokémon Trading Card Game

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Games

                       Pokémon Trading Card Game
   A typical Pokémon card (Dragonite - stage 2 Pokémon)
   A typical Pokémon card ( Dragonite - stage 2 Pokémon)
      Publisher     Nintendo (formerly Wizards of the Coast)
       Players      Two and up
      Age range     10 and up
      Setup time    < 3 minutes
     Playing time   ~ Varies^1
   Rules complexity Medium to advanced^2
    Strategy depth  Medium to advanced^2
    Random chance   Some
   Skills required  Card playing
                    Arithmetic
   ^1 Games may take much longer or shorter depending on a deck's play
   style and the number of players. ^2Strategy and complexity of play
   depends greatly on the specific deck's play style and level of
   competition.

   The Pokémon Trading Card Game is a collectible card game based on the
   Pokémon video game series, first introduced in Japan in October 1996,
   then North America in December 1998. It was published by Wizards of the
   Coast, the company which publishes Magic: The Gathering. Although
   Wizards of the Coast lost the license to publish the game in July,
   2003, sets continue to be published, now under the jurisdiction of
   Nintendo and Pokemon USA Inc (PUI).

   Although the popularity of the game decreased drastically immediately
   after Wizards lost the license, under the guidance of PUI and Pokemon
   organized Play the game has steadily increased in popularity over the
   past 3 years.

Game concepts

   The game is centered on the concept of the Pokémon battle, similar to
   that of the video games. By doing damage to your opponent's Pokemon,
   you are able to knock them out. The different Pokémon characters have
   different attacks and Hit Points (HP). HP is the amount of damage it
   takes to knock out that Pokémon.

   At the beginning of each game, each player puts six 'prize' cards face
   down at the side of the field of play. Every time that a player knocks
   out one of their opponents' Pokemon, they may take on of the prizes
   they laid down and put that card in their hand. Released in EX: Ruby
   and Sapphire; Pokemon-ex allow the opponent to take two prizes instead
   of one.

   There are three different ways to win a game. The most common of these
   three is to knock out six of the opponent's Pokémon. Second, it is
   possible to win if you knock out one of your opponents Pokemon, and
   they have no other Pokemon in play at the time. The third way, is if
   your opponent can not draw a card at the beginning of their turn (an
   otherwise mandatory action), you win immediately, regardless of how
   many Pokemon you have knocked out; this rule rarely comes into effect
   in tournament play, however.

   There are three types of cards that you can put in your deck: Pokémon
   cards, Energy cards, and Trainer cards. All are important to victory.

   Pokemon Cards are the basis of all decks. Without them you can't even
   play the game, since it is required for you to place a basic Pokemon in
   the field of play before the game even starts. All Pokémon cards are
   the actual Pokémon from the video game. Each player may have up to six
   Pokémon in play at a time, one active and up to five on the bench. Most
   Pokémon feature attacks that would reduce the HP of the opposing active
   Pokémon, or occasionally, their benched Pokemon (a few can not do
   damage at all). These attacks require Energy, which come in the form of
   Energy cards.

   There are nine different energy types; Darkness, Fighting, Fire, Grass,
   Lightning, Metal, Psychic, Water and Colorless. Eight of these are
   called 'Basic Energy Types', the exception being Colorless. Many
   attacks require a certain type of energy, depending on the type of
   attack and the Pokémon using it; if an attack requires a certain type
   of basic energy, then that type of energy must be attached to the
   Pokemon. If the attack has a colorless energy requirement, that
   requirement can be met by any energy card. For example, if an attack
   requires two Fire Energy, then the player must have at least two energy
   which provide the fire type attached to the Pokemon; but if the attack
   requires one Fire and one Colorless energy, then the Pokemon only
   requires a single Fire energy to be attached, the Colorless requirement
   can be met with a Psychic, Lightning, Grass, or any other kind of
   energy. Because of this, colorless energy requirements are seen as a
   great advantage on any card.

   Trainer cards are support cards that allow players to do something to
   enhance the game. Cards like Potion and Super Potion remove damage from
   a Pokémon to keep it from being knocked out as easily. Others allow for
   searching a deck for Pokémon, removing energy from the opposing
   Pokémon, and reviving Pokémon that has been knocked out. There are many
   other types of Trainer cards.

   Beginning level players often do not realize the value of Trainer
   cards, but experienced tournament level players pay particular
   attention to the Trainer engine in their battle decks.

   Of particular value are "draw" cards and "search" cards. In most cases,
   it is the player who gets his/her big attacker into play and powered up
   first who wins the game. In the normal course of play, players can only
   draw one card per turn from their deck. However, cards like Professor
   Oak's Research, Steven's Advice and Copycat let a player draw several
   new cards in a turn, while search cards like Dual Ball, Lanette's Net
   Search and Celio's Network let players search through their decks and
   get a particular card or cards. Championship calibre players know that
   in order to win games consistently, their decks must contain good draw
   power and search power.

   There are also some cards that are two of the types in one card. A few
   (that originated in the Base Set) are played as both Trainer cards and
   Pokemon cards. And a few, more recent cards can be played as Pokemon or
   Energy cards. So far, no cards are both Energy and Trainers.

   A simplified type system was used for the trading card game. Instead of
   17 types of Pokémon, only nine exist. There were originally seven, but
   when Darkness and Metal types showed up in Pokemon Gold and Silver, the
   card game integrated them in as well. The types usually follow this
   pattern:

             TCG type       Colour         Video game type(s)
             Colorless Gray/White/Normal Normal, Flying, Dragon
             Darkness        Black                Dark
             Fighting        Brown       Fighting, Rock, Ground
               Fire           Red                 Fire
               Grass         Green         Grass, Bug, Poison
             Lightning      Yellow              Electric
               Metal        Silver               Steel
              Psychic       Purple           Psychic, Ghost
               Water         Blue              Water, Ice

   Most Pokémon have only one type. However, a few have 2 types.
   Introduced in EX:Team Aqua vs. Team Magma, Dual-type Pokemon have the
   advantage of being two different types at the same time. Most of these
   Dual-type cards are either Dark and another type, or Metal and another
   type.

   Weakness and resistance are determined by the type of the attacking
   Pokémon (unlike the video game, where they are determined by the type
   of the attack used).

   Pokémon that are weak to another type take twice the base damage in an
   attack. For example, most Fire type Pokémon are weak to Water. So, if a
   Water type Pokémon attacks a Fire type Pokémon with an attack that has
   a base damage of 20, that attack would do 40 damage to the Fire type
   Pokémon. Some more recent Pokemon have two weaknesses.

   Some Pokémon have a Resistance to a particular type. Resistance
   decreases attack damage by 30. So if the opponent attacks with an
   attack that has a base damage of 40, but a Pokémon has a Resistance to
   the type of Pokémon the opponent is attacking with, the attack will
   only do 10 damage instead of 40. If the opponent's attack normally does
   30 or less, then the attack will do no damage at all. Some recent cards
   also have 2 resistances.

   If a Pokemon has two types, both of those types are calculated as far
   as weakness and resistance are concerned. For example, if a Pokemon has
   weakness to two types, and a Pokemon that is both of those types
   attacks, that attack does 4 times it's normal damage.

Deck Types

Full Deck

   A Full Deck is the standard, used in Premier Events all over the world.
   A Full Deck contains exactly 60 cards, and exactly six prizes. Almost
   all events run by Pokemon organized Play use the Full Deck, from
   Leagues to the World Championships. The exceptions are listed below.

Limited Deck

   This kind of deck is seen almost exclusively in pre-release
   tournaments. Players are given six booster packs, and an unlimited
   amount of basic energies; and from those cards, they make a deck that
   contains exactly 40 cards. Limited decks use four prizes per game.

Half Deck

   The "Half Deck" is a new trend of playing Pokémon cards in Japan and
   Hong Kong that is not as well-known in the West.

   A Half Deck has 30 cards, compared to 60 cards in a Full Deck game, and
   each player lays out 3 prizes at the beginning of the game.

   The Half deck is used mostly because of limited space in Japan and Hong
   Kong, giving all players a chance to play if there are many players in
   a very tight space.

Sets

   With the release of EX Dragon Frontiers on November 8, 2006, there are
   currently 31 different Pokemon TCG sets released in English. These sets
   have a vast range of sizes, from Fossil (the smallest at 61 cards), to
   e-Expedition (the largest, at 165 'normal' cards, a full reverse-holo
   set, and 4 boxtoppers, for a total of 334 cards). Only eight of these
   sets ( EX Deoxys, and all subsequent sets) are legal in the current
   modified format, which is the format that all major tournaments are
   played under. A rarely played format is Unlimited, where all cards ever
   released in English are legal.

   Early in the game, sets were released in seemingly random intervals,
   but ever since Nintendo took over the production of the sets, there has
   been a constant stream of 4 sets per year, released at 2.5 to 3.5 month
   intervals.

   Every few sets, major game changes are introduced to the Pokémon
   Trading Card Game. Several of these include: the introduction of Dark
   Pokémon (Team Rocket); The introduction of Owners' Pokémon (Gym
   Heroes); the introduction of Stadium cards in the same set;
   Darkness-type and Metal-type Pokémon, along with the second generation
   and the new Pokémon Tool card (Neo Genesis); the new Shining Pokémon
   (Neo Revelation); introduction of Light Pokémon (Neo Destiny); the
   introduction of Supporter cards and Technical Machines (Expedition);
   the new Crystal-type Pokémon (Aquapolis); Pokémon-ex (EX Ruby &
   Sapphire); Dual-type Pokémon (EX Team Magma vs Team Aqua); Pokémon-*
   (EX Team Rocket Returns); and most recently, the new Delta Species
   Pokémon and Holon's Pokémon in EX Delta Species.

   These changes, along with yearly format rotations, make for a
   constantly evolving game.

Future Sets

   There are currently two sets yet to be released outside of Japan,
   though only one of those has been released in Japan itself. The next
   set, EX Power Keepers, is an exclusive set outside of Japan to be
   released on February 14, 2007, with more than 100 cards. The set after
   that is Pokémon Card Game DP, the first set to include many new game
   mechanics such as Pokémon Lv.X and Energy-less attacks. Basic Darkness
   and Metal Energy cards also debut, along with fourth-generation
   Pokémon.

Pokémon Organized Play Program

Casual Play

   In addition to the collectible aspect of the card game, Pokémon USA
   Inc. (PUI) has also created Pokémon Organized Play (POP), which is in
   charge of the organization of an official League program, where players
   can battle others in local environments and earn player points, 2-card
   booster packets from a promotional set, badges, stickers and other
   materials. These are run by League Leaders/League Owners.

   A League Leader can/may assist in organizing the league; A League Owner
   is the one officially in charge of the league, reporting to "POP" any
   results and/or problems every seven weeks. The leagues run in yearly
   cycles, based on a certain aspect of one of the Pokémon Game Boy games;
   the current cycle is based upon the Kanto league area.

   Prereleases are organised just before each set is released. Usually,
   they are run on the 2 weekends before a set is released in stores.
   Prereleases are the source of the 40-card Limited Deck. Prereleases
   used to be considered competitive events by PUI, but due to repeated
   claims of cheating (ie. bringing cards from a previous event to get an
   advantage), and arguments against the amazing amount of luck inherent
   in the event, PUI made the decision that it was better to make the
   events less competitive (by removing prizes for winners, etc).

Competitive Play

   POP also runs a tournament program, where they allow individuals 18 or
   over to become Tournament Organizers (TOs), who can sanction and run
   tournaments. Players in a tournament are split into three age
   categories: Junior (born in 1996 or later), Senior (born in 1992-1995),
   and Master (born in 1991 or earlier). These tournaments play out a
   number of rounds, where players will play a standard game against each
   other and wins and losses will be recorded. In most tournaments, there
   are a number of rounds of "Swiss-style" where players get paired up
   with others of similar win/loss ratios, usually from their own age
   group (this does not always occur in smaller events, though).
   Afterwards, there will either be a cut of the top record-holders
   (usually the top 25% of an event) where players will play best 2 out of
   3 matches, and the loser gets eliminated (standard tournament bracket
   style), with an eventual winner.

   POP runs a season for these tournaments, which allows players to earn
   larger prizes and play in a more competitive environment in comparison
   to League. These range from City and State Championships, all the way
   up to the Pokemon World Championships, the single invite-only event of
   the year. Players can earn invites to the World Championships by
   winning or ranking high at National Championships, having a good
   Premier Rating (based off the Elo rating system, which allows players
   to win or lose points at any City Championship or higher-level event),
   or by qualifying in the Last Chance Qualifier. The World Championships
   is a 2 day tournament, with one eventual winner in each age group, the
   winner of the Master age group is generally noticed as the best player
   in the World for that season.

   Some of these methods are only used in the USA, as PUI and POP are
   based in the USA, but they are represented by local distributors who
   provide the Organized Play program to their own country.

Competitive Play under Wizards of the Coast

Tropical Mega Battle

   On August 26 - 27, 2000, forty-two Pokémon trainers from around the
   world united at the Hilton Hawaiian Village in Honolulu for the
   Tropical Mega Battle, an international communication event for the
   Pokémon Trading Card Game. Jason Klaczynski, 14-year-old Orland Park,
   Ill., resident, was honored as the Master Trainer of the Tropical Mega
   Battle after winning the final round of the World Communication Match
   against fellow Pokémon trainer Toshiya Tanabe of Sapporo, Japan.

   In an effort to transcend language and communication barriers through
   entertaining game-play, the Tropical Mega Battle brought together
   children, aged 14 and under, from the United States, Japan, France,
   Italy, Canada, Spain, Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom,
   for two action-packed days in scenic Honolulu, Hawaii. Children
   participating in the Tropical Mega Battle received invitations through
   Qualifier tournaments, DCI rankings, and other events in their
   respective countries. Creatures Inc., Media Factory and Wizards of the
   Coast Inc. sponsored the Tropical Mega Battle.

   Events throughout the weekend included competitions facilitated by
   translators for groups of children representing two different languages
   in each group; a group photo and an opening ceremony featuring remarks
   from Hawaiian government officials; and a harbour cruise awards
   ceremony for the winners of the World Communication Match.

Super Trainer Showdown

   The Super Trainer Showdowns were large Pokémon TCG tournaments held by
   Wizards of the Coast, and all were held in the US. These tournaments
   were frequently bi-annual and were open to the public. Each tournament
   consisted of three age groups; 10 and under, 11 to 14 years old, and 15
   years old and over. Each Super Trainer Showdown was preceded by a
   series of Qualifier Tournaments held in cities around the United States
   and abroad in which players in the 11-to-14 and 10-and-under age groups
   could win trips for themselves and a parent or guardian to the Super
   Trainer Showdown event.

   The East Coast Super Trainer Showdown 2001 in Seacaucus, NJ had been
   the final tournament of the #1 ranked player in the world Phil
   Mondiello, before his 4 year ban from the DCI.

   There have been four Super Trainer Showdowns; one in Long Beach, CA,
   one in San Diego, CA, and two in Seacaucus, NJ.

Competitive Play Outside of the United States

   Although PUI tries to keep Organized Play as equal as possible all over
   the Earth, there are some notable differences in how POP is run outside
   of the USA.

Pokémon Card Laboratory (PCL)

   The Pokémon Card Laboratory (PCL), located in Japan, is the ultimate
   authority on any matter relating to the Pokemon Trading Card Game. They
   can declare rulings on any in-game circumstance, issue erratas, change
   card text after publishing, and change the basic game rules, although
   the latter three rarely occur. PCL is also the company that designs new
   cards and runs Organized Play in Japan. In short, PCL designs the game
   itself.

   Some recent events suggest that PCL also has the ability to override
   PUI on any Organized Play related changes anywhere in the world.
   Without specific knowledge, however, this is a somewhat speculative
   statement.

Pokémon cards in Hong Kong

   Due to the massive imports of the Japanese cards, many local players
   play the Japanese version of the game instead of the English one. The
   tournaments in Hong Kong run on different mechanics than other
   countries. They are operated by two different groups, the official POP
   distributor OTCHK and the unofficial HKPMA.

   The OTC is a new distributor of the Pokémon Trading Card Game in Hong
   Kong that started up in June 2005, and runs POP tournaments using the
   American rulings. However, it has the same policy as the previous
   distributor (Trandy's Creation) of banning Japanese cards (which
   supposedly can be used in regular tournaments with appropriate
   reference), causing huge discontent amongst the local players. Up until
   1st Dec 2005, the company had held only 1 tournament with only 16
   participants.

   In contrast, the HKPMA (Hong Kong Pokémon Alliance) is an experienced
   group that has been running 2 to 4 tournaments every year since 2000.
   Initially those tournaments followed American rulings, shifting to
   Japanese rulings after the introduction of Japanese Pokémon Card
   Players Rule Ver 1.0 in Summer 2003. The HKPMA later on established a
   new branch organization, HKPCL (Hong Kong Pokémon Card Laboratory), to
   manage tournament matters, including the organization of tournaments,
   ruling support, staffing and documentation. To prevent the confusion
   between the 2 different rulings, HKPCL makes ruling clarifications on a
   regular basis, and sometimes writes articles in the PokeGym Forum to
   raise people's concern.

Pokémon in the UK

   Pokemon TCG Retail distribution in the UK is currently run by Esdevium
   Games Ltd and Organised play by it’s partner The Place for Games. The
   UK has one of the largest player bases outside the US and Japan. Its
   players have performed admirably over the past few years at the World
   Championships, including a 4th Place for Fares Sekkoum in the 10-
   (2006), a 7th Place for Sami Sekkoum in the 15+ (2005), a Top 16 finish
   for Yacine Sekkoum in the 15+ (2006) and a 10th place finish for Faisel
   Kahn in the 15+ (2005).

   Usually in June the UK Pokémon TCG National Championships, for the past
   2 years in Woburn Safari Park. In 2006 around 70 players were invited
   to play in each age group, the prizes have included Nintendo DS’s,
   Televisions and invites/trips to represent the UK in the World
   Championships.

   Smaller City Championships and for the first time in 2006 UK Pokemon
   Regional championships are held between November and April. These were
   held in Hull, London, Bournemouth, Manchester and Glasgow.

   The game is most popular in the South East of England, but leagues can
   be found all over the country - including Glasgow, York, Manchester,
   Norwich, Harlow, London, Bournemouth, Exeter, Slough, Crawley, Rainham
   and many more.

Banned Cards

   Although PUI currently refuses to ban cards regardless of how over-used
   they become, Wizards of the Coast was not scared of banning a few cards
   when they were in charge of the game.

Sneasel

   The first card that WotC banned was Sneasel from Neo Genesis. Sneasel
   was banned before it ever became legal for play outside of Japan. This
   was because of the enormous effect it was having on the format in
   Japan. Decks with Sneasel were winning almost every major tournament,
   making all other decks un-competitive. This was because of Sneasels
   ability to abuse the new Darkness Energy cards (which increase the
   power of all Dark-type attacks by 10), no weakness, a free retreat
   cost, quickly powered-up attacks, and the ability to do enormous
   damage. In short, Sneasel was faster and more powerful than any other
   card in the game at the time.

Slowking

   Coincidentally enough, the only other card printed in a normal set to
   be banned from the game was also from Neo Genesis.

   Slowking from Neo Genesis had a Pokemon Power that allowed its user to
   flip a coin whenever the opponent played a trainer card, if that coin
   was heads, the trainer would return to the users deck without affecting
   the game. In the Japanese version of the game, this Power could only be
   used while Slowking was active. When the card was translated to
   English, however, the card was translated incorrectly. The English
   version of the card not only allowed you to use the Power while
   Slowking was benched, but the power was cumulative, meaning you could
   flip a coin for each Slowking you had in play every time your opponent
   played a trainer, if even one was heads, that card would return to your
   opponents deck. While the Japanese version of the card was barely
   playable (Slowking is not a good attacker, and is easily KO'ed when
   active), the English version was broken because Slowking could sit on
   your bench, preventing your opponent from playing their trainers, while
   allowing you to use something else as an attacker.

   Slowking dominated the 2002 World Championship (the only world
   Championship not run by PUI), and as a result, WotC announced that the
   card was no longer legal for any format as of Jan 1, 2003. This was a
   very controversial move, because WotC banned the card outright, instead
   of correcting their own mis-translation of it.

Birthday Pikachu

   _________'s Pikachu (commonly known as 'Birthday Pikachu'), was promo
   card number 24 printed by WotC. The card text says, "...if it is your
   birthday, flip a coin, if heads, this attack does 30 + 50 damage...".
   WotC banned this card quickly after its release, because there was no
   logical way to check that it was actually someone's birthday whenever
   they attacked with the card. Disproving liars who wanted to do a lot of
   damage for a few energy turned out to require much more effort than it
   was worth.

Current Rules

   PUI has no banned cards (the bans that WotC placed were removed when
   PUI took over the game). Their only limitation is that cards must have
   the normal English or Japanese card back to be playable. Because of
   this, the only significant unplayable cards under PUI are the cards
   printed in the World Championship Decks. These cards are supposed to be
   printed as a promotional item, and not meant to help people collect
   large numbers of rare and valuable cards that were played in these
   decks; because of this, none of the cards printed in the decks are
   allowed in any competitive events.

Video game releases

   On December 18, 1998, Nintendo released a Game Boy Colour game called
   Pokémon Trading Card. It was a game based on the original Pokémon
   games, but with trading cards instead of actual "monsters". This title
   was released in North America on March 31, 2000 and in Europe on
   December 8, 2000. It included the cards from the base set as well as
   its first two expansions (Jungle and Fossil), along with a few cards
   that are exclusive to the game.

   A second Game Boy game, called Pokémon Card GB2, was released in Japan
   on March 28, 2001. It introduced a trading card parallel to Team
   Rocket, called Great Team Rocket, and also added cards from the Team
   Rocket expansion. This game was never released outside of Japan

   Retrieved from "
   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pok%C3%A9mon_Trading_Card_Game"
   This reference article is mainly selected from the English Wikipedia
   with only minor checks and changes (see www.wikipedia.org for details
   of authors and sources) and is available under the GNU Free
   Documentation License. See also our Disclaimer.
